Short Stories

Creative Writing - Coffee Girl

It was a tiresome morning and another week of working 8 hour shifts, what I'd needed that morning was not only breakfast but a Hot Chocolate with everything to wake me up and give me the kick of sugar rush I needed; to stir my body and mind that was slow, still processing the pain of waking and walking at such an early hour that it and I both hated.

Through empty streets of this old city I walked to work, past the Tesco express, past the Greggs where I favoured their cookies and sausage rolls and instead I walked to Costa. This Costa was my favourite in town simply because the one five minutes around the corner never got my hot chocolate right, every time I went there, my hot chocolate was bitter and horrible, but this Costa, this one was small, cosy and always made the best hot chocolate.

I will refer to her as coffee girl because first and foremost the name is Costa Coffee, not Costa Hot Chocolate. I am a non coffee or tea drinker, therefore hot chocolate is my hot beverage of choice, and yet I always liked to go via Costa and collect some points from it at the same time too. I went in and ordered and she welcomed me in with a cheerful smile, a high pitched lilt to her voice as she said good morning. She was clearly wide awake and ready to work, much the opposite of myself who was still blinking her eyes to try wake up properly. She took my order still smiling, making small talk, a thing that I am not fond of, but her small talk I feel bad for ignoring.

When I went in another time, she had the similar sunshine brightness about her, the same spring in her step that I could never have at 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning. She was again the only worker behind the counter, and she must have recognised me because her small talk wasn't as long as it had been on my previous trip.

As I stood there waiting for my hot chocolate I hoped she did not think of me as some grumpy person or a unsociable meanie who hated people. Because she was kind, and what I want kind people to see me as, is a normal person, even a person capable of returning their kindness. Because kind people should get all the kindness back, in a very much karma comes back around kind of way and I hope the Coffee Girl does get her good karma, because I got my good hot chocolate to rise me from the dead before work.

I made sure to thank her for my hot chocolate, topped with all the usual, cream and marshmallows (occasionally a flake too) and made my way to work where her hot chocolate woke me and both put me to sleep, the sugar crash from the drink hitting me at an annoyingly busy period at work.

Yet I will still keep drinking hot chocolate before work, though not every day as I am no longer full time, nor want to spend that much money if I do not need to. But maybe I'll see the coffee girl again and this time I'll try a little harder to return her kindness.