"Welcome to Ealdor's café how can I help you?" The voice I've had grown used to hear these past months greeted me so early in the morning, her bright smile in place as she stood in front of my usual table "Good morning , the usual?".
"You know me Merlin" I replied giving her the menu back.
"One piece of carrot cake and vanilla tea coming out" she took the menu and headed towards the coffee bar, smile never leaving her face.
I stumble into this homey café not more than half an year ago, for the first time in my career I had woken up late and was about to be late for work. Even though I was the boss in Camelot's Enterprise I couldn't put a bad example to my employees. I knew that I didn't time to wait for my personal chef to make me breakfast and couldn't trust anyone by buying my breakfast from those horrendous cafes, who knows what they put in their food. I remembered that one of my colleagues mentioned a new café that opened in the neighbourhood of my building, it was a very good spot because Camelot's Enterprise wasn't the only business there, there's long lines of people during the mornings for a quick breakfast to go for work and during lunch days the place is infested with employees. Also, the food and coffee are said to be magical. So for the first time I went and bought my own breakfast.
However, we are talking about Merlin and if there is something I've learned from her in this time is that nothing is simple with her. When I got there, there was already a long queue. All of them knew them, was it because they worked for me or they worked from allied companies they made room for me to go first as soon as they saw me. Merlin on the other hand, totally ignored me and continued attending the one who was supposed go, I was furious. How dare she ignore me?! Didn't she know who I am?! When I told her so she replied: "Oh, no. I know who you are. You are Uther Pendragon, the CEO of Camelot's Enterprise. But even though you own one of the most successful companies, you are still a man as any other one here. So, I'll treat you as such. If you want your breakfast you'll have to make queue and wait for your turn as any other person. At least you have the advantage of running your own business, so if you are late you won't have a boss bitching you about it and maybe even discounting it from your salary. The rest of us here don't have that luck, so stop being such an overgrown bully and be grateful for it. When was the last time that you've been grateful for something so simple that you take for granted and didn't demand more as a greedy pig?!".
Saying that I was stunned would have been the underestimation of my life, no one has ever stood up to me like that. I was so shocked that I didn't even yelled at her or threaten her business, that's when I noticed how right she was. I had like an awakening call. For once I followed someone's order and went to the end of the line. I had enough time to think about how right she was, I used to reprehend my son about behaving like that and now I was acting as such. But even then I couldn't let her get away with humiliating me in front of my employees. However, she reminded me of… Ygraine. No matter how much I wanted to negate it, or was disgusted with myself at comparing my precious and perfect Ygraine with a common girl. But it was cristal clear how much they were alike. The way she stood up to me, hands on her hips, pursed lips and a frown on her face, while her eyes were shinning with a fire full of challenge and determination for fighting in what you believe in. The way she smiled at every costumer, eyes shinning with kindness.
Normally I wouldn't be able to read someone so fast and so good, but the similarities this girl had with my difunde wife were so much that reading her behaviour came naturally. What surprised me later on that day was that when I reached my office, five minutes early, I didn't only have a cup of black coffee and two croissants, but also a piece of carrot cake and a small note:
Sorry for the scene that we caused in the café, even though I still stand firm for what I said and that you didn't act as an adult should have I was still out of line. Also, snapping at you in front of your employees was uncalled for. I hope this can serve as a peace offering, it is the speciality of the house: Ealdor's carrot cake. It's on the house, hope you come back soon,
Merlin Emyrs.
I chuckled to myself at how Ygraine it was, even when she was the one that always apologized first after one of our fights she never gave me the right, she always made emphasize that I wronged her and she just defended herself. But what surprised me the most and made me come the following day was her carrot cake. Ygraine used to hate cooking and baking, but her family's carrot cake was the only thing that she made for me. It was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my life, when she… when she died I looked for a similar copy everywhere, in hope that I could at least give my son something of her mother to him to know. But I never found something that at least was similar to it. So I just gave up, but now, twenty-seven years later, I finally found it.
