Remembering You For Eternity

2.13 Forgotten Memories (2)

Mr. Aditya blamed the free white society that he believed had given the disease to his only son. He also ended up blaming his then-wife for not playing the traditional role of a stay-at-home mother and therefore had failed to bring up Jonathan properly. After all, they were a two-income household where the wife also had to work. Mrs. Aditya – now Mrs. Randy – also finally gave up on Jonathan – John – after trying to engage several priests to rid him of his abnormal sexual orientation. After she got divorced, she re-married and had another child. Mr. Aditya went back to Indonesia and also re-married. Soon, he too, had another child.

Only in the span of a few years since he came out of the closet, Jonathan was forgotten just like that.

When Mia first knew John, he was a recluse and afraid of human relationships. Back then, he was a part-timer at their university's cafeteria to support his living expenses as he had been disowned by his own family.

Mia Simmons could be considered a social butterfly. She was not short of friends, and she was quite popular amongst her peers.

Initially, she did not look twice at the new kid working at the cafeteria; until she tasted the coffee he made. Back then, the coffee beans used were much less superior – after all, it was just a university's canteen – but the coffee that he made was unforgettable. For Mia Simmons - a person that had to stay focused throughout the long-lecturing days by the various professors at the university, as well as for the caffeine boost that her brain needed to finish her final year's dissertation – Jonathan Aditya was a God-send.

Throughout various sources – including the janitor and the cafeteria's auntie – Mia Simmons found out about John's family background.

It was definitely not just to have him as her personal barista – or so she had convinced herself – that she finally befriended him and coaxed him to live together with her and her flatmates, in a two-bedroom flat downtown. She had always occupied the smaller room by herself, but she ended up buying a bunk-bed for Jonathan as well. Because one of her flatmates was a bisexual, John slowly warmed up to the three people in the flat. In between coffee shots and nights of getting drunk – especially after Mia successfully graduated from university with honour – they constantly assured John that there was nothing wrong with him.

He did not have any disease, nor was he disgusting.

Upon Mia and her friends' persuasion, John entered a few local barista competitions, then a few out-of-town competitions, snatched a few prizes over the next few years, and finally gained enough caffeine-loving fans and sponsors to enable him to open [Café Good].

John had come a long way since then.

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Mia also injected some of her money to help John to develop his café.

Thus, John granted free coffee for life, for the business-savvy and caffeine-loving woman.

"He kept wanting to pay for your coffee, darling." John flashed another grin while pushing his spectacle up his nose,

"I did not have the heart to tell him that I never charge you for your coffee. So, I'll just consider his loyal patronage as additional tip for me. After all, I have to play cupid for the both of you, you know. John's wingman service does not come for free."

"Hn." She snorted lightly, "And sure, it's not just that you are interested in his friend?"

"Ahahaha~!!" John laughed and waved his hand to shoo her away, now preparing to brew a new order for the customer that had been lining up behind Mia,

"What can I say? I have never seen someone else looking good in glasses. Apart from me, of course."

Then John's eyes brightened as he squinted his eyes, looking behind Mia's shoulders,