The Coffee Shop

Chapter 2

It was exactly six o'clock and normally I would leave a little later than my closing time; stay back and talk to some people, build a relationship with my coworkers but today was different.

Today I had to meet Quinn.

I was out of the office as soon as I saw that short stick, the hour hand, reached that little stick on the clock and the long stick reached the twelve.

Not long after, I was at the coffee shop, walking through those doors for the first time in the afternoon.

It was a weird feeling. Almost as if this was my first time coming to this shop.

The building was mostly empty, save for a few people here and there; about five in total, not including the ones behind the counter and the soft music combined with the few chatters around created the perfect calming ambience.

"Is Quinn still here?" I asked as I reached the counter.

"Who's asking?" replied the current barista.

"Eliza," I told him, not skipping a beat.

The guy walked off, hopefully, to call Quinn. I went to sit in the same booth that I saw her crying in.

Not too long after Quinn made an appearance. She wasted no time in finding a seat beside me. It seemed that she sat down quickly so as to not syke herself out from doing it.

It made me smile.

"Hi," she said. Her voice sounded extremely confident but the way she was fidgeting made it apparent that she was nervous.

"Hey," I replied and the silence that engulfed us was awkward and uncomfortable.

I wanted to say something. To ask her why she didn't contact me or something but the words just refused to come out.

"I'm really glad that you could come here, I know that you're probably busy with your office job," she remarked.

"Yeah," I commented. "When I saw the note I couldn't pass the offer up"

"So I know you're probably wondering why I didn't text or call or something or maybe you weren't and completely forgot who I was," she slowly began trailing off. "But in case you were wondering I have an explanation for that"

I stared at her waiting on her to continue but she just kept on staring back at me. Her face gained a red hue as she continued staring.

"Oh! Are you waiting on the explanation?" she asked.

"Yes," I gave a small chuckle after saying that.

"Well, after you gave me your number I decided to wait until I reached home before adding it to my phone but that seemed to go against me because when I got home I ended up being caught up in chores and washing the clothes with the number and when I remembered it was already too late," she explained. "Then there's that fact that I could have always asked again"

She spoke extremely fast and looked close to running out of breath.

"Breath, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be right here until you decide when we can leave," I was surprised with how calm I was being. Maybe it had to do with how panicked she was and it probably made me keep calm just to calm her.

"Right," she took in a lungful before continuing. "I wanted to ask you, every single morning you came in, I wanted to reach out but there was this voice that kept saying maybe you forgot about me or maybe you're too busy, maybe you were just being kind and didn't want someone like me bothering you"

Her eyes were cast down and her hands in her laps with the fingers intertwined.

"I just decided to leave it until I spoke with a friend and they said I should just go for it because then I wouldn't have to worry about any what-ifs," she finished before looking me in the eye.

"It's strange that that's exactly how I felt for the entire time," I commented.

"Really?" she looked relieved to hear that.

"Yeah, because I kept thinking that maybe I had overstepped when giving you my number then you didn't text or call me and so I began wondering if you just threw it out and if me coming to you again would seem too pushy or as harassment or something," I confessed. It felt like a weight was being removed as I sat there talking to her about all the worries I had been experiencing.

"I didn't expect you to feel that way," she said. "Not saying that there's anything wrong with you feeling this way but you just seem so confident that I would never imagine you ever thinking these things"

"Yeah, I know," I said. "When I saw the note today I was more than overjoyed best believe that I literally ran out of my office at exactly six to get here"

Once I finished saying that I felt slightly embarrassed. I wasn't sure how comfortable I could get as yet with sharing all these things.

"Now that that's out of the way, it occurred to me that you still don't have my number so can I have your phone to put it in, that way we don't have to worry about a repeat of last week," to show her that I was joking a let out a hearty chuckle. It seemed she accepted and released a small laugh as well, her face heating up once more.

"Sure," she handed me her phone and I quickly added my contact, making sure to add a little heart beside it. I felt like a high schooler in love.

"Well that's that," I said while returning her phone. She took it and tapped around on it for a bit before looking at me.

"I sent you a text message so now you have my number as well," she informed me.

"Great," I replied, taking my phone out and saving her contact info there. I didn't add a heart beside her name but instead the emoji with the four hearts around it.

"I was also thinking that maybe we could go out this Saturday if you're not busy that is," she looked me in the eye while saying that, even as her face turned beetroot red she didn't move.

"Sure, why not," I responded. "How about we discuss the details and finalize all the plans later, I really don't want to cut our meet short but I can hear all the files calling me already"

"Oh, right, sorry for keeping you," she said, her head lowering and her hair covering her face.

"Don't be, it's fine," I told her while lifting her face up. We both got up and she escorted me to the door of the shop.

"I'll see you on Saturday?" she asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah, and tomorrow as well," I said with a smile. It looked as if there was something else she wanted to say as well but it seemed that she was preventing herself.

"It's a date," she rushed out quickly before giving me a hug and moving off. