Chai Latte with Cocoa Foam

“Chai latte?” Lewis asked when I walked in. 

I had my typewriter on me. It was heavy since I had no upper body strength but necessary. I went straight to set the typewriter down on a table near the window. When I finally set it down, I looked at my weekend best friend and smiled. 

“Sure,” I said. 

“If you’re interested in trying something new…” he started. 

“I’m listening,” I replied. 

“We have pumpkin spice cream cold brew.” 

I pursed my lips. “Today doesn’t feel like a good caffeine day.”

“I can top off your latte with the pumpkin spice cream? We also have a dark cocoa foam.”

I smiled. “I’ll try the cocoa. If the inspiration strikes, then I’ll be around to try the pumpkin.” 

“You got it!” 

I came to Early Joe's Coffee every Saturday. I had a tab I paid at the end of the month to which I added around 25% in tips. I had my day job, copywriting for an expanding vegetarian chain, Hold the Egg and Bacon. But weekends were usually mine. I was working on a new novel right now; I had a publishing contract to get my next book out: a sequel to my New York Times Bestseller, How The Cookie Crumbles. I was lucky; I knew this world was not very forgiving of authors that let too much time pass between books. The world had a short attention span and I had to take advantage of my 15 minutes. After all, I was lucky to even be publishing with the Penguin. 

So while I wrote in evenings during the week, a heft of it was done in this coffee house on Saturdays. For the most part, no one seemed to mind. The typewriter was loud, but people tended to be in and out, taking their drink to go. If it did bother anyone who stayed for any period of time, no one ever said anything to me about it. 

Lewis had seen me here so often, he knew the things I liked to drink. He was quite nice and always so helpful. Perhaps it was because I was likely one of the few people his age that came here, especially so early in the morning on Saturdays. I was usually the only person here for about three hours. Just as I would do every Saturday, I set up my typewriter, adjusted the paper and started typing. Lewis would bring me my drink once it was ready. 

How The Cookie Crumbles was a book about Elena, a high school girl working in her family’s bakery. She was dealing with her sexuality and navigating the ins and outs of being a teen in high school. I ended the first book with her breaking up with her boyfriend because she liked a girl in her art class significantly more. 

I started typing. I’d gotten through the introduction of this next book. I needed to get into Elena’s head. Okay. I’m Elena. I’m in love with Sophie in my art class, and I have no idea what this means for me. Also, I just broke up with Daniel. I liked him; he was a nice guy. I rubbed my eyes. I could start in different ways, I could start with her running into Daniel or Sophie. She could not run into either of them. Either way, high school was important to teens and the repercussions of the breakup would be more relevant there. 

Lewis set the drink down in front of me, to the left of my typewriter. I pulled it to me and took a sip, closing my eyes.

“Wow.” My eyes opened wide in reaction to him. 

“Good, huh?” he asked.

“So good.” I smiled and then sighed. 

“Everything okay?” he asked. 

“It’s always hard...at the start.” 

“Oh,” he smiled apologetically. “Well, hey. If you’re entirely lost and want to talk about ideas out loud, I don’t think I can offer much help story wise but I can listen while you figure it out.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

A customer walked in.  

Lewis looked at me and smiled. “Duty calls.” He walked back to the counter to assist the man that walked in. 

I went back to the brainstorming. 

I walked into school, single and alone. As I walked in, I noticed people were looking at me. They probably already knew that Daniel and I had broken up. I was fine with them knowing that we had. I still didn’t know if I was okay with them knowing the reason why. I was still working on that reason myself. 

I wore a skirt today. The last time I wore this skirt, Sophie told me I looked pretty in that shy way of hers. Her wavy hair was usually down, but the day she complimented me, her hair was up in a bun, and she had some loose tendrils around her face. I didn’t know it then, but I should have. I looked away all the time whenever she looked at me. I couldn’t meet her eyes. I felt like my heart would pound against my ribs anytime we spoke.

How did I not see this? 

What does this make me?

A voice interrupted my train of thought. “Excuse me, ma’am, are you using this chair?” a man with a hat said, pointing at the chair across from me.    

I shook my head, annoyed at the interruption. I lifted my cup to take another sip of my drink and nearly spilled some. The café that hardly had anyone in all Saturday, much less Saturday mornings, was packed. 

Lewis was hard at work, focused on trying to get everything done. He usually worked alone most mornings, but in the buzz, the other barista, Annie, was also here. She was working the register while Lewis was putting out drink after drink. Some of them were in to go cups, but the café was packing up with mugs everywhere. He was trying to do as well as he could. 

“Two pumpkin spiced lattes and a pumpkin foam cold brew!” Annie called out. 

Lewis nodded, as if his hands weren’t already busy. I knew they were doing their best but this crowd needed a third person. These new drinks were causing quite the commotion. Cocoas and pumpkin spices… Lewis made great coffee based drinks. This seemed a bit below his skill and talent. 

I made eye contact with him while he set some drinks at the counters, and I smiled at him with sympathy. He gave me a thumbs up, letting me know he was okay. I tried to look down and focus back on what I was working on. 

Daniel approached me down the hall. 

Ugh. No. I pulled out my whiteout and went over my mistake before adjusting the page again.

Daniel was standing on the side of the hall, surrounded by his friends and some girls that I always knew liked him. We made eye contact and his face fell. I looked down quickly and walked away. 

“EXCUSE ME, THIS IS NOT ALMOND MILK!” a woman yelled near the counter. 

I looked up.

Annie was trying to talk to her. “Ma’am, that is cream. I explained that it had dairy when you ordered the drink.”

“I ORDERED A PUMPKIN SPICE COLD BREW! I SAID I WANTED ALMOND MILK AND NOT REGULAR MILK.”

