Coffee, Stranger? [Completed]

IX. Another Cup (Last Drop)

I'm at the same coffee shop. I'm alone. And I'm still reading a book.

It's a fine day. The sun shines brightly outside and it's ten in the morning.

I sipped on my macchiato before flipping the page again.

Alejandro got hit by a car to save a kid. I shook my head. Why do kids need to go roaming around the streets unsupervised?

I looked at my watch. I'm meeting someone in thirty minutes.

It was as if the timing was right, the chimes on the door rang, and a bunch of ladies walked in. Here they are. They're always late, but not now.

I just stared at them as their eyes surveyed the area. One girl in her bunny headband points at me and shrieks as she grips the arms of the girl beside her. She whispered something in her ears before she made her way to me.

"Bitch!" Her embrace was something I've missed for the last six months. I hugged her back.

"Ali, I missed you." I pulled a few strands of her hair while hugging her.

"Ouch!" She broke our hug and held my both arms as she took a good look at my face.

"I missed you, bitch!" She hugged me again.

That was the scene the others witnessed. We broke our hug when someone faked a cough in front of us.

"So cheesy."

I smiled at them. They placed their tray on the table and sat down.

"How are you, Maela?" The four of them looked at me. They don't particularly pity me or what. They just look at me, like how someone looks at her friend of years who had a tragic ending with her found companionship.

Just the right people I wanna see these days. My friends, Alessandra or Ali-the artist, Anna Marie- the drunk, Crystalline-the flirt, and Danielle-the math enthusiast.

"I'm fine." I smiled as I took another sip from my drink. "You know how I am when I'm not fine." They nodded altogether.

Danielle smiled at me, "You always have us in any instance. Remember that."

They all nodded again as they bent a little to catch their straws with their mouths in a synchronized matter and took a sip on each other's drink. I just shook my head looking at these four.

"Ah!" Ali exclaimed. "I'm inviting you to an open house by next week. We're having an exhibit."

She smiled sweetly. Who are we to say no?

We had a little chat before the four of them left. Everyone has a life of their own. And I'm still here. I insisted on staying for who knows why.

Maybe because there are still pages on my book that are still left unread. Maybe a few more words means nothing to somebody else, but those words may change something in me or maybe not.

I opened my book again, trying to find out what happened to Alejandro after he was hit by that car.

Clara ran towards Alejandro but the latter was lying on the road unconscious with blood gushing from his head. A crowd formed around her hugging the body of her man.

"Help us! Call for help, please."

It was a plea. Something that should have reached the heavens but it didn't.

Alejandro died that day. And Clara's heart died with him.

I closed the book. Maybe love stories don't always mean to end happily. Could it be that sometimes, memories kept are enough? Something that lasts. Something that is real.

I sighed.

Maybe that was it.

I put my book inside my bag. The zipper broke as I forced myself to lock it. It took me a while before I finally did it.

Looking somewhere to my right, I saw a shoe, black ones, shiny.

My eyes wandered from his shoe to his build, his familiar hand, and his chest enclosed in a white polo, his lips, his nose. A few feet from a distance between us can't stop his familiar scent from reaching my nose. A toxin and I was a victim, a willing one.

It is such a fine day, a good one. A pretty perfect time to get lost in those pretty brown eyes of his reflecting the bright sun from outside the window. I am drowning, wandering. No, I'm not saving myself anymore.

I slowly looked down, until my eyes landed on the paper on the table with a long-stemmed rose beside it.

It is such a fine day
To see you again, my lady.
Just like the days before,
Once more, can I share your table?

I looked at him again. Such a long time. Five months. And now, here he is again in front of me.

The day he had an accident, things became clear to me. I don't like him. I had fallen for him. That few weeks ain't nothing. And that day, I begged the heavens to give him back to me.

"Hi." His voice is still the same one that haunts my dreams for the last couple of months. "Can I sit with you?"

I was unable to say anything. I nodded slowly.

He sat in front of me. I was just staring at him. I watch him as he bit his lower lip as if thinking about something and my mind is still floating. He straightens his seat and looks at my eyes intently.

"I'm Dean." He said suddenly. No more stuttering like the first day we met. "And you are?" He extended his right hand to me.

"Maela."

I accepted his hand. I know our palms fit perfectly as much as our intertwined fingers do. He shook it for a while but then held it tight.

"Give me your left hand." I did as I was told like I was under his spell.

I was lost in his eyes again when I felt he slid something to my finger. A ring. In my ring finger.

"Let's start over again. This time I'll do better, I promise."

I nodded as he smiled at me showing those tiny fangs I fell in love with the first time we met. My little fanged stranger.

END