Coffee Beans

Endings

Ellie paused outside the door to the coffee shop. "Application for extension written below..." A piece of paper was stuck on with a few odd scraps of sellotape. Just behind the paper was the 'closed' sign.

"Hey, are you ok?" A hand rested on Ellie's shoulder. The brunette shook her head slowly and looked at the floor. She could feel the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. Now wasn't the time to cry; she and Robin were heading out to dinner. If she cried, the entire mood would be ruined.

"Sorry, that was a stupid question," Robin mumbled, pulling the brunette towards her. The blonde wrapped her arms tightly around the now crying Ellie and kissed her lightly on the head. "Some things hurt because you loved them so much; it just shows how wonderful you were with the place."

The brunette pulled herself away from Robin's grasp and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm so sorry for ruining our evening. I was trying so hard not to cry."

"Don't be ridiculous; you've been upset ever since the court officially handed over the coffee shop and I'm not surprised that living at my place isn't helping because whenever we go anywhere, you have to walk past this place."

"Yeah but-" Ellie mumbled, words just randomly falling from her mouth. Robin simply stood and the brunette's head in her hands, wiping away tear after tear with her thumb. "It's my coffee shop, Robin. My, my Mum helped and it, it's my Mum's coffee shop as well and now he... he's turning it in, into flats. Flats Robin."

Once more, the blonde held Ellie close to her chest until the wave of tears had come and gone. "Do you want to go home and leave dinner to the pizza delivery guy?"

"But this was my home." Ellie turned to look at the shop, it's chairs and tables looking dusty. The lights turned off, the space looked cold and distant. It wasn't anything like it used to be; the heart of the community. That last thing she did with her Mum.

Robin hugged Ellie and shushed her, stroking her hair until the brunette's breathing had slowed. Carefully turning their hug around, Robin was able to read past Ellie's shoulder and look closer at the planning information. It was a legal document outlining the planned expansion plans. According to the notes, there was going to be another floor added to the building, allowing for three flats in the building.

As the brunette composed herself and wandered back down the street to Robin's house, the blonde peered around the street. There were only two parking spaces along their street, the rest of the road double lines. Neither she nor Ellie owned a car along with most of the street's residents. What if these new residents had a car each? Or even, like most Londoners, had two? Where would they all go?

A month later, Robin managed to convince Ellie that they needed to both go to the shops to get some milk. That would mean walking past the coffee shop but it looked like the brunette was learning to cope with the reality.

"Come on lazy bones," Robin said, linking her arm with Ellie's. "That milk won't buy itself."

They walked out of the house and down the path. With a click of the gate, Ellie gasped. She looked back to Robin and then down the road. Pointing towards the coffee shop, she said, "What on earth is going on there?"

The blonde put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulders and smiled. "Why don't you go and see?"

Ellie was utterly perplexed and became more confused the closer she got to the coffee shop. She hadn't seen any builders or vans or businessmen turn up to survey the building or do any sort of building work. There weren't any builders here now either, but instead a mass of people of all ages. There were so many that most of the road was covered by the collective.

"Um, hi. May I ask what's going on?" Ellie said to a young man. He looked passed Ellie, gave a thumbs up, and then beamed at the brunette.

"Sure you can ask, Ellie, but I think you'd rather see for yourself." The young man whispered something to the people in front and slowly but surely, the heard of people made a path for Ellie to walk through. She had never seen the young man before, let alone told him her name. Thinking about it, she hadn't seen most of these people before.

As she walked through the crowd, she did start to recognise some faces; there was the Mum of three children who all loved colouring, there was the businessman would always order a four-shot latte on Mondays. When she got to the front of the shop, she fell to her knees.

The lights were on.

The 'open' sign was clear and bright on the door, the chairs and tables were clean and awaiting customers, the notice of expansion had gone and Robin's favourite album was playing through the speakers.

"What's going on? Please, someone, explain to me what the hell is going on?"

"I sent around word that the plans for the building would most certainly ruin our little street." Robin appeared from the middle of the crowd and helped Ellie to stand up again. She brushed one of the brunette's hairs from her face and smiled. "Everyone here wrote to the council to put in an objection to the plans. After a few weeks of correspondence, the guy who apparently 'owns' the building gave up fighting us and put it up for sale."

Ellie's jaw dropped, a hand jumped to cover her mouth. "Don't tell me you used your life savings or something?" Her voice was a whisper.

"Not quite. Everyone here pitched in a fiver or so and your Dad put in most of the money. He said he felt bad for not being there when you needed him most, so it was the least he could do to help. Jason's contribution was filling your fridge with steak."

The brunette laughed along with members of the crowd who'd heard the steak remark. "You did this all for me?"

Robin took a deep breath and knelt down on one knee. It was harder than she thought, but then she was wearing black skinny jeans. "I would do anything for you, Ellie. I love you."

Ellie's other hand came up to her mouth as shock and a little bit of worry filled her mind. She had no idea what was going to-

"Will you marry me, you adorable, coffee-loving, beautiful girlfriend?"

The brunette threw her arms around Robin, their lips meeting in the middle. Never wanting to let go, the blonde eventually pulled away from the most precious thing on the planet. "Is that a yes?"

"So you're not wise after all," Ellie giggled. "Of course it's a yes."

A/N: There you go! Anyone crying? Of course, I'm not.. I hope you liked this chapter as it is the final one. In the future I might re-visit and do a wedding scene or something - let me know what you think. 

Thank you to everyone who's read this and voted; it means a lot that you love Ellie and Robin just as much as I do :)