Blueberry

I had a choice to make. It was truly difficult, because it would probably affect my entire life. But, the choice had to be made. And if it were easy it wouldn’t be important, right? I felt my heart start beating faster, sweat prickled my forehead and I bit my lip, so that the frustrated scream that built in my throat wouldn’t burst free. This choice had to be made, but I did not know if I could make the right one.

“Miss!” I was startled out of my thoughts of life-and-death matters, by the guy behind the counter. “Just pick one, please.”

I frowned. “It’s hard. What if I pick one and it’s no good? I’ll regret it immediately and wish I had picked something else. And that could ruin my day and this could turn out to be the most important day of my life, so my whole life would then be ruined. All because I made the wrong choice. Would you really like that to happen to me, just because you rushed my decision? Would you, Simon? Huh?”

He gave me a look that clearly stated that I had, indeed, lost it. “Hon”, he said slowly, as if talking to a child. “It is just a muffin.”

“Just a muffin? A muffin? Are you aware of exactly how many flavours there are? I mean, there are vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, pecan, hazelnut, nougat, white chocolate, cherry, banana, blueberry, toffee, cappuccino, there’s even one with liquorice, right there. And not to mention all the frostings! The list goes on and on. This is not just a got-one-pick-one situation. This is a seriously difficult decision, Mr. Behind-the-Counter.”

He sighed again. “Well, do you know what kind of coffee you want, then? Or is that ‘a seriously difficult situation’, as well?”

I blinked at him. Was this guy for real? I shot a glance at my buddeli-bud next to me, but she just looked bored, as usual. I looked back at Behind-the-Counter-Simon. “No. Black, of course.”

He gave me another of those you’re-a-crazy-girl-and-you-know-it-looks and then went to pour my coffee.

I looked behind me. Oops, it was quite a line. Maybe I should just pick a muffin and risk miserableness for the rest of my life. A guy in his forties caught my eyes with a death glare. Double-oops, someone needed their caffeine intake.

“Jo.” I turned to my bored buddy-bud-bud. “What should I pick?”

“Blueberry”, she said, picking her perfect nails.

Hm, blueberry is nice. Very, very nice… “What makes you think blueberry?”

She still didn’t look at me. “’Cause you had chocolate last week.”

“Ah… Gotcha.” I pointed friendly at her. Not that she noticed.

By the time we got out of the café, the sun was beating down quite hard. Jo had already finished her double-latte macchiato and tossed the take-away mug in a nearby garbage can before pulling down her sunglasses from her forehead. I walked beside her, munching on my delicious muffin. Whoever invented muffins should get a prize. And the one who was genius enough to put blueberries in them, I would like to kiss. On the mouth. With my blueberry-tasting lips. Yum.

Jo looked at me over the rim of her glasses. “Enjoying your muffin, cupcake?”

“Whum-mum-wham-mam”, was my obvious answer to that.

She shook her head. “Good for you. Now, can we get to work, so Bella won’t fire me?”

I almost choked on my yummy-mummy muffin, because that was just hilarious. I swallowed. “Bella? Fire you? Right. And which universe will you be heading home to later?”

She wouldn’t look at me, but she walked faster, a suspicious red creeping up her face.

“Oh, come on. You know that girl has her hots for you. And you would not turn that down. Just admit it. I will be a bridesmaid at your wedding, I promise. Not the maid of honor, that’s way too much responsibility, but I could totally rock a bridesmaid dress. How about midnight blue?”

Jo flung her long, golden hair over her shoulder, with an impatient flick of her head. “Oh, shut up and eat your damn muffin.” She was quiet for a while. “And I would not have blue dresses in my wedding.”

I laughed and strolled along beside her. When we got to work – which was at the mall, me in the bookstore and she in one of the many clothing stores – neither of us was fired. That could be because we actually were on time or, you know, for the fact that on this sunny day, for no obvious reason at all, a dead guy occupied the entrance doors.