THE COFFEE HAS YOUR SMELL

CHAPTER 13: SOUL BONDS

„It's so pleasant here," Kate thought, looking at Alex's apartment, which was right above the coffee shop „Aisling." That apartment was a place the man loved the most, even if others thought that it was too small and insignificant for a man like Alexander Doyle. Nevertheless, Alex didn't care too much about that, just as he didn't think about expensive and luxurious places. Instead, he preferred the small places where melancholy and longing could take him any time in their arms. And, along with love, make him ride the horse known as Longing and run as far as possible from that place toward new horizons.

There was one more reason why Alex loved that small apartment so much: it reminded him about home. That apartment reminded him about those evenings when, still a kid, they gathered in front of the fireplace, with a cup of hot coffee or tea in their hands, and told each other stories. Yes, in such evenings, especially when the Northern wind was acting up on the streets but not in people's souls too, Alexander was so happy, quietly sitting with his head on his mother's lap, listening to her reading them stories. And her soothing voice, her sweet voice as their mother and beloved wife, made the child Alex so happy, the one who grew up eventually like a handsome man with a huge soul - a man in love with books and, undoubtedly, with people.

Because of this, Alex wanted to find a similar place to call home when he finally left his parents'nest at the age of twenty. He left that home when he went to continue studying at the College of Marketing and Business Management. Then, finally returned to Westport from Dublin where he had made his studies, he refused to return home and started to look for his own nest. The reason? Alexander Doyle had meanwhile become a kind of magic bird, in love with the beauty of the world and the ideal of the world of books.

All this made him love so much loneliness and inner peace, a loneliness he knew he could have only when he was alone. At the same time, Alex thought that, only by being alone, the hopeless romantic that lived inside him could find his own balance and maybe the love of his life at his feet. How exactly? Sitting on the warm floor, with his head on his arms that were supported on the lap of time... as he'd loved to stay when he was a child and loved to dream about the world and its perfection. The child Alex hadn't dreamt only about this. He had also dreamt of love - the one undoubtedly described in books, on those pages where longing was its own master, and happiness felt somehow a stranger in that story, even though there was still happiness among the pages of those books he loved to read.

At the same time, there was dreaming and longing in those words spoken by his soothing mother's voice, one that only Matilde Doyle could have while reading books to her children and husband, although he hadn't ever been a lover of books. Nevertheless, Conor Doyle had been a lover of beautiful things. Because of this, he tried to teach his children the real meaning of love, the one he seemed to have taken from his heart. Yet, the first thing he had taught them in life was undoubtedly to love themselves. Then, there was the love for others, whom they also had to respect. And, last but not least, Conor Doyle had taught them to respect and protect their principles because Conor was the kind of man who considered that a great man should undoubtedly be capable of defending his dreams, longing, and the perfection of his soul and mind.

Probably because of this, old Doyle didn't stay against Alex's idea of opening a coffee shop where people could find themselves in books. He did that, thinking that that place could have been an oasis of peace for his son too, whom he had always seen agitated while being surrounded by people. He hadn't felt that agitation at his son though when he was alone, surrounded by his few friends, whom Alex trusted blindly sometimes, or when he was surrounded by books. Then, slowly, Conor Doyle started to be interested in the fascinating world of the books. This happened because he tried to understand what exactly attracted Alex so much at it, preferring it instead of the family business and the madness of the world. Yet, even if he spent enough time trying to understand the world of the books, old Doyle couldn't understand it though. The reason? Unlike his son, who was a dreamer and a romantic, Conor Doyle was a practical man. He was a tough man in many cases, as only a good businessman could be. Conor was like that because he knew that only the strong men, the calculated men could resist in the world of businesses and money. That's why it wasn't that easy for him to allow the world to fascinate him with those truths hidden in books, as he considered that the world had deceived Alex eventually.