The Coffee Saga

The coffees he didn't like

"O centro do café." That's what the small coffee house was called. While most people preferred to name their coffee shops with beautiful French, Spanish, , German or even Chinese names; the owner of the one where Naina worked decided to go a slightly different way, and the old man ended up going for Protugese language. It was the official language of Brazil after all. The home to the richest flavours of coffee, the official coffee pot of the world, and his late wife's birth place. So why wouldn't he go for a bit unconventional course of action?

The moment Naina started working at the homely place as a barista, she knew how much her elderly employer loved and missed his long gone wife. "She was his world," that's what he always exclaimed, and then, as if a reflex mechanism, his eyes brimmed with unshed tears and unconditional love. She felt immense pity for him.

The coffee shop was dimly lit but the light filtering in through the windows was more than compensating. In the quiet and peaceful afternoons, as soon as Naina entered through the doorway for her shift, she always took a long, deep breath, inhaling the aroma of ground coffee and tea, earthy and rich, mixed in with the happy sound of chatter and laughter.

Everyday, she waits for the barista on duty, Kamya, to finish up for the day and meanwhile, runs her hand along the countertop. A chalkboard stands propped up against where the countertop meets the wall, displaying their menu and special offers for the particular day. There were five or six tables for four that matched the design of the counter top, brown plywood which was; two or three two seaters in the same design; and one longer one in the back that was large enough to easily seat ten or twelve. The walls were decked with 2 large framed paintings of Raja Ravi Verma, and the rest of the space was occupied by beautiful and deep quotes. To Naina, they seemed much more like her owner's effort in encouraging his staff and customers to put their trust in destiny and true love. She says so because one of them reads,

You don't find love, it finds you.
It's got a little bit to do with destiny,
fate and what's written in the stars.

This is all seemed like exceptional bulshit though.

Don't get her wrong. It's not like she didn't respect the old man and his love for his wife. Far from it. To put it simply, she failed to understand it. This revelation often earned her a surprised huff from her best friend and fellow barista Swati, but the latter only thought so because she was already engaged to a young man of her family's choice, and she liked him well enough. Understanding and expecting love from a person did came easily to Swati. But Naina liked to live in the real world, where young girls like her are often married off before they can start looking for the said wonderful person, and for middle class people like her, even a normal, respectable marriage seemed like a distant dream. There was no way her heart is ever going to beat for a person, consider him as "her world" and find itself putting all kinds efforts for him.

But marriage was based on duties and promises. And often, it was much easier to do things which people believed they were supposed and obliged to do, rather than what they loved to do. Same with coffee and her. See, she liked coffee fine. She didn't love it. She was more of a chai person herself. She wasn't in love with coffee. She just liked it. But she did love the fact about how it much it helped her family's financial condition and gave her something to do in her free time. And if she happened to love making it and serving it, then so what. She made a mean coffee, a perfect coffee. That's what mattered the most.

So, when famous buisness tycoon Sameer Maheshwari- the richest person in Gujrat- strode inside their coffee shop, it was surprisingly normal for Naina and unsurprisingly "the best day of their lives" for her fellow staff. It might have been a fangirl moment for Naina like it was for the others- no one is pointing towards Swati, who practically swooned upon having a closer look at him- had she recognised him. As soon as he entered the shop, he straightway went to the counter and had a closer look at the menu, but didn't pay attention to any of them, the staff members. He ordered her speciality, an Iced vanilla Latte, and pulled out his wallet and paid quickly. "Aapka naam kya hai?" Naina asked, sharpie poised above a paper cup. She however, failed to hear Swati and Rohit's surprised gasps.