Friday Coffee

[:::: Authors Note ::::]

I'm posting this more as a draft than a full story. It's self-edited, and has a lot of mistakes, but I think it's an interesting read. Built on a few random thoughts that came together in words. I've been taking a break after publishing 'The Red Suit' and have needed to stop for a while.

This will be my first story for 2025, enjoy.

[:::: Friday Coffee ::::]

I watched him as he navigated his way through the tables and chairs, not easy with the stroller and rambunctious two-year-old boy. There was just an early morning crowd, a few people who looked to him, and then the young boy who was more interested in his buttered piece of toast than anything around him.

I smiled as I watched him approach my table and sit down on the chair to the left of me like I knew he would, as he always had. Then, he arranged the stroller in front of him so he could give attention to my son for a few moments.

A doting dad, I smiled as I watched him fuss over Charlie, the little boy smiling and giggling as David cleaned him of crumbs while teasing him just a little.

I sighed and looked out at the sky. Sitting outside the café, we had an uninterrupted view of the car park, but looking up past the tops of the paperbark trees that dotted the car park edges, it was a blue sky with lazy white clouds drifting along slowly in the early summer morning.

David and I have sat here every Friday morning since we were thirteen. We were next door neighbours before we were boyfriend and girlfriend, lovers before we were married.

Yet rain, hail or shine, we had sat at this very table for more years than I could count.

I looked over at David. For a man in his late thirties, he has held his age well. Being a parent agreed with him. Yes, he had lines on his face that were not there a few years ago, bags under his eyes from the constant sleep deprivation of those late-night nappy changes, and he was starting to get a few greys to become prominent in his lustrous black hair.

But even with the toll of parenthood, he looked good. His body was well toned from time spent at the Gym, and he still moved like the athlete he was in high school, even though I know he worried about the Big Four Zero coming in a couple of years.

Yet it was his eyes, that held my attention as we both sat, they were so alive, so full of life. David had a way of looking at the world, even when things went wrong that drew you to him. There was only that one time when Charlie was born that his eyes dimmed, and I was worried for a while that the light would not return.

The café attendant came out and brought two coffees, one in front of David and one in front of me. David thanked him, and I smiled. He was always so courteous to everyone around him, making me laugh.

He looked over my way as I looked back out to the sky, I wish...

"You know,"

I said absentmindedly.

"I think the weather is going to be hot this Christmas. Charlie might like a trip to the beach."

David picked up his coffee and took a sip, looking out at the same urban horizon.

"What do you think Charlie, fancy a trip to the beach?" He asked.

I smiled, and I enjoyed listening to him talk.

Then, I felt more than I saw her coming, and I automatically stood.

"Hey there, good looking," she said, sitting down and picking up the coffee. "Have my boys been good today?"

David poked a face at Charlie, and the boy poked his tongue back, his lips still covered in crumbs from the toast.

David looked over at Stephane and smiled, picking up his coffee and waiting.

The new arrival smiled back, picked up the coffee that had been placing while I was sitting and laughed as they 'clinked' coffee cups.

I smiled, joining them and feeling sad at the same time.

I walked around the stroller and kissed my son on the forehead. Right before I did he looked up, looked me in the eyes and giggled.

"Shh," I told him, putting my fingers to my lips. He repeated the motion.

"What's up, Charlie boy," David asked.

"Mum," he said, pointing into the air at me.

David frowned.

"It's all right, babe," Stephane said, putting her coffee down and leaning across the table to place a hand on David's arm. "He's two, he never knew Sarah."

For a moment, the eyes of the man I loved dimmed. I hated that.

"I know," he said, sighing, and he smiled. 'He's said that a few times recently, but never at you."

Stephanie smiled big and lovingly at him. I felt a wince of envy, but it passed quickly.

"It's okay if he never does," she told him. He's not my son."

"Not mine either," David said, the brightness of the life in his eyes almost going out entirely.

I swung into his lap and wrapped my arms around him. Phantom tears escaped and vanished from existence as they struck David. He never noticed.

"It was not your fault," Stephanie and I said simultaneously. Of course, David could only hear her.

I got off his lap and crouched down beside him.

