Over a cuppa Cappuccino

The cool draft of the air conditioner was a welcome relief as he stepped off the street into the crowded café. The sun was out and the street was quite empty as weary shoppers sought refuge in the numerous waterholes dotting the city’s prime shopping area. It was late in the afternoon and he glanced at his watch as he made his way in, weaving through scores of people trying to find a table. The place had changed a lot!
He observed that the years had added more tables and even more people. The décor was different, more modern and chic – landscapes and water colors had made way for modern art, an electric guitar with broken strings hung on a wall, the music was different and the air - alien. Gone was the laid back café where one could sit at a table and spend hours.
The place was bustling and everyone looked so young.
He almost turned around to leave when he spotted a young couple get up from a far table. He gratefully swooped down on it and pulled the chair around to face the street – it used to be one of his favorite spots! One could sit for hours at those tables looking out onto the street through the huge glass wall, sipping coffee and watching the world whiz by. A waitress appeared by the side immediately with a menu. He was surprised – the place sure had changed. When he used to frequent the café a long time ago, one was allowed to settle down, relax, chat and when you really felt like ordering your cuppa, you had to look up or signal or yell across to get someone over to take the order.
He sifted through the menu – new flavors, new food, new drinks – he hardly had heard of any of them. ‘What the hell!’ he thought, ‘When have I ordered something different!’ and looked up at the waitress – ‘One cup of cappuccino, please.”

As the waitress disappeared with the menu he settled back and looked around. The place had so many memories - a smile creased his face as he remembered his very first time here – it had been with her! They had sat a table just across from where he was sitting now – it had been a sunny day as well. They’d spent hours, blissfully unaware that neither had enough money to pay the bill!
Those were times when students carried no credit cards or flashy cell phones - a movie and a trip to a café pretty much blanked most of the month’s allowance. His smile grew wider as he remembered the waitress handing over the bill to him. He’d brought out his wallet in a flash but the waitress quietly stepped away as his face grew pale – accounting had never been his forte. Since it had been a date, he had bought balcony tickets for the movie as opposed to the twenty-five rupee Front Stall tickets. And the burgers had had to be accompanied with separate sets of fries and Pepsi.
Things usually got better when couples fell in love – then they could share the food and drink. First date and a single order of any food or drink would sink any hopes of romantic interludes with the girl and soon her girl-friends would get wind of this and before he knew it – he’d be branded ‘Cheap’ and no good looking girl in the vicinity would ever date him again!
‘Water is more healthy’ is never an acceptable answer to ‘How come not having Pepsi?’
Neither is ‘Fries are oily!’ a quip to ‘Why no Fries?’
Burdened with such pressures a guy would end up buying separate orders of everything on first dates - whether he is in the mood of having it or not!
To add to his misery on that particular day, he’d forgotten the big sized popcorn he’d bought for the movie and her spur of the moment desire to have cotton candy and icecream!
And all through their lengthy tee-a-tee at the café, he had been wholly drowned in her brown eyes, dusky skin and gentle voice to keep track of the cups of coffee or the brownie and chocolate fudge!
The damage in the end – was complete. He leafed through the notes in his wallet and then again and again, all the time trying to maintain the smile and composure. She observed something amiss and started peeking at him from behind the coffee-table magazine she’d picked up once his face had started paling! Soon he had to press the panic button and started rummaging through his pockets – but by then he knew the writing was on the wall – no guy ever carries extra money in other pockets!
She slowly put down the magazine looking at him with her eye brows arched.
‘Err…there is a slight problem’ and the next words must have taken him an hour ‘I am…I
think…I am short of cash!’
‘By how much?’ her eye brows were still arched and her face gave nothing away.
‘By…err…um…forty five rupees’ and every word was driving a nail into his coffin. He knew he was finished - the worst nightmare coming true. And the most tragic part of it was the fact that he’d really liked her, time had flown by in her company. She was witty, funny, bubbly and boy - was she beautiful…and now he had blown it all!
She slowly drew her arms up on the table and rested her chin on them, ‘So you’re short?’
Her eye brows were still arched but then, she suddenly broke into a giggle and patted his arm and drew out her purse. He just sat there mumbling incoherent words of sorry while she pulled out a note of twenty and then a ten and then it was her turn to turn pale! She continued to rummage without any more greens coming out but for some coins. She turned her purse upside down and out came the lipstick, the mirror, the hand kerchief and a myriad of other articles that he had never seen before in his life, but there was no more cash! She started checking her pockets and he started praying. And just when he was about to get up to talk to the cashier, she pulled out a twenty from the pocket of her jeans!
‘Voila!’ she waved the note with a huge smile and he slumped back in his chair.
The waitress returned to collect the check after allowing the teens to exchange a ton of ‘Sorry’s and ‘Its okay’s.
‘That was a close call’ she giggled as she packed her purse again.
‘I’m feeling so embarrassed! Am so so sorry!’
‘Hey its ok’ she chirped ‘I had a wonderful time! We should do this again!’

‘Really?’ his heart started to thump and hopes of not having to stay single for like the next decade started oozing!
‘How about next Saturday? But this time with the money!’
He could only nod – Yes, as words seemed to abandon him!
‘And though the balcony tickets are really flattering, Back Stall will do just fine! And you really don’t have to buy an extra order of fries if you don’t like to eat them!’
They had burst out laughing!

