Children of Adaygue Book 1: Mad World

Chapter 1: A Beginning And An End (Part 6) | Gene

Gene Richard von Brandenburg-Kulmach reluctantly rolled himself up in the bed covers. His lady-in-waiting had now turned up for the third time to wake him up, but the young gentleman and heir to the property of the distant imperial family branch could not be persuaded to get out of bed. Instead, he grumbled something into his very comfortable blanket that was somewhere between "Leave me alone!" and "I don't care!" The lady-in-waiting had instructions from his father personally to kick him out of bed if necessary if the chronic morning grouch once again preferred to eat his breakfast on the go. 

For his father, who rose early, breakfast was the most important meal of the day and the only time when all family members could be guaranteed to sit comfortably at a table and see each other at least once a day. Family time. 

For the 26-year-old, it was simply a new torture that his father had thought up, because who the hell is crazy enough to eat breakfast at six in the morning? The fact that his mother went along with this nonsense was what annoyed him the most. And most of the time the conversation at the table was either about his studies, which he would soon have finished, about his work as a police officer, or about his love life. His parents always stressed that they would welcome any choice he made. 

Fuck off! 

As if they would even welcome someone like Fräulein Friedrichscafé without batting an eyelid! On the outside they would sing hymns, wrap her up, and then smother her behind with every damn rule and expectation. 

Gene sighed.
He had lost his heart in Friedrichscafé and every time he went to collect it again, he forgot it again when paying. He reached under his pillow and held out a 100 gold mark note to his maid: "You can have that, Sophia, if you fly off and announce that I got up before your very eyes!" he grumbled under his blanket. 

Sophia let out an indignant gasp: "No way! I'll be in trouble if you didn't get up!" 

"You saw me get up, what's the problem? It's not your fault if I curl up again. Here! Take it! And just go!" he growled grumpily from under the covers. 

She looked at the note with narrowed eyes, grabbed it and stuck it in her cleavage; "Half an hour! Maybe a whole hour! Then your father will come upstairs himself!" 

"Yeah, yeah, get out of here!" the morning grouch grumbled unkindly into the pillow. His chambermaid turned on her heel and stuck her tongue out at him in thought. 

The door clicked shut and Gene tried to pick up the thought again. 

Right! Fräulein Friedrichscafé.

He didn't know her name, because he hadn't asked or bothered to look at her name tag. Not that he hadn't tried, but he was uncomfortable staring practically at her chest. 

Even when she was on duty with a colleague, on a beautiful, clear, cold December morning, he hadn't been able to catch the name. It was as if she was anticipating every urgent situation that required calling out her name to get her attention. 

She had discovered routines in him that he didn't even know he had. He didn't know that he was a Monday-doughnut person, devouring every sandwich on Friday, and when she gave him her "mix" to his Wednesday filled chocolate croissant at her own expense, which consisted of a little milk, melted milk chocolate, extra cocoa, a drop of macadamia syrup, and real vanilla in his coffee, he felt like he had never started a day better. 

Why on earth would he sit there in silence at his parents' table and accept "friendly advice" when someone like her worked in that café? 

He thought of that spring morning, almost a year ago. 

Gene had come to the Friedrichscafé for the first time. "Frank's Backstübchen", where he usually got his breakfast, had been closed for a few days due to construction work on the street.