Wholesome

Chapter 01 >>>

01 >>>

From the moment I first saw Bishop, it was like fate was sending me all the warning signs to run away from him as quickly as humanly possible.

When he walked into the coffee shop that I practically lived in, his booming laugh alerted everyone of his presence more than the jingle of bells attached to the door ever could. His laugh would have been too loud, too obnoxious, too everything if it had belonged to anyone else other than him. But he was Bishop, so he drew affectionate smiles and fond looks rather than annoyed glares.

As one of See You Latte's most frequent and regular customers (despite its tragic name that made me wince every time I looked at it), I could confidently say that Bishop was a newcomer. I would have remembered him if he wasn't, because he was just that kind of memorable person and I was that kind of person who took note of others.

His brunet hair was gelled up into a carbon copy of a style I saw often whenever I passed by the community college campus less than ten minutes away. He was wearing a navy blue tank top with some sort of food-related pun on it (I would later learn the hard way that puns were his favorite type of jokes) and his face was illuminated by a smile stretching from one ear to the other.

Male hair products, corny jokes, and of course, his bright smile; that was Bishop in a nutshell. He was everything I was not and everything I strove to stay away from my whole life.

I couldn't help but watch him out of the corner of my eye as he wove through the unusually tight crowd in the small shop. I was fascinated with the way he seemed to almost bounce with every step. He should have looked awkward with his lanky limbs and long legs, not to mention his slight slouch. But he made it look natural, like every male adult looked like their feet were springing off mini-trampolines every time they touched the ground.

There was no line in front of the register, despite the filled tables throughout the rest of the café. The afternoon rush was starting to die down, and I was counting down the seconds until the crowd would thin out, leaving behind only the usual sparse number of customers.

I had planned on looking away from the man once he reached the counter. My eyes had trouble returning to my laptop screen however, when I was distracted by the most peculiar sight.

The usually stony-faced man with shoulder length hair behind the register smiled as the other man approached him. They both said something to each other before the cashier chuckled and took his order.

It was silly, but I felt an illogical sense of betrayal from the cashier's smile. This was the same worker in his late twenties who had greeted me with nothing more than an apathetic glance whenever I walked into the cafe during the past six years. He didn't even bother asking for my order after the first couple of months, once he learned that I always ordered the same thing: a medium black coffee with a teaspoon of sugar followed by a bagel for breakfast, and the Caesar chicken salad and soup of the day for lunch. On rainy days, he knew to add a king sized chocolate chip cookie on the side without me saying anything. I never took his sullen silence personally. I guess I always assumed that he was like me, in the way that he didn't like wasting words and muscle movements (smiles) where they weren't needed.

Apparently I had been wrong. It was just me who elicited that kind of response.

With a scowl on my face, I finally forced my gaze back to my laptop screen. I had better things to do than to despise a happy-go-lucky boy from afar, I reminded myself. I had work to do.

My eyes were no longer on the newcomer, but I couldn't do anything to stop my ears from catching his constant chatter and occasional laughs. He just had one of those voices that managed to weasel its way into your ear, whether you liked it or not. He was too far for me to make out his exact words, but when I glanced up I saw that he was still talking with the cashier. Was it normal to make ten minute small-talk with customers? Because the workers here certainly didn't take that kind of liberty with me.