Radiant: sending out light; shining or glowing brightly
"She was like a lighthouse, radiant, in my never ending sea of pitch black waves"
Harry Styles is a world renowned cardiovascular surgeon who's never been in touch with his own heart.
Althea...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Althea Cooper
It is absolutely freezing. And I mean freezing. It's Monday. 4AM and I'm trying my very best to make sure my fingers don't fall off as I attempt to open the door of the cafe. We're usually open 24 hours but due to the horrific weather we've been having I decided to give myself a break.
I love the winter. There's very few things that are better, except maybe autumn. The cold weather means winter clothes and thousands of layers, my absolute favourite. I mean who doesn't love a fluffy jumper. The crisp air makes the city feel fresh and the dark days are comforting to me in the weirdest sense. Winter makes me safe and brings me comfort in every way.
When I finally get the door open and stumble inside, I throw the shopping bags full of ingredients on the counter to start with the baking for the display. It'll be around an hour before the first round of doctors stumble in like zombies for their caffeine fix so I decide to head into the back to start on today's to-do list.
I walk over to my speaker that's tucked away in the back corner and connect my phone, "Put Your Records On" begins to hum throughout the kitchen. Like everyday, baking cupcakes would be the first thing I'd check off my list. I begin to dance around the kitchen as I gather the ingredients and toss them into the mixing bowl. Now it may seem like I have a lot of energy for this early on a monday morning but what you don't know is the amount of coffee I have already consumed. Is it unhealthy?...Yes. Do I care?...Absolutely not. I practically function entirely on coffee and this point.
"Nice dance moves A!"
"Jesus Christ!" I exclaim, jumping around to be greeted by Hadley and the shit-eating grin plastered on her face. "The least you could do is announce yourself, if you're just going to wander back here. I thought you were a burglar or something."
"What sort of burglar would be complimenting your dancing skills at 5AM on a Monday morning?" Hadley snarks as she circles round the counter and sticks her finger in the leftover icing.
I roll my eyes but can't help the laugh that stumbles from my lips, "That's not the point, I'm just trying to say you scared me."
"I scare you everytime I walk in here A. You'd think you'd be used to it after 3 years."
I hum in response, concentrating on trying to ice the cupcakes in front of me.
"Did you enjoy your weekend off that I practically had to force you to take?"
Okay so I may have lied when I said that I decided to take some time away from the cafe...it was more so forced on me by Hadley who seemed to think I needed some self-care time.
"It was fine. I did a facemask and binge watched Gilmore Girls for 12 hours straight. So I can't really complain."
"You ought to get a life A, I've never heard something so boring!" Hadley laughs as she licks the icing off the wooden spoon.
