Spilt Coffee

Chapter 1

Avery had had a terrible day. She had had squeamish customers, a group of teens adamant they were of age to get a tattoo, and an angry mother who stormed in holding her son's ink-covered face. "Look what you did to my baby! Now he's covered in gang symbols!" Avery had tried to explain the tattoo was from an anime, but the boy gave her a look that told her he had already tried to explain. To top it all off she had gotten a text from her very recent ex telling her to meet him at a cafe to grab the rest of her stuff from his house, and as much as she didn't want to see his stupid face, she needed her stuff.

She hadn't really thought of grabbing her stuff when she had walked in on him and some random women doing it on their bed. She had mainly thrown a lot of stuff at him, cussed him out, and then took the dog with her on her way out. It was a yappy little pomeranian called Bagel and was originally hers, but she knew Alex, her ex, loved Bagel more than anything.

"He was smart to meet in a public place, or I would beat him to a pulp. Actually, maybe I will even in front of everyone, then he can be humiliated-" Carmen, her best friend, her coworker, and temporary roommate, was coming with her as support and to make sure she didn't do anything stupid, but at this point, she may have to be the one holding Carmen back. She had been there when he had texted, she had gone on a big rant to Avery and her client at the time, about how she always had a "bad feeling about him", and "make sure to take everything from him!"

They arrived at the cafe, it was a cute place with a picture of a latte and bold letters around it saying "Drink up!" she took a deep breath, feeling the anxiety creeping in. She wanted to be as composed as possible, Show that prick inside she was better off without him, even if on the inside she missed him, missed their movie nights, art competitions, bake-offs, hanging out with all their friends... She shook off the memories and opened the door with a little more force than intended, causing people to look towards the noise, including Alex. He was sitting with a woman, the one she caught him fucking, and his eyes were soft but as he was alerted to Avery's presence he narrowed them, scowling at her. She was frozen, but Carmen grabbed her arm, giving her a slight pull toward the duo.

"Avery."

"Alex."

"This is my girlfriend, Charlotte." The woman gave a wave, and Avery could see Carmen scrunching up her face. "Wow, you really downgraded Alex." Avery gave a short laugh, almost a snort, very glad she bought her friend. Carmen never cared what others thought, and always got straight to the point. She needed that right now as if she spoke for more than a couple seconds, she may burst into tears.

Alex stood up in anger but Charlotte patted his hand and he took a deep breath sitting down. "Where's my stuff." Alex pulled a box from under the table, dumping it harshly on the table. "Here's your shit." She rummaged through it "This isn't all of it, what about the rest of my books, my lamp, what about my plants." He smirked. "You can get the rest of it when you give back the dog." "What?" She hissed. "That's my fucking dog." "oh please, you never liked him, besides, Charlotte wants a puppy to go in her bag." She let go of the box, seeing red and slammed her fist into his nose. He fell off his chair, groaning and moaning. "You bitch! You broke his nose!" Charlotte was on the floor, cradling her stupid boyfriend's head. "Good."

She picked up her box, feeling overwhelmed by all the eyes on her, she had forgotten they were in a public space. She took deep breaths, trying to walk, not run, to the door when she collided with someone, a waiter, and all the drinks he had been holding went flying onto her, and her box, soaking all of it. The little selection of books she had, Photos, artwork, all soaking up the coffee. "Yes! Karma bitch! Go Jeremy!" She looked to the waiter's nametag, Jeremy. Had Alex planned this? She wouldn't be surprised, he had always been petty. She could only hear Alex's stupid gloating voice, and not the apologies coming from the waiter. She quickly scooped up what was left of her stuff, gave Jeremy the meanest glare she could, and rushed out of the cafe with Carmen at her side.

"Don't worry, when we get home we can blowdry the paper, put it in rice or something, it'll be ok, and later I'll break into their house and grab your stuff back, yeah?" Avery gave a laugh and sniffle in response, the coffee sliding down from her hair, mixing with her tears. They got in their car, throwing the ruined box in the back, she took her jacket off, trying to clean as much of the drinks off of her in the car. The tears kept coming. She had always cried when she got angry, finding it hard to get the words out while blubbering, always winding her up even more. So she stayed silent as Carmen drove them home, ranting about the whole situation. 

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