[Pursuit of Diligence 4] Coffee For Thought

Marianna and a colleague of his that also worked at the Church of Sulfur, a stoic Greed bun known as Furfur, were tidying up the Bunnery by sweeping and making sure all surfaces were clean. Since it wasn’t Breeding Season, there were not as many baby buns tucked away in baskets this time around. 

It had been almost a week since Marianna had left the Heavenly Embassy following his last moments with Primrose. The sour note on which they parted ways left a heavy feeling within the Pride bun’s heart. And, of course, his inherent personality trait from the horns he was granted after his infancy kicked in. Why should he have to make the first move and reach out? Marianna wasn’t even sure what to say after everything Primrose had revealed to him about his true intentions… 

Marianna’s feelings did not get wounded easily, but this time it was different. Never had he experienced someone feigning interest in him just to feel better about themselves. It just wasn’t right!

Furfur observed the hasty way that Marianna swept the floor; as to distract himself from the elephant in the room. “Mary… you haven’t even taken your lunch break yet. Please take a moment to-”

“I’m not that hungry,” Marianna interrupted.

Furfur stepped over to the Pride bun and firmly put his hoof on the broomstick handle. They met eyes for a moment; gaze ever-so stone-cold as usual. 

Marianna couldn’t hold eye contact for much longer before looking down and letting go of the broom.

“Okay… okay, I’ll take a break… I guess I am a little peckish,” Marianna conceded. There was no fighting him.

“I’ll finish up here. Go eat your food,” Furfur demanded as he motioned to the door that led outside of the Bunnery. To which Marianna left in a scurry.

 While sitting outside of the Church on a bench, digging into his lunchbox hungrily, Marianna stared at his dark phone screen that was still off. He sighed and held the power button on, daring to see how many notifications would pop up.

Surprisingly, not too many digital banners filled up the screen other than some emails. However, Marianna’s eyes widened slightly as he saw a voicemail or two from none other than the Cherubun he thought was his friend. He was scared to listen to them, but he saw a few text messages as well. 

The first one read: ‘Hello Marianna. I hope you are doing well. I left you some voicemails after attempting to call you, but I understand why you did not answer. So I hope that these text messages at least reach you. I hope we can speak again soon.’

The second one, sent a day later, read: ‘Hello Marianna. It’s Primrose again. Of course. I hope this message finds you well. The flowers that you helped me water are starting to bloom very nicely. I could not have done it without your help. I do hope you will come back to see them. You always said you hoped to see what they look like when they’re grown.’

As he scrolled the texts, Marianna’s face fell. His stomach turned with guilt. Was he being too cold? Ignoring Primrose like this? The rest of the texts were just small tidbits of a poor attempt at trying to start small talk, but not trying to be too overbearing. Though, it was easy to tell that all the words typed out and sent were tinged with hopes of a response.

The Pride bun set his phone down and took a deep breath, wanting to cool off before making himself listen to the voicemails. He continued to eat; it was difficult to stomach anything right now with the anxiety eating at him, but he knew he would regret it later if he didn’t have something in his system.

Once he finished his food, he tapped through his voicemails and put the phone up to his ear. Primrose’s voice was calm and collected as usual, but Marianna could hear a hint of nervousness in there somewhere. 

‘Is this recording? Ah, *ahem* … Hello, Marianna. I apologize for bothering you again. I wouldn’t reach out over a phonecall if this wasn’t important, but… I don’t know who else to trust with this at the moment. You earned a lot of praise from Dove after delivering that special tea to her, so I would really appreciate your help with something else. You won’t have to see me in person so don’t worry. I would just need you to pick up some coffee beans and deliver them to Beanny at her café. I know you like having drinks there, so you would be familiar with it. I leave a spare key under a medium sized flower pot next to my front door at the Embassy. You can use it to enter my home and get the coffee beans on top of a wooden end table inside. If I don’t hear from you by the end of the weekend, I can do it myself. It’s not a problem… Anyhow, hope you’re well.’

