Life, Love & A Little Coffee

Chapter One- Peppermint Mocha

No amount of coffee in the world could perk up Ada that night. There was a single customer in the shop at the moment, and she'd already accomplished every single task on her list and then some. Ada's eyes remained on the clock above the door that may very well have been moving backwards. She dropped her chin to her hand as she slouched against the counter, willing time to speed the hell up.

Work normally didn't bother her. The shop had enough hustle and bustle to make time fly by. And with the shop belonging to her godmother, they treated her well. Tonight, however, the towns surrounding Ridgewood all seemed to have events going on, stealing away the attention of most of her customers and leaving Ada bored to tears.

At this point, she'd be happy if Britt and her friends showed up. And she couldn't stand most of Britt's friends, so that was saying something.

The only customer at the moment was 'Creeper', the one customer she would have been a-okay with not being there. He was a forty-year-old man child who she guessed still lived with his mom. Ada still hadn't figured out if he was a Boo Radley or a Norman Bates. Any time he came in, he spent the entire time staring at Ada. Because of this, everyone who worked there referred to him as 'Creeper'.

Although Ada didn't fear being alone with him, she wasn't a fan of it either.

When the bell chimed behind her, Ada swooped around to see Mr. Bennet, her favorite teacher and unreformed coffee addict, walk through the door.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. "Welcome to Crystal's Coffee Shop," she sang out to him with as much energy as she could muster.

Crystal recommended they say the greeting to each customer who walked in. They did it far less with regulars, as it seemed less personal. With Mr. B, it was just amusing.

"Thank you. I feel welcome," he replied as he always did, flashing her a smile as he spoke. Mr. B rubbed at his sandy brown beard, which had the slightest tint of red to it compared to the rest of his hair.

Ada's curiosity about the beard had long since faded. He'd been clean cut throughout all of her high school career until about two months ago.

He always sat at one of two places. The back booth he used for grading papers or avoiding people. The front corner table he used for people watching when he grew bored. Mr. B became flustered when his spots had other customers at them. He'd go from chair to chair at whatever table was available, trying to find the right one, then pick it up to find the correct angle to face before settling down.

Though he had no papers with him to grade and both spots were available, he walked toward his back booth anyhow. Ada guessed it was to avoid 'Creeper', who was sitting too close to his other table.

"Would the gentleman care for his usual?" Ada called out in his direction.

"Yes, he would. Throw in an extra shot of espresso for me, would ya?"

With any other customer she'd say, 'of course' with her chipper, upbeat voice, but Mr. B consumed more caffeine in a day than her entire family and they'd known each other long enough to where she felt he would not take offense to her single word reply. "No."

He let out a soft chuckle as he sat, used to being turned down more often than not. "All right then."

She pushed herself from the counter and made his usual, a tall peppermint mocha, and moved to the acoustic music playing from the speakers above.

After Ada topped his drink with whipped cream, chocolate syrup and chocolate peppermint shavings, she took it to his corner booth in the back and set it in front of him before she sunk into the seat beside him and let out a yawn. "I'm bored."