“I need caffeine,” I said out loud to myself. I opened the passenger door of Peep and pulled my backpack out, locking the car behind me as I turned to try and figure out where to get an affordable cup of coffee.
All of the swanky places on main street seemed out of my price range and I didn’t want to go too far from the car. My eyes scanned the shoreline until, in the distance, I realized that there was a wharf that most people seemed to be walking toward.
My feet carried me in that direction, and as I drew closer, my ears filled with the sound of the seagulls screaming on the roofs of the buildings that lined the long dock.
All of the shops on the Wharf could be best described as ‘ramshackle,’ they were brightly painted and squeezed together on the wood. Candy stores, souvenir shops, restaurants, and more also filled the space, but unlike main street these all seemed less polished, more unique.
As I passed by a dingy carousel full of laughing children, my eyes finally found a coffee shop. It was a little hole in the wall with no actual name, just the word ‘coffee’ in neon letters above the door.
Inside was just as nondescript, it looked like every college hang out I’d ever been to, lots of plush furniture, low tables, and the smell of roasted beans permeating the air.
It even had the same hippy owner, though one look at him told me that he wasn’t quite human. Something seemed to shimmer over him as he turned to greet me.
“Hey there, beautiful, what can I get for ya today?” he asked in a voice rough from years of smoking.
“Just a regular coffee, please,” I said, struggling to rein my curiosity in and failing utterly.
“What are you?” I blurted the question and my face immediately flamed with embarrassment. I didn’t know much about monsters, but I was pretty sure asking anyone what they were would be insulting.
But the man’s eyes just crinkled a little bit as he fidgeted with the ring on his finger, pulling it off.
The shimmer seemed to melt away, leaving a skinny lizard man standing behind the counter.
I gasped, my eyes wide as I took in his true form.
“I’m surprised you were able to pick up on my enchanted ring at all, love, most humans can’t,” the man said good naturedly, his voice remaining the same. “I try to keep the human face on when I’ve got you Normies in here. You don’t mind me leaving it off, do you? I’m a much better barista when I can use my tail.”
The tail in question whipped out to snatch the cash I was holding in my hand.
Pull yourself together, Daphne,I scolded myself as I shook my head. “No, you go ahead.”
The lizard man’s lipless mouth turned up into what I thought was a smile. “All right, one coffee coming right up. You can wait over there, gorgeous,” he said, gesturing to the wall of tall tables and stools.
Settling onto a stool, I pulled out my phone and began to text Wendy. Nothing made me miss my smart phone more than hitting the nine key three times to get to the letter I wanted.
By the time I finished drafting the text, the shop owner was calling me over to collect my coffee.
Surprisingly it was in a large ceramic mug instead of a paper cup.
“I can put it in a to-go cup if you’d like?” the man asked, his tongue darting from in between his lips.
I shook my head. “No, I’m just not used to getting coffee in an actual cup.”
That made him smile. “I’m old school here, you want some creamer?”
“Please,” I held the cup out for him, accepting the creamer and a ridiculous amount of sugar.
Once back at my table, I sipped my too-sweet coffee, a rebellious feeling welling up in my chest.
Ilovedcoffee, but it was one of the things that Mike wouldn’t let me drink. He was worried, and I quote, that it would affect my fertility.
In hindsight, I was pretty sure he just wanted another thing to control me with.
The coffee was good, and as I drank it I finally gave my surroundings a cursory glance. On the wall next to where I was sitting was a massive bulletin board covered in pinned ads.
My phone chimed with a message from Wendy:
‘ARE U OK?’I could see my friends panic in those three words.‘SHOULD I COME GET U?”
