At The Cafe

Its late August, the end of summer 2005. Several people sit at the tables and chairs surrounding the end of a small paved street just outside a discreet little cafe in Amsterdam. Nicole sips her iced tea at the table at the front. In the air lingers the pungent smell of freshly cooked cakes. The sun reflecting off her immaculate short straight hair as she brushes it to one side with her left hand. 1

    Hearing the distant clatter of plates and a familiar voice, Nicole looks up to recognise the face of Celia. Wasn't long now that they had known each other, Celia worked for the owner of the cafe waittressing and with Nicole being a regular it wasn't long until they had established a friendship. 2

'Hello Nicole, everything ok?' 3

'Hey, yeah everything is alright thanks, could i have another iced tea please?' 4

'Of course, coming right up' Celia replies, a soft smile on her face as she turns and heads back indoors.5

    As Nicole settles back in her seat, she reaches to her side for her bag and produces a little purple pad and a pen. Remembering that theres some last minute shopping to do that afternoon she writes down....milk, bread, eggs, cheese...while still pondering this Celia returns and places her drink in front of her. Thanking her, Nicole takes the cup and starts to drink while in doing so knocks the pad on the floor and spills tea on her skirt. 6

'hmm..very clever' she muses to herself all the while self absorbed in the small matter of finding something to dry herself with.7

'is this what your looking for?' suddenly comes a strong voice. Sensing a presence Nicole shifts her attention to find a hand holding a tissue in front of her head. Lifting her head up she finds a man with a concerned look on his face.8

'yes thank you' Nicole replies a smile forced on her face to cover her embarrassment. Using the folded tissue she soaks up the spilt liquid on her leg thats also managed to slowly drip onto the floor as well.9

'Are you alright?' comes the strangers voice again, Nicole nods this time detecting a foreign accent. Turning and walking away he goes and sits at another table. 10

    Looking in his direction she takes a proper glance at him. She thinks he must be no older than twenty five, very good looking, sharp features, striking chin, fair hair that delicately flops in front of his eyes. Nicole starts to ponder that he could actually pass for some sort of model in an advertisement or photo shoot, it wasn't just any day that a man liked that worked up to you. Snapping out of her train of thought, Nicole's eyes shift towards an odd character out of the corner of her eye. A peculiar woman in a trench coat and sunglasses was lurking outside a nearby shop, she kept walking around impatiently, all the time her head hanging down staring at the floor. Now this Nicole thought...is just getting weird...11

                                            To be continued12