Better Latte than Never

By: @amandawrites on TikTok

The coffee Erica received from the barista this morning had been steaming profusely in the warm shields of her hands. A striking winter always called for a low-fat, soya milk vanilla macchiato with the smoky expressions of coffee resting at the bottom, recurring with the creamy taste bouncing on Erica’s tongue. She had chosen one particular cafe to work at on her trustworthy laptop, not due to capitalizing on its free internet but due to seeing the familiar face of one barista. He was the only one who remembered Erica’s daily allergy.

 He worked on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and occasionally, he would be seen from outside cleaning the cafe’s outskirts whilst grooving his hips left to right in a simultaneous shuffle of bip and bop. She knew the guy's name, thanks to his badge. ‘Christopher.’ With the ‘Topher’ of his name marked out with a pen so ‘Chris’ stood alone on a golden exterior. Chris had a way of talking to a lisp Erica extracted which she found adorable. Not her boyfriend though, who had watched her eyeballing Chris. 

“Eri, get me a cup of coffee would you?” He asked, yet his tone was drenched in suspicion. He wore an almost calculating expression as Erica advanced to the front, and as the cafe was on the border of being empty and housing the local patrons Chris leant his mop to the side  and resumed his job. 

“Welcome to Phew, We Brew- wait.. you were the girl who ordered that really complicated drink,” A loose, precarious grin melted on his sweet yet shrivelled face. He owned the face of a crafter, like he was manufactured specifically to attend to the very extensive and very specific orders of middle-aged coffee addictors. “Here for your 2nd coffee of the day?”

“Not for me,” Erica sighed. “Erm..can I have a simple espresso please? In a grande cup but the same amount of milk you’d give in a small, my partner’s very picky on how much dairy he intakes.”

“Sure,” Chris nodded, and got to work making his order. He spent roughly 5 minutes perfecting, and handed Erica the drink with an extra cookie on the side. “For you.” 

Erica brushed away her curls, she knew if she had the ability to go bright pink she’d be as pink as a baby gender reveal. “Um..thank you. But I’m not-'' She stared at her boyfriend, Kian, who was waiting on his coffee. She quickly smiled at Chris as an expression of gratitude, and popped the cookie in her bag for later. 

Kian snatched the coffee from Erica’s firm grip, a testament to his protein diet finally working. He had advanced from a slim boy barely taking his greens into a muscular man who had eaten nothing but greens, and he considered coffee ‘cheating’. He took a sip, and his face wrinkled. Erica’s heart beated, flushing with internal anxiety as an impromptu comment was about to be released. 

“Are you kidding?” He grunted. “Is this expresso or a packet of brown sugar?” He spat it out, causing the thin brown puddle on the table Erica’s body recoiled merely at. “Go tell that boy to make my drink again. And don’t act like I didn’t see that cookie you snuck in your bag,” he snatched Erica’s bag as well, digging his paws in deep and picking it up as if it was a prestigious trophy worth the attention. “Soon, you won’t even be able to fit in those nice dresses I bought for you in the summer.”

Chris witnessed this behind the counter, his expression bleak with indignation. He had a certain look to him, where his baby bell eyes squinted. Erica looked at him, and he immediately got to work preparing another coffee.

Erica and Kian had been high school sweethearts, with Kian being in sixth form and Erica in Year 11 when they first met. Now, a good couple years later, they settled down and Erica..well. Bought the house. Paid for the mortgage. Paid for both their gym memberships. And here Kian was flexing his muscles to other girls. Erica chose this cafe as her retreat from her busy schedule, and that's where she met Chris.

Well, she didn't meet Chris. She merely knew his name and they exchanged friendly talks. But, Erica spotted his wavering glances. His friendly touches that caressed her shoulder to her arm. And whilst this was all a symbol of his gratitude for the cafe, Kian took this the wrong way.

“That barista boy clearly likes you. Why aren’t you doing anything to stop him?” spat the smouldering man who’s anger overwhelmed his ability to rationalise. He had built up a penchant for consuming his role in arguments, and now it seemed like even the most calming conversations were 90/10. As a result, he decided on the floor colours. He decided on the paintings in the front room. He decided what colours would be at their prospective wedding. “You know how this stuff deeply offends me, it’s like my girlfriend is the newest stall in the market. What would the guys say when they think my fiance is on offer?”

“On offer? Kian, you’re being ridiculous right now. I can’t help if he likes me, beside-”

“So you’re encouraging his hopes?”

“I’ll be straight with you, Kian but you’re simple-” Erica’s eyes contacted with a shaking fist. She knew the result of this, and she knew the ramifications if she talked even longer. Her words shall go in a pit, not acknowledged or not considered. 

“Maddy..I don’t know what to do,” Erica looked warily around as she propped her phone against a surface, with her best friend on the receiving end watching her subtle movements of arising consternation. “I really love him, I do. But ever since his mother’s passed, he’s formed this protective bubble over me. I’m so close to just…calling the whole thing off.”

Her friend, Maddison’s lip corners rose with the execution of Erica’s anxiety-induced words. “That would be the right thing to do, you know. You’re a terrifying shade of grey, Erica. That matched with your blue lips makes you look like a snowman.”

