Never Ending

Part 1

It was just a normal, boring day in the café. I had been forced to work the morning shift, which meant being the first in to open up shop. It also meant that, today, I had to meet the new guy and show him how we run the place. 'Yippee,' I thought sarcastically. I hated new people, but Harvey had just quit so we needed the extra help. As I turned the corner, I could see the new guy waiting on the front step. 'You're early,' I said, startling him as I got the keys out of my bag. 'Let's get this party started,' I smiled with fake enthusiasm. It was waaayyyy to early in the morning for me to be in a good mood. Mornings were not my forte, and the new guy would soon find out. 'OK, newbie, this is how its gonna work; your job is to clear and clean tables. Seen as they're not dirty yet, you can take down the chairs and put out some cutlery. Oh, and try not to get in my way,' I stated before retreating to the kitchen to find my orders book and a pen that actually worked.

'I have a name, y'know,' I heard the new guy shout from the dining room.

'Whatever,' I called back. I couldn’t care less what his name was. The only thing I wanted to do was get this hell over with and go home to bed. But that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

After about 5 minutes of peace, I heard the back door open and in came Pete, smiling like always. 'How are you so happy in the morning,' I asked as I waited for the coffee machine to warm up.

'Two cups of coffee and an energy drink, that’s how,' he replied. Pete was the oh-so-happy son of the owner of the café. Too many times had I known him to come in either high, wired off caffeine or both, and I'd only worked there for six months. 'How was your weekend,' he asked from the store room, where he was no doubt looking for food to fuel his over stimulated body.

'Boring, as usual,' I called back, sipping the delicious, black coffee that had just made its way into a mug in my hand.

At that moment, the new guy came in. 'I really should learn his name,' I thought to myself.

'Who's this?' Pete asked cheerily, spotting newbie as he came out of the store room.

I said 'the new guy' at the same time he said 'Ashton'. When I first met him this morning, I was so groggy from lack of sleep, I didn’t really take a good look at the kid. Now that I had some coffee in my system and was more like my teenage self than an a zombie, I realised that 'Ashton' was rather attractive. His longish, golden curls and glasses took the sharpness away from his square cut jawline. I couldn’t help but stare at is physic; the short sleeves of his work polo shirt hugged the muscles of his biceps and the black skinny jeans that adorned his legs made me weak at the knees. If I hadn't been sitting down, I think I probably would have fallen over.

'I've taken down all the chairs and given the tables a wipe over. Is there anything else I can do?' he asked politely as I continued to stare at him.

'Not until customers start arriving,' Pete smiled. God, that guy would be nice to a serial killer if you gave him the chance.

'Want a coffee?' I asked, trying to be nice. I can remember how daunting my first day was. I felt bad for being a bit earlier.

'Yeah, sure,' he smiled. I heard a faint 'YES PLEASE' come from somewhere outside.

'YOU CAN HAVE ONE WHEN AS SOON AS YOU STOP SMOKING POT!' I shouted back to Pete. Ashton smirked as Pete came back in with a pout on his face. I handed Ash the coffee and sat back down, taking a large slurp from mine.

'Sorry about earlier, I can be a bit cranky in the mornings,' I apologised to Ash with a sheepish smile on my face.

'S'ok,' he said. 'I'm not too great either. It takes at least three cups of coffee to persuade me out of bed,' he smiled. God that smile. Keeping my hands off this boy was going to be harder than I thought.