Of Mochas and Macchiatos

Part 20

Gareth stares at me, a quizzical expression etched across his features.

"Oh! Sorry!" I declare as a blush fills my cheeks. Oh, I probably sounded so obnoxious, just flouting my biology knowledge over him. God, I am such a bad friend.

"No! Don't be sorry! Woah, I wish I was smart enough to understand that!" Gareth twines his hand through my hair again before slinging his arm over my shoulder. "I won't ever look at your hair the Same again." He says, grinning. Then he shouts out, abruptly. "Archer! So you're dating a scientist, huh?"

I look up to see that Rafe has put his phone away and has been watching us, listening to us, bemusedly. Oh, he probably heard the whole thing too.

"Apparently! Atta girl." And a smile fills me.

We're nearly at the café now. I stumble on the ice a little and Gareth catches me. "I'm not actually a scientist." Rafe has slowed down and now he's closer to us. "I wish I was, though. Imagine!" I sigh a little and my breath escapes into the air and drifts away in the weak morning sunshine. Rafe throws me a strange look and opens the door of the café and we are welcomed into the warm, espresso scented coffee shop.

*

"Chica! Moving out soon?" Maria greets me, her sing-song voice so loud, too loud. Oh. That was meant to be a secret for a while longer. I whip my head around, hoping that maybe the boys haven't heard. Maria misinterprets. "Oh, don't worry, Evangelita! Three Sugars hasn't been back; I've made sure of it!" Rafe and Gareth stare at me, expectantly. Her voice is so, so loud. Why must it be so loud?

"Oh, uh, my landlady told me my place will be okay in a few weeks, apparently. I just found out today." I say, trying to be causal. They exchange a glance and I feel like I can hear the words of an unspoken conversation between them. You didn't know? No! Why not? And then Rafe stares at me, appraisingly, as if he knows that I intentionally avoided telling him.

As Maria bustles off with our order, he quietly speaks. "You didn't tell me." There is no hint of accusation. Just a flat statement.

"I just found out this morning. Honest." That part is true. "I meant to message my parents but I inadvertently sent the message to Maria instead." Dishonest. It also still doesn't change the fact that I didn't tell him.

Gareth speaks up. "Three sugars is gone? What the hell does that mean?" Maria catches the worried glance I throw her when my back is towards the boys.

"Oh Chico," she stumbles over her words as her eyes alight in Gareth, who takes ohh his cut little hat brushes a hand through his hair in confusion, tousling his honey blond strands, "we, um, made a mistake with Evangelita's order once. Uh. Raw sugar, white sugar and aspartame. They're all sugars. Three sugars! She nearly threw up. But never again. All gone now!" She dusts her hands together as if she can literally feel sugar stuck to them and then makes a shooing motion. Good cover, Maria!

I resist the urge to declare that aspartame isn't actually sugar. Sugar is a saccharide. Aspartame is not. It's actually a methyl ester made up of the amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and is an artificial sweetener that has about 200 times more 'sweetness' than table sugar. And yet, it has a similar energy content to table sugar, which makes it very appealing to people who want to reduce their energy intake as they can ingest fewer kilojoules with the Same amount of sweetness. It's too sweet, really, sweeter than three sugars combined. And it isn't actually a sugar.

Nevertheless, I am grateful to Maria for covering up for me. It's doubtful that Rafe or Gareth know about the chemical structure of aspartame. However, there is no doubt that Maria will interrogate me as to why I haven't yet told Rafe.