"It was never your fault," I told him, aching to be able to touch him, to hold him omen last time, to tell him how sorry I was and how much I loved him.

I touched his face and ran my hand up and through his hair. For David, it was like a breeze passing through his brow. It wasn't much, but it brought him out of his mood.

David and I, were a couple in love. We had life by the hand, and nothing could stop us. David worked as a fitter and turner for one of the local manufacturing firms. I was a teacher at a special school for high needs children. We were young and going to take the world by storm.

That was until, they entered my life.

David never knew; he was blissfully ignorant. But I started an affair with two of my fellow teachers. Both of them were so different from my David. One, Grant, a PE teacher, was big and strong; he would take me without heed of my desires. Phillip, an English teacher, was so thin and wiry, yet he knew how to push my buttons.

And then there was David, my David, the other half. You could put Grant and Philip together every day of the week, and they could not hold a candle to David.

So why the affair?

I wish I knew. It started on a night out with the facility. We had some drinks, and I ended up dancing with Phillips and feeling his manhood pressing against me. But at the end of the night, I had enjoyed making him groan and making a mess in his jeans.

We played, and eventually, I caved and let him take me to bed. The guilt I had nearly overwhelmed me, and I would have ended it and confessed if Grant hadn't blackmailed me, having found out about Philip and me.

When I found out I was pregnant, I found myself lost. I had no idea who had gotten me pregnant. But David, being such a loving, ignorant fool, comforted me, figuring my mood swings over the past couple of months were the early stages of my pregnancy.

I called an end to my affair with both Phillip and Grant, praying that my baby would be David's.

While I kept both men at arm's length and tried to be the wife I should have been to David, I was fooling myself.

I was a week from my due date when it all went wrong. It was my last day of work before I went on a year's maternity leave, and David was to pick me up when Grant came charging into the staff room, Phillip hot on his heels.

"I don't care, dumbass," Grant was almost yelling as the door to the room shut behind him. "It's my fucking kid, and I'll be taking care of her."

"No, it isn't shit for brains," Philip restored. "I've done the math, and it's mine."

It didn't take me being a rocket scientist to figure out what they were talking about, and I stood to end it all when they saw me, ignoring the others in the room.

"Sarah," Phillip pleaded, "Tell this thumping idiot that it's my kid, not yours. This fuckwit should go back to fucking farm animals."

"I..." was all I got before everything went blank.

The next thing I knew I was screaming in agony, I was in the midst of labour. I had never felt a pain like this before. I had expected neither my region to hurt. But not my head and neck.

I heard a voice.

"She's awake," I heard a voice say. Then, a hand grasped mine. "Mrs Other, stay with us. You're in labour, and you're injured."

I drifted in and out. I felt pain and pressure. Then I heard a cry: Charlie was born. And I closed my eyes.

When I next opened my eyes, I was standing beside Charlie, and I knew I had not made it.

My son was a good-looking, pink, and healthy boy. I looked out of the nursery and saw my husband, David, sitting there with his head in his hand, sobbing.

In listening to everyone talk over the next few days, I learnt that as I stood to confront my former lovers, Grant had taken exception to Philips' farm comment and grabbed a ceremonial sword that the French Teacher had brought in to show the class. Grant grabbed it and, in a rage, without thinking, swung away.

The sword all but took Philips's head off, and I happened to be in reach, and it dug deeply into my own neck.

Philip had died there in the staff room, and I had managed to hang on until my son was born.

Grant was arrested and would spend the rest of his life in prison for the double homicide.

It took two months for David, my beautiful David, to sort out the mess. He looked after Charlie, and as the details of my affairs came to light and doubt that Charlie was not his crept in, he never once treated Charlie differently.

When the results came back that Charlie was Philips's son, not his, he never caused a stink and never did anything more than cry when he thought no one was watching.

Me, I was there through it all. I had no idea what I was: a ghost, a spirit. I never saw anyone else. I didn't sleep, but I had times when I was 'resting'. I never interacted with anyone except, for some reason, Charlie. He could see me, hear me. But that was it.

I took to singing to him and telling him stories about David and me growing up. I called David his father because that was what he was. I followed David and Charlie everywhere because I had nothing else to do.