When the voicemail ended, Marianna slowly lowered his phone and stared at the screen. He let his head hang and thought for a few long moments. Primrose was so insistent on Marianna helping him. But why? The Cherubun no longer had anything to prove to himself. He could just find another Succubun to ‘convert’ to the ‘good side’ or whatever. Bitter thoughts raced through his mind, but the little angel on his shoulder kept poking at him to at least send a text.

As steadily as his fingers could, Marianna opened up his messages with Primrose and texted a brief reply: ‘Hi Primrose. I got your voicemail. I am free tomorrow, so if it is still needed, I can come by and get the coffee beans around the afternoon.’

After shooting off the text, only a minute or two passed before little speech bubble dots popped up on the opposite side of the phone screen; meaning the recipient was typing. Primrose must have been on his phone already…

Ding! A response from the Cherubun said: ‘Sounds good. Thank you very much.’

The following day, Marianna made his way to the Embassy and took his usual route. It was familiar to him now so he didn’t need to think much when traveling there. Sometimes he thought of how nice it would be to just… live here.

Upon arriving at the steps of Primrose’s quaint little home, Marianna rummaged around the flowerpot the Cherubun mentioned. Lo and behold, there was a shiny gold key under it.

The Pride bun used it to unlock the door carefully. A subtle smell of vanilla wafted to his senses. There was a small incense holder on an end table along with a pot of white lilies. On the floor next to the end table was a bag labeled as the coffee beans.

Marianna glanced around out of curiosity. The decor and furniture was what he expected it to be: muted colors of creams, whites, and beiges. No clutter nor a spot of dirt or dust to be seen. It made Marianna smile to himself as he picked up the bag of coffee beans. Making sure to lock the door behind him. He wondered how Primrose was doing…

It took a while for Marianna to get to the Paradise Café. Quite exhausted and hoping he could just get a glass of water when he got there… But doing favors like this still made him feel good (especially as much as a Pride bun could). He didn’t let it get to his head, though.

The little bell above the door to the café dinged as Marianna entered. It was a weekend around noon, so it was somewhat crowded. Most of the seats were filled except for one or two tables. Beanny was busy taking orders while some of the other baristas (some Succubuns and even a random Cherubun) scurried around behind the counter making drinks. 

It made Marianna feel like now was a bad time. Maybe he could just quietly sneak the beans over the counter? He edged his way closer to that area, but his attempt at being inconspicuous failed when Beanny caught him at the corner of her eye. She lit up and smiled, waving at him.

“Hey there! I recognize you!” she beamed, “Youuuuu’re… wait, don’t tell me–” Beanny put her pen to her chin, thinking hard. “Maarrry? Something?”

Marianna looked at her in amusement. “You got the first part of my name correct. It’s Marianna.”

“Yes! I’ve seen you here many times. How are you? Oh, wait! You’re here to deliver those beans!” Beanny swiftly got one of the other baristas to cover for her behind the register so that she could come out from behind the counter to come face to face with the Pride bun.

“I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to do this. You and Primrose must be pretty close if he trusted you with doing this, yeah?” Beanny questioned without thought.

This caused Marianna’s face to fall as if a thin arrow had been shot through his chest. “Um… n… I wouldn’t say that. But I’m happy to help. I’m sure the coffee from those beans will taste great.”

Beanny immediately caught on that she hit a nerve, and gave the Pride bun a genuinely concerned look. “Ah man… What'd he do this time?” She crossed her arms.

Marianna’s brows shot up in surprise. “Huh? Nothing! I just– I wouldn’t say we’re friends.”

“No, the reaction you gave me just now wasn’t a simple ‘We aren’t friends’. You look like someone kicked your Impup,” Beanny pressed.

There was just no getting past this girl, huh? Marianna’s shoulders drooped and he looked to the side. “I know you’re busy today, so I don’t want to bore you with a long story…”

Beanny tapped her foot and looked at the crowded café. “Hm… tell you what. If you come back around closing time, we can have a little chit-chat. Okay? I’ll make us some coffee and we can talk.”

