Earl Grey Tea

“Hi Nad, do you want to go out for a coffee?”

It had been a year since I’d heard from you or heard that phrase. In hindsight, it’s funny you always referred to going out for coffee, when we in fact would end up drinking tea.

Tea had been foreign to me until I met you. We were coffee drinking Italians. The only tea we knew was camomile tea, which was dispensed for medicinal purposes for everything from menstrual cramps to pneumonia.

You were Japanese and tea was a constant in your home. I can still remember your late mother gracefully preparing a pot of tea in your family home. You introduced me to tea and I soon discovered that I liked tea, if it was strong and sweet and laced with milk, the way I liked my coffee. I like the aroma of tea and perhaps the romance of tea, the way royalty was always depicted drinking tea. I tried to imagine the Queen with a mug of coffee and the picture just didn’t look right.

So now a year after our fight, we’re sitting at the Coffee Mill and I’m playing with an Earl Grey tea bag. Once I place this bag in the cup and pour the hot water we will have come full circle. My heart will be whole again and I will have my best friend back. There is so much I want to tell you, but it can wait. For now I want to savour this cup of tea, Earl Grey tea, strong and sweet and laced with milk.