Being at Francesco’s is always like watching a movie.

This was something Eli Novicio had come to know in the time he spends working there. He had become a silent spectator to the many scenes that unfolded within the four walls of the cafe, an unlikely witness to countless confessions and parting words that nonetheless had sent tears to unsuspecting eyes. He shared joy and grief, and he would learn a thing or two from those moments.

-+-

Earlier in the morning, Eli served two cranberry pie slices to an elderly couple. It turned out that they were celebrating their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary, and cranberry pie was actually the “cake” they shared on their wedding day. Eli had sat down with the couple and was regaled with stories of their marriage, both its ups and downs. The barista marvelled at how they weathered through the storms that barraged them, even that one time the husband had been in an affair.

“It’s all about forgiveness,” the wife told Eli. “But you must remember that one can only forgive so much. If nothing’s changed, it would be best if you leave and never look back.”

-+-

Eli had realized that he was smack dab in the midst of a relationship gone cold. He stood silently behind the counter, watching as hearts slowly and painfully crumbled to pieces. The bitter coffee he had brought to them was ironically suited to the situation. Like the doomed bond, the coffee itself had cooled down, left unfinished at the table. Eli’s chest felt a twinge of pain, and he turned to dispensing coffee for the other customers to keep his mind off the scenario.

-+-

There was that one couple who took their daughter out for a family date at the café after a successful tooth extraction. Even with the anaesthetics lingering, the little girl savoured the triple scoop ice-cream platter her parents ordered for her with such gusto. The compliment he received from the child was slurred, but the sincerity of it was greatly appreciated.

-+-

A rowdy band of teenagers who had passed their college admission exams entered the café. They talked over tiramisu slices and apple pies and milk shakes, laughing even harder after one of them sprayed out milkshake in an attempt to avoid guffawing at a bad joke. Eli was requested to take a picture of them using one of their phones. He gladly obliged and congratulated them afterwards.

-+-

“Here’s your order, ma’am.”

Eli handed over the take-out coffee to the woman in front of him with a smile. The woman took the bag with a blush on her face, and Eli couldn’t help but chuckle. He wished the woman a good day as she left the café and went back to tending to the other customers.

Eli had been dubbed as “Francesco’s Pretty Boy” since he started working there. He is, after all, attractive—skin tanned from childhood days spent in the sun, eager eyes that would melt anyone who’d fall under his gaze, a kind, gentle smile that definitely sent ladies sighing in a daze, and an amicable personality that seemed to have made him even more appealing to everyone.

It was another quiet day at Francesco’s. Customers walked in and out with a slightly quicker pace than usual, and there were familiar faces that would come by, making their usual orders.

One such face was that of a woman, probably in her twenties, with short jet black hair and tawny brown skin. Eli once mistook her for a man because of the way she dressed, only to be gently corrected when he called her name and heard her voice as she thanked him for the coffee.

That morning, the woman—who he learned was named “Dane”—arrived with slumped shoulders. Eli figured Dane didn’t have a great morning. She took a seat by the counter and Eli walked over to take her order.

“The usual, Dane?” Eli asked, albeit a rhetorical one.

“Yep,” Dane said. “Thanks, Eli.”

They had begun calling each other by their first names after Dane corrected Eli on her gender. To Dane, Eli is similar to how Denny is to Talia. They would make small talk, with Dane lamenting about Tin-tin’s antics. Eli would tell her tidbits of his life back in the countryside in response.

“Saw you with a girl last time, was it a date?” Eli asked as he gave Dane her coffee.

Dane’s shocked face reddened much to Eli’s mirth. “Wha-no, we weren’t on a date,” she told him. “She’s an artist I met back in the city library. She’s just a friend.”

Eli smirked. “I see. I think wiping pie smears off the face of a girl you just met is something friends do.”

“Don’t they?”

“Well, I guess if you guys have known each other for a long time, wiping faces would be a normal thing. However, you and that girl have only been acquainted with each other just recently, which makes it out of the ordinary.”

“How can you tell?”

“Dummy. You usually come here either on your own or with Franco. Then all of a sudden you arrive with a girl. Therefore I deduced that you were on a date.”

Dane scoffed. “We’re not on a date, Eli. Don’t push it.”

“Alright, alright, I won’t,” Eli said, his palms raised in mock surrender.

“How about you, how’s the girl hunt going so far?” Dane asked as she drank her coffee and pointed to the donut rack. “Have you caught someone already?”

Eli shook his head and handed Dane a chocolate-filled donut. “Not much luck in that department, I guess.”

“Well, it’ll come when you least expect it, I guess,” Dane told him before biting on the donut.

Eli chuckled. “Sure, sure. For all I know, yours have already arrived.”

Dane pouted. “I told you, we’re just friends.”

Eli shrugged and excused himself to serve other customers. As he glanced over Dane, he felt the familiar sense of intrigue that had been in him since their first encounter. Dane was a peculiar woman…that, he knows, but that didn’t deter him from wanting to know more of her.

At the same time, Eli didn’t feel queasy around her. He had known himself to be awkward around girls, despite growing up with seven sisters. But with Dane, he immediately found himself at ease. Perhaps because Dane had this effect around her that makes her easy to get along with. He liked the feeling, and every passing moment he spends with Dane was rather enjoyable.

Dane bade him good-bye minutes later, and as he watched her disappear from his sight, Eli felt as if some energy from him was sapped away. He dismissed the feeling, thinking it was akin to seeing a friend leave.