“Ha ha, Maddy. I’m being serious,” Erica snapped out of a dry throat, then swerved her body around a 180. “I’ve tried contacting the police, but they’re yet to respond. I feel like a fish swimming in its own waste-filled bowl.”

“Where is he?”

“Gym, or that's what he said. He doesn’t know that I know that he cancelled his membership two months ago.”

Maddy’s eyes skirted in one direction, before melting to the bottom of her eyes. “That’s new. He always comes to the gym with me, I wondered why he stopped coming.”

The key in the door turned, and Erica sprung from a stationery stance. She hadn't expected a visitor, her mother who came in with a kid Erica donated to her. 

“Erica,” her assertive voice impaled from her infirm body, loose with unease. She had already settled in comfortness, now her mother’s presence jolted her upwards. “Where’s Kian?”

“He’s gone out, but I don’t know where. I don’t have his location.”

“How do you have your- never mind,” she made herself comfortable on the sofa with a disconsolate expression gradually painting on her strong features. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something, Erica but I’m wondering how well you’ll be able to take the information. It's a lot to process.”

“What is it, Mum?” Erica said, bracing the worst. She expected news that someone close to her passed, but to her shock, her mother proposed Kian was cheating on her with Maddy. 

“Whilst I was on the way here, I saw her getting in a taxi with someone that looked vaguely like Kian,” she said in one sorry breath. “I’m not sure though, the amount of brunettes in this city is alarming.”

“She can’t do that to me, Maddy’s not like that. We’ve been friends for 14 years and she wouldn’t even consider that.”

“That’s what you think, Baby-bell.” Baby-bell. The term of endearment Erica adored, and cherished. “But I think cutting Kian and Maddy off is the right path in order for you to be happy,” she smoothed out Erica’s dwindling, skin-coloured scars that multiplied on her arms. “This isn’t right, Erica. No person should be responsible for you causing harm to yourself. At the end of the day, they should be framing your scars than creating them.”

Erica nodded, knowing what her course of action was. The next day, she woke up early, early enough that the birds tweeted a sweet polyphony as if cheering her on. She consciously chose a dress that showed off her body, an attractive woman should make use of her resources. She strolled to the cafe, and there was Chris, bright as day in his element. He had served a charming couple of croissants and coffee, and he himself was yearning for something like that. 

The few seconds Erica emerged in the cafe was like Chris’s version of making eye to eye with heaven. He had never stumbled across a girl so much like Erica, and he knew he had to do something to pursue her, and get her out of a cycle that would otherwise continue without proper involvement. He witnessed the shuffle Erica would take if her partner ever raised his voice, and recognised her facial expressions. 

“Where’s your..boyfriend?” He tried to ensure the pervasive guilt in his voice wasn’t detectable. He twisted his hands, nerve spiking his body. 

“He’s gone out. But I got something to ask you,” Erica’s voice settled into a mellow rhythm. It was almost as if she was whispering, loud enough for both of them to hear however. “I need to catch him in the act. I’m going to invite them both here, and you keep an eye on how they react. And whilst you’re at it, my usual.”

“Right at it,” Chris said with a smile. “I’ll call out your order when it’s ready.”

Erica nodded, and slid away to a remote part of the cafe right by the corner, where the toilets aligned beside her. She pulled up her laptop where it all began, and called Kian and Maddy. 

To her initial shock, the two arrived at the scene in the same taxi her mother claimed to see them in, exchanging friendly banter as if Kian didn’t have Erica supposebly at home worrying. He disregarded his own fiance for their friends, and judging from their affectionate smiles it was clear anyone would presume they were single or at least dating. Erica’s heart was dragged to the bottom of her internal systems as if it was a still anchor, yet she retained a studious, careless exterior. She winked at Chris, who was texting the conversations taking place and everything it encompassed. The conversations that the two assumed were not being watched ranged from witty banter to small talk to gym talk to anything in that calibre. Until it wasn’t, and it shifted to the topic of marriage. 

“I can’t believe you’re marrying Erica,” Maddy chuckled lightly, her hands skirting Kian’s palms in an intimate nature. “I mean, she’s okay but she’s become so clueless. She was on the floor bawling about how she was scared of you, but youre so nice I don’t understand. She’ll never have what we have, and I think you know that.”

“I know,” Kian said in a caring voice. “I wish I could still go to the gym with you, I had to cut down because Erica was getting suspicious.”

“I can tell you’ve done enough,” her hand traced her hands on Kian’s body. “I’d love to see you back on the treadmill though.”

A flirtatious giggle excerpted from her throat that could be heard as it stretched across the cafe, and Erica clasped her fist.  With a sinking heart, she resorted to offering Chris the signal she was ready to be revealed. 

“Order for Erica!” he yelled in a command, and with that an eager, dress-flaunting Erica finally confident in her body strutted to the scene. She went to the front counter and Maddy and Kian’s faces were priceless. “Maddy, Kian..lovely surprise seeing you both here!” Erica said, a single vein in her forehead about to burst. “Kian, the wedding’s off.”

“Erica, Erica. Let me order you something, please you need your coffee-” In a haste, he snatched a cup of coffee intended for another customer, and handed it to Erica. 

“Thank you, Kian but I can’t drink it. Even Chris knows of my allergy. And, as for the drink,” she opened the top and splashed it on top of Kian’s head as it dripped to the bottom. “Order 999, please. We need to do damage control, Chris.”