Silence in the Cafe

“Look at me!!” She screamed. Everyone in the entire place stopped and stared. There was absolute silence for a moment; no sounds of spoons on ceramic, no sipping, and certainly no one spoke. They only gazed at us waiting for my response. I looked up from my book to meet her eyes. They were brilliant flames bursting from black dots, dots which burned through the skin and bone and brain of my head, digging deep.

She lowered her voice, but it was still the only sound being made in the vicinity, “All I want is for you to look at me. Just look at me when I talk to you. Or can’t you even do that?”

There was a pause. I looked back down at my book, embarrassed.

“So you can’t even look at me anymore. If there is only one thing that I want from you, it’s for you to look at me, and you won’t even give me that. You just keep your eyes on your fucking book!”

“Here’s your latte, no spills included,” the waiter laughs. His hair dangles over his face in a disheveled and much planned way. I don’t acknowledge his joke although I know he’s waiting for a response.

“Actually I think… well… never mind. Thank you,” I had been thinking about getting something else for a change but I didn’t want to inconvenience the waiter. After all I had been ordering the same drink for almost three years now, its not like he was the one who had made a mistake.

“Did you want something else?” the waiter trailed off.

“Well… No. No. I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Are you sure?” he raises his voice at the end, pulling my mug back theatrically.

I smile briefly at the waiter, shaking my head, “No thank you.”

He places the mug in front of me, hurrying off towards the back. I stare into the creamy brown liquid peeking out from the foam. The steam rises in my face, clouding my glasses. I raise the scalding liquid to my mouth, taking the smallest of a slurping sip, taking in more air than liquid.

She walks into the café and sits down across from him, smiling into his eyes. Her same dark brown hair is scattered over her shoulders, dispersed by static. She crosses her legs, her foot coming to rest on his calf, her toes moving slowly up and down the material of his pants. In their silence, her touch gathers his entire focus. It is all he can feel for a moment. She continues to hold his gaze, and without speaking a single word, he leans in and kisses her.

As their kiss continues its slow and meditative journey, people start to cough, someone whispers under their breath. The container of sugar packets falls to the ground, propelled by his unconscious elbow.

I was sitting at the bar of the coffee shop, staring at the pictures of French cafes that lined the walls, the owner of the coffee shop shaking hands with various proprietors in their natural settings. She came in and sat down. The first thing I noticed about her was her hair. It was short, curly and a dark, dark brown, which shined, the reflection of the afternoons setting sun gleaming against the waves falling around her face. When she looked up, noticing me noticing her hair, I noticed her eyes… they were a light brown that flashed radiantly, shining out from her faces’ dark persona. I couldn’t look away. She blushed, her eyes returning to her book. I sipped my iced chai tea, staring blankly ahead, and then a moment later, down at my paper.

The young waiter, who had just started a week ago, came out. The afternoon, when classes were let out, were always the busiest and I often watched him struggle to carry out his duties. He had a tray full of steaming drinks, which he had to hoist over his head because it was so crowded. Through his buzzed hair, lines of sweat tentatively streaked his face. When he reached the bar, he fumbled, the tray wobbling back and forth above his head. One drink fell, emptying onto the tray, which then became a shallow pool of heated liquid dropping, from all sides, over the new waiter as he tried to remedy the deteriorating situation.

Only one more drink fell, a covered plastic cup. From where I was sitting I had the perfect view of the whole thing happening. As it fell, its path led directly over the head of the woman sitting next to me, who hadn’t yet turned around. I reached out, grabbing the drink in midair. I was a little overzealous and the cup collapsed in my grasp. Boiling coffee spilled over my hand and wrist, burning them instantly, and all over the ground immediately behind the brown haired woman’s chair. A rush of steam filled the air around us.

