Reino POV.
Raindrops still wet and sweep the streets outside the coffee shop. Reino sat in the corner of a shop, sipping Juan's brew coffee. A cup of Americano coffee is his choice tonight. Americano coffee is coffee that is the result of the coffee extraction process with a high-pressure coffee machine that produces a brew of coffee called espresso. The result of steeping from the machine makes the coffee thick black and there is the cream on the surface. Cream in the form of brown foam that fills the surface of a cup of espresso as well as a sign that the brewed coffee is still fresh.
For Reino, who is already in the coffee business, Americano coffee is like a simple principle in his life, he doesn't have much to mix in life, including love. He doesn't need that. Americano coffee only requires two elements, namely coffee and hot water.
He stared out the large glass beside him which instead of the wall of his shop. Yes, the coffee shop that is located in the city center is his since he finished college. He tried his luck in the coffee business. Although at first, it was very difficult to set up the coffee shop, finally in recent years, his shop has attracted great demand for coffee fans, especially when he added a coffee menu that is trending among young people. Cappuccino and mochaccino are the most preferred choices for young people.
Luckily, he has Juan. Juan was his first employee when he started his shop. A handsome young man who can attract customers comes from his friendly demeanor. Not only that, but he also has the skills to make coffee that coffee connoisseurs want, especially girls.
Woman? Ah… Reino blinked in horror, considering that one God-created being. All his life he never fell in love. Never mind making love in bed which some men think is so delicious that they can't live without having sex for a day. To only have female friends, Reino didn't have one. There is a trauma in being close to a woman.
Reino took another sip of his coffee cup until it was crushed. Tonight is a happy weekend for some people because only on weekends they can spend time with their partners. Evidenced by the increase in visitors to the coffee shop. Reino was nervous, he had not made a decision on Juan's proposal.
On the weekends, the shop is so crowded that Juan and some of his male employees are overwhelmed with the customers who come. Yes, right! All the employees who work at his coffee shop are Adam, because of that, Reino was upset.
The reason is that Juan proposed a name that he could certainly guess that the owner was a woman.
Ruby, the name Juan proposed as an additional employee on the weekend. Call it a weekend intern. It has been more than hundreds of times that Juan suggested Reino try to connect with women, even if they were just friends in cyberspace. However, Reino couldn't. He always couldn't continue his conversation with women. Past trauma makes him feel like he is behind a thick wall that limits his heart to a woman.
"Reino, how about my proposal? Try to give in to your ego a little. Poor customers if they wait for orders to wait in a long queue?"
Reino ignored the voice of Juan who approached his seat. He was still fixated on the water drops that fell from the sky. What? Ego he said? Reino did not accept that his rejection of women was only because of ego. Not. It is not that. No one knows about his past trauma. Even Juan didn't tell me about it.
"Suppose you are doing charity. Helping a girl who is looking for an economic livelihood for her family."
Reino turned to Juan right after hearing his last sentence.
"All right. I accept it only as much as your recommendation. You must take full responsibility for it. I do not want to bother with all her attitude later."
"Thank you very much. I owe you."
"No, I just run my nature as a human being who must help fellow humans. I don't see her as a woman. She is only a human being who needs help," Reino said coldly.
Juan breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he was able to help Ruby find additional money for her family. Juan has been friends with Ruby since his high school days.
For a long time, Ruby volunteered to ask Juan to help her recommend herself to his boss Juan, but Juan always refused. The classic excuse that his boss's coffee shop doesn't accept female employees. But Ruby isn't her name if she can't enforce him will. Until finally Juan ventured to submit a proposal to Reino, his boss.
"Only Ruby. No one else … "
"Yes? Sorry, I was daydreaming, so I didn't hear what you said."
Reluctantly, Reino repeated his words.
"She's the only woman I've accepted an apprenticeship here. Nothing else. No more."
"Okay boss. Only Ruby, nothing else, I promise."
After receiving a nod from Reino, Juan returned to his place of making coffee. Mingle with other employees.
The rain outside was still falling as if the clouds could no longer block the water it had absorbed from the earth. Reino stubbed out the cigarette butts that were left with a finger into the ashtray on the table. He then glanced at his watch, it was still four o'clock. He then grabbed his car keys and walked out of the shop, home.
****
The streets seem crowded on weekends like this, even though the rain still flushed the city where Reino lived. He has lived in this cramped city since his college days. From childhood, he lived with his father and stepmother. His biological parents divorced for a long time and he was abandoned by his mother since he was in elementary school.
His mother left because she can't handle his father's drunken behavior. Not long after the divorce, his father brought home a sexy woman, to replace his mother. Instead of Reino hoping to get a mother's love, he was treated by his stepmother very harshly. And the peak of his rough treatment was when he turned junior high school by attaching a hot iron to his back.
Poor Reino finally fled to the big city to seek protection from his stepmother's cruelty. He stumbled to life on the streets as a hobo looking for a decent living for him to survive. Being able to eat twice a day is a luxury for him.
Luckily, good fortune approached his life, so that he could slowly organize his life until he could finish school and earn dollar coffers to expand his business. When he was able to organize his life, news came from his village that his parents had an accident.
There was a trace of sadness but more hurt that closed his conscience. He is grateful that the evil woman died in the street.
Like bitter black coffee, there is no need to compare his life. He drowned his bad memories as if drowning them in the bottom of the black coffee cup he used to drink, bitter but that's his life. It's just a cup of coffee, no need to remember the bitter taste.