"You took her on a date?" Aimee squeaks out leaning over the counter. I turned around to see Elise stood with rosey cheeks and a smile.
"Yes. Why?" She throws her arms up. "Yes! Finally! My god I've been waiting."
"Right. Okay, there's people waiting to order." She moves to the side, Calum walking in heading straight for her with the biggest smile. "Hi, hello. What can I get for you today?"
"You're very smiley, that's a nice change. Can I just get- uh, the shortbread cookie and a latte. Please- wait, no I don't want the foam."
"Oh, I- there's- uhm, I'm sorry." She shakes her head. "No it's okay. Take your time I have a lot of it."
"We, can make you a black coffee and- uhm, there's a selection of milks by the- at the end over by the pick up station." She nods. "That is wonderful. Thank you."
I guess it never really fully goes away. "Okay that's, 2- no, no it's 3.65."
"Here you go, the name is- what's my name? Chloe. So sorry." Nobody's ever been this calm with me before. "It's okay. It'll just be at the end, thank you."
"Thank you." I turn around to check the clock, Kurt was ten minutes late. I didn't like it.
It was slow today, he should be here still, I mean, why wouldn't he be here? What is he doing? Why isn't he here yet?
"What's up?" Aimee asked. "Kurt is late. Hello, what can I get for you today?"
"Black coffee please. That's all." He hands me the money and his name, wasting absolutely no time to move on.
I'd served about six people before Kurt came in, an all black suit and red eyes. My heart dropped. "Hi, hello." He hums. "Hi kid."
"Did you need a hug?" I asked quickly. Elise freezing in the middle of cleaning tables. "I don't- I don't know."
"I can give you a free coffee and some cake with it." Elise pushes me out. "You go that way, I'll serve." I walk him outside. Holding his sleeve the same way I did with my dad.
"You don't have to tell me, I know these things are pretty hard to talk about. But I do know how to shut up if you want to talk." He lights his cigarette, so I take mine from my pocket.
"I just had to bury my best friend." He said, sounding like he was in shock. "Oh, did they do an open casket?" He nods. "Did he have make up on?" He scoffs. "Trust you, yeah. Yeah he did."
"Cool. I mean if- no I can't say that. Did he have a favourite joke?" He was thinking about it. "What did the fish say when he swam into the wall?" He asked. "I have no clue."
"Dam." I smacked my hand over my eyes, shaking my head. "That's so awful. I love it."
"It's a terrible jokes. First joke he ever told me, four years old and already had the dad jokes." He shook his head. "I know it's not the easiest to deal with, and for the longest time you can only picture everything sad and gloomy because of the circumstances, but out of all the people in the world, every single person that he has ever met, he chose you to be his best friend. I'd brag about it, you got to sit with him, knowing he was your best friend. And out of everybody to tell a terrible joke to, he wanted you to hear it."
His eyes started to water, which wasn't my intention m, but he was smiling. "There are probably so many universes where you two were two seconds slower the day you met, or the week before you decided you would change your schedule, but in this one, you guys did everything exactly how it was supposed to be, you guys met and you were his whole life, don't sit and regret it. Live the rest of his life for him. Make it something both of you can talk about."