When David met Stephanie, I was immediately jealous. How dare another woman try to take my man. By then, Charlie was a year old, and I had been dead for a little over twelve months. Stephanie was a beautiful woman--an accountant with a bubbly attitude and plenty of curves. When she started staying over, I stayed with Charlie, ignoring the sounds coming from my once-bedroom in favour of singing to my son.

But over time, she won me over; she would never be as stupid as I was and never put herself into a situation where she could be tempted. David's parents loved her, my parents loved her and I admired the woman.

Back in the moment, I smiled at Chalie and pointed at Stephanie.

"She's going to be you're Mum," I told him. Charlie looked between myself and Stephanie not understanding. David and Stephane thought Charline was being cute.

For the rest of the day, I felt weird; it was like I was drifting. When night came, both David and Stephanie put him to bed, but David stayed and touched the forehead of the sleeping toddler.

"I will never know why you did what you did, Sarah; I just don't get how you...." He stopped, looking around the room like he was searching for me like he knew I was there.

"I was so angry for a long time that I tried never to take it out on Charlie. I mean, it's not his fault. I will always treat him as mine, but I will not hide his heritage."

For a long moment, he said nothing, then looked at me dead in the eyes.

"I will always love you, Sarah; I hated you for a time. But I will always love you more than that. Thank you for Charlie, thank you for being in my life and I am sorry we never got to say goodbye."

He sighed and looked away, when he looked back his eyes were no longer looking directly as me, but at a spot just over my shoulder.

"I forgive you, Sarah," he said quietly and pulled the door open. I slid to the ground crying, and I wasn't sure if I could hear something similar from the hall.

I was back at the café, except that, unlike this morning, the sky was overcast, and a light drizzle was falling. Sitting under the awning, we were not getting wet, but now and then, a few droplets would drift over to us.

"He feel asleep crying," Stephanie told me as we sipped our warm coffee. "Came back to the room sobbing his heart out like I had never seen."

I nodded, and she smiled at me.

"He loved you Sarah," she told me. "And I think he always will."

"I know," I replied, somewhat choked up. "And I will always love him."

"He told me he forgave you tonight," she said before taking a sip of the drink. Looking at me over the lip.

"He didn't have to," I told her, placing my cup down on the table. "But, it makes me love him more for it."

She nodded.

"Stephanie, David is all yours now. I don't know what is happening. But I do know that I'm not going to be around like I have been any more. Please look after him, look after both of them."

She smiled warmly, and as she had to David that morning, she placed a hand on my arm over the table.

"You were not a bad person Sarah," she told me. "Philip drugged you the first two times, and Grant was in on it. They both lusted after you and set out to try and steal you from David."

Even as a long-dead woman, I was aghast.

"What?" I exclaimed.

Stephanie nodded.

"If I understand it right, you are always around Charlie. David got the police report a few months ago. I thought you should know if this is the only time we talk. You were not entirely in control."

I couldn't help it. I slid from my chair, sobbing, and suddenly, to match my mood, it was raining hard, the wind blowing the rain over us and soaking us. But Stephanie moved, sat on the ground, and hugged me.

"I don't know if I will remember this, but I feel like you need to forgive yourself too."

I don't know how long we sat, but then we were back at the table, and the sky was blue, our clothes were dry, and our coffee was again full and hot.

She looked at me and raised an eyebrow, and I laughed.

"Dreams are funny like that," I told my husband's new woman.

I looked at her momentarily, debating if I should tell her.

"What?" She asked me as we still held each other.

"You're going to be giving Charlie a sister," I stated, sniffling a little.

For a moment, she said nothing, and then her eyes went wide. She went to say something but struggled.

"How... How do you know?" She said after a minute.

We helped each other up and sat back at the table, our coffees again full like they had just been delivered.

"I just do," I told her. "Perhaps it is this place. Something supernatural. But I know that you are pregnant, and you're going to have a sister for my son."

We spoke for the next hour, like girlfriends who had known each other all our lives. But when the dark suburban pulled up to the curb, I knew it was time.

We both stood and hugged, I kissed her.

"Please take care of my boys," I told her. She held me a nodded.

"I promise," she replied hoarsely.

