CHAPTER 6

Kyle Tries Some Tea

              It was only Kyle, Randy, Opal and Dale at the store today.  They just finished a rush of customers and were resetting themselves.  As Kyle was cleaning up behind the bar, he kept glancing up and noticed Dale was staring daggers in him.  Kyle didn’t know if those were daggers of malice or just the regular daggers Dale’s eyes seemed to carry.

              “Kyle!” The scream from Dale startled everyone.  Randy opened the door from the back, and Opal glanced around the corner to see what he had done.  As far as Kyle was aware, he hadn’t done anything wrong, and he began to panic as he looked around trying to figure out what he could have done.  Dale got up, and slowly began to walk over towards Kyle.  Randy went back inside the back room, then came back out holding a bag of beef jerky.  Kyle would find no help there.  He looked over towards Opal, who put her hands in a prayer position and mouthed I’m sorry to him.  Kyle was all alone.  Soon enough, Dale was upon him, towering over, ready to crush Kyle for the sin he didn’t even know he committed.

              “I’ve been watching you, Kyle…”  Kyle seemed to have made peace with his fate.  He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.  “Why haven’t you been drinking any tea…?”  He opened one eye, and looked up in bewilderment.

              “But…I’ve had some tea before.”

              “No, you’ve had tea other people have made.  But you yourself have never made any tea for you.  Why is that…?”

              “Oh, uhm….I don’t know, I guess I’m just not that into tea.”  Randy stopped chewing on his beef jerky as his eyes went wide with horror.  He then began to chew even faster in excitement.  Dale’s eyes also went wide before they narrowed.  Kyle may have made a worse mistake than the one he fanaticized about.

              “Ye work at a tea shop…and claim ye don’t like tea…?” Kyle hoped to one day figure out the tics to making Dale’s speech patterns change the way they do.  “Opal!” he exclaimed while snapping his fingers.  Before he knew it, Opal was right alongside him, eyeing him down.

              “Right.  I’ll fix him.”  Opal went and sat at the bar.  Kyle stood there looking at her, thinking she was going to start talking.  Instead he was caught completely off guard, as Dale grabbed him underneath the arms, and hoisted him over to the bar and planted him in a seat next to Opal.  Kyle wasn’t exactly big, but he was an average sized person.  Yet Dale carried him like a mere rag doll.  His bullish strength was no joke.

              “Uhm, could you not do that again?”

              “No.”  Dale headed behind the bar.

              “Ahem.” Opal cleared her throat to get Kyle’s attention.  She sat with perfect, elegant poise, as usual.  Knees together, palms on top of them.  She closed her blue eyes as she took a breath in, and opened them as she breathed out.  “Let me tell you of tea.”

              Opal began to speak of the drink, of the leaf, and of the history.  It was full of things Kyle never knew nor cared about.  He wasn’t sure if he would even remember any of it.  But Opal’s way of speaking, simultaneously cool and collected yet filled with passion and love kept dragging him back in every time his attention trailed off. It didn’t help that Kyle was still a man, and her pretty face kept distracting him.  Kyle also learned some interesting new information.

              “So that’s where you met Dale, working at a tea shop that he began to visit!”  Opal looked a bit nervous after that

              “Oh, uhm, not exactly…”

              “Try these.”  Kyle’s attention was so fixated on Opal that he didn’t even notice Dale had 10 cups laid out in front of them.  How long was Opal talking…?  “They’re all a different tea.  We’re going to find what flavor you like.”

              “Oh, that’s alright, I-“

              “Don’t refuse, Kyle.” Randy had found a way to sneak up on him now.  “You DO work at a tea shop, after all.  It would be a little weird if you didn’t know at least a little about what the teas taste like.”  He had a point.  It’s not like he disliked tea, the cup or two he’s had were good.  Kyle shrugged, picked up a cup at random, and took a sip.

              “Hmmm, it’s alright.  Tastes like strawberries.”  Dale pulled out a notepad and wrote some stuff down.  He then pointed to another cup, with a light green hue.  Kyle picked it up, and took another sip.  He nearly spit it out, furling his brows in displeasure.  “Man, what is this, grass?”  Opal pouted, but Dale continued to write things down.  He pointed to another cup, this one was very dark.  Kyle picked it up, and eyed it closely.

              “Don’t worry, it’s not grassy,” Dale assured him.  Kyle took another sip.  To his surprise, he quite enjoyed it.

              “This is pretty good actually.  It’s not flavored, but I can still taste some kind of flavor.  That doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

              “That’s the natural flavor of tea.  ‘Unflavored’ doesn’t mean no flavor, it just means no added flavors.” Opal lectured, as Dale took down some more notes and pointed to another cup.  A light yellow color this time.  Kyle sipped, and shrugged.

              “No real opinion on this one.”  Dale was already pointing to another cup.  Kyle wanted to protest, but knew it would be futile.  He sipped, and this time he enjoyed it considerably.  “Oh wow, this is really good!”

              “Last one.” Dale pointed to another cup.

              “But there’s other cups remaining.”

              “Doesn’t matter.”  Kyle shrugged again, and took a sip.  Then another.  Then he chugged the entire cup down.

              “That was amazing!” Dale nodded without a smile or even a sign of happiness.  He handed over the notepad to Opal.  She analyzed it for a bit, then looked up at Kyle.

              “I’ll take it you’re a coffee drinker?”

              “Uhhh, yeah?”

              “And you like spicy food.”

              “How’d you guess?”

              “Flavor profile.  Dale was able to figure out what you like and didn’t like based on your reactions to it.  You like stronger stuff, and preferably with a little bit of spice to it.”   Kyle was intrigued.  He’d never done something like this before, and thinking back she seemed to be right.

              “And luckily for you I have a few teas that I now know you’ll enjoy.”  Kyle found it odd how Dale would do all this just to find out what teas he liked, yet seemed completely apathetic to the whole experience.

              “So how did you learn how to do that?”  Kyle’s question managed to light up Opal’s face.

              “Oh, that’s because of me!  I showed him how to do it.  In fact, I’m the one who got him into tea!”

              “Really?  That’s surprising, I assumed that since you met Dale at a tea shop that he was already drinking it.  He doesn’t look like he’d ever go near the stuff.  How’d you do it?”  Opal’s smile slowly began to fade, as she looked over towards Dale, who had his back turned, rinsing out the cups.

              “Doesn’t matter.”  Those two words from him seemed to end the conversation right then and there.  Everyone went back to work, finishing up the day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7