Red Red Rosie

Chapter Five

"Hey Rosie, the next order is a caramel latte," Hannah calls towards me from the cash register in her usual chipper tone, which I know is completely fake.

"Sure thing," I respond. I then pull and twist the correct levers and knobs in order to make the customer's coffee. The sound of the coffee grinder's crunching and whirring echoes uncomfortably inside my head, and the whooshing of the milk steamer mixes itself within the already deafening noise.

I prefer to be at the coffee machine as the loud unbearable sounds do the perfect job of drowning out the troubling thoughts plaguing my mind. However, they don't deter the clingy shadow that always stays just in sight, at the corner of my eye.

"Then it's a black americano and a soya latte," Hannah calls back. I like Hannah. She keeps herself to herself and isn't one for small talk. Her main focus is to save up enough money to go to university in the city or to travel the world, or anything else that would get her out of this small town. The town I purposely moved to, to escape it all.

"Why would you choose to move to this hell hole?" she asked me during my interview for the barista job.

"I like it here," I answered with a shrug.

"Ugh! Why?"

The way she scrunched up her nose amused me.

"You don't?" I asked, struggling to stop the smile from pulling at my lips.

"No!"

"Oh, why not?"

"There's nothing here! Nothing to do."

"Sure there is!" I said. "You just have to look - you can go for a walk, read a book, day-dream, lose yourself," I finished my list with another shrug and folded my arms, satisfied with my answer.

"Woah... reach for the stars!" she added with a tut. Her abrupt response made me laugh.

I sigh and bring my wandering mind back to the coffee cup that I finish filling with steaming milk, then gently slide the coffee across the counter towards the waiting customer. It is a young man. My guard is immediately put up and as I turn towards him, all I can think about is to not look at his face. Avoiding eye contact with men is something I have to do in order to keep the line moving. I learned that the hard way, after a brawl broke out between a number of customers who refused to move away from the counter until they got my number. Hannah was completely baffled by this. She still brings it up now and again, even though it happened months ago.

"Here you go, a caramel latte," I say, focusing on the man's ear - the things I have to do... Honestly...

"Thank you."

The distant sound of Luke's voice slips its way to the forefront of my mind, mixing into the deep notes of the customer's voice.

"Sure," I answer dismissively both to the man at the counter and inside the memory that I can't help but focus on.

"What's wrong?" I asked Luke, which made him shake off his sudden sadness.

"Nothing."

"No, Luke, what is it?"

He shook his head.

"Are you upset that I didn't say it back?" I asked him, and watched his face fall again.

"No, no, you said that you wouldn't say it until you were completely ready, and I respect that." A gorgeous, kind smile shined from his face.

"Sorry, it's just "love" is a heavy word and I never want to say it without knowing that I mean it one hundred percent. If I just say it, just like that, it would undermine the sentiment and make it just a four letter word."