Just my cup of tea

Time to face the coffee beans!

“"Three days late! Your article was three days late!" Arienna shrieked reaching the darkest places in my ear drums. “In my defence no-one will really notice,” I shrugged and then realized what I had just said. “No-one will really notice?” She eyed me out and I was stuck between making run for it or ducking. I stuck my hands out, “I didn’t mean that, I simply meant-“ too late, she was pissed. “What happened to our vision? What happened to creating a home for people like us?” Great, just great. She’s pulling out the guilt card. “look I haven’t forgotten ok, just that I’ve been a little preoccupied with my novel. It’s really coming along great, you should read a page or two.” I never knew Indians could go red, but just look Arienna; red as a tomato, with her hands stuck out, edging towards me with a serial killer look in her eyes. “It’s all I ever hear about, your novel and Kate. My novel this and Kate’s hair that! Wake up Alice!” I winced at the sharpness in her voice. “Well excuse me for being passionate about what I do!” That came out a little bit more arrogant than I had planned and I silently prayed that it would not raise her temperature any more than I already have this morning.

Arienna was my creative partner; we started a lesbian and gay magazine together, hoping to bring a home to all those who felt lost in the world. Arienna would take care of design while I provided content. With the start of my novel, you could say I was a little less dedicated to the magazine on my part. Our ratings were not that high and our general exposure included our local online community as well as the comic store down the road. She sighed, “Alice you are good at what you do, great at it even. People read your writing, they like your style. I know your novel is important to you, but don’t forget our cause ok?” I shifted as I thought about the day we first spoke of the magazine. “An article a week, I promise and not because I feel bad, but because you just reminded me that there’s no use in having a talent if you were not going to use it to create change.” I pulled her into a friendly embrace and ruffled her hair a little as she giggled with excitement.

“So what’s the deal with this Kate that has such lovely hair?” she eyed me from the corner of her eye, trying to not make it a big deal. I never really spoke about Kate to anyone before. All Arienna could get was a sneak peak at a sentence on my laptop, regarding the way her hair so graciously fell down her back. This was more than enough to spark her curious streak. See that’s the thing about words; once they leave your mouth to touch an ear outside they become so real, so concrete. As a writer, you hang on words. You fill pages and pages with words that are all too real to you and like a sculptor you wrap those words around your raw emotions for the entire world to see. How to answer though? What could I say? Kate was more than just my main character now, she was my friend. Then why did I feel this invisible pull towards her as her soul has lassoed mine and would not let go. “She’s a girl I met in the café that makes for an interesting read.” I ended the sentence so she could not budge any further into the matter. Don’t get me wrong, I could and would gladly talk about Kate for hours on end but it was too soon for all this to become non-fiction.

Thankfully Arienna dropped the subject and our weekly meeting came to a close just in time for Kate’s arrival at the café. I said my goodbye to Arienna as she headed towards the counter for a to-go cup of coffee when the door bells chimed and in walked Kate. The magnet sprung to life as I could not help but zone into her smile, her eyes, that guy behind her. Wait. What? I didn’t usually see him around, in fact this was the second time I had ever seen him come into the café. As they stepped in her eyes immediately searched the room till she spotted me and then she turned to him to say something before walking towards me. He branched off toward the counter and never bothered to take a second look at me, so uninterested at the world around him. Unlike Kate who gleamed of hope in her eyes as she stepped up to my table. “Well, fancy meeting you here!” she declared in a bad British accent. “I guess accents are not your forte?” I asked, nailing the accent. She rolled her eyes, “You just going to have to teach me then.” I loved how her mouth contained no filter of what her mind created. She spoke fearlessly, whether she knew it or not; it was beautiful.

I was so lost in this minute moment that I had completely forgotten about the guy at the counter who called out to her. She looked back and raised a finger so as to ask for a second and turned back to me, “That’s Ashley, my boyfriend. We were going to head to the beach to meet with some friends. To be honest, they are mostly his friends and I get really bored sometimes and I knew you would be here so I thought it would be great if you come along with us and keep me company?”

Boyfriend, she has a boyfriend. Oh come on it’s not a shocker. I mean she’s amazing in every way so of course some lucky guy would have grabbed her by now.  So I guess she was on a date that day with her boyfriend, Ashley. Ashley? Isn’t that a girl’s name? Urg, whatever his name is, I need to give her an answer. She waited hopefully and I knew if I were to turn her down it would crush her spirits and I could not allow myself to do that. Besides I have a definite answer to my unresolved mystery of whether or not she’s interested in me. She’s not. She’s straight with a boyfriend and I had to face the coffee beans. “I’ll have to just check my schedule,” I said sarcastically as I pretended to open an invisible book. She smiled and rolled her eyes. “Well would you look at that, I seem to be free.”

It seemed so stupid because I had just learned that she had a boyfriend yet I could not help but take pleasure in the joy my answer brought to her. Ashley walked up to us and Kate made her introductions. He seemed polite; a little reserved and didn’t really match Kate’s level of brightness. Although, he must be a real amazing guy to have won over Kate’s heart and I began to silently contemplate different ways I could bring in this love interest into her story. We were headed to his car and I was grateful for the opportunity to observe Kate and Ashley in their comfort zone. He seemed to be constantly guarding her or rather she seemed to be constantly waiting for him before making the next move. Either way something did connect them together but it was something strange that I could not put my finger on.

The somewhat awkward silence in the car did not help me much in my attempt to establish a proper setting for their love story and I came to the conclusion that I would first have to find out what exactly connected these clearly separate souls together. Kate began to roll a spliff and turned around to show me t he finish product with an excited smile on her face. “So Ashley do you smoke too?” He smiled as he eyed Kate out, “No, she’s the pot head between the two of us.” I chuckled at Kate and added good humour to his character. Maybe I would make them childhood friends; they seemed comfortable and familiar enough with one another for that. I liked the picture I had drawn up of them in my head; it was pretty and light but I still could not place what connected them together.

We spent a few hours walking around and I had met some of his friends. I liked that they were welcoming and always up for a great time. Kate and I smoked and I watched them play volleyball. I snapped a few pictures here and there and had enough time to edit a few. “You have to send me those pictures!” Kate declared as she grabbed my arm. “Here, this is my email add,” she said as she took my phone. “And my number, I may have a few more pictures I want you to edit if you don’t mind.” She really did like pictures as she snapped one after the other and it occurred to me that she would look amazing on camera.

After a long day and sand all over us, Ashley and Kate dropped me off at my apartment and regardless of the morning I had, today turned out pretty alright.