Hot cup of love

One

Lou's POV

Rubbing my left wrist, I left the tattoo parlour with a painfully big smile on my face. After two years of looking for the perfect design to be etched on my skin for eternity, I finally did it! Right now it looked pretty blurry due to the protective wrap and excessive ink, but the tattoo artist said after a couple of days it would look exactly like the picture I mailed him.

It wasn't anything impressive nor his normal style, and even though it wouldn't make him rich, he was nice enough to put in his usual effort, for my sake.

Texting my best friend Sam, I ran over to my bike and doublechecked the adress to the new coffee house in town she wanted to check out.

Me: S, omw! You're gonna love my newest accessory!

Sam: You know I hate surprises! Already here&claimed a spot. Get here ASAP! Crew is hot AF!

Laughing at her flirty ways, I tucked away my phone before I got on my bike. Since we moved to the city, Sam and I shared a small two bedroom appartment in a busy neighborhood. It wasn't anything too fancy, but lucky for us, everything we needed was either within walking distance or a short bike ride away. Plus, it gave us some free exercice.

Not that we really needed it. Sam would even say I got too much exercice. But I couldn't help myself. Even though I danced at least five hours a day, seven days a week and took my bike almost everywhere, it never felt like enough...

A honk broke my gloomy train of thoughts before I could go down too far. Looking up I saw the trafic light in front of me had turned green. I smiled apologetically at the frowning driver behind me and quickly continued pedaling to the cafe.

After a couple more minutes, the sign of the coffeehouse came into view.

In sleek black letters on a white background, it said 'Colazione', which I thought was quite a peculiar name for a coffeehouse. But I guess its uniqueness made it memorable in its own way.

I could already see Sam's long black waves through the window. I secured my bike and went in, only to be completely surprised by how cosy it was inside, so not what I expected after seeing the modern sign. The walls were stripped of any covers so you could see the warm red brick walls. On several spots, chalk boards hang with suggestions for recipes of the week and different sizes lightbulbs spread a warm light. At the windows there were some benches with fluffy pillows, that looked comfy enough to take a nap. From where I was standing, I could see the counter was filled with droolworthy pastries and baskets full of chocolate chip cookies.

"Lou!"

I looked over to a seat next to the window bench and spotted Sam waving not so subtly from a cute wooden table with two round poofs. Making my way over to her, I noticed she had one half empty and one full mug of coffee in front of her.

"One wasn't enough huh?" I joked while leaning over to kiss her cheek.

"Never, but that one's for you actually. Ordered it when I got your text, so it should be perfect to drink. And this way you couldn't order anything with skimmed milk, which I doubt they'd even have."

Rolling my eyes I sat down and placed my bag on the floor next to me before hesitantly taking a small sip.

"Hmmmm." I couldn't help the involuntary moan that escaped my mouth upon drinking the warm, rich, slightly bitter drink from heaven.