Coffee LOVERS

She had cried bitter tears after Nick left her – and now he was back

The Mexican sun beat down as Alina stood on the wraparound veranda of the shady farmhouse, watching the only road in. Parrots darted and called between the dense trees. Normally she loved watching their antics, but not today. When the phone rang she dashed into the house to snatch it up… ‘Hello?’

‘We’re about five minutes away,’ said Javier, her estate manager and friend.

‘Thanks, Javi.’ She put the phone down. The birds had been temporarily silenced by its ring. Now all she could hear was the slowly spinning ceiling fan and the hammering of her heart. Get a grip, she told herself. Breathe.

The coffee farm had been open to the public for months, but few dared drive the hairpin bends and crumbling roads to reach it. Alina had arranged for a minibus to pick the visitors up in town and drop them off near the base of the mountain, where Javi collected them in the truck for the bumpy final stage.

Thankfully, people seemed to think it was worth it to see a traditional organic coffee farm in action, and their numbers were increasing steadily.

But they’d never had a visitor like this... Why, oh why, hadn’t she asked Javi if Nick was on the truck? After all, she might be getting wound up over nothing. But Alina had never talked to Javi about Nick. She couldn’t. Not Javi.

*****

The crunch of tyres on gravel announced their arrival. With heart pounding, Alina peeped around the door. Normally she would be out there, greeting her visitors personally. She usually led the bilingual tours, too. But as people began to pile out of the truck, stretching and chattering, her nerve failed her.

‘Marcela!’ She beckoned urgently to a young woman crossing the yard. ‘You take this tour,’ she whispered.

Marcela was a language student, on placement from a local college.

‘By myself?’

‘You’ll be fine,’ soothed Alina. ‘You know the drill. It’s easy.’

‘But…’ Marcela looked close to panic.

‘Off you go.’ Alina shooed her out, then ducked back inside.

This was ridiculous! Look at the state she was in – and she still didn’t even know for sure whether Nick was in the group!

Alina only picked up her emails when she visited town once a week – the farm was too remote for the internet or a mobile phone signal – and she’d only received his message yesterday...

l’ll be in Mexico for a friend’s wedding. I’d love to see you and talk over old times.

His words coming out of the blue had sent her into a tailspin. Ten years. Ten years since she’d been a student in London. Ten years since she’d limped home, her heart in tatters.

Going to university in the UK, Alina had been worried she’d be homesick for the farm, but nothing could have been further from the truth – she’d embraced the crazy 24-hour lifestyle and loved every second of it.

When she went home at the end of that first term, Javi, her childhood friend, had made the long drive to pick her up at the airport. She would never forget the look on his face when he saw her new hair, new clothes and new attitude. He’d called her beautiful and she’d laughed. But he’d grown quiet on the drive home as she had raved non-stop about the wonders of city living.

That visit had really brought home the limitations of her old life. The huge, crumbling house had seemed so primitive.

A generator for electricity? Pumping water from a well? She couldn’t wait to get back to London. No – she couldn’t wait to get back to Nick, because by then they were already an item.

She’d never flown home for the holidays again, blaming the distance, her workload...

She loved Nick so much, and for three years she had been confident in his love for her. She had managed to ignore the signs that maybe he wasn’t quite as committed as she was.

As their final exams drew close and he continued to distance himself, it was easy to put it down to stress. But after the exams, when they should have been planning their future together, he’d dropped his bombshell.

‘It’s not working any more,’ he told her, eyes downcast. ‘I’m not ready. I need some space.’

Alina had been devastated. She’d offered to give him time, space, anything he needed. But he had ignored all her pleading, packed his things and moved in with a friend.

When Javi had phoned to tell her that her father was ill, she’d almost been glad to rush home. She’d even told herself that she’d go

Look at the state she was in!

back one day and pick up her life again, with or without Nick, but of course that hadn’t happened.

He’d promised to keep in touch, but she’d heard nothing, not even a postcard, until his sudden email.

*****

Javi stuck his head around the door. ‘Marcela’s freaking out. She’s not ready for this.’

‘Can’t you do it?’ Alina pleaded.

‘You know my English isn’t up to it. What’s going on?’ he asked.