‘Sir…Excuse me Sir, here’s your coffee’ the waitress broke his reverie as she placed a hot cup of cappuccino on the table. The cream swirled in the middle in the shape of the heart and the aroma of fresh coffee rose up. He gently stirred his cuppa adding sugar and as he took his first sip, he couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that the taste was the still the same.
He sipped again and his smile returned as he remembered his birthday celebration at the café – it had been a surprise. He’d been hoping she would come out for a date on that day but she’d excused herself with the pretext of running chores for an aunt who’d come into town. He made plans to watch a movie with the rest of his gang, and all but one bailed out at the last minute and when he had arrived at the theatre, his friend stood there pointing to the ‘House Full’ board. Feeling miserable at the turn of events, he’d thought of heading back home but his buddy convinced him into a trip to the café. Soon as they’d stepped in, a ‘Happy Birthday to You’ song rang out and at a big table in the corner stood the whole of his gang, but his eyes rested on the one in center – there She was with a big smile and a twinkle in her eyes. She had baked the cake on her own and made the whole arrangements. They’d had a wonderful time – one of the best birthdays he’d had.

He pushed back in his seat and set his cup down, still lost in thoughts - There were so many memories at the café and he was amazed how little he came to this place now. This was where they’d had their first fight as well. A silly argument that began with him taunting her about a guy who’d been interested in her for a long time. In fact it was She who’d started it – teasing him with a new junior girl who seemed smitten by him. And he had returned the volley only to realize – a little too late – that things didn’t quite work like a tennis match! Girls believe they have a license to tease, prod and push around their boyfriend and slightest retaliation can result in a wide range of reactions – varying from their face clouding over as if a couple of storm clouds had settled overhead to anger boiling over and them stomping away from the place. The worst is when their voice chokes and then a tear appears at the corner of their eyes and once that started – there would be no stopping! On that particular day – it began as a storm in the tea cup and then he said something stupid – Boys always do that, they don’t mean to but by some abysmal turn of fate or poor vocabulary or even an improper tone of delivery it ends up as ‘their’ mistake. His little ‘mistake’ resulted in a two week long vendetta – one which even a bunch of roses, a box of Ferraro Rocher or a Hallmark card couldn’t resolve. Eventually he’d managed to make up with her or maybe it was just the fact that She got bored with an empty hour she was left with every day – the time they spent on the phone!

He sipped his coffee slowly, savoring its taste and the flood of nostalgia that it was bringing along with it - That evening when he’d dedicated a song to her and they’d held hands humming together as it played from the juke box. The time they’d got drenched in rain and sat shivering as they waited for their coffee. Those gang meet-ups where she’d sit across from him shooting coy glances or winks and nudging him with her foot below the table. The day he’d announced he was leaving the country for a year and the mixture of joy and pain it had filled her face with – the fact he’d got a great opportunity coupled with the fact that he’d be away for so long. The times they sat with their buddies mending each others’ love lives. The time when their relationship was on the rocks and they’d sat there staring at each other, silent and broken. The evening when they’d thought it was all over…they’d never managed to rise from their seats – they couldn’t believe it was their last date. Only they’d returned back to the same table three days later. There were so many moments in there, she’d sit there making faces at him or giggling endlessly or simply talking – time would fleet by and he would sit there watching her, her brown eyes dance and twinkle as they caught the sun, her soft hair falling gently over her shoulders and his when she’d snuggle up against him, her soft hands and the way she’d hold his,
clenching tightly in hers – to let him know she’d never let go.

He took his last sip and laid the cup down, staring wistfully at the empty seat in front of him now. And it suddenly dawned on him – it was the first time he’d been in the café without her! He quickly turned away looking through the glass wall and his eyes saw the bustling street but his mind was somewhere else.
‘Sir…excuse me!’ He was rudely interrupted and he jerked his head around to see the waitress standing there. It must have hardly been a moment since he’d laid his cup down.
‘Anything else Sir…or is that all?’
And soon as he nodded a ‘No’, she produced the bill and conjured a plastic smile that couldn’t have lasted more than a tenth of a second and vanished through the maze of tables and people.

He felt irritated. He was going to leave but just the fact that he’d been given marching orders the moment he’d finished with his coffee made him swell with anger. This certainly was no longer the café he’d been coming to. And then he looked at the empty seat in front of him and wondered what she’d have said to him – probably something nice to soothe him down but she’d most likely have joined him - cursing the waitress. But he could see two-three couples waiting at the door for a table. Times had changed now and he better be moving along to make way for the others. His smile returned and he shook his head as he took out money to pay the bill and even left a decent tip – the café had served him good coffee, not to mention – all those memories!

As he walked up to the door bracing himself for the sun outside, his cell phone beeped. A text message was flashing – ‘Hey hubby dear! So so sry. Got late at mtg. Where r u? Am across the street frm our Café!’
He stepped out and there she was – frantically looking around for him as hordes of shoppers bustled around her. As he crossed the street she turned around and her face lit up with a radiant smile.
‘Waiting too long for me?’
‘I’d wait a lifetime for you!’ he smiled and gave her a quick hug.
‘After all these years, you think I still swoon for your romantic one-liners?!’
‘Sweetie – whom are you kidding – you can’t live a day without being pampered!’
They burst out laughing.
Looking around she exclaimed ‘God! This place has changed so much!’
‘Yes honey, we haven’t been here in ages’
She looked up at him – ‘Had a hell of a day so far and am starving. We still have enough time before the kids get back home…so before we shop, why don’t we go up to our old café and grab a bite and some coffee? Or did you just come from there?’
He smiled and looked across the street at the place where he’d just been ejected from a few minutes back.
‘Yup had just been there but was too lonely without you. Let’s go back there and stir up some nostalgia!’
Her soft hair with little streaks of grey fell over his shoulder as they held hands crossing the street…walking up to the café.
- Strider