Café

Some days it's not the eternal that moves us but the adrenaline of transient.

                        It was a brilliant winter evening of an unknown December. Crystallised pathway extended and expanded before me. My heels clicked on the frozen Street, lost amongst shadows of million other colours. I enter the warm coffee shop situated in exclusion of traffic and closer to the park from where you can enjoy the sunset spreading all over the verdurous glow of trees, and grass, and plants. The slow hum of picnics and laughter of children swiftly passed through air and into the café.

                        I step inside going towards my usual seat and placing down my purple jacket and my bag. Usually I sat here embraced by peace, in this hustle bustle of gossip and dates, and enjoyed my evening rendezvous with my books and research. I take out my volume of John Keats and a collection of miscellaneous poetry. Paper maps, stationary all covered my table within a moment, and I looked outside, enjoying this breath of secrecy. I go to place an order of Blueberry muffin and Coffee when I notice a strikingly familiar guy, leaning on the counter, standing before me.

"Adrian?" I call out hesitating.

"Hey" Adrian turns around with widest set of eyes and biggest smile one could ever trace on equator. After 4 years of fluctuating crush and momentary flirting, there stood in flesh before me Adrian. The guy I never forgot.

"What brings you here? I never realised you were in town!" I exclaimed unprepared for the meet.
"Well, it's Christmas and I wished to spend it by getting back to my roots" He said emphasising the final half.

"That seems pleasant" I replied not knowing what to say ahead.
 

                         My eyes get redirected to a woman who enters the café,she glides towards us. A charming young lady, she approached Adrian and hugs and lightly kisses him on his cheek. I have seen her somewhere.

"Oh my God." I exclaim as I remember Adrian sending me a picture of this woman and narrating an entire story to justify why she is a psychopath.
                         He widened his eyes and contracted his mouth. No. The girl looked at me with curiosity awaiting a reply for such an interjection.

"Oh my God. I don't believe it! Finally you guys are dating! He never stopped talking about you!" I revert and take a deep sigh of relief.
Adrian looked astonished and horrified, as though someone just revealed his secret obsession with Drake.
"Well, Yea we are, isn't he a cutie? I am going to grab a seat, nice meeting you tho" the little girl said as she walked towards the empty table overlooking the street.
                       

                        I take my muffin and wait for my coffee when he spoke "Why would you even say that?" "Stop shrieking, I couldn't think of any other appreciative sentence" I say stepping back and looking at him. His rustic eyes widened and humoured, they stared at me. "You should've complimented her sweater, now she'll think I am serious!" He said holding their tray of edibles. "You're not?" I turn around and look at him. The sunset reflected on his pleasant Shea skin and I could see the always present grandeur on the brim on his smirk. "You know me" "More than I need too." I say laughing. We stood aside with our trays for long, his date noticing us amusingly.

                       "Well, she's serious about you, if she can confess she stalks you, that too 2 years back, she definetly adores you" I told him in a matter of fact tone. I could hear the whispers of roasted sun rays merging with the winter winds. They jovially stroked my back and evoked a lovely shiver. He looked at me strangely and his eyes hid behind the shades of vibrant pink and orange. "It's not like I won't try" "Let's be real" I say laughingly. "She is expecting it to last not 2 months but 2 centuries!" I said moving away to my seat, an unprecedented rush engulf my feet. "Well I'll tell her you still owe me a date if she demands a longer relationship." He responded walking behind me placidly. "I date wanting to move somewhere, not to be moulded and placed in one phase" I say stopping, bewildered emotions caught in my throat. I know he won't be serious, I know he's a flirt, but I even know if he falls in love we would be married within 2 years, and I didn't want that, I wanted a lasting relationship of 5 years, with marriage later ahead, his views differed, there was no possibility of future with us, yet why, why did my physiology and my spirituality responded to his slightest syllable.

                       "Haha, you never know" he said, warmth spreading over his face, his fingers tightening around his date-tray. I go to my seat and settle every battle within me. I tie my hair up and look outside the window. Winter reminiscence is always fragile. I work on my papers with a hope for unending theories. My mind slowly drifting towards the brown eyed guy and possibility of something.
After a while I stop and look at the park, now silenced joy echoed there. The sun almost gone, smudged away, and people enjoying the commencement of lazy yet vibrant nerves of winter. I turn towards the intriguing couple sitting next to me and I see him looking at me, his date wasn't there. She was out on a phone call. He smiled humbly and came over.
                       

                        He towered over me and I sat there frozen, crystallised like the snowdrops outside café. He pulled the opposite chair and sat down, fingers stretched towards window.

"Bad date?" I enquire, surprised at this twist.

"I am getting laaaid" he said mocking a rapper voice. I laugh. Typical.

