She Got Used to Being an Angel
By: Louise Foerster
Tags: Fiction Friday, Coffee, Fiction, Relationships Love Dating, Love

Fiction Friday

She Got Used to Being an Angel

The coffee wasn’t bad either.

Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash

Aerin maneuvered nimbly between the tourists, day trippers, and other slow walkers. No one would keep her from arriving at work on time today.

Her coffee was waiting on the window next to the counter. The morning sun blazed in and the radiator kept the coffee ready for her daily grab and dash.

Aerin slid through the door into the coffeeshop, beating jabbering admins from the 11th floor. The young, sweating man behind the counter swung around and jerked her bag from the shelf.

She saw it coming before he did. The bag was soaked through and ruptured when he picked it up. Her life-essential cups of coffee splattered on the floor.

“I’m so sorry!” The handsome man looked genuinely upset.

“That’s okay. Two large black coffees, please?” Aerin eyed the restive line of customers. She was allowed to cut in front of them since the coffeeshop broke their sacred covenant by serving her coffee to the floor.

“Light and sweet, right?” He pushed dark curls off his forehead, leaned back to call to the coffee server.

“Straight coffee. Just plain, nothing-in-it coffee.” Aerin restrained herself from charging behind the counter to get it herself.

“No,” the man looked perplexed. “They told me. You always buy two large coffees, extra light and extra sweet.”

“That’s what I get. But that’s not what I want.” She didn’t have time to explain why she’d been drinking coffee made wrong. It had been going on for so long she’d kind of developed a taste for it.

“What do you want, Angel Face?” Her coffeeshop nickname sounded ridiculous coming from a young man.

“Two large coffees, just plain black. And my name is Aerin, not Angel Face. Call me Aerin.”

The man scrunched his forehead as if it was hard to process her words.

“But, everyone told me….” Something in her expression silenced him.

“I’m so sorry. I thought…I just wanted to… Please. I need this job.”

Aerin blinked.

“It’s not that big a deal,” she said. “I’ll take whatever you got.”

Apparently relieved, the man wearing the upside down JOE name tag grinned blazing white teeth at her. He filled the two coffee cups himself, shrugged at the other customers, and bagged them after double checking that the lids were securely fastened.

“Thanks. I pay on Fridays,” said Aerin, glancing at the clock. She’d make it if the light was in her favor and she ran and there was an elevator waiting for her.

“My treat, Aerin Not Angel Face,” said the man called JOE. He smiled.

The light was in her favor, the coffee didn’t spill on the dash across the avenue, and the cute new guy held the elevator door open for her.

Her boss smiled when she saw that Aerin was at her desk on time. It was strange being the first two people in the office. There was nothing going on and nothing much to do until the others showed up, but this was how her boss liked it.

Aerin sipped steaming hot coffee made the way she used to like it.

Only she didn’t like it that way any longer.

Now, she wanted her coffee light and sweet. She liked being late if it meant she got more sleep and didn’t lose her job. And she wanted to be called Aerin Not Angel Face again by that handsome man with a kind face.