Marianna looked absolutely humbled. “I couldn’t ask you to do that. But, I… I could use a listening ear.”

Beanny smiled and gave the Pride bun a single pat on the shoulder. “Great! Come back around 5 PM. Just give a knock at the door and I'll unlock it. See you then?”

Marianna nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back.”

Once the conversation ended, the Cherubun said bye for now and quickly went back to what she was previously doing. Now Marianna just had to find a way to pass the time…

5 PM came around faster than expected, so Marianna didn’t get up to anything too strenuous or time-occupying. He came back to the café about 10 minutes after closing time, giving a light few taps with his knuckle on the door.

Beanny walked over to the door a few seconds after hearing the knocks and opened the door for the Pride bun. “Hey you’re back! Was hoping you wouldn’t flake on me.”

Marianna smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m a rather punctual person.”

The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the air. Beanny was already in the process of making some like she promised. The bag of beans Marianna had delivered was sitting next to the machine. Was she using them for this batch?

The barista Cherubun chatted while finishing up the drinks, “I bet you’ll like these beans I’m using… They have a really earthy scent and it’s a little strong. But make them into a latte or cappuccino and it goes down really smoothly.”

Marianna sat himself on a cushion chair in front of a round little coffee table. Another seat faced him on the other side. “That sounds lovely… I never thought I would drink anything other than water, juice, or milk before you opened this place.”

Beanny giggled and looked over her shoulder. “You don’t enjoy alcohol?”

Marianna shook his head with a smile. “Not all Succubuns are a fan of it…”

“Aw, that’s not what I was implying! I just meant that in a curious way,” Beanny apologized, hoping she didn’t come off as insensitive. 

“I didn’t take any offense, don’t worry,” Marianna quickly assured her, “And, I probably just sound like I’m in an awful mood… I’m sorry…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I can take a guess as to what’s troubling you, but I wanna hear it out of your mouth first.” Beanny finished their coffees and walked over with both of them in hand. She sat across from the Succubun and set the drinks on the table.

Some silence followed while they sat taking the first sips of their coffee. It really was good. Marianna closed his eyes and sighed through his nose before speaking. “Thank you… again, for offering to talk to me. It’s a little complicated…”

Beanny nodded and listened intently.

“Primrose had been calling me up to help him around the Embassy gardens. I didn’t know why, but he made me feel like I was special… For a while, at least. But…” Marianna looked down at his coffee, “Turns out he was keeping me around to make him feel… good about making a Succubun do ‘virtuous’ favors for him…”

Beanny’s eyes widened and she scoffed. “I… wow…! That…” She was speechless for a moment before she found her words again. “The nerve of him… I know he can be a snob sometimes, but that’s a new low for him. Has he tried apologizing?”

“Well, not… really,” Marianna replied sullenly, “He’s been trying to get a hold of me by texting and starting conversations here and there. I… I can tell he feels bad, but not once has he actually said ‘sorry’.”

“Tsk… what a twerp,” Beanny stated, crossing her arms and legs. “Well, if he’s showing some kind of remorse, that’s a good thing. But knowing him, he’s probably having a hard time swallowing his pride.”

Marianna let out a breathy laugh, “Ironic…” He tapped his curled horns, which made Beanny laugh out loud.

“So true!” she exclaimed, taking a swig of her coffee and then putting it back down. “Look… I know it’s probably a big thing to make yourself do, but you might need to initiate contact again with Prim yourself. He’s probably stewing in his own guilt and regret and doesn’t know how to mend the bridge.”

Marianna pursed his lips, thinking about it thoroughly. Again, his inherent pride made it feel like a mental tug of war, but… This was important. He didn’t want to lose a friend over words left unsaid. 

The topic changed a little later, and the two buns spent the next hour or so talking about the Embassy and what it was like for Marianna to spend time there. Getting to know how Beanny came to Burrowgatory was a lovely story, and it calmed the Pride bun’s nerves. Along with the coffee, of course.