She didn’t realize how I had saved her until later, only that my hands had been burned by the coffee. The waiter had issues of his own, although he had steadied his tray, still brimming with steaming liquid. I was hurt, but I was going to be okay. She looked around and finding a lack of anything else that she could do, slowly emptied my iced tea over my hands. The cool liquid, mixed with globs of crushed ice, spread the first sensation of relief I had felt in a while.

She looked into my eyes steadily for the first time. Her blazing brown eyes bordered on yellow where they were the lightest. I was captivated. The cold tea only added to the puddle spreading over the floor. She turned to the waiter, who was watching her make the mess he would soon have to clean up. She addressed the waiter, speaking in the sincerest of voices, “Sorry about the spill.”

All three of us laughed.

She walks into the café, and when she sees me, she smiles briefly, her eyes returning to the ground as she approaches.

“Hello. How are you? How have you been?” She smiles, her eyes searching innocently, considerately. Her hair is long and blond, shining glaringly in the direct light of the sun.

“Umm… yeah it’s been alright. It’s been good. I’ve been keeping myself busy, most of the time at least.”

“Yeah…” She paused, nodding her head to no particular beat.

“Umm, maybe…” I trail off, lost momentarily in my thoughts. I take another sip of my drink, longer this time. The steam heats my face uncomfortably.

He looks at her excitedly, “I just realized I don’t know anything about you anymore.”

“Well,” she laughs a light laugh that floated down to where I’m sitting, “Maybe we can still change that.”

He looks into her eyes, searching for a hint of something besides kindness and understanding. She meets his gaze, and he finds what he was looking for, hidden deep within her blazing eyes. He stands up, putting his arm around her back and pulling her close. For a moment he concentrates on the heat of her body, and then all he can focus on is her velvet lips pressed against his. Lost in the moment, they barely hear someone snickering, a voice telling them to get a room.

She stands over me, “Okay… well maybe I’ll see you later.” She smiles, maybe only at her joke, turns and leaves. I watch her leave, noticing the dark brown roots hidden in the part of her hair appearing black against the surrounding blond. I cursed my wandering mind, squeezing my fists under the table. I open my mouth to call out to her, but she is already out the door. I angrily gulp down the coffee, burning my mouth even before I swallow.

After a moment of contemplation he gets up, quickly and recklessly reaching into his wallet throwing down more money than necessary, not waiting for change. He runs out, bumping someone in the doorway in his hurry. He runs after her, she had almost made it to the end of the block already. When he catches up to her, he grabs her hand, spinning her around dramatically. She opens her mouth to speak but hesitates, and in that moment he bends down and kisses her open mouth, feeling her body melt in his hands. Her arms wrap around his back. A group of high school kids whooped from across the street.

“We are so happy together aren’t we,” She smiled at me. She was softly pummeling my ankles with her toes, swinging her feet back and forth knocking into me.

I nodded, “Well it’s hard not to be.”

I looked up from my book, smiling back. I grabbed both her legs between my own, holding her feet still. Behind her and the lettered glass of the coffee shop windows the same three old men sat around, smoking rolled cigarettes and generally looking down on all of the young people who passed.

“You only have eyes for me, don’t you?”

I tried to smile even more than I already was, “Of course, baby.”

“Forever?”

“Always and forever.”

I bang my hands on the bar, my cup falling from its saucer, rolling back and forth over the bar. No one laughs or whispers, no one stops what they’ve been doing. And when I look around, certainly no one makes eye contact with me. But I flush anyways, lowering my head as I reach into my wallet, find the exact change, and pay. On the way out I hold the door for somebody. I stand in the doorway, hopefully glancing in both directions. Finding the landscape empty, I turn and begin walking down the street.

“Hey kid!” I turn. I was one of the three old men, the one who looked the most homeless.

“Why would you do that? You fuckin bum.” I was taken aback, glints of confusion spiraled through my mind, a mind already wavering in nostalgia.

“Don’t you know how to treat a woman? And a beautiful one at that? Why would you go and make that poor girl cry?”