The Latte

“Oh hell yes, it’s Pumpkin Season!”

The kind-looking woman behind the counter, Anne, returned the customer’s smile politely. “You know it!” she said, starting to punch in yet another Pumpkin Spice Latte into her iPad cash register. It got tedious, like anything else, but it made money so who was she to complain? 

The woman, Ellie, was far too excited about a simple flavored drink for a woman her age. She had a job, she had family, friends, and she was able to step out for a coffee break at 9:09 in the morning. Yet here she was, acting as if this beloved fall drink was saving her from some kind of horrible existence. “I swear that every year I drink one of these every day for three months straight!” she gushed.

Anne kept nodding and smiling. “They are delicious aren’t they?” she agreed. Anne turned back to the espresso machine as Ellie tapped her debit card against the chip reader. Anne’s slightly aged hands worked deftly as she began to make the same drink she’d made hundreds, if not thousands, of times before. But it didn’t tire her; Anne loved what she did. In this case, bringing happiness to women who could find it at the bottom of a cardboard cup. 

“Mmmm thank you,” Ellie said as she accepted the drink, taking a dramatic sniff through the slit in the lid. “This is just what I needed. And I swear this is the best pumpkin spice in the city! How do you make it?” The warmth of Anne’s smile was equal to the contents of the cup. “Now now, can’t give any secrets away!” she chuckled. “But of course it’s mostly nutmeg and cinnamon, nothing all that special.” 

Ellie took another beautiful sip. “Well it’s special to me! Thanks so much, you have a good day!” Ellie left the cute cafe with a fresh bounce in her step. Unfortunately the latte would end up being the highlight of her day. When she returned to the office she found that her manager, Irene, had scheduled a last-minute “emergency” meeting via Teams. Despite Ellie’s upbeat attitude and good work ethic, Irene had not been pleased with her recent performance. Said her utilization was low and that it needed to come up within the next two weeks or there would be serious consequences. It was tough for Ellie to hear, as she’d never been formally reprimanded before. She left the meeting trying to shake off the image of Irene’s cold unassuming stare, sipping on the milky dregs of her latte as she nervously returned to her work.

Things didn’t improve much when she got back to her house. Her kids, Steven and Brianna, were playing upstairs while her husband Jake sat on the couch, staring but not quite watching television. “Ooof, honey, I had kind of a rough day,” she started to tell him. She went to kiss his bearded cheek but he pulled away slightly. Ellie furrowed her brow. “Everything okay?”

Her husband was despondent, a state she’d never seen him in before. He shook his head and spoke quietly. “Yeah, no, sorry. I guess it was a rough day for me too.” He avoided eye contact. “Do you want to talk about it?” Ellie asked, biting her lip. But Jake didn’t budge. “No, I don't think so. Not right now.” She waited for a reassuring smile that never came. “I guess I’ll get started on dinner then.” There was no response. 

They ate dinner as a family that night, although no one was into it. Jake was no more verbal than earlier, and her kids squabbled with each other over nonsense things. Ellie powered through, just like at work, and tried to make conversation with any of them, but there was none to be had. Her husband seemed uninterested in her and her kids barely acknowledged that she was there. She was relieved when the meal was over and they all went up to bed.

Ellie liked to shower before bed, and took the time to have a quick cry. She had wanted to talk to her husband about her day, about Irene, about anything. Instead he’d just created more questions with his weird attitude. She dried her tears off with the rest of her body after the shower. Put on her pajamas and crawled into bed in the darkened bedroom beside Jake.

“Goodnight honey.”

Nothing. She held back more tears and tried to forget about the bad day she’d had.

The next two weeks were a frenzy of panicked effort for Ellie. She started each day with a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a warm smile from Anne, determined that the little cup of sunshine would start her day off on the right foot. She went into work with a pep in her step and cinnamon and nutmeg on her breath. But that caffeinated pep wouldn’t last long, for as much as she tried she was not performing up to her boss’s standards. Ellie couldn’t understand it; she was doing the same work she’d done for years with no issues. Irene had been there the whole time, the company wasn’t under any new ownership. It made no sense that her performance was suddenly a problem.

Their home life also hadn’t changed, and Jake still wouldn’t talk to her properly. She wanted to avoid prying too much, but they’d never had problems communicating before. He never apologized for being short with her, kept on keeping her at arm’s length. She started wondering ridiculous things, like he was having an early midlife crisis and living a secret life. Perhaps he was having an affair and wrestling with the guilt, but that felt so absurd to consider. She couldn’t figure it out but was too busy to focus on it. They went to bed night after night with hardly a word, let alone a kiss or any other form of romance.

Finally that fateful day came; the deadline for when Ellie was instructed to get her work numbers up. She’d left the house earlier than usual, not bothering to say goodbye to her lifeless husband or even wake her uninterested kids. She came into Anne’s cafe looking pale and sweaty. The woman in the apron looked at her with sympathy. “You okay, dear?” Ellie nodded, unable to find her chipper attitude. “It could be a rough day.” she admitted. 

Anne smiled. “Well nothing a little pumpkin spice can’t fix, right?” Ellie nodded, unsure if there was enough pumpkin goodness in the world to return her confidence to her. Anne waved away her debit card. “It’s on me today, honey. Good luck.” Ellie tried to protest but the other woman was having none of it. She thanked her sincerely and strode off to work, touched by the kindness of strangers.

Unfortunately her manager Irene was unable to show the same kindness. She called Ellie into her office as soon as she got in, and bluntly informed her that her work would no longer cut it at this company. Just a few minutes and Ellie was let go. Irene was stern, but made it clear to Ellie that the decision was out of her hands. In a daze, she cleared out the contents of her desk into a box, clutching her free latte in her hand as she carried it all to her car. She tried calling and texting her husband, but Jake remained silent as ever. She couldn’t stand it anymore.

She came home, throwing her box of crap on the floor as soon as she crossed the threshold and barely hearing the sound of picture frames breaking. She went to the kitchen immediately, seeking a snack, and found a note in Jake’s handwriting taped to the fridge: “I’m leaving. Took the kids. Sorry.”

Broken and red-eyed, Ellie returned to the cafe while Anne was starting to close up. Anne’s eyes widened when she saw the state she was in. “Oh my god, it was a bad day wasn’t it?” Ellie just nodded. “I…I don’t know where to go.” Anne gestured at one of the comfortable couches against the back wall. “You just sit right there and take a moment. I’ll get you fixed up with a drink and we can talk all about it.” 

Ellie could barely realize what was happening, though somewhere in her mind she was flattered by Anne’s generosity.  She shuffled to the couch and let it envelop her as she started thinking about all the suddenly-broken pieces of her life and how she didn’t know where to start putting them back together. She knew she had to get a new job and maybe even find a new place to live, but all she wanted right now was to drink pumpkin spice and curl up on this couch.

In the back room of the cafe, Anne was talking low on her phone. “Yes. I’ve got her. She’s ours now. Tell Madam we’ll have enough. You have the little ones? Good.”

Anne hung up and went back to her work. The cafe was empty except for Ellie in the corner, just sitting in a daze. No one was around to notice Anne deftly prick her finger and squeeze precisely one small drop of blood into Ellie’s pumpkin spice latte. “Nothing all that special,” she murmured to herself with a smirk

“Here you go honey,” Anne said, placing the mug in front of her. “Now tell me what happened.”

Parts 2 and 3 of this will drop later this October (spooky season, right?!) In the meantime, do feel free to share this with others!

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