Future
"I got an idea." Daryl said, coming out from the kitchen in Punk's coffee shop.
"Give me a sec." Punk said, taking a tray with four coffee cups on it, heading out to deliver them to the waiting customers at a table.
He was secretly impressed with his waitering skills since he opened the shop. At first, he only trusted himself to carry one or two coffee cups, but now he really felt confident having a whole tray of them, which was a good feeling.
"Here you go, ladies." Punk smiled, sitting the coffees down on the table to what looked like a group of middle-aged women, "I really can't tempt you with a pastry or a donut? We got brown-sugar donuts and maple glazed today." He said.
"We've just been to Pilates. That wouldn't be a good idea." One of the women chuckled as they all smiled.
"Hey, life is all about balance." Punk assured them, watching them look at one another, silently conferring in their minds.
"We'll share two between us." One of the women nodded as Punk smiled, "We'll do one of each, of the donuts."
"Perfect. I'll get them to you right away." He smiled, leaving their table with his empty tray and heading back over to the counter.
"Ok, can I tell you my idea now?" Daryl asked excitedly.
"Give me a sec." Punk nodded to him, grabbing two plates out and using the tongs to place a donut on each.
"You're forcing people to eat cakes again?" Daryl assumed, "When I took their order, they said they'd just been to Pilates."
"And I told them, life is all about balance." Punk said, "Which it is."
"One smile from you and every woman in this place orders a donut." Daryl rolled his eyes as Punk smiled cockily.
"I have the gift of the gab." Punk shrugged, "I'll be back in a minute." He said, taking the two donuts over to the women and sitting them down on the table for them to share.
"We were just saying how we saw your shop listed on an article in the paper." One of the women said to Punk, "That must be a good feeling."
"It is." Punk smiled, "It's nice to be recognised for the hard work, for sure."
"I think I prefer coming over here than across the road, honestly." One of the women said as the other ladies nodded in agreement, "There's just too much choice over there, and the sandwiches here are outstanding."
"Well, I appreciate you saying that." Punk nodded, "But I think across the road is pretty great, too."
"Oh, of course." The woman nodded, waving her hand.
"You ladies enjoy those. You've earned them." He smiled before heading off back to the counter, not being able to help feel a little anxious about the comment the women had made.
Since he and AJ had been dating, there had been less focus on competing against one another with their shops. More focus had been on supporting each other. But he knew at the end of the day, they were the only two coffee shops in town, and certain people could definitely be swayed to one or the other.
"Now can I tell you my idea?" Daryl huffed as Punk came back behind the counter.
"Ok, go." Punk nodded, sitting is empty tray over by the others at the end of the counter.
"For the Fall Fair I'm thinking we could do soup." Daryl said.
"Soup?" Punk questioned.
"Yeah. It's cold out. People love soup when it's cold. It's easy to make a huge batch of it." Daryl said as Punk nodded along, "What do you think?"
"I think it's a good idea." Punk nodded, "I've also been looking at different sandwiches we could do this time round. Got some ideas from Pinterest."
"Pinterest?" Daryl raised a brow.
"Yeah. Shiv showed me how it worked." Punk shrugged, "Which by the way, April told me she's working with us at the Fair. She's home from college for the weekend."
"That's good." Daryl nodded casually, "Extra set of hands is always good."
"Have you spoken to her since she left for college?" Punk asked curiously.
"No. She's only been back a few times and I've not saw her." Daryl shrugged, "I suppose she's busy with studying."
"Yeah, Ape said she's having a great time." Punk nodded, "At least you'll get to talk to her at the Fair."
"Yeah." Daryl nodded, "Might be a little awkward, though." He admitted, scratching the back of his neck.
"Why?" Punk asked, "Cause you've not seen her in a while?" He assumed, stacking some clean coffee cups up above the machine.
"Yeah. And the last time I did see her, we kissed." Daryl said.
"What?!" Punk yelled, dropping a coffee cup as it knocked off the machine and smashed onto the floor, causing some customers to turn around for a moment.
"Jesus, calm down. Don't have an aneurism." Daryl shook his head with embarrassment.
"What happened?" Finn came out from the kitchen where he'd been prepping their sandwiches for lunch time.
"Butter fingers." Daryl shook his head as Punk picked up the broken mug.
"Oh." Finn nodded, disappearing back into the kitchen.
"You never mentioned it." Punk said, throwing the broken mug into the trash.
"Didn't think I had to." Daryl said.
"So you just kissed and that was it? You haven't spoken since?" Punk asked.
"Pretty much." Daryl nodded, "I just wanted her to know how I felt, but that… she should still go and live her best life at college. And she shouldn't feel guilty about it." Daryl said.
"Nobody said long distance relationships can't work, you know." Punk said.
"I'm pretty sure lots of people have said that." Daryl disagreed, "I… don't want to hold her back. She's destined for more things than this town." He shrugged.
"You don't have to say it like that." Punk said, "Like you're not worth it."
"Pretty much the truth, though." Daryl said, "We got customers." He said, desperate to find an escape out of the conversation, grateful to the couple who had just come in and taken a seat at a table.
"Did you know they kissed?" Punk asked AJ, standing in Alessio's, the pizza place, waiting for their take-out pizza to be ready.
"No. Shiv never said." AJ said.
"And you said she was making out with all these college guys?" Punk asked her.
"Yeah, she said there'd been a couple of kisses at parties." AJ nodded.
"So you don't think she feels the same as him?" Punk asked as AJ turned to him with a smile.
"I love how invested you are with them. I get it. They're cute and it's sweet but… they're young. Shiv is going to be at college for the next four years. Do you really think a relationship would work with them?" She asked.
"Well, they wouldn't know unless they tried. Would they?" Punk said as she rolled her eyes.
"You just want your adopted son to get the girl." AJ nodded.
"He's not my adopted son." Punk scoffed as AJ turned to him with a raised brow, "I just… care about his feelings is all." He shrugged.
"And I think that's so sweet. But you gotta let them figure it all out." AJ nodded.
"At least they have no choice but to talk to each other at the Fair." Punk said with a smirk as AJ just laughed a little and shook her head.
"Order for Mendez." A man behind the counter held out a pizza box.
"Yes, that's me." AJ smiled, reaching out and taking the box, thanking the kind man and leaving with their dinner for the night.
"You wanna eat it in the park?" He asked her.
They'd got off work at four and decided to just pick up a pizza for dinner. There was still a little bit of light outside, so eating in the park felt a lot more interesting than taking their pizza home.
"Yes, then we can people watch." AJ nodded happily as Punk chuckled.
"Your favourite activity." Punk noted.
"And yours. Be real." AJ scoffed.
"So, what do you normally do when your aunt comes to stay at Christmas?" He asked curiously as they walked along the street in order to get to the large park where the Fair was always held.
When there wasn't a Fair being held, it was open for the public as a space for picnics and walks, with lots of benches dotted around as well as a play park for kids and some water features.
"Honestly, we just chill out. She spends most of the year travelling. This is normally her time to relax and just… stay in the one place, I guess." AJ nodded, "We'll have dinner and she sometimes helps out at the café. She loves it there."
"She must be super proud of you." Punk nodded.
"I think so." AJ said, "Then there's the Christmas Fair, the Christmas party at the town hall." AJ listed, "It's a busy time."
"You cater for the party too?" Punk asked.
"We have the past few years. Which is kinda sad because we don't get to join in on the party as much. But it's still super fun." AJ nodded, "Little kids from the school do a little performance. It's adorable. Especially when one of the kids messes up their lines."
"Cruel." Punk shook his head as she chuckled.
"What did you do for Christmas? As a kid?" AJ asked him, still holding onto the warm pizza as they walked down the street.
"Not much. Money was tight and my parents were… insane." Punk concluded, "We didn't do Christmas dinner or have any kind of big celebration." He shrugged.
"Me neither." AJ said, "My aunt would save up all year round to buy me a couple of gifts. Normally they were comics. And then we'd have whatever was in the fridge for dinner. But I still love the idea of Christmas, even though I didn't really celebrate it."
"Yeah, me too." Punk agreed.
"I know when I have kids, I'm going to go way over the top. I'll give them the best Christmas ever. Every year." AJ nodded to herself as Punk smiled a little, turning to her curiously as she looked at him.
"You want kids?" He asked her.
"One day. Yeah." AJ nodded, "You don't?" She worried.
"I've… never thought about it. Not really." He said, "It's a big responsibility. I'm not sure if I'd be any good at it honestly." He admitted, scratching his neck nervously as she looked up at him.
"I think you'd be pretty great." AJ said as he smiled.
"Only because I'd have you." He assured her as she smiled, nudging him playfully as he smiled.
"I wonder if that church will just stay there forever." AJ said, looking over to the abandoned church where they had their first kiss.
"Seems like a big waste of land." Punk nodded, "I could build us a house there." He said as AJ rolled her eyes.
"You and this house." AJ chuckled.
"What? You don't want me to build you a house with my own hands?" He asked her as she smiled to him.
"I think it's… a bold statement." AJ said, "And an expensive statement."
"I am bold and expensive." Punk assured her as she chuckled, "It's where we had our first kiss too. That's something." He said.
"It is." AJ smiled, looking over at the church and all the land that was surrounding it, "It would probably be haunted, though. We'd disturb the spirits if we built on it."
"We can live with the spirits." Punk shrugged as AJ shook her head.
"I don't think so." She shook her head, walking into the entrance of the park.
"It's a good idea, is it not?" He asked her.
"I think you need to take a break from Pinterest and watching Love it or List it." She nodded as he chuckled.
"Yeah, maybe." Punk nodded.
Although both of them knew he wasn't joking. Not really. It warmed AJ's heart to hear him talk about their future together and all the ways in which he wanted to make her happy. This time last year, she could never have imagined her life looking like this, but she loved it so much. She loved him so much.