To Follow you or To Lose you

Chapter 2: How many punches for Charlie?

It had been exactly seven days since I last saw Shawn's girlfriend, or whore. Seven days in which I hated her.

To me things, strange as it may seem, worked like this: Someone broke my routine and my head immediately drew a barrier between us.

But I wasn't thinking about her at all. My head had more important things to do, including the number of blue cars passing me as I drove to the Body Rock Café.

When I arrived, I had counted seven.

"Ten minutes earlier, as usual" Ally whispered as she handed me my work uniform, which was orange. At first I hated it, because that tonality worried me, but over time I learned to live with the feeling of discomfort.

"Are you sure I'm not a minute late?" I interrogated her with my eyes wide open, as if in this way I could detect any of her lies "My neighbor tried to flirt with me and I had to tell him that I didn't want to go out with him five times in twenty seconds to leave me alone..."

"Are you talking about your handsome neighbor?" My boss questioned me with amazement.

"Yes, Daniel, I..."

"The Daniel you always talk about?" Ally continued her interrogation while I counted three failed attempts to hide her smile.

"Yeah..."

"The Daniel you like since you were a teenager?"

"Yes, Ally!" I was beginning to get frustrated.

"Are you an idiot, Lauren?! You've been waiting for this moment for years!"

"I know, but he was interrupting my routine. He could've flirted with me from five to seven in the afternoon during my off hours, but he decided to do it when my mind was busy counting."

"Lauren..." I knew she would give me one of her speeches about taking things more calmly and less calculus, but I was too busy thinking about Daniel's interruption to want to hear it.

"I'd like to chat with you, Ally, but I'd better get started. Mr. Brown won't be long in coming" And it was these seventeen words that ended our conversation.

I can say that the beginning of my day, excluding the interruption of Dan and conversation with Ally, was quite easy. It was Wednesday, so four of the regulars didn't go, maybe because of scheduling problems. Even so, I didn't feel disturbed, as their positions in my head were occupied by five other not so regulars that they passed through there being the closest place to their work.

One of those clients was the girl I had nicknamed Shawn's whore.

"Mrs. Luna..." I heard that the crazy girl from last week called me as she tapped my shoulder repeatedly.

I answered the twenty-sixth tap. I can assure you that I was upset, because before that I was counting the pennies on my tips and now I had lost count, which meant I had to start over and consume more of my valuable time.

"I'm busy" It was the first thing that came out of my lips. I didn't realize her arrival at the cafe, but I wanted her to leave.

"I am also busy" She said to me with her soft voice as she tapped my shoulder five more times "Can we be busy together?"

My mind thought she was insane, and it wasn't wrong.

"Can you leave?" I know I was rude, but the constant tapping of her finger and her mere presence made me feel incredibly nervous.

The fear that she'd ruin my day again made me want to run away from there.

"No" She refused, and I could deduce that she was laughing behind my back. "I'm Camila" She showed up while placing her hand right in front of my face. The first thing I noticed was that this one was covered with a pink kitchen glove, and then the horrible drawing of what looked like a duck on her arm made with a pen.