I went back the following day, earlier this time so I could have my breakfast in peace. I ordered a piece of carrot cake and a cup of vanilla tea. This time I was attended by a waitress called Freya, she wasn't like Merlin. This girl was shy and easily embarrass, I learned a few things from her such as: that the café was owned by Merlin, that she normally didn't leave the kitchen during the mornings only if someone called sick and that she worked as a waitress during the late afternoon, after she finished with her cooking classes, because she liked to get to meet her clients. I knew that interrogating the staff for information about their boss wasn't normally correct, but I have to always be in control of everything and knowing the background of who I am treating with is essential. That's why later on I had Leon make a through background check on Merlin Emyrs.
When I demanded to meet the one that baked the carrot cake I wasn't surprised when brought Merlin. She looked surprised to see me again so soon, but smiled happily. I asked her what was Ealdor's carrot cake made of, she looked funny at me and replied that it was just a carrot cake, that it didn't have anything special. I tried stubbornly again, but this time I let my wife's name slip. Her gaze softened and a small kind smile replaced her amused smirk, the only thing that didn't make me glare at her when she gave me that look was that there was no pity in her eyes. It is a worldwide knowledge that my wife's death took a toll on me and still pains me.
"Look Mr. Pendragon" she had said "The only thing special about this cake is that I put all of me on it. My mother used to make it for me all the time when I was a kid, this cake brings back the best memories of my childhood and always makes me smile when I eat it. The idea that I can make people happy, at least for a while, makes me want to bake it perfectly. I just put all my love in it, not only for my childhood memories but also for all of you. So thank you".
"What for?" I had asked confused, she was the one that brought me Ygraine back.
"For noticing that it is an especial cake" she had answered before returning to the kitchen.
The memory of her kind smile haunted me that night. I came back everyday since then, but nit in the mornings but in the late afternoon when Merlin was a waitress. After a couple of months I began coming later, just in the end of her turn so I would be the last person she serves and then she would sit down with me and we would talk. However, during the week-ends I came at the morning to have breakfast and Merlin sometimes takes a break to have a small chat with me.
I would complain how the only ones that really do their job good were my son and Leon, give her a few tips to make her café even more successful and tell her about my kids and how I regret loosing them. But I only opened up after she did it first, she told me about her absent father, about how this café wasn't always as successful as it is now, that in the beginning when her mother started it sometimes they didn't get enough to make it to month's end. That she only took over when her mother got diagnosed with cancer, luckily her uncle was a doctor and was able to help her with the treatments, but they still had to support the house, the café, pay the debts they had and pay for her mother's treatments, that even though were cheaper thanks to her uncle they were still expensive for them.
She confessed that it had been a very difficult stage in her life and that she had almost dropped out of college, even when she had a full scholarship thanks to her brains. The only reason that she didn't was because her mother threatened her with not following the doctor's orders of reposing and going back to work so that Merlin could study and not make the same mistakes as her. But even then Merlin studied Business Administration, even when she wanted to be a chef, to help her mother. She claimed that she could learn to cook on her own and was good, but you could easily notice how it pained her to have to give up her dream to help her family. At least now she was able to take some cooking lessons.
Merlin told me that at the beginning was very difficult, getting the neighbourhood to know you and remaking the menus so that it would suit the tastes of the clients. She informed me that the coffee bar and being able to buy take outs was her idea, cause she saw that her clients were mostly employees that didn't have enough time to sit down and have a relaxing meal, so they had to eat at the office most of the times.
I asked her if she still had debts to pay, even when the business was going so well. She said that even after four years of her managing the place and almost three of them with the café being so successful, she still had a few medical bills to pay for her mother's treatment. The debts that her mother had, that her father left them when he abandoned them, were a lot, and the treatments that her mother had to go through to save her, even with the help of her uncle, were expensive. I felt for this girl, that was so similar to my wife and at the same time so different (clumsy, hot tempered, noisy and sometimes really stupid no matter what a genius she was).
So, for the first time in a long while I did something selflessly for someone who wasn't family, I contacted the hospital Merlin's mother got treated on and paid all the debts the Emyrs' family had with them. But now that I think about it, I began considering Merlin as the daughter I never had with Ygraine. Not that it means I want her to replace the place of Morgana, that day I found out that I loved Merlin as much as I loved Morgana and in the same way. Of course, I had hell to pay afterwards when Merlin found out about my intervention. It took a while but she finally relented and accepted my help, I still have to find a way she would accept my present for her twenty-third birthday. How can I get her to accept a car for a birthday if she didn't accept my money when she needed help? Maybe make it seem as if she won it in a lottery? I still have to figure it out.
