The Tea Shop [mxm]

XII: Sunsets and Surprises

Okay I have somthing to say and it's really important so you should read this and I'm sorry for interrupting your reading by putting this in the beginning of a chaper but THANK YOU amazing people for getting me to 10k reads! (Okay now it's closer to 15k but stil.) I never imagined I would ever get this far, honestly I thought I would maybe if I was lucky reach 500. So all I wanted you say was thank you, you're amazing for reading, commentig, voting, and I appreciate it a lot.

Now you can read.

The dim light of the sunset spread like a wildfire. As if someone had poured gasoline over the horizon, the orange flames flickered and grew steadily larger and warmer. The sky was painted in pink and purple hues where the light struggled to reach, and it was at times like this Elliot wished he was an artist.

     He wanted to capture this breathtaking sight on canvas, and hang it on the wall opposite to his bed so he could remember this feeling every night. His whole body felt warm, despite the cold winds of early december. He was standing in his small apartment fully clothed in thick coat and scarf. This wouldn’t have been necessary if he didn’t have his window open, but Elliot refused to give in to the cold. He imagined he could feel the warmth of the sun, and he got so lost in his head he didn’t even realise he was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

     Not until Abigail came knocking on the door did he come back to reality, and quickly closed the window. He hurried to open the door, and he was sure it was her. She’d told him just earlier that she would stop by, and told him to be dressed and ready to go out.

     It had been a tradition for the shop to be closed on the 4th of December. At first Elliot had been very reluctant to lose a whole day of profit just to go celebrate his birthday, but they came to the compromise to only close it after lunch, and then go out.

     Elliot had agreed to this, because it had been so long since he’d last had a proper birthday celebration. In fact, he couldn’t even remember if he’d ever had one. His parents had had more important things to deal with than an annoying little brat like himself. At least, that’s what they told him. Business trips and fancy parties were prioritised so they could keep looking good in the public eye. Elliot was never invited, because they never thought he would fit in.

     Elliot had always been a bit different. Instead of making friends in school he sat by himself and wrote in his notebook. Instead of doing good in maths and the sciences as his parents would have hoped, he got A’s in english and art.

     Eventually his parents had had enough, and threatened to cut his money supply off if he didn’t do as they wanted. That was when he was fourteen. That was when he first realised just how much of a disappointment his parents thought he was. After that he gave up on what he was good at, and focused on what was ”appropriate” for someone in Elliot’s position. Son of the two top surgeons in the country.

     But no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t get it right. Instead of studying after school he hid away in cafés and coffee shops, and eventually he met Auntie Mae.

     That’s when he first felt accepted for who he was, and Auntie Mae taught him everything she knew about baking. He stayed with her the nights his parents were away, and they never noticed. He had a better relationship with the lady in the tea shop than his own mother.

     So, when Auntie Mae found out that he’d never properly celebrated his birthday, all hell broke loose. She immediately dragged him around town to treat him to anything and everything he wanted - it didn’t matter that his birthday was several months away.

     ”Enough time has already been wasted,” Auntie Mae had told him. Since then she’d made a big deal of his birthday.

     Now Abigail was waiting for him, and he wasn’t even ready. He was supposed to take a shower after work, to get rid of the heavy vanilla scent that always seemed to cling to him, but by the time he got home the sun was already setting. In the winter, the days were too short and he never had time to enjoy the sunsets as he did in the summers. So at every opportuinty he got, he stood by the window and chreished it.