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
November 6th, 2021
The cafe is deadly quiet. Not a soul has walked in or out of the doors in over an hour. Granted it is 5 AM and the shift change was around three so it's to be expected but still, something just seems off.
Due to the quietness, I'm bored and that apparently means that I've decided to clean the entire cafe and re-organise all the shelves in the store room as well as all of the shelves under the countertop. Just as I'm finishing up on the final shelf the bell on the door chimes alerting me of a customer.
I jump up from under the counter a little eager to finally have a customer tonight only to realise that no one was heading towards the countertop to place an order. Confused, my eyes begin to glance around the small room in hopes to spot the cause of the bell chime.
Someone must have walked in here so why can't I see them? My mind starts to move a mile a minute, my body already on edge. Goosebumps litter my skin as my eyes flick rapidly around the room now in any hopes of seeing someone. Just as the panic really settles in I notice a dark figure sitting in the very back corner.
I move around, squinting my eyes in hopes to work out who has made their way in here and not even ordered anything when I notice the dark curls on their head. The doctor who never smiles. He's sitting in the very back corner with his head in his hands.
My heartbeat immediately begins to steady as I realise I'm not in danger. That is until I see the state that he is truly in. Even in his slumped over state it's clear how exhausted and emotionally drained the man in front of me is. His entire body language depicts that of a truly broken soul.
Well shit.
What am I supposed to do now? Approach him? Ask if he's ok? Or maybe he just needs some quiet and wants to be left alone? Shit.
My mind is spiralling once again and I have to tell myself that if he wanted to be disturbed right now or wanted to talk he would have come up to the counter to order something as usual. I should just leave him be and keep a close eye on him now and again just to check that he's still alive.
I continue working on the shelves and soon enough twenty minutes have passed and still the doctor hasn't moved from his position in the back of the cafe. I lift my head up to glance over the countertop in his direction once again, hoping to see his head no longer in his hands. How wrong I was.
Not only is he still slumped over his knees with his hands tightly gripping onto his hair but even from this distance, it's clear that his shoulders are shaking from the movement of heavy sobs.
Concern is the only thing passing through my mind at this moment and I know that I had previously resolved not to get involved because he clearly didn't want to talk but seeing someone in so much pain is hurting me too.
