Ace of Hearts

Chapter 1 - Dinner Parties

Maya

"Rise and shine" my roommate, Natalie, sang as she barged into my room with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Stopp" I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head to block her chirpiness out. Natalie is obviously a morning if you couldn't tell.

"Seriously" she stated sternly before pulling my curtains open and placing the mug on my nightstand "you're going to miss your mid-term and you need to go see your dad in the evening"

"Ugh don't remind me," I said slowly getting up and sipping on the piping hot cup of coffee she so generously made me.

"Good luck" she chuckled before leaving my room. I wasn't sure what I needed the most luck for - my midterm or dinner with my father.

I forced myself out of my bed and into the bathroom to quickly get ready for my test. I put on a black sweater, jeans, and a coat mentally bracing myself for the cold outside. I struggled through my midterm silently praying at least a thousand times wishing I wouldn't fail. My mind was hyper-focused on the dinner with my dad later today. I literally couldn't think of a single reason why he'd want to hang out with me. The last time I met him he said "I reminded him too much of my now-dead mother".

"Shit" I cursed as I felt a hot liquid soak my coat as I opened the door to Pavement, which was a small cafe on campus.

"Are you blind?" the guy yelled back seemingly annoyed about losing his coffee to my coat.

"There's no need to be rude" I snapped back trying to wipe off whatever coffee I could

"It isn't my fault that you can't see," he said scowling with a slight British accent and he ran his hand through his disheveled brown hair.

"Whatever," I said trying to get past the annoyed hazel-eyed boy. I had enough to worry about already.

"Not so fast," he said as he raised one of his hands blocking me from entering the cafe while giving me a small smile before continuing " You owe me a coffee sweetheart"

"Su-sure" I stuttered taken "I guess it's the least I can do," I said before ducking under his arm and walking towards Natalie who worked as a barista in the cafe.

"Can I get my regular and whatever he spilled on my coat for him?" I said slightly turning towards him in order to confirm his order

"Americano," he said

"Two americanos coming up," Natalie said as I paid and quickly winked at me before stepping away to get our coffee.

I spotted an empty table on the other side of the cafe and practically ran towards it before someone could claim it. Usually, the cafe was so full you'd always have to wait for a table to open up.

"Here's your coffee," the hazel-eyed boy said handing me my coffee cup and tissue with his phone number messily written on i

"See you around," he said before walking out quickly

"So he's cute huh," Natalie said grabbing my attention away from him as he walked out. I quickly shoved the tissue in my jacket pocket before Natalie started to badger me with questions.