Chapter 1

"I've never been more normal than I am now". --Adele

Ace's POV

I woke up hearing the phone ringing. I got up and sat in bed while rubbing my eyes and picked up the phone from the nightstand.

It's Zoe as I expected. She has been my morning alarm since I opened this cafe. I answered the call "Hey Zoe, I'm coming." Then I disconnected the call and put the phone back on the nightstand.

I started looking for my clothes as I only slept in my underwear. I opened my wardrobe and found a black shirt and black trousers to wear. Mostly I wear black clothes, the color is neither in my life nor in my wardrobe.

After getting ready I looked at myself in the mirror for one last time. My hair is scattered all over, there is still sleep in my black eyes. I tried to put a smile on my face so that Zoe wouldn't know that I had a nightmare tonight as always. I picked up my phone from the nightstand and put it in my trouser pocket.

I came out of my room and went down the stairs. I have been living here for two years. There are two rooms above the stairs. I live in one and the other is the guest room. If any employee does not go home due to bad weather, then I give that room to them to spend the night. And under the stairs is my cafe, not very big but exactly as I wanted. As soon as I got down the stairs I reached the entrance.

I took a deep breath and flipped the close sign to open. 

"Good morning Ace" Zoe greeted me while waving her hand. I opened the cafe door from inside and let her come. 

"Good Morning Zoe the weather is great today, don't you think?" I said while looking outside. She looked at me and then outside of the cafe "hmm it is, I hope we will get more customers today."

Zoe went inside the cafe towards the kitchen. she's always been like that, talk less work more that's why I hired her as my cafe chef.

I came out of my thoughts and went outside to see the morning weather. 

The sun is on my head, the wind blowing slowly while touching my face, it makes me feel that something is about to happen, something nice or unexpected. Or maybe it's just my illusion because nothing good ever happened to me.

I mentally laughed at my thoughts and looked back towards my cafe because this is the only good thing that ever happened to me.

"Brown's" I whispered while looking at the board of my cafe as many times I see it makes me more proud of myself.

Everyone told me don't open the cafe here and it was just because of the place. Still, I opened my cafe here because I don't want to run anymore. It's time to face everything and everyone.

This place took away everything from me, my pride, my strength, my existence, and if I could say in one word, "my father" 

This is the place where I lost my dad and he did not die in an accident, he was killed in front of my eyes.

I turned my back towards my cafe and now I can see the place where I last saw my dad.

He was there, across the road, on the meadow before the dense forest. tears start foaming into my eyes. This happened 12 years ago when I was only 10 years old yet it seems like it was only yesterday.

my eyes were fixed there at the same place, I can feel my wet cheeks, I'm crying.

"Hey, Ace…" someone's calling me from behind but the pain inside my heart has so much grip on me that I can neither move nor speak.

My breath is getting heavy and I feel like my heart is breaking into pieces, I am as helpless as that day, it was a normal day like today that took away everything.

"Ace, we're running out of chocolate syrup." the voice was getting closer, and still, I didn't respond.

I took a deep breath and held myself. 

I put my hand in the pocket of my trousers and took out a handkerchief and wiped my tears.

"Ace, are you alright?" I felt a hand on my shoulders. I looked back to see whose hand it was. 

"Yeah Eric, I'm fine," I said after seeing his worried eyes on me. 

So it was Eric who's been calling me for so long. I was so engrossed in my sadness that I didn't even know when Eric came to the cafe.

"No, you are not," He said in a very annoying tone. Eric is a waiter in my cafe but when it comes to worrying he becomes my big brother and I like it.

Because after dad's death, I only have Zoe and Eric in the name of family, both of them are my school days friends. My mother had rejected me even before my father's death and she considers me responsible for my father's death.

"I'm all right Eric, let's go inside." I tried to convince him with a big smile.

He looked at me suspiciously, his brown eyes were trying to read my face, I could see the wrinkle on his forehead.

He shook his head in disapproval. "I don't think so, your eyes tell you were crying." He grabbed my face with his palms and said "Uncle Brown would be very proud of you, so stop blaming yourself." He is 23, just 1 year older than me but he has always handled me like an elder brother.

"Let's go inside, I have to order chocolate syrup for you" I tried to change the 

topic and grabbed Eric's hand and brought him inside the cafe.

As soon as I reached inside the cafe, I dropped Eric's hand and went towards the cash counter. Picking up my phone I opened the message box to message our daily grocery supplier.

Eric got busy setting up the chairs and tables. I'm glad he didn't try to dig into this too much because if this had gone down to Zoe, it would have been even more difficult for me to explain to her.

"Have you ordered the daily stuff?" Zoe said as she walked out of the kitchen.

Seeing her coming, I turned my back to her. "Not yet, I was just going to order," I said, hiding my face. I don't want her to know that I was crying, I'm not afraid of her, I just don't want her to get upset because then she won't feel like working, and that's not good for the cafe.

I have only two employees and if they are upset because of me and don't work then my cafe won't last long and this cafe is my last hope.

"Also add these items too in the order," said Zoe while keeping the piece of paper on the counter table. I picked up the paper and started typing the things written in it in the message box. 

"Hey Ace, my hand is burnt, do you have any medicine?" Zoe said in a calm voice.

"what? How?" I turned quickly and looked at Zoe, there was no expression on her face, as usual, I took her hands in mine. Her hands are not as soft as other girls' because she works all day in the kitchen but the surprising thing was that there were no burn marks on her hand.

I turned my gaze back to her face and at this point, there was concern in her eyes and at that moment I knew that I had been tricked.

"Why were you crying?" I could feel the anger inside her by her voice.

"I… I'm not…" Before I could say anything, the door opened and a customer came in. He is our regular customer, he comes from the village and goes to work in the city and has breakfast every day from our place.

One part of the road in front of the cafe leads to the village and the other to the city and in the middle is our cafe. so the people going from village to city and city to village are the only customers we have.

Eric offered him a table and took his order. Zoe ran to the kitchen for preparation. I was a little relieved that Zoe didn't scold me and we got our today's first customer today. Seeing them both busy with work, I went to my room to take a bath. 

I took off my clothes and turned on the shower. Hot water dripped on my tired muscles, which made me feel relaxed. After showering, I got ready as soon as possible, as I know Zoe might need my help in the kitchen.

I went downstairs and saw 3 tables filled with people then I went straight to the kitchen. 

Zoe was blending coffee and I started chopping vegetables. She looked at me with a worried look but I told her with a bright smile on my face that "I'm fine, let's do it."

The whole day went quite busy and simple just like a normal day.