"Well, that's what flirting gets you" I say stirring the last bit of my coffee, avoiding looking.

"Well isn't flirting good?" He asked, an eyebrow raised in astonishment. His face gleamed with awe of subdued navy of the skies. "Well yea, flirting is essential, you need to be attracted to the person you love, but a conversation is necessary too. You can't be with someone you cannot interact with. And if it does not begin naturally, and randomly, in outbursts of heart, then you are not with the right person" I say looking at him, looking back at our long talks with different rail lines of thought.

"Philosophical, although partially true" he says now looking outside at the moving vehicles.

"Partially true? Wait I don't want to know, for all I know you may have a point" I respond looking down at my pages and classifying them.

"You're too cautious for your own good, I would love to take you to a haunted house" he said laughing

"Haunted house? I love horror, look at me speaking to you and acknowledging your thought process, it's terrifying! Plus I'd kick your a*s in a haunted house, I'm brave" I say looking at him and laughing. He bit his lower lip and smiled slyly. "I would take your word for it, but I don't trust beautiful women and their words." He said looking at me solemnly.

"Well, you're with one right now" I said looking at his date, still outside.

"Yes I am" he said looking down.

"And your endless list of hot girls do exist, at your campus, at your tour, everywhere!" I retort smirking.

"You're evil! Well yea, I did enjoy my graduation, so many hot women, amazing weather, oh did I tell you I stumbled upon this amazing and beautiful place while backpacking?" He said moving towards me.

"No you did not!" I respond interested in his tales. I loved how his eyes gleamed every time he spoke of something intriguing, as if the earth parted to let soft and mild and hypnotising honey dew to emerge and swoon the planet

"In that case I'll take you there" he said looking at me and I know why time stopped at that instant, because I was framing that moment.

"Adrian?" His date called him awkwardly awaiting at her empty table.

"We just had our little first date" he said getting up and looking at me.

                           I packed my bags and stood there ready to leave. "Yeah we did, finally" I hug him and silently kiss his cheek, aspirations within our skins. "Do you know my parents don't know I'm in the city? I actually came for a fortnight, to just enjoy the town alone" I told him walking out. "Oh my God! That's rebellious, and charming!" He said standing next to his seat. "Yea" I say as I wave to his date and embrace him one last time.

                           I walk outside, my heels again playing on street. The warm winter wind teased me wildly, again. I walk towards my hotel room imprinted by this surprising encounter in café. I walk towards my room, full of possibilities and a romantic temperament.

Author's Note

A short encounter with past, my first short story. Hope you all enjoy it :)

Reviews

[barleygirl]

This is an interesting story with tons of original imagery & details, which makes it easy to picture in the reader's mind. I did get mixed up with the dialogue in places . . . I'm used to seeing a new paragraph when a different person speaks (not mixing two people talking into the same paragraph). I also wondered about the narrator having a long heavy discourse when speaking to the guy, which seems unusual for a brief encounter with his present girlfriend present. I would've expected the narrator to be a little more flirty or aloof or brief in what she shared with him. Maybe the long discourse reveals her longing for him, or the previous connection they had. Thanks for sharing.

[Crimson_ish]

Hello! thank you for your review, yes the discourse was indeed meant to symbolise longing! Oh I keep on playing with story and poetry forms while writing, I'll keep in mind this can be a bit confusing! OH, flirty? maybe I'll try another story with that, I'd love to try it, I've never done it!

Thank you for an amazing review and for liking my imagery and story :)

[Bobby Garfield]

Your story is really well-written. You greatly captured little, beautiful moments by describing the weather, for example. A few questions, suggestions:

- Drake? He seemed to like someone with that name? Are you talking about some poet here? I only know, ehm, Nick Drake. I'm just curious!

- Sometimes you seem to confuse the tenses. Sometimes you are writing in present tense then it's past again. You might wanna check that.

Those are only minor points, I really liked it!

[Crimson_ish]

You actually caught it right! This was my first attempt to write in present tense and it was difficult given I usually employ past tense, I love the suggestion, thank you so much, makes me see a bit clearer. I am glad you liked my story :) Really useful criticism, thank you :)

[Inject Positivity]

Aha! woohoo!! this was sweet and very unexpected... the narrator seems in awe to find her crush in the cafe.... i loved your storytelling style... it has clarified the plot of the story... the setting of the story was beautiful, cold winter breeze and a cafe... nicely thought out...i find it romantic though...enjoyed the conversation between the two.. again the choice of words was excellent, they made the story more catchy and mesmerizing.... gosh! you are awesome.... full ratings.... i will read it again after lunch....

[Crimson_ish]

Yea, she is indeed in awe, thank you so much for a lovely response :)