‘Nothing,’ she said quickly and sighed. ‘OK, I’ll go.’

She would have known Nick anywhere. There were flecks of silver in his dark hair, but he was still fit and handsome. His face lit up in a smile when he saw her, but he didn’t approach as she took over the tour from poor Marcela.

Alina led the group up the hill behind the house. Showed them the coffee bushes growing in the shade of the banana trees, encouraged them to taste the rich red cherries, and laughed as they exclaimed in surprise at the sweetness.

She explained how the farm was now run as a co-operative, with a school and a church and a tiny hospital. She showed them where the coffee beans were fermented, then spread to dry in the sun. She cracked jokes and fielded questions but if anyone had asked her later, she wouldn’t have been able to recall a single one. Every cell in her body vibrated with awareness of Nick.

*****

They reached the end of the tour, where Marcela waited to dispense freshly brewed coffee and man the little souvenir shop.

While the rest of the group worked out how much coffee they could carry home on the plane, Nick finally approached her.

‘Alina. It’s great to see you. You look fantastic.’ There was open admiration in his gaze.

She smiled, feeling shy and praying he would think the heat was responsible for the flush on her cheeks. ‘Hello, Nick.’

‘You have no idea how often I thought about you over the years,’ he said.

Not enough to keep in touch, she thought wryly.

She was aware that Javi had returned to the yard. He glanced over at her and Nick, before lifting the bonnet of the truck and busying himself with the engine. Alina knew there was nothing wrong with the truck.

‘So what have you been up to?’ she asked Nick, giving him her full attention.

‘I travelled for a couple of years. Never made it to Central America, though.’ He smiled that old familiar smile and her heart skipped a beat. ‘Eventually

I landed in New York and got a job. I’ve had a couple of relationships, though nothing serious.’ He chuckled self-consciously. ‘That’s me in a nutshell. Now tell me all about you.’

‘I’ve been here,’ she said, her expansive gesture taking in their surroundings. ‘The place had been neglected for a while...’

She fought down a wave of guilt that she hadn’t come home to visit more often when she and Nick were an item. If she had, she’d have noticed that things were getting too much for her father, that standards were slipping.

‘Well, you’ve done a great job. I saw the advert online for the tours. I couldn’t believe it when I recognised your name.’ His gaze softened. ‘I... I have to admit

I often wondered how things would have worked out between us,’ he said.

The million-dollar question burned on Alina’s lips, fighting to escape. So why did you dump me? What was wrong with me? She said nothing.

Nick seemed oblivious to her churning emotions. He glanced around him. ‘Not quite the glittering future you’d mapped out for yourself,’ he said.

Was that pity in his voice?

Alina looked at her home through his eyes – the pretty yard, with its overflowing flower baskets and chickens running around. She heard laughter from the workers gathering now for the communal lunch that was served every day under the trees.

She looked at Nick’s casually sophisticated clothes.

From the corner of her eye she saw Javi had given up all pretence of tinkering with the truck and was watching them. Javi, with his calloused hands, his honest, laughing eyes, his body muscled from hard work rather than a gym.

Javi, who had abandoned his own plans and taken the job of farm manager when she so needed his help. Who sat up with her night after night in those early days as she struggled to balance the books.

Nick was right. This wasn’t the future she had planned. She had never intended to stay on the farm. But when her father died, she had felt a duty to the families who had worked here for generations. She’d worked hard, using her education to set up the co-operative with the intention that one day she would be able to walk away.

The farm had been doing OK for a while now. She could have left at any time. Yet here she still was. Stuck.

But not stuck here. Stuck in the past, refusing to move on. And it had taken seeing Nick again to bring that home. Yes, she could ask him why she hadn’t been enough for him. But what did it really matter after all this time? ‘Oh, it’s not so bad,’ she said cheerfully, tucking her arm through his. ‘Come and sample the coffee. But first, I’d like you to meet someone.’

Javi straightened as she led Nick towards the truck. His face gave nothing away but she saw his broad shoulders tense.

‘Nick, meet Javier. My future husband.’ She grinned at Javi, who started in surprise. ‘It’s been a while since he asked me, but if he ever does ask again, I fully intend to say yes.’

THE END

Maria Mcavoy, 2023

Was that pity in his voice?