My Cup of Tea

"There you go," Sophie handed Maddie the beverage she had just made for her.

"Thanks," she replied. Maddie took a sip from the cup and when the heat from the tea burnt her tongue, she blew the steam rising from the liquid away and quickly placed it down on the table in front of her.

"You're weird, you," Sophie said once she sat down opposite and repeated Maddie's actions, cursing under her breath at the pain of it. Maddie looked at her with a crooked eyebrow. "Four sugars—who has four sugars?"

Maddie laughed. "Someone who grows up drinking 'tea' as only a tea bag in cold water."

"Ew, don't remind me," Sophie cringed at the memory of spending the night in the halfway house.

"I need the sugar. I've been deprived of it, leave me alone," Maddie poked her tongue out at the brunette.

Sophie smiled at her adorable action. "Sorry."

"Why are you apologising?" Maddie chuckled again. "So go on then, why do you like tea the way you do?"

"I like my tea the way I like my women: strong, two sugars, a good cup," Sophie shrugged and took a drink.

Maddie wasn't sure what Sophie's sexual orientation had to do with it but she was interested. She slowly put her hand to her chest, insecure of what the girl meant.

"No, no, no," Sophie waved her hand, almost chocking on her tea. She placed the cup down quickly. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Maddie asked.

"Let me break it down. One second," Sophie got up from her seat and went across the kitchen to retrieve a pen and paper from one of the draws.

"Right, let's start with strong," she wrote the word down quickly then showed Maddie before pulling the sheet back to herself to explain it further.

Strong

Not physically strong with muscles.

Sophie started.

Independent; knows her own mind and can stand up for herself.

"Like you, you're a strong person because you don't take crap from anyone. You defend who you are and those you care about," Maddie smiled as Sophie said it. "And you aren't going to change your traits to please others. Although, you running off at the sign of trouble could change—"

"Hey! That's not fair, you know why!—"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry," Sophie giggled slightly, in hope it would lighten the mood. "I was the same, you know that," she smiled before taking hold of the blonde's hand and giving it a quick squeeze then went back to the paper.

Two Sugars

Sweet enough but not too sweet,

"What does that mean?"

"Never done a survey on it but I would say that two sugars is the average amount everyone has in their tea," Sophie held up a finger before Maddie could interrupt her, "and I like to think this is because we don't just want the taste of leaves and milk so we add sugar to level it out a bit."

Maddie was slightly confused. "Okay..."

"Not everyone likes their partners to be sweet and innocent, that's too many sugars. Not enough milk, too strong, everyone has a soft side," Sophie thought about what she said for a moment. "I said I like my tea strong didn't I?" she looked at Maddie to confirm it, she quickly nodded. "I thought I did. Milk is making this talk too complicated. I don't like it that strong; I need to be able to taste the milk."

"That could be taken in more ways than one," Maddie avoided eye contact, a slight smile playing on her lips. She focused her attention on circling her fingers around the ring of her cup.

"Don't go making an ingredient into an innuendo, no," Sophie shook her head. "As I was saying, too many sugars, four for example, are far too many—too sweet. I like girls who have a cheeky sense of humour, we need to be able to make each other laugh."

"Are you saying I'm too sweet, Saint Sophie?" Maddie crooked an eyebrow. "You're too sweet. Always helping others and that, praying to Jesus—"

"Not what you said last night—," Sophie put her head in her hands, trying to hide the blush on her face. "Anyway," she continued after she got herself under control. "Two sugars means, she knows she's in control of herself but is also slightly cheeky."

"Okay then..."

"Maybe that's why you have four sugars, you're too cheeky. I often wonder where you got it from," Sophie bit her lip. Enough about sugar, she thought and wrote down her final point.

Cup

"It's not what you think it is, I'm talking about the shape. Some mugs are one shape, others are different shapes. Some are big on top and small at the bottom. Some are round and have bumpy bits on them—" Sophie stopped herself. She realised what she was saying sounded bizarre. "You know the ones with patterns on them?—no, that's not right, most cups have patterns on them." Sophie struggled with what to say next. She went over a few sentences before breathing out a sigh in defeat. "Jack has one, it's—"

"I get what you're trying to say," Maddie giggled. "Go on."

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. "Then there's the funny shaped ones that difficult to hold with silly little handles and ones with big bottoms and—this is ridiculous," she tried to continue. "What I'm trying to say is I like the nicely curved ones. Like the ones in this house."

Sophie shook her head at how ridiculous the conversation they were having was but when she looked up to see Maddie's dimples smiling but at her, she scrunched her face up.

"You're weird," Maddie said after a moment of silence.

"I'm weird?" Sophie asked, shocked, her index against her chest. "You're the one asking me why I like tea when we're both suppose to be going to work!" she laughed.

"Aren't we still in that 'getting to know each other' stage? I was interested."

Sophie shook her head as she laughed again. She had come to realise that the girl opposite her had a thick skin, grown by herself because of her past but underneath it was a shy, innocent girl out of practice of some of the basic life skills to make a great human being.

Sophie grabbed the discarded piece of paper on the table and scribbled on it before she slid it across the wood, towards Maddie.

You're my cup of tea.