Just my cup of tea

Kate

She sits in the left corner of the coffee shop lost in her pc screen. I’ve never seen someone so content with herself, or is that just how she looks? It’s a funny thing; impressions. How many masks do people plaster on their faces every day? She has none though, or maybe she does. I don’t know her but you can tell a lot about someone by the way they go about their days. I have been coming to Corner Kay’s Café for two weeks now and for those two weeks I’ve seen her sitting in her own little corner as though it were her world. Out of all the people here no-one grips my eye the way she does. It is as though she lodged a magnet in my brain with her curious ways. She is slender and sleek with long golden brown hair that trails along her spine like a wave of silk but chucks on her feet that tugs at the magnet inside me. Her chucks are trailed with a row of smiley faces and her denim jeans are torn at the knees. I would imagine that she dresses up when she needs too; no-one sits up right like that unless they have worn heels for half their life.

I wonder what she does at her pc every day in the shop while sipping on her regular milk tea. Regular milk tea, she enjoys such simple things in life. Maybe she is the one that wakes up every morning and actually sees the dew drops on her window and trails her finger along them as they make their way down to the bottom. She seems the type to notice the smallest detail like the power a trail of ants can make as they go along their way. Her tea cup says “Kate” so the question remains, exactly who is Kate?

Linda, my waitress walks over and places the bill to my right. “Anything before you disappear off Alice?” she smiled down at me with what looked almost like hopeful eyes. “No thank you, I should be off now before it gets too dark.” She forces out an accepting smile as she turns away towards the new customers. Linda tries really hard to talk to me more every day but I just find myself more frustrated as she pulls my attention away from Kate. I don’t know what it is about trying to figure someone out, trying to fit them into a story. I need to figure out exactly who she is but at the same moment I do not want to end this game we play with each other, where every day she acts out a new mystery for me. I wonder if she has acknowledged my existence but I do not want her to make any recognition just yet. The wondering thoughts of what she must have cooked up in her head about me where tugging at my brain. “Will you ever talk to her?” Linda picks up the bill as she looks over to where Kate is sitting. “I wasn’t staring at her, it’s not like that.” Linda gives out a little chuckle to show that she doesn’t believe me. “No really, it’s not what you are thinking at all Linda.” There is something about the way she moves around as though she owns the world, the way her eyes scan the words on her pc like she completely transforms into another world entirely. I was not in love with her but rather I loved the idea of a girl that would just break every guess I made about her. I think I am going to drive myself crazy with these guessing games but I have become so addicted to them that it’s become my muse and she has become heroine (pun intended).     

She closes her pc and leans back in her chair as she picks up her tea and gracefully places it to her lips. She looks around and for the first time she catches my gaze and simply smiles. That was the end and the beginning of everything all at once neatly wrapped up in a simple smile. The game has officially been escalated to a new level in which I fear I only have one life span. I return her smile and casually look back to the bill in front of me. I pay for my over-priced custard Danish and reluctantly walk out of the café.

I don’t like leaving before Kate does, truth be told I think it’s mainly because I’m waiting for something to happen, I’m sitting at the edge of the cliff that is the café soaking in every drop of adrenaline from this drug. She usually leaves before me but this night she sipped casually on her tea just taking in her surroundings. I steal one last glance as I pass the café window. I had to leave the Café every day at five pm to make it home in time to clean and feed Andrew Lloyd Webber, my bunny that I secretly hover in my apartment. I stay in a two bedroom apartment in the suburban area called Queensburgh aka “The Burgh.” Some find my area a little rough but I like to think that it’s fairly homely and decent for a suburb in Durban, South Africa.

I park my car in my reserved spot and gather my belongings, my phone, back-pack and keys. After a long day starting with work at half eight then English tutoring to university students after work and then the café to full my cup of inspiration, I wanted nothing more than to fall on my bed. I picked up some letters from the counter that my best friend and roommate Coney collected. BILLS, BILLS and what do I have here? A lime green envelope with my address handwritten on it caused urgency in the pit of my stomach. I knew who sent this letter and I was in no rush to open this one. My parents have been trying to get me to move back home to Cape Town for almost three months now. How long have I been away from home? Three months. They never liked the idea of their baby girl leaving home to start off her life and pursue her dreams of being a writer but at the age of 20 and fresh out of university I set off to Durban. I can imagine many of you would ask “Why Durban?” and yes I agree it’s usually the kind of place people start up in rather than move towards but over the last summer I fell in love. Not with a person but with the city.

It’s a type of beautiful you don’t see at first sight. It’s the type of beautiful that dawns upon you after a day at the harbour, watching the sun set over the city as the birds rush back and forth. It’s the type of beautiful that seeps into your pores as you lounge in the sun on the beaches of the coast. It’s a type of beautiful that fills the air along the streets while the taxis hoot and people full the zebra crossings. Durban is a beautiful city that you need to experience through all your senses rather than just sight, it’s something you feel and smell and taste.

I threw the letters on the dresser and fell on my bed which felt like being sucked into a candyfloss field. I had a lot of writing to do especially after the recent events at the café but my body refused to move. In my head I have played out more than six adventures for my Kate and on paper I have written three short stories already but none of them feel complete. Something is always missing from her stories, an enigmatic happening that is needed to finally complete her life. So I continue to write her stories till I find one that will ease my mind and eject the magnet that has made itself so comfortable in my head.  

*Hey there guys! I know I have not written anything in a while but this is my new short story. it's just the intro! please let me know what you think and if you would like to read more! thanks so much guys! :D