Define: BITTERSWEET (Define #1) ✓

Bittersweet: One

"Just between us
Did the love affair maim you too?"
- "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version)," Taylor Swift

~*~

I sipped through the last drip of my coffee. The bitterness of it seeping inside of my tongue down to my throat. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins as I started to be more wide awake than I was before I arrived at the café. I really regret not sleeping enough the night before, now I had to consume coffee just to keep myself alert. I had to finish reports when I get home. This would certainly mess up my sleep schedule but at this point who cares anymore?

"Enjoyed the coffee, Miss Iris?" asked the café staff who passed by me. She looked at me with a warm smile, the same one almost everyone in this café would give me. I was one of their few regular customers here so they already knew me.

"Excellent as always," I praised, matching her smile. "You guys make the best coffee around here. You deserve a raise you know?"

She chuckled, gripping the empty black tray she's been holding against her creamy white uniform, "That's really kind of you to say, ma'am."

"No, really I wasn't trying to be nice, you know," I argued as I reached for my bag. I stood up and walked beside her towards the cashier to pay for my coffee. I listened as the café staff narrated how some of the customers here would criticize their coffee and would only come back to the café just to criticize it more. It's awful, I thought. I never knew human beings like this would still exist especially in the 21st Century.

When we reached the cashier, she bid me goodbye as she had to tend to the other customers. I waited for the cashier, who's also my friend, to show up since he's not around. He's probably helping out the others. Maybe this was one of those days that they were understaffed.

I waited patiently. My ears searched for some sort of music from the café just to listen to for a while. There was a faint female voice coming out of the speakers. Her slight raspy voice triggered something inside of me, though I should've seen it coming. Despite it being faint, I knew what she was singing. Heartbreak. That's what most songs were made out of, if not love. It could hit easily to everyone because the feeling of sadness is the one that could last for a long time rather than joy.

I listened as the singer began singing the climax of the song. I even knew who was singing. She was my favorite, she still is. She knew how to turn my ineffability into words not just for me but also for her many, many listeners who also turn to her for comfort. At this, my lips turned upwards despite having my heart feel wretched secretly. The bitterness of the coffee was nothing compared to the bitterness of the heart.

"They say if we had been closer in age maybe it would've been fine," Taylor Swift sang on the speakers. "And that made me want to die."

"Iris, hey!" I snapped out of my trance as my friend appeared in front of me with that cheeky grin of his and his voice booming throughout the whole café. It caused a lot of heads turning towards us. I didn't feel a tinge of awkwardness as I knew it was coming anyway.

"Hello, Tristan," I gently greeted him with a smile. I reached out to my pockets and grabbed my payment.

"So," he started while calculating the total amount of what I ordered. "How's our favorite coffee addict?"

I rolled my eyes playfully at him and chuckled, "Still addicted to coffee."

"That could ruin your circadian rhythm, you know," he stated as I handed my payment to him. "You should really lessen your caffeine intake."

"I already did," I answered, taking out my extra money on the pocket and dumped it on the tip jar next to him. "If I was too immersed with coffee, I would've been here everyday."