Coffee Break Love Stories from Paris: Café L'Amour

Ciao! I am starting a new and creative writing opportunity for myself through the series: Coffee Break Love Stories from Paris. I will take small encounters in my daily life or from friends to use my imagination and dramatise reality into a fun fantasy. This work is entirely fictional and only inspired by settings and the plethora of attractive people in Paris.

Genevieve strolled behind the Pantheon in the 5th arrondissement. With her headphones in bopping to some hip hop, a sturdy tote bag to her side encompassing her beloved novel, and the wind blowing her auburn hair out of her face; she felt powerful. Her floral skirt bellowed to her long strides as she got more and more excited thinking about spending a quiet Saturday afternoon at a café to read. It was a break from the usual hustle of her weekday job.

The overcast Parisian weather indicated that there was always a possibility that it would rain from the gloomy clouds to her left, but the right side of her hoped the blue skies peeking through would stay a bit longer. She turned a corner and started walking downhill towards Rue Monge where her favourite café resided: Café L'Amour. Indeed, the name was so cheesy considering Paris is the "City of Love" and all, but thankfully, tourist season hasn't started yet so mostly locals would be frequenting the cafés.

The scent of freshly brewed coffee lures her into the café, and she takes a big whiff of the aroma just to see if she could caffeinate her lungs too. Café L'Amour hugs the corner of Rue Monge with the perfect blend of being hidden from the bustle of the Pantheon but maintains the prospects of people watching easily. The large entryway welcomes passerbys, and a friendly waitress greets Genevieve at the counter.

Genevieve makes it clear she'll be having her Rooibos tea and Coco Matcha Amande Gateau sur place and nestles herself into the corner seat behind the wall. Natural lighting brightens the café from the large windows, and Genevieve sighs peacefully. The ambiance is serene and in no time at all, she is immersed into a fantastical world where the main character was reborn as a noble villainous during the Middle Ages and aims to change her reputation while finding love and peace along the way.

Émile had been sitting during his break at a table near the kitchen in the back eating his quinoa bowl quietly. He liked sitting in the back to monitor the customers coming in and observe his employees on the job. He had seen the auburn-haired, young woman come to the café often, and he'd always thought she was very pretty. Her best feature was the smile she always gave him when he came by her table. He preferred not to flirt or engage with the customers more than expected; yet, something about her always made him want to check in on her while she stayed at the café. Afterall, there was a community aspect from which he ingrained into his employees: Always try to make people leave the café better than when they first arrived.

Genevieve glanced to her left from the corner of her eye while she sipped her hot tea to catch a glimpse of the cute, young café owner. She could never tell if he was shy or just quite private, because he never really maintained eye contact for too long with her but was always attentive to her through other ways. Part of the reason she liked coming to Café L'Amour was due to her crush on the dark curly-haired, blue-eyed, quinoa-eating man in the back. The "massive compression" she had on him made her feel like a young girl in her early twenties all over again. It was like adding spice to her very normal, stable life.

Émile finished his late lunch and put the bowl in the sink before instructing his chefs to close the kitchen within the next hour. The café would remain open only for drinks until 17h that day. He had to make sure to leave promptly after cleaning and closing the café to pick up his 6-year old daughter, Aurelie, from her mom. Since he and his ex-girlfriend split up a year after Aurelie's birth, he had been maintaining a some-what workaholic lifestyle to fill the void of companionship when he wasn't with his daughter. He luckily had grown-up in Paris and maintained friendships with his schoolmates, but when he wasn't at work he prioritized spending time with his darling daughter. She was what brought him all the smiles after a long day at the café every day.

He walked past Genevieve's table and glanced at the woman buried into her book. She had leaned her head onto the adjacent wall and appeared entranced into the story. In actuality, she was very aware of his presence passing in front of her, but she pretended to not notice him. Why she did this, she doesn't really know. She's not particularly shy, but for some reason, she didn't want to seem like she was too aware of him either. Perhaps it was her pride.

As if on cue, he places a carafe d'eau (pitcher of water) on her table as if to announce his presence, and she looks up in mild surprise.

He gives her a small smile and asks how she is, "ça va?"

"Oui, et toi?" She gives him one of her charming smiles, and he stares at her for a second longer.

"Ça va." He looks away quickly and continues en route for the register.

Genevieve smiles to herself and returns to her story. The prince was about to reunite with the villain (who actually is a good person) in the countryside of the kingdom.

Inception

An hour and a half passes in no time at all, and Genevieve has finished her tea and cake. She pauses her reading to follow the biological urges of relieving oneself. Tea does that. She walks past the counter to the stairs descending to the toilets, and she and Émile share a brief glance. It's in the subtleties where nothing is said, but everything is understood.

She returns to her seat after reapplying her chapstick and lets out a sigh. She is thirty years old, and for the most part content with the life she has established this far. A successful career with financial stability, her own studio in Paris, and a pet cat that has survived under her care for the past three years. Looking up from her book, she watches the couple on the terrace laugh about something or the other and stares a little too long at Émile getting their order. With her head resting on her hands, she thinks about how many opportunities she had let by in the past decade. It was just so much easier to live in the world of fantasy and in her head than to take the risk of failing. What she thought of as failure, what she defined as failure, she felt was overwhelming.

She shakes her head out of the spiral and resumes reading the reunion of the prince and the villainous who accidentally became the main character in this reincarnation tale. Her head could not focus anymore though. She had spent a good amount of time in the café, and they would close in thirty minutes. With her focus diminished, she begins to pack up her things.

Émile returns to the counter and notices the Auburn-haired girl getting up from her seat. She looks up, and they hold each other's gaze for a moment. She walks up to the counter, and he asks if everything was good for the afternoon. She responds of course that it always is, and the small talk ends after he stamps her loyalty card.

The waitress and Émile bid Genevieve a bonne soirée (a good evening), and she steps onto Rue Monge towards the metro. With her hip hoppin' tunes playing in her ears once more, she doesn't even hear Émile call out after her. She had left her metro card at her table.

She is about to turn the corner when Émile catches up and faces her. She is surprised and takes out her ear phones as he holds up her metro pass with an unfortunate photo of her palstered in the front. Gosh, she thinks to herself in this situation, "if only he didn't have to identify me with that picture."

They converse for a bit, and she thanks him of course before they reach a pause at the end of their encounter. The wind blows mysteriously as it always does on those romantic scenes or perhaps it was all in Genevieve's head. Émile glances at his watch and realizes he needs to hurry to pick up Aurelie, so he bids her a farewell once again. Except, this time, Genevieve decides to stop him and ask him if he would have a drink with her some time.

Émile blinks but a glimmer of je ne sais quoi flickers in his blue eyes, and he accepts her request. He explains that he cannot partake in the rendezvous this evening, but they exchange numbers to find another time. He texts her that very night, and they end up grabbing drinks the very next evening.

They meet up again later the following week after work hours, and he arranged for a babysitter for Aurelie that particular night.

They kiss, they laugh, they love, and they disagree. They learn more about each other, and sometimes they fight. Once Genevieve stopped talking to him for a whole day, and he really couldn't stand it. Genevieve finds him too emotionally constipated, and he finds her hard to read when she doesn't explain why she's upset with him. They decide to try and improve their communication, so she starts telling him when something bothers her when it does rather than live in fear of being "too dramatic."

She eventually meets Aurelie a few months later, and the three of them take a weekend trip to Normandy. Aurelie is very fond of Genevieve, and Émile feels a bit of his anxiety dissipate.

Genevieve makes Émile dream a little again. He starts to open up to her about the pains of his childhood and the difficult relationship he had with Aurelie's mother. Émile helps Genevieve take more practical actions towards her ambitions rather than living in fear. After all, running a café was a risk he took about eight years ago and ended up being one of the best decisions in his life.

Café L'Amour still exists in Paris by a different name. You'll find it and know it when you see a handsome, French version of Bradley Cooper come by to take your order. Now, Genevieve, well, that just might be you about to embark on many little love stories with your Émile.

Thank you for reading my first "Coffee Break Love Stories from Paris" chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and stay tuned for my next chapter which will include different characters but somewhere else in the City of Love.

Sincerely,

Simi