A cup of coffee with that? Yes please! [COMPLETE]

Waiting

She sat there, in the warm heated coffee shop, just a few blocks down from her apartment, waiting. Waiting for someone she already knew who wouldn't come, but she still waited, patiently.

She tore the corner of her packet of sugar and emptied its contents in her toasty cup of coffee. The small white crystals fell into her beverage like snow falling from the sky.

The shop was relatively busy during this time period. Customers were bustling around, waiting in lines for a coffee-on-the-go or waiting to be seated. Waiters whisked around with their customer's meals and drinks. Groups of friends and couples swarmed the area. Only a few people were calmly sipping their beverage or eating their appetizing breakfast platter alone.

She was one of them.

However, she wouldn't have been if he had come on time. It was already thirty minutes from the original meeting time, making him thirty minutes late...if he even comes.

Her boyfriend of three years, Mark Ashington, was the one who she was waiting for, in this cosy coffee shop. They had met during an embarrassing event in her second year of college, while he was in his last. She was listening to her music outside in a spacious grass field, while trying to study for her exam the next day. That wasn't embarrassing until he came up and told her that her earphones weren't plugged in and the melodies were playing through her phone's speaker, allowing most of the people in her proximity to hear.

Nora could remember how hard blushed at that moment and how she wished to have dug a hole and jumped inside to remerge ten years later. It was just so embarrassing. 

But enough about her background, the real issue here was that Mark still haven't contacted her about his tardiness – forty-five minutes in and still no sign of him.

She tapped her slender fingers against the wooden table in boredom. She had already finished her cup of coffee, and the milky and slightly bitter taste still tingled on her tongue.

Her phone vibrated on the table, whirling around in a circle to get her attention. This made her amber coloured eyes gloss over with excitement. It was a text message from Mark.

I'm sorry Nora. Something came up at the office today and I had to go in to help. When are you free? Maybe we can meet up next time. I'm really sorry.

Mark

As fast as her excitement came, it was swept away and replaced with dejection. She placed the phone back on the table and turned her attention to the window. Her eyes gazed at the bustling streets. She didn't bother to send a message back because she knew that he would not read it till like a few days later. 

He replies with the same message every time, she thought. It was true – every time she wanted to meet, he would make up some excuse or accept the invitation and never turn up, like today. It had happened for the past three months.

She sighed as she gazed into her cup. Only a little amount of brown liquid was left at the bottom.

Breaking off her stare after a few moments, she dug her hand in her purse and fished out her wallet. Taking a crisp five-dollar note out, she placed it just under her saucer and clothed on her thick jacket. She fixed her white knitted scarf around her neck and stood from her chair. Her heeled boots clicked on the wooden floorboards as she made her way out the door – entering the winter of New York.

A male picked her empty cup and saucer and watched her cross the road, disappearing into the teeming crowd of the metropolis.

I should of said 'Hi', he thought as he carried the dishes back to the kitchen.

If only he did.