Reignite

Chapter 02

The smell of roasted coffee beans encapsulated me as I walked through the doors of the café. The whirring of the grinder came to a halt as I walked past the bar. "Morning Alyssa"

"Good morning Clara! How are you?"

Alyssa stood by the grinder, checking the grind was at the correct amount for the perfect brew. Her dark brown hair was thrown up into a ponytail though a couple of loose strands had fallen down, framing her face. Her face was scrunched up as she timed the brew, before doing a little dance when the extraction was at the right time. I laughed at her dance, hanging my bag up in the back room and pulling my apron and nametag out. I threw the top half of my hair into a bun, and washed my hands before joining Alyssa out front and made my coffee for the first half of my shift. "Bar or till?" I asked, taking a sip of my iced latte.

"Till please, you're one of the only people that can handle the bar during lunch, so I'll put you there after your break. You're here until 4pm with me, right?"

"Yup." I replied, the only solace of working a nine hour shift being the hour break I can take, which allows me to go eat at Lucie's pub.

I signed into the till, just as the first couple of sleep-deprived commuters stumbled into the café. I was grateful to have a job I enjoyed so much. I used to come into the café often when Teddy was a lot younger, to give Scott a chance to work without new-born screaming, and for a change of scenery for myself, that wasn't too far from home if I felt on edge. After coming to the café for two years, and often asking Alyssa for tips I could use at home when making myself and Scott mugs of coffee, Alyssa offered me a part-time job at the café, saying "It would be nice to have someone else here who actually enjoys drinking coffee like me."

It was also a ten minute walk from the university, campus, so during term many students, professors and lecturers would turn up for flat whites, americanos and any other coffee drink you could think of. It had been funny the previous year discovering how lecturers in the English faculty take their coffees. It was like a weird secret knowing how the head of English had an extra shot of espresso and half a pump of caramel syrup in his cappuccino, but Davidson, a 70 year old lecturer with a harsh disposition that had recently retired from the university, liked half of the usual shots of espresso in a latte, with four pumps of vanilla and a single pump of cinnamon added.

The thought of Davidson had me subconsciously wondering who would be filling his place, now that he had retired. It was weird that we haven't received our timetables yet, this close to the beginning of term.

"Mummy!" A familiar voice squealed, making my customer service smile triple in size.

"Hello gorgeous!" I replied, catching Alyssa's attention.

"There's my beautiful boy!" Alyssa sang, pulling silly faces as she heated a jug of milk. "Would you like a gingerbread man?"

"Yes please!" Teddy spoke in his most angelic voice, his eyes just able to see over the countertop. "Is that okay Scott?"

"Seeing as you used your manners so well, yes it is." Scott responded, smiling to Alyssa. "Thanks Alyssa."

"My pleasure darling"

***

"Madam, your iced white mocha and carrot cake." I announced to Lucie in an awful french accent as I sat down at the bar.

"Oh spiffing!" Lucie started, rubbing her hands together in excitement. "And for you my lady, a quarter pounder with cheese and crispy onions, and freshly fried chips."

"What a beauty." I hastily took the plate from Lucie as a customer came up for a refill, groaning in pleasure as I took the first bite of my juicy delight. "Sorry"

We were discussing how our shifts were going when my phone vibrated on the bar.

Email from: SMITH, Dean - Head of English Faculty.

"So we're not getting out timetables until after the entire faculty lecture on Monday." I looked at my phone again and back to the date. "Monday! That's like three days away!"

Lucie took my phone to have a look herself, "They might be the English faculty but boy do they like drama - I blame Shakespeare."

"Did you still want to have that movie night that we spoke about the other week?"

"Uh YES. Are you working tomorrow?"

"Nope, you?"

"Nope. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." I agreed, clinking my glass of coke against Lucie's iced coffee.

***

I put the last few bags of crisps and chocolate out on the coffee table as the doorbell went.

"Hello Lucie! Come in"

"Thanks Scott, how did the pitch go? Lucie mentioned it on her break yesterday,"

"Not heard anything yet, but sometimes no news is good news at the beginning"

"No more work talk! This is the last weekend before our brains implode at university, it's time to eat double our body weight in junk food!" I announced to the pair, before turning around and seeing my son had already helped himself to the chocolate.

"TEDDY!"

"Oops."

"No more for now or you'll be ill"

"Nooooooo Mummyyyyy!" Teddy began to whine, before scrunching up his face, signalling we were three seconds from a meltdown.

"No, big boys wait for dinner. You want to enjoy pizza and chips, right?"

"...chips?"

"This child is my spirit animal"

"Lucie shush, don't encourage him."

I flopped onto the sofa, Teddy coming to sit right next to me to snuggle himself into me. I scrolled through Disney+ until I found The Incredibles. About halfway through the film the food arrived, and not long after we finished eating our food, Teddy fell asleep with his head resting on my lap.

I had never been a maternal type (probably because of my mother's negligence towards me) and although I'd assumed I'd probably have kids when I was older and married, it was never a goal of mine.

And then on Bonfire Night four years ago, 19 year old me saw the positive symbol on the pregnancy test, and everything changed. And I wouldn't change anything that followed after. Yes, I was absolutely terrified, especially with not having the father around, but when I first saw his eyes I knew I would do anything for Teddy, to make sure he would always know how much I loved him. Because although he didn't know it now, and probably wouldn't know it for many years, but the cheeky boy who ate half a bag of chocolate buttons and was currently snoring on my lap saved me from a dark place, and ignited a fire in me to push for those goals I almost gave up on.

Anything for my world.