74: Ted's Café

Ted's Café made proper tea. Not the fragrant stuff in a china cup with a saucer and chintzy flowers. Ted's tea was just like he liked it – strong, plain and plentiful.

He only bought plain coloured thick china mugs. Mostly they were white but one batch were blue and white, the exact colours of the walls in his classroom at school. They reminded him of his teacher, Miss Potterton. As children they weren't surprised she wasn't married. Who would want to get married anyway? As an adult he understood how she may have been lonely sometimes and how your job could become the only really important thing in your life.

Running a café was never something Ted had planned. He worked as a builder with his brother until an accident left him unable to lift and that was that. Probably explained the origins of Ted's builder's tea though. When he was recuperating he sometimes had lunch at a local greasy spoon and he got a part time job serving, to help ease him back to work. A great aunt left him a small but unexpected inheritance, so he used it to buy a share of the business. When the owner wanted to retire, Ted bought her out, changed the name and ran the café himself.

Ted decided it might be time to find a woman he could share his life with. His brother always seemed so happy with his family, even if he did complain about the kids and his wife's nagging. Ted knew he was really proud of them all and wouldn't change anything about them, probably not even the nagging.

Ted placed a classified ad in his local paper that read “Proficient tea-maker seeks lovely lady to deliver bedside cuppas to of a morning. Would appreciate favour being returned once in a while.”

He's still sorting through the replies.