“This place is so cute,” Mia praised as we entered the small coffee shop that was a few blocks from her bungalow. “And it smells delicious in here. This was perfect for doing some research.”
This was the third coffee shop we would have breakfast at in the past week. Mia wanted to check out all of the coffee shops in the area to get ideas and inspiration for her own shop once she got back home.
“I’m definitely getting the huevos rancheros,” she said, peering up at me. “I worked up an appetite this morning. What’re you having?”
“Probably the same,” I answered.
“You must try the Cafe de Olla,” an older woman said from behind us.
Mia whipped around to face the woman. “Is that your favorite?” she asked excitedly. Then whispered, “We had some at another café and it wasn’t that great.”
“Yes, the coffee here is delicious,” the older woman responded.
That started a robust conversation between the two.
Before I knew it, Mia walked off with the woman, chattering about what she did and didn’t like about the café. Next to me, a man chuckled.
“Your wife must be like mine.”
I turned to face the older man with graying hair. He appeared to be in his sixties. “She can make friends with anyone.” His comment was punctuated by a round of laughter from Mia and her new friend, as they stood beside another couple, talking.
I didn’t correct him on his assumption about who Mia was to me. It felt too right.
I grinned. “Yeah,” I said easily.
“It used to annoy the hell out of me. But after forty years of marriage, you get used to it,” he said. His smile was casual as he glanced over at his wife.
“Brutus, can you get a few pictures, please?” Mia asked as she rushed over to me with her phone in her hand.
I took the phone and snapped some images of her with the older woman, whose name was Rose, and the two women who were a married couple that they’d just met.
“You all will have to come to Williamsport once I open my coffee shop,” Mia gushed.
“Hun, can you snap some shots?” Rose asked her husband, Bill.
He laughed. “I never saw this one coming either. Thought I was done working once I retired.” He grinned and looked over at me. “Now I’m an Instagram husband,” he said before doing his wife’s bidding and taking multiple pictures of her.
“Brutus, look, they have a chess set, too.” Mia clasped my forearm, pointing at the table with the chess set. “It looks like it’s made out of ivory. Remember I told you the shop I used to work at had a space where some retirees would come to play chess in the mornings?”
She took a few pictures of the chess set and the surrounding areas of the coffee shop.
“I have to have one for mine,” she said.
She became so enthralled in the shop and talking with the customers as if she was one of the staff, she forgot all about her hunger. I ended up ordering the huevos rancheros for Mia since she continued to flutter around asking questions of customers and the employees alike. I got the tamales for myself and got us the traditional Mexican coffee along with a few others because I knew she would want to try them.
“Oh my, this looks perfect.” Mia pressed her hand against her chest as she stared down at our breakfast on the table. “I’m so hungry.”
“You’ve worked up an appetite running this place for the past twenty minutes,” I joked.
She grinned as I held out her chair for her to sit. “Everyone here is so friendly. We definitely have to give this place another try sometime this week before you—” She stopped.
My heart tightened in my chest. Before I left, I knew that was the rest of her comment. Up until recently the fact that my vacation was coming to an end sooner than hers was always something in the distance. A thing that didn’t need to be dwelled on at the moment. But as the days went by and my inevitable return to reality approached, the unsettled feeling in my chest grew stronger.
I hadn’t been displeased with my life before this vacation. I often worked twelve or more hours per day with no complaints. Some might’ve called me a workaholic but fuck them. I loved my job and the family I worked for. Ensuring their safety felt like my mission. Nothing had ever rivaled that feeling.
Until I met Mia.
“Rose and Bill are going to visit the ruins today. They invited us to come along,” Mia said, changing the subject.
