Sunday 4thNovember
Tasha slunk into the cafe on Sunday morning half asleep and short on money. Having finished late the night before, she had been horribly tempted to stay in bed and say screw keeping up with her word count for the day. Her neighbours had decided the issue for her when they had started screaming at each other. With sleep unobtainable and a headache forming, she had slunk off to Crumbs in order to get away before she joined in the screaming in an attempt to get them to shut up.
She was looking forward to tomorrow, when the noisy neighbours were in work too early to actually catch each other long enough to start a row, and her wages came in, however neither of these good points actually helped her now. It would not have been as bad if she had finished work on time, however a couple of extraordinarily drunk losers, a minor brawl and major case of property damage had prevented her from doing so.
Still it could have been worse. She only worked three nights a week and she was not due to return to her place of employment until Tuesday night at the earliest, provided no one went off sick and she did not get called in to cover. As such she had a couple of nights of, hopefully, uninterrupted sleep ahead of her. Today, however, she needed to write another one thousand, six hundred and sixty seven words before she could go and get a nap.
Pausing at the counter as she remembered the girl with the laptop’s gift from the day before, she quickly glanced around the cafe and noticed that her friend was there, along with a couple of others who had not been there during the week, but there were not as many laptops on tables as there had been the previous day.
“Two cakes, a hot chocolate and...” She gave Morgan a sheepish look, “What’s she drinking?” She asked, subtly gesturing to the girl who had bought her a hot chocolate the day before.
“And one black coffee, no sugar.” Morgan nodded, having made a note of the preferences of most of those who seemed to be living in her cafe in order to make sure that she had enough of everything in stock.
“How much is that?” Tasha requested, grimacing as she opened her purse and looked at her cash status. Payday was tomorrow and as such the well of funds was running a little dry.
“Seven pounds sixty,” Morgan rattled off, becoming amused when Tasha had to chase pennies around her purse to stump up the cash. “Bad day?”
“Sleepy, payday tomorrow. Bad combination.” Tasha grunted back, causing a couple of the other ladies behind the counter to chuckle.
“Let me give you a hand.” Morgan smiled at her as Tasha tried to balance two drinks and two plates of cakes and nearly lost all of it. “Stopping off at your friend’s table first?”
“Please and thank you.” Tasha nodded, heading across the cafe with the coffee for the girl in question.
She happened to be paused in her efforts to complete the same task that Tasha was trying to finish when they reached her table and she smiled brightly at them. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Tasha waved, taking in the girl’s black hair, green eyes and Asian features, “I’m Tasha. Have a coffee.” She then placed the aforementioned coffee on the girl’s table.
“Reika.” The girl chuckled back, amused by Tasha’s bluntness. “Thank you.”
Tasha nodded back and then moved across the cafe and collapsed at her table, head meeting table before Morgan reached her.
“You alright?” Morgan could not help but ask, amused and concerned in the same instant.
“Finished work at half six this morning.” Tasha grumbled as she sat up properly and glowered at her laptop, which she could swear was slower than ever this morning. “Then got chased out the house by my blasted neighbours and their latest rendition of ‘dying cats’.”
“Lovely.” Morgan scowled, ill amused by just the thought. “Well I wouldn’t recommend you go to sleep here, but if you need somewhere to at least relax, then here’s a good place.”
“Thanks.” Tasha nodded, taking her sugary death cakes from the woman, “And thanks for the assist.”
Morgan waved it off and headed back behind the sturdy wooden topped counter, leaving Tasha to come around a bit and get something done. Neither of the cakes, cream filled, sugar sprinkled monstrosities that could have caused tooth decay just by being looked at, lasted long past her laptop’s initial log in page but the hot chocolate was cold by the time she finished it because her annoying neighbours had given Tasha plenty of fuel for the obnoxious and loud members of the royal kitchen that were eternally causing grief for her lead female. In fact considering how sleepy she was she managed to churn out a surprisingly large amount of words before someone slumped into the chair opposite her, disturbing her privacy and shocking her out of her marathon of writing.
“Sorry.” Reika looked apologetic as she opened up her laptop and dumped her shoulder bag on the floor beside the table. “But...” She gestured to her table which had been invaded by women with young children.
“Oh lovely.” Tasha complained, wincing as one of the babies in the group started crying.
“I know, right?” Reika grimaced as she sat down, glaring at the table full of young mothers and their less than well behaved little monsters as she did so, “Children that age should stay out of nice quiet cafes. It’s like taking babies into cinemas, why would you do that?”
“Because they can.” Tasha shrugged. “Either that or they just don’t care about anyone else in the cinema and think they have the right to watch whatever they like even with young children with them.”
“You don’t mind do you?” Reika looked worried at her brusqueness. The question caused Tasha to notice her accent. It wasn’t very strong, but it was not really an English one.
“No, no.” Tasha waved it off, “I’m just tired. I’ll be better company another day, today not so much.” She could not help but add, “Are you from around here?”
Reika smirked self deprecatingly, “No, I’m from London. Not that anyone can tell, bloody accent. I mean learning two languages as you grow up is good and all, but I keep getting people being rude because I sound foreign.”
“I think you have a very nice voice. It sounds lovely. I didn’t just say that.” Tasha desperately tried to bury herself in her writing, ignoring the highly amused chuckling of her companion, missing the fact that Reika had started blushing at the compliment and managed to tap out another three hundred words before she finally got severely annoyed by the still wailing child and spat out something unsavoury.
“Don’t kill it.” Reika advised, “You’ll never get your novel finished if you’re in prison.”
Tasha let out an amused snort, “I don’t know, I’d have plenty of time to write. No job, no neighbours.”
“No Crumbs either.” Reika pointed out, still torn between amusement at the sleepy young woman before and irritation at the kid that just would not shut up.
“True. I like Crumbs.” Tasha sighed, noting the fact that there was a steadily increasing circle of empty tables around the group of young mothers and that the counter staff looked just as frustrated as the customers did.
“Even when it’s loud?” Reika teased.
“Even when it’s loud.” Tasha nodded solemnly, causing her companion to laugh. Feeling like she had won a victory though not able to work out why, she turned her attention back to her laptop and was pleased when Reika did the same. Both became absorbed in their work right up until close to closing time, at which Tasha’s stomach rumbled and Reika’s mobile phone went off.
“Hello?” Reika asked as she picked up the call and Tasha started packing away. “Yes, oh? No, no it’s fine. Okay I’ll eat out. No, no don’t worry, I understand, see you later, bye.”
“Everything alright?” Tasha could not help but ask, noting that her companion’s calm had completely disappeared.
“Yeah, fine.” Reika sounded frustrated, glowering at her phone like she hoped the device would explode into about a million pieces, “Mum’s just working late again which means its ready meals or take away for dinner...” Tasha blinked at Reika as she paused, trailing off and staring at her. “Come for a meal?”
Tasha stared at her in confusion, “Wha...?”
“Sorry.” Reika looked embarrassed, “We haven’t long moved here and I don’t know anyone so...”
“No, no, it’s fine.” Tasha waved it off, feeling sheepish for making her embarrassed. “I just don’t have any money to eat out until tomorrow.”
“It’s okay, I’ll pay.” Reika offered hopefully, “Anywhere you fancy?”
“No, no.” Tasha shook her head, thinking quickly and half wondering if she was being asked out on a date, “I haven’t thought of anywhere, I mean there’s a nice Italian place about five minutes from here, but bar that I don’t tend to eat out that often.”
“If we find a nice place we might be able to get some more writing done.” Reika offered, noting Tasha’s sudden hesitation and thinking it was because she had changed her mind.
“Sounds good to me.” Tasha nodded, trying to ignore the amusement of the ladies behind the counter as she scooped up everything of hers he could see and headed for the door. “I take it you need me to lead the way.”
“If you would.” Reika nodded, gesturing for Tasha to precede her.
“In that case,” Tasha stepped through the door and paused as the chilly and slightly frosty night air hit her, pulling up her hood on her university hoodie, “It’s this way and be warned, we are highly likely to get lost.”
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