“Ma’am, the pumpkin spice is cream based with regular milk. You said that was fi--”

“Is this fine?!” she threw her drink at Annie, but she managed to get out of the way. 

Unfortunately, Lewis was approaching with two drinks in his hands to give to waiting customers, hot drinks based on the mug choice. The coffee splattered on his face and he dropped the drinks he had, a portion of the drinks falling on him. 

“REMAKE MY DRINK. MAKE IT RIGHT THIS TIME. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AT STARBUCKS,” she yelled at them. 

I saw Lewis’ face. He looked so stressed and defeated.

“Then go to Starbucks,” I replied, standing up. 

“Excuse me, I’m not talking to you,” she said, her words dripping with seething anger.

“Go to Starbucks, then. If you don’t like the way you’re being serviced here, go to Starbucks. Or Dunkin. Or literally any other place. Everyone here can see that they are doing their best. Everyone here is happy with the service. If you have a problem with this, leave.” I walked towards the counter. “Are y’all okay?” I asked Lewis and Annie. 

Lewis was trying to rinse off the hot coffee that had soaked his shirt. He just looked at me with a small smile that didn't meet his eyes. 

“Okay.” I turned around to see some phones pointed at me. “Hello, everyone! Hi! I’m Marcela; I’m a regular here. These guys behind the counter are working really hard to serve you guys the best and the quickest they can. There’s a lot of you here.” I laughed breathlessly. “Given this...lady’s...outburst and the fact that she assaulted our main barista right now by throwing her drink at him, he will need a minute to just get himself together and make sure he doesn’t need medical attention. If giving him a minute will be an issue and you don’t get treated this way at Starbucks, may I, as a customer here, suggest,” I looked at the angry woman, “that you go to Starbucks. I am sorry for this interruption; I know we could have all gone through today without having to hear me talk about this. Thank you.”

She covered her face when she realized that she was being recorded and headed towards the door.

I looked at Lewis and guided him to the restroom in the back. His eyes were full of tears, and I could feel my heart break for him. He was so nice. I didn't want him to feel upset.

“You’re doing a great job,” I whispered to him. 

He nodded. “Thank you.”

“Do you need another shirt? I think I have something in my car you can use.” 

He shook his head. “I have an extra shirt in the back.”

“Okay. Well, take a minute. You’re doing fine. This, what happened to you, was not your fault. If you need anything, I’ll be right outside.”

I patted his back. He nodded and stepped into the restroom. 

I beelined to my typewriter and took a scrap of loose paper. There were about 10 people in the line for now. Annie was trying to remake the drinks Lewis had dropped. 

“Hi! I’ll just help y’all get your order in, so Annie here can get y’all served ASAP.” I got the list of people to tell me what they were wanting to order and whether it was to go or to drink at the location. 

Lewis came back out when I got the list to Annie, who kept the list of drinks between them while Annie checked them out. Then, they got together to make the drinks, and things began to flow smoothly. 

I went back to my typewriter when things were better, starting to write but keeping an eye on Lewis and Annie. Eventually, the people began to leave and the morning and brunch rush began to move away. The words began to flow, and I found myself running through pages and pages of content. 

I looked in the mirror, feeling a bit like myself again. I loved Daniel; I was attracted to Daniel. But my feelings for Sophie were stronger. I was attracted to her in a similar way as I was to Daniel. And I thought back to all of the moments I called women beautiful and I felt a longing for them. It was never vain, never to BE them. I wanted to be liked by them just as I would want from any man. Just as I wanted Daniel to like me before we dated. 

It was clear what I was. It was clear who I was. 

“Bisexual,” I whispered in front of the mirror. I liked the way the word tasted on my tongue. 

I heard the door close, and I turned around to see Sophie, standing there and waiting for me. 

My stomach grumbled, and I realized it was five in the afternoon. My fingers were stiff, and my hands were sore. I cracked my knuckles as I got up from my seat. I gathered my papers and put them in the case with the typewriter. I went to the front counter and placed my credit card on the table. 

“Time to settle my debt,” I said. 

Annie and Lewis looked at each other. “You know, we lost the folder where we were keeping track of how much you owed us,” Annie said with a smile. 

I laughed. It was on average a 60 to 70 dollar tab. “Fine.” I put my credit card back before pulling a hundred dollar bill out of the crook of my wallet. I placed it in the tip jar. 

I turned back and picked up my typewriter before smiling at them. “Great job today, guys.”

I headed out of the door to my car. I heard footsteps behind me when I was trying to get my typewriter into the trunk and turned around quickly. 

Lewis was walking towards me.

“Did I forget something?” I asked as I closed the trunk. 

He walked up to me and lowered his lips to press them against mine.

#

“You’ve gone viral,” my agent, Rebeca, said over the phone. 

“It’s midnight.”

“Check social media. Check Google. Heck! Check the news!”

“Becks, it’s midnight. We can talk about this in the morning, unless you want me to be late on the book. I need my beauty sleep.”

“Fine! I’ll call you in six hours.”

“Make that 10 hours, please. Bye.” I hung up before she could argue.

“What was that?” Lewis asked, eating another slice of pizza.

“Apparently, I’ve gone viral.”

He raised an eyebrow. "From today?"

I nodded.

He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Good. You deserve the attention for being so amazing.”

I laughed. "I don’t know if I’d say that. But it may mean the coffee house may be busy this week." 

“Will you come back to defend me against the treatment of entitled customers?” 

“I will bring my typewriter to drown out the noise.” I smiled. “Alright. This movie isn’t gonna finish itself,” I said before pressing the play button on the paused Netflix original. 

He wrapped an arm around me, and I leaned against him after taking a bite out of another slice of pizza.