"Stop right there Uther" Merlin warned me with a pointed look as she placed my order in front of me and sat down.
"Stop what?" I asked, honestly confused. She couldn't have figured it out, I still haven't done anything!
"I know that look, is the same one you had before you decided to pay the medical bills of my mother. You are thinking about spending your money on me" she raised an eyebrow, it kind of reminded me of the judgmental eyebrows of my best friend Gaius "Don't you dare to do it!" She hissed "What could I need that you have that thoughtful look thinking of a way that I would accept something very pricey! Oh, no… you can't be serious! You are not buying me a car! Why would you even want to buy me a car?!" She exclaimed annoyed.
"You were just complaining about public transportation the other day! Sorry for trying to take care of you!" I snapped back, annoyed myself that she wouldn't accept help.
"Why do you even want to take care of me?!" She whined, followed with a deafened sigh.
"Because I love you!" I exclaimed. We both froze, looking at each other in surprise. Luckily the café was almost empty and our discussion was being held in low hissing "I mean… you hold a very special place in my heart Merlin. You remind me so much of the wife I lost, but at the same time you are so… you" the You are like family to me was left unsaid but I knew she heard it loud and clearly.
"I am not a replacement for your defunct wife Uther" was the only thing she said after a while of staring at me blankly.
"I know, trust me I know. I don't want you to be, for God's sake you are younger than my children! What kind of monster I would be if I wanted you like that" I assured her.
"That said, you are like family too" she told me with a bright smile, that I returned but in my case was a small one "Talking about family, how are your children? I thought you were meeting with them today" her smile was replaced with a worried frown.
"I was supposed to…" I sighed sadly "You asked me earlier why I wanted to buy you a car, giving the people I care about what they need is the only way I know how to show my affection. In this case a car for your comfort, in my children's case money, the best clothes, food and every accommodation anyone could have ever imagined. But…"
"You were never there for Arthur's sword fighting matches, not even when he won a golden medal in the Olympics. Or to Morgana's school plays. Or to any parents' day. Or when Morgana and Sorcererss had their first concert… or any concert at all. I know, you've already told me that. But you are changing, you are going to any local concerts that Morgana's band is playing on. You are spending more time with your son, and not only in office hours. Is it that they can't see that?" She asked angrily.
"They can, but it doesn't change that for more than two decades I had been an absent father that only tossed money at them and expected other to take care of them" I replied, not angry anymore but frustrated and defeated. The latter one a feeling that I never felt before, only lately when I finally realized what a big mistake I committed with my children and when Ygraine died.
"They still have to be grateful that they have the chance to be with you! I never met my father and my mother was absent as well in my upbringing, of course the boat isn't the same one for my mother did it so she would be able to support us, but… when she had cancer I… I feared not being able to see her again, to have finally lost her. They should forgive and make amends with you, who knows what might happen tomorrow. And if you three were still angry at each other… I know that will be something you'll regret forever" I had to stop her mid rant so she would take a breath "Sorry" she apologized sheepishly "It gets the best of me sometimes".
I had to smile, I was happy that someone cared about me like that to get angry at other for me. Even when she knew what kind of man I am.
"Come to Saturday's dinner" I offered/ordered her. She looked as surprised as I felt, but didn't show it "I would like my kids to meet you, you will be an excellent influence on them".
"They will come? Or will they stand you up like today?" She asked, I could still hear the anger on her tone.
"I stood them up a lot of times, raising their hopes only to have them crushed again and again. Don't hold it against them" I calmed her down "And Saturday's dinners is something that no one ever misses. Before they were cold and uncomfortable, no one spoke. Now they are better, but there's still some mistrust from my children. Surely waiting for the other shoe to drop" I chuckled humourlessly "It is to be expected… but don't worry, they'll come".
"Then I'll be honoured to be there for you" she answered softly, holding my hand above the table with a kind and assuring smile.
What did I do to have gained such an amazing daughter? I thought amazed, Damn it all. I'll buy her a car and make sure she stays with it, no matter what.
"Stop it right now! You have that look again! You will not buy me a car Uther Pendragon!" I just laughed whole heartily at her warnings "I am talking seriously! You hear me!".
Yes, I am definitely buying her a car. If it is only to see the look on her face when she sees it. I thought decisively.