A Latte To Die For

Chapter 1

The smell of coffee fills the room with a pleasant aroma, and when combined with the scent of a book, or books, piled neatly on a shelf, nothing beats that setting. Not even Christmas.

The snow seems to have gotten violent to the point that it doesn't look as inviting as it did before. The man behind the counter looks at the snow, his mind lost somewhere far back in his past. He sighs at himself and the empty cafe around him. Christmas is bad for business.

A look at his phone and he is relieved to have not received any more notifications. They must have finally forgotten, or maybe they do not want to bother inviting a man who rejected the invitation so many times.

The bell chimes, sounding the opening of the cafe door. A strong gust of wind follows the commotion and two girls dressed in white occupy the previous empty space, smiling sheepishly at the barista.

"Girls..." he's lost for words; they aren't dressed in white, no, they are completely covered in snow and it's melting, fast.

He looks at the floor below them. It was dry moments ago. More work for him, but at least there's company. It's not going to be another lonely Christmas night.

"What are you doing here?", the barista stares at the mess inside his cafe.

"Merry Christmas Noah.", the short girl smiles at him, while struggling to wipe her glasses clean of all the snow, "May we sit please?", she asks politely while trying her hardest to stop shivering.

"Yes, please. Go on. I'll get you something warm", he pauses, "Merry Christmas Anna and you too Valorie." The tall girl smiles in reply, and they walk to the nearest seats they could find.

Noah Bell grabs two cups and fills them up with warm milk, and places them in front of their seats.

"Pass me your jackets, they're wet. They'll do you more harm than good." He takes their jackets and places them on the hangers. Noah then finds the remote for the A/C controls and turns the temperature up a few degrees.

"Thank you." Anna whispers to him. Noah stares at the pair. Usually, the cafe would become so noisy after their entrance that he would have to turn up the music but not this time. He could still hear the jazz music, loud and clear. They weren't saying anything, and he didn't want to poke.

A minute passes while they silently sip on their cups. Valorie starts crying suddenly, slowly at first, but its intensity increases dramatically when the other girl starts shushing her.

Noah just stands there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. He should probably say something, offer some consolation being the adult in the room, but he never really was good at sympathy, or was it empathy. He can't recall.

"It's alright. He wasn't himself, he was drunk." Anna is doing her best to comfort her friend but with little result.

Noah Bell feels out of place, and since he doesn't understand the situation right now, the decision he comes to is to not interfere. He goes back to the counter and prepares a drink. A warm cup of coffee, when has that never solved anything?

He looks at the pair from behind his counter. One leaning on another's shoulder, sobbing silently. Maybe coffee was not what was needed right now. He turns off the coffeemaker and pours a cup of water instead.

Noah taps on the sobbing girl's shoulder and offers the glass, doing his best to smile.

"You're really bad at this", Valorie offers him a smile, eyes smudgy from all the crying, "Thank you Mr. Bell."

He looks into the girl's eyes. How could someone so young have such sadness in her eyes? It reminds him of his friend. He had those same eyes. Noah shakes his head, now is not the time for reminiscing.