...The night soon reaches its deepest hour. The air suddenly turns light and crickets stop singing from their safe spots among the grass of the park. Sneakily, something appears from behind the stranger cat, a little shadow rises up from her head, g...
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A few meters away from Fioriluna, a little bar is already open, in spite of the very early hour. It's the Queen of Hearts, a store that belongs to Tress, an old friend of Rob and his wife.
Rob comes in and, as usual, he's the only client at that hour of the morning.
"G'morning Tress!"
Rob has always loved habits, he firmly lives following his dear routine, which makes him feel comfortable, almost pampered.
"Hi Rob, cup of tea?" Tress asks from behind the counter.
"As usual" he replies sitting on one of the high stools "We'll have a hard training today and the morning is still chilly, though the summer's coming..."
"Yes, fortunately weather is getting better, though you never refuse your morning hot tea, since we know" she replies, preparing the hot water and pouring it into a beautiful cup she chose with care among many others "Sooo... how has your day started? Did you... emh... meet someone interesting?" she asks leaning over the lucid marble of the counter.
"No, definitely not!" he spontaneously replies, thinking of Jack.
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"Oh" Tress starts settling around "Same here: nobody interesting has come here for a long time... Except you, of course!"
Rob looks at his friend with a hint of sadness in his eyes, she's a young woman but already carrying on the business of the bar by herself for many years, she is sweet and caring and, honestly, very beautiful, so he can't really understand how is possible that she could be in love with that tattler Jack. On the other hand, also Jack is in love with her, but every time they meet they can't do anything more than stutter and blush like children, so their longest conversation does not go beyond a simple "Hello".
Rob would do something to help them but, every time he tries, Tress loses clarity.
He looks again at her and takes a deep breath.
"You know... I met Jack before..." A thud noise follows his sentence.
Tress turns at him, red on face and nervously playing with a very smashed milk pot in her hands. "Really? So you met someone at least! Emh.. What did he say to you?"
"The usual things... That his job doesn't satisfy him and lots of rubbish..." he replies, puffing on his tea to cool it down.
"Ah..." she just says, disappointed.
Rob is torn as to whether he should say or not.
"Now I think better... Jack asked about you!"
Tress doesn't answer, she seems busy doing something that Rob can't see, but he knows something is gong wrong. "Ihihhi... Jack asked about me..." she keeps repeating herself pretending to clean the coffee machine.
Suddenly she turns with a very embarrassed expression on her face and gives a resounding slap on Rob's back who spills the tea all over the counter.
"HAHAHAHA!" she hysterically laughs "Jack asked about me! Don't try to fool me!!"
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Tress gloats with herself while Rob, clearly blaming himself for what he did, puts the cup back on the plate and asks for another tea.
"Uh? You already finished it?" the girl exclaims coming back to reality "Ok!" and she serves another one after few seconds.
They both stay in silence while Rob calmly drinks, then he stands up, puts on the counter the money for two cups of tea and leaves "See you, Tress."
"Rob, wait! The change!"
"Keep it as a tip!" the man replies, already leaving the sliding doors.
Tress remains meditative for a while.
"Rob worries me... He drinks too much tea..." and she starts wiping the counter wondering how come there is water all over it.
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