Coffee & Cake

Aftab enters the café.  He’s on his break from work, he wants time away from the computer.  He’s sick and tired of it at the moment.  The people, the repetitiveness, the bore, the slowness, the way the day disappears.  He’s sick of it.  He thought sod it, I need to get out for an hour, so he decided to sit in a café with a latte, a piece of carrot cake (he loves carrot cake) and a copy of Nuts.

Aftab enters the café.  As he enters and is about to shut the door behind him he notices a woman walking past.  She’s familiar, he thought.  He’s sure he recognised her.  It was the hair, the way it was sitting.  He walked out the café and walked towards her direction.  He forgot to shut the door behind him.  He’s following her.  He runs in front of her and turns around to have a quick glance.  He can’t believe it, its her.

“Simran?”  She continues walking, trying to ignore him.  Picking pace.  “Simran?” he says again.

“Sorry, who are you?”  she looked worried.

“Simran, its me, Aff, don’t you remember” How can she forget he thought, she can’t forget.

“Aff… Aff, oh my god, is that you, my god you’ve changed”.  He hadn’t changed that much, a slimmer more defined face, shorter hair and better fitted clothes, but his eyes and lips were the same.

“What can I say, work does it to you, but you havent changed a bit”.  She had changed, her arms were sligher heavier, her hips were wider, but her eyes and lips were the same.

“So what are you doing here?”

“I work at CompServe, at Barnaby Street , I needed to get away from the computer for a bit so needed to head out.  I’ve been working here for the last couple of years, what are you doing here anyway, I haven’t seen you around here?”

She quickly glanced up and then looked him in the eye, “Yeah, I was just doing a bit of shopping and was just coming back from meeting with a friend, yeah, that was it, just having a girly day”.

“Oh cool, so how’s life been treating you” he came in closer “its been 10 years since I last saw you”.

“Yeah… I know, I really need to get going though”

“Hang on”, he touched her arm, “do you want to grab a coffee?”  She seemed reluctant, “come on, its been a while, it’d be good to catch up with a familiar face”

“Aff…”

“Just a coffee”

“Alright”

As he led her towards the café, he started to ask if she kept in touch with anyone from university.  Anyone from the old circle of friends.  She kept in touch with a few, he lost touch with a lot.  They went to the counter, he ordered a latte, she got a hot chocolate.  He also ordered two pieces of carrot cake even though she kept saying no.  They looked around for a seat and they found a table for 2 in the far corner next to the window.  The café wasn’t too busy with a few people chatting to each other over some smooth jazz elavator music which was playing in the background.

Simran then started to talk about what she got up since university.  Travelling for a while and then dossing for a while.  Its funny how so much time can pass between two people who used to be so close and still it feels like they last saw each other yesterday, Aftab thought to himself.

Aftab then asked if Simran kept in touch with Naeem.

“…Not so much, hey, listen I gotta get going”.

“No, don’t.  Its been such a long time.  You haven’t eaten your cake… you know I still think about you.”

“Aftab, don’t, its been 10 years now”.

“I know, but still”.

“I seriously need to get going.  I’ll keep an eye out for you”.  Simran quickly got up and walked out of the café.  Aftab didn’t even get enough time to get her email address or mobile number.  Aftab waited till she walked past the window and ran outside and started to follow her from a distance, just far enough for her not to realise his presence.  She stopped to glance around her but Aftab quickly ducked behind a man and slyly hid behind a doorway.  He waited till she went on her way and continued following her.

He followed her for ten minutes till she went into a shop.  As Aftab got closer he realised it was a child care centre and then he saw Simran walk out with a child holding her hand.