Ok, so this is something I started writing literally seconds after I watched the season four premiere. There are no spoilers in it, but as I continue to write it there may be. I plan to carry on with this piece to make an entire fic, but as I finished up a paragraph I realized it wouldn’t make the worst story type thing for the blog. It is really long though (14 pages) so I will be posting it in two parts. Do tell me if you like it, hate it, or want it to be continued because if it is liked, I’ll continue to post what I write of it to here! Sorry for this long Author’s note, just thought I’d give a little explanation :)
Enjoy!
Mrs. Holmes xx
Warning: Some curse words, a couple of f-bombs, some insecurity stuff but nothing too damaging.
He was here again.
The man with the black, curly hair and sad eyes.
Sure, you’d seen a lot of curly haired men in your day as a barista and you’d sure as hell seen a lot of sad eyes, but both at the same time? Unprecedented.
You bit your bottom lip as you looked at him where he sat. He was in the corner, the same place as always. You glanced at him, noticing his nice suit jacket and expensive looking shirt. His black trenchcoat, which seemed to be a staple of his, was hanging off the back of his chair. He had his arms resting on the table, hands interlocked as his head was turned sideways, looking out at the picture window. Everything about the scene was the same as yesterday, oddly enough. Except not oddly enough, since you witnessed it all the time from him.
He came here every morning for the past two weeks, ordering the same thing and wearing the same, sad look as he looked outside of the window and onto the crowded streets of London.
The coffee shop was usually crowded, but he seemed unaffected by the throngs of people that would enter the threshold. He was too immersed in his own world, you predicted.
You would always find yourself looking at him, even the first day he came you would find yourself glancing over at the man. He was hard not to look at, a unique face was always difficult to ignore.
He was quite handsome, nice cheekbones and a slender, tall form. You would have focused on that more if it wasn’t for how depressed he looked. It’s hard to obsess on someone’s attractiveness when something else screamed the need for attention. This time, the attention needed to be brought to the sadness that seemed to reside inside of him.
He usually would walk up to the counter, say his order, pay, and then go and sit down. It was the same routine every day, not a slight change to be seen anywhere.
Except for today.
He hadn’t come up to the counter yet to order.
You suspected it was because he showed up a bit later than normal, so there was already a long line when he turned up to the shop.
It was your break time, but you hadn’t gone to the back of the shop yet to take a seat like you normally would.
Today seemed to be a day of breaking routines, so you shrugged and said a quiet, “Fuck it,” to bring up morale.
You sighed, the whole morale thing not really working, walking over to the coffee machine and pouring some black coffee into a plain white mug.
You added two sugars, just like how he would order.
You had it memorized, hard not to when you saw the same unique face every day.
The mug was hot in your hands as you carried it over to his table, careful not to run into any customers as you did so.
You were thankful that your coworker’s eyes weren’t following your body move through the crowd. You were even more thankful for the crowd that was distracting said coworkers.
It was somewhat easy to get to his table, but he didn’t look up once you approached it.
You wanted to say something, anything, to get his attention, to get him to speak to you.
But then you saw his eyes again. A green that could no doubt be the most vibrant color in the world if anyone bothered to add some light. You sighed again, quieter this time. He didn’t need someone to talk to, he just needed coffee. And maybe some sleep, judging by the bags under his eyes.
You swallowed, setting down the coffee in front of him. It took mere milliseconds for him to look up to see what was going on, but by that time you had already turned away.
You walked back to the counter with normal speed, feeling his eyes practically burn into you as you disappeared behind the doors to the employee work room.
It didn’t take long at all for you to get back to normal business, he was just a normal customer after all. A sad one at that, one who could probably use a free drink. You’d given them out loads before, to people who needed them. He was no different.
You took your five-minute break, checked Twitter, drank some water, and returned to work as always.
He was there for his standard amount of time, finishing his coffee, staring out of the window some more.
It wasn’t until the place cleared up a bit that he decided to stand from his seat.
You didn’t pay much notice to it, too busy cleaning out a coffee pot to glance over at the sad stranger who had probably just done the same thing as he did yesterday.
But a small cling caused you to turn around, your eyebrows furrowed and your shoulders tensed up momentarily at the sudden noise. Your eyes immediately went to him, just his back actually, walking out of the shop. The door shut behind him, sounding louder than it usually did.
You wondered where the cling had come from, clearly not him since he had already been making his way out through the door.
“You alright?” Your co-worker, Jill, asked you.
You jumped a bit, but it wasn’t unusual for you to flinch when first addressed.
She didn’t question it, used to your anxious ways.
“Yeah, course.” You responded, giving her a small smile as you wracked your brain to figure out what the noise was.
You made your way over to the counter, acting like you were doing something on the register. Instead, you were examining the area for a difference.
It wasn’t until you looked down a bit did you see a change in your surroundings.
There were some coins on the counter, the exact change for his drink, if you were counting correctly.
You looked at them curiously, fingers reaching out to grab the coins. You let out a deep breath, one you didn’t know you had been holding in.
Without further thought, you entered his order into the register as if he had just ordered it then and there, and that was that.
You didn’t expect anything different to happen the next day. Quite frankly, once you had fallen asleep you forgot about the encounter. Or, really, it just sort of slipped your mind.
It took a mere two or three seconds of being in the coffee shop for you to glance over at the corner he usually sat at. That brought back the incident easily, flawlessly really.
You looked away quickly, not wanting to deal with the curiosity that usually ate you away whenever you thought of the stranger.
“Have a good night?” Jill again.
You smiled at her, not wanting to act any different. Because there wasn’t anything different.
“Just studying, a blast, really.” You laughed, earning a kind smile from your employee.
“Studying on your break?” She asked, sounding amused.
“It’s just summer. Besides, I’m taking extra classes at night sometimes.” You informed her.
She still looked entertained by the notion, “You really are something,” She muttered, leaning against the counter.
This was the time of day where the two of you usually made small talk before the shop opened. Sometimes it was alright, sometimes it was disastrous.
As soon as she asked her next question you knew this was going to be the latter.
“So, I saw you give that man a free coffee yesterday.”
The annoyed sigh escaped past your lips before you even had time to process it.
“He’s been coming here for the past month, he hadn’t ordered his drink yet.” You said, turning away from her.
It was too early to deal with any of this and it was especially too early to have to explain human decency.
“Fit guy,” She muttered, probably sensing your annoyance.
“A sad one,” You mumbled, but she hadn’t even heard.
It was another five minutes before the shop opened and you were grateful when it did. The shop opening meant you weren’t gonna be bothered by co-workers until at least lunch.
There were only a few customers who came in as soon as the shop opened, and they were usually the same people.
You manned the register like you always did, smiling kindly at each person who walked through the glass door.
You were staring down at the register, entering the latest order when you heard a deep voice interrupt your process.
“Black coffee, two sugars, please.”
It was the same thing he always said.
You took a small breath, looking up.
You smiled at him, noticing that his face looked the same as it always did.
“Course,” You said, giving him an actual smile this time, not your customer smile.
He seemed indifferent.
He went to the side of the counter, allowing the person behind him to order.
You took their order as well, trying to act as casual as he did.
You were still curious, painfully curious. You wondered if he had this effect on everyone.
It really wasn’t your job to give out coffees, but it seemed right before his coffee needed to be given out, Jill decided it was her shift to run the register.
You gave her a confused stare but knew that you didn’t have time to question whatever she was up to.
You switched jobs with her, passing out a coffee to the person who had ordered before the mystery man.
And then you got to the man himself.
“Hope you enjoy,” You said, the words holding more meaning, even though you said them to every person who ordered a coffee.
He just kinda looked at you, like he was examining your features, before nodding and turning away.
That was all the interaction you had with him before he went to his table, sitting down and doing his same routine.
You, once again, trailed away from the memory of him and the feeling of his presence. Instead, you did your job and thought of random things to pass the time. You thought of your university courses, your family, your friends, the list of things you needed to do once you got home.
You carried on with the various jobs you had to do, wiping tables, manning the register, giving people coffees. All the normal stuff. You were currently gathering cups from abandoned tables, bringing them back to the sinks in the back of the shop.
You would do the same thing over and over again, not even thinking anything of it.
It wasn’t until you heard the close of the door did you break from your work trance.
You weren’t sure what was so different from this particular door close, but something about it caused you to look up.
You saw the familiar sight of the man with the black trench coat. At least, the back of the man with the black trenchcoat.
You blinked slightly, feeling as if you were in another trance just by staring at the door he had exited.
You swallowed, looking back down at the table you were cleaning.
You shook your head as if trying to shake him from your thoughts.
You grabbed the two mugs on the table, walking them back to the sinks.
You felt the need to go over to his table, some sort of odd feeling pulling you towards the site.
But, you refrained. You went back to taking orders, or you tried to.
You only took about three before Jill walked up behind you.
“He left you something,” She told you.
You jumped at the sound of her voice, turning to her quickly.
“Who?” You asked, thoroughly confused.
“Your favorite customer.” She remarked.
You gave her a firm stare, “I don’t have a favorite customer.” You told her.
But, you turned away anyways. You walked to his table and you took the mug, eyes spotting the glimmer of something shiny sitting atop the wood.
You looked down,
A few pounds.
You furrowed your brows, this couldn’t have possibly been for you.
Or maybe it was?
You took the coins tentatively, eyeing them with curiosity.
With a deep breath, you slid them into the pocket of your apron.
And that was that.
It went on like this for weeks.
And by “like this,” you mean;
The man (whose name was still unknown) would come into the cafe.
He would order a coffee, give you something that was trying hard to be a kind smile, pay for it, then go sit down.
He would stay for an hour or so, occasionally bringing books or a laptop. He would look at his phone now instead of look at the window.
He would leave, leaving some pounds along with his empty coffee mug.
You would clean his table, feeling guilty taking the money.
He’d had to have given you almost 25 quid over the past couple of weeks.
You wondered what he did as a job that allowed him to practically throw away money.
Well, you supposed he wasn’t throwing it away since you were using it for groceries and various other necessities, but he didn’t know you.
At least, you didn’t know him.
He could have been stalking you for all you knew, but you had a feeling he wasn’t like that.
A stalker? No. A bit shy and socially awkward? Definitely. But you weren’t going to hold that against him because you were like that too.
In a way, you related to him.
And it only made you want to speak with him more.
But, you never did.
It had to have been at least two months by now. Seeing him every day and giving him coffees, him giving you tips.
This whole odd situation, which you didn’t think was too odd, was taken very seriously by Jill.
You thought she was reading too much into it and she thought you hadn’t even taken the time to open up the book.
“Look, he’s a normal customer.” You had told her one day, giving her an eye roll as you tried to finish up the latte you were making.
“Who gives you big tips and stares at you,” She remarked, which had made you freeze up a bit.
You couldn’t help but stop what you were doing momentarily. You really wanted to ask, did he actually stare at you?
Jill could tell you were curious. She could always tell.
“He glances over at you all the time. I caught him looking at, more like examining, you today.”
Your eyes had widened. You thought that day was completely normal, but apparently, he had been staring at you.
“He’s probably just lonely,” You mumbled, biting your lip as you tried not to think too hard on the subject.
There was nothing going on, or maybe there was, but if there wasn’t you needed to be prepared.
“He probably thinks you could make him not lonely.” She replied, having heard what you said.
You had remained quiet, lips sealed tight as you tried to ignore what she had said.
That whole day was spent debating whether or not you viewed the man as anything more than a customer. Well, a second was spent debating that before you decided you were being a complete fucking idiot. Really, you spent the day debating your mental stability.
It was a Wednesday now, a dreary day. But that wasn’t saying much.
It was nearly 10 am and the man hadn’t come in yet. You tried not to be worried, tried to be normal about the situation. But, you found yourself looking up every time the door opened, biting your lip anxiously, and even accidentally preparing his favorite drink.
Jill, of course, took notice to this.
You expected her to tease you, maybe make a comment about how she was right about your strange infatuation with the man.
However, she simply gave you a comforting look.
“I’m sure he’s ok, probably just busy. He’ll come in by the end of the day, and if not then, tomorrow.” She assured you.
You were surprised by her kindness and lack of gloating. She always teased you about him. You suspected it was because you seemed indifferent and she wanted to get a rise out of you. You wondered why this time was different until you realized it with a sigh.
Your heart rate had been significantly faster as soon as the man hadn’t appeared at his normal hour. You had been fidgeting all day because of it.
She didn’t try to get a reaction out of you because you were already reacting well enough. Now that she saw how distressed you actually were about the situation, she couldn’t help but comfort you.
You spent all day cursing yourself for being an idiot, like usual, and wondering where the hell your, the, customer was.
You performed all duties absentmindedly, but you still did them without incident.
It was closing time now, Jill had stayed behind to give the place a final clean while you took stock of the register. The place was doing pretty great, which was good news for you. Largely because you knew the owner pretty well, but also because if the place was earning that meant you were sure to have a job for the rest of the summer.
You had grown to like the place for the year you had worked there, you even had worked your way up to a manager position, which explained why you were in charge of the money.
Jill walked up to the counter, taking the place of where a customer would usually stand.
Thankfully, ever since her last comment, she had said nothing else regarding the missing regular.
You had wondered, however, if she found your connection with him odd. If she did, you couldn’t blame her. You thought it was odd too.
“I’m gonna head home now, Pat’s waiting for me.” She smiled at you.
You looked up, returning the sentiment.
“Tell him I said hi, will you?” You asked, momentarily pausing your task at hand.
“Of course. We’ll have to meet up for dinner soon, he’ll probably want to know how your studies are going.” She informed you, which caused you to smile.
Pat was an author, a good one at that. And when he heard you had an interest in writing, it was all you two could talk about.
It annoyed Jill a bit, but she was way happier that her close friend was getting along with her husband.
You said short goodbyes, her exiting through the back and leaving you with the entire shop to your own.
You quite enjoyed these moments, well mostly the idea of being alone in a place that was usually crowded.
Either way, you didn’t rush to get out, especially since you had your work done for your online courses.
This solitude was probably something you needed, to sort out the whole “customer” situation.
You felt like you had an emotional bond with him, some sort of relationship that was unexplainable even though you had never said anything of significance to him.
Your initial observation was that he was lonely, the way he sat alone and never spent any of his time at the shop with anyone, such as a girlfriend perhaps.
But, then you quickly realized he wasn’t the one that was lonely.
You were.
The signs were all there, college girl whose only source of fun was watching history documentaries or writing novels that would probably never even be published. She was too busy in school work to find a boyfriend or even a friend who was a boy.
So the closest thing she had was a man who tipped her for being a good barista and who seemed just a bit more lonely than she was.
Or was he?
Really, she was the one who-
The distinct sound of the cafe door opening could be heard.
You looked up immediately, eyes narrowing with slight annoyance at whoever could be possibly entering the shop when there was a clear “closed” sign.
But your eyes quickly widened when you saw who it was.
Mystery man.
In all his glory, trench coat, curly hair, sad eyes and all.
Now, there is this one girl who I sit next to in most of my classes as our seating plan is set in register order, so naturally all of the teachers are too lazy or busy to take previous scores from various tests in our primary school and seat us, matching our strengths to pupils with equivalent knowledge on the certain subject. This girl, we shall call her Kate.
I have deduced that Kate grew up in a sort of uneducated background, her parents not nearly being as smart as she is. Her primary education is probably not on par with the other girls in our class, apart from tuition that nearly every girl in our class went to, this all being said, most of her intelligence is the raw talent of being able to absorb information and comprehend and evaluate it. It was a big achievement for her to get into a grammar school, and a large shock to most of her family, as they did not expect this. They did not expect it because these are the parents who don’t take as much time to look into their daughter’s education, and believe that all work must be done by themselves. This is why Kate is very accurate with her answers, and barely gets anything wrong during Maths, which must of been the easiest to learn because there is a straight forward right and wrong answer. Whereas in English she may struggle a bit more because the texts you read may need more analysing and evaluation, which is a skill she will pick over time.
She is the youngest out of all three daughters in her houshold, and mabye that is why she is so competetive, because she feels she needs to prove herself to the rest of her family in order to succeed. Her one of her sisters (the eldest) also go to the same grammar school as her and that sister is in her first year of sixth form. Linking back to the fact she is the youngest she may have had even more pressure to get into the school because the middle daughter did not get in and she saw the reactions of the rest of her family, and they probably were not pleased.
All in all, I feel that Kate can only go up from here, she hopefully felt she had proved herself enough to her parents and she can focus on her work and learning more skills.