With a sense of trepidation, I got into the car and felt a sense of relief I had not felt in a long time. I knew they would be fine. Sure, they were going to have their ups and downs. Life is never one hundred per cent smooth sailing. But by and large, they would live happy lives.

I settled into the seat; it was cool and comfortable, and I wondered what was next for me....

[:::: - ::::]

I awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed, the tears streaming from my face as I reached down to grasp my abdomen.

With the movement, David was instantly awake and trying to console me and bless this beautiful man.

"Babe, what's wrong, are you hurt?" He asked me, frowning as he saw my tears and my hands holding my stomach.

I smiled and pushed him down, mashing myself against him and kissing him deeply. After a few moments, I felt him relax and his body responded as it should to my naked form pressed against his.

After a little time, I felt happy and well-satisfied. My husband had given me everything he always had when we made love.

"I had a dream," I told him, snuggled into his shoulder, picking at one of the hairs around his nipple.

He said nothing, and for the next few minutes, I told him everything, including the strange dream in which I had coffee with Sarah, both of us knowing things that we shouldn't know, and that she told me I was pregnant.

As I explained, David said nothing, but his hand slipped down and gently held my stomach. Like me, he didn't doubt that we were going to be parents again.

"Was she okay?" he asked. "I mean, last night, I could not explain it. It was almost like I could see her in Charlie's room."

I nodded and looked up at him.

"She was," I replied, and thought for a moment. "I think she is at peace now."

David nodded, and we held each other for a long while.

[:::: - ::::]

Life went along, and I was ecstatic that nine months later, I gave birth to Charlotte Sarah Other. David recommended that we honour his former wife for the gift she had given us that night. Charlie was the best big brother, always trying to help his little sister. He helped her take her first steps, played the games she wanted, and even helped her pick out the right outfits for dates as she moved into her teenage years.

After that night, he also started calling me Mum. David and I could not have been happier.

Today, we are proud parents as Charlie has married his long-term girlfriend. They had gone through an on-again-off-again relationship. But then, one day, they just clicked after a big fight. I am unsure, but I feel a coffee on Friday morning was involved.

I hugged my son, even as his sister stood by his side.

"Nervous?" I asked him.

"No..." he replied. Then I looked at him and raised my eyebrow. "Yes, of course, Mum."

I smiled, hugged and kissed him.

"She would be so proud of you," I told him, referring to Sarah. We never hid his parentage from him. He knew neither David nor I were his biological parents, but he knew he was our son.

He beamed as he held me tighter and we he pulled back I reached out to wipe the single tear on his cheek.

"I know," he said, and Charlotte hugged him.

"I need to get out there," she said. "Cindy will be here in a moment. Don't choke bro."

They laughed and fist-bumped like they always did, and she headed out to join the bridal party.

The ceremony went off without a hitch. David and I, along with Cindy's parents, were as proud as punch. At one point, I felt like I did that day in the dream and looked around expectantly but saw nothing.

As we exited the church, though, I was surprised to see a large black suburban pull away, and it sent a chill down my spine.

Feeling David's arm move around my shoulder, I relaxed. He nodded in the direction of the departing suburban.

We spoke of Sarah many times, always fondly. We wished she could have seen this day. I smiled, as I believed that she perhaps had.

We cheered as we assisted the bride and groom into the waiting car. And David's lips sought mine as they departed.

"I wonder how soon before we're grandparents," he asked me.

Suddenly, I looked in the direction that the Black Suburban had gone, then back to my husband and lastly to the wedding car, which was about to depart.

"If I'm right," I told my husband. "Then much sooner than we think..."

[:::: Fin ::::]

[:::: Authors Ending Note ::::]

I hope that you enjoyed Friday Café. This started as an idea that Beth and I had as we were sharing our own Friday morning coffee at our local coffee shop. I liked the concept that our MC was supernatural and wanted it to be a tragic tale of loss, but also regret and some redemption.

Had Sarah lived, then I believe this would have been a very different, usually cliched LW story. But her death changed the plan, and I went in this direction. I had originally planned it to be David and Sarah in the café, resolving their issues. However, I felt it was more effective to have Sarah and Stephanie. And I believe it worked well.