Coffee Shop

VIII

Edit 1: 19/09/2018
Edit 2: 29/02/2023

20th December 2020, 08:00
And here I sit, with a mug of hot coffee in my rough, dry hands, staring out into the bleak city of London. The steam from my coffee swirled above the mug and stuck to the coffee shop window, obscuring my view from the world beyond the glass.

I think I should stop wishing for it to rain. It's too cold for that now. It's funny to think how a few years ago, it hardly snowed, but now the UK's weather has become more extreme, receiving snow in winter like there's no tomorrow.

Looking into the steam of my coffee, I let a little smile wonder onto my face. It's been a few weeks and I've met Sage in the coffee shop. He has work on the weekends in the morning, where as I have work in the afternoon.

Over those weeks, I've gotten to know more about him and his personality. He's a very creative person, I don't think he should be doing physics at university.

The first few meetings with Sage were me trying to entertain him out of politeness feeling sorry for how I had treated him the first few times prior, but now I'm starting to enjoy meeting up with him. He's still way too obvious and I'm still acting like I'm oblivious. It's too easy to act oblivious.

Looking around the coffee shop, I noticed how decorative it was, covered in Christmas themed decorations. There's green and red Christmas lights outlining the window, green and red tinsel surrounding the ceiling, and a medium sized Christmas tree in a corner, decorated with silver and gold lights, tinsel, and baubles.

Only five more days till Christmas... five more days for the utmost joy and happiness for the majority, or five more days till a regular day of work for others.

Lots of the university students have gone back to their family's to celebrate this festive holiday, while some have to stay as they live abroad and can't afford to travel back home, but send gifts to their loved ones they miss dearly.

Suddenly, there was a tap on the coffee shop window. I glanced up as if I had been electrocuted, only to meet eyes with the deep blue irises of Sage, a couple of perfect snowflakes drifting down in front of him. His eyes were such a deep blue, deeper than the trenches in the ocean, and we don't even know how far they go down. Anyone who was foreign to his eyes could get lost in them and drown, but I was clever and chose not to dive into their depths.

Sage lives in London so he doesn't have to travel out of the city to meet his family.

I looked to the left and right of Sage, noticing that there were three other young men behind him. They were all very tall like Sage. They all wore black, ripped skinny jeans and hoodies of different styles and colours. They were inspecting me from the outside as the snow drifted down around them, forming an intricate dance before they settled onto the already white ground.

Such contrast from the warm smell of coffee wafting up into my face from my mug of coffee.

I don't mind snow when it falls from the grey clouds in its perfect shapes, but once it hits the surface of the earth and sometimes hardens into ice, that's when I am adamant to despise it.

Tilting my head to the left, I put on a quizzical face as I darted my eyes between the three young men that stood behind Sage, hoping he would get the message.

Sage stood up straighter and smiled warmly, then turned and made his way to the entrance of the coffee shop, the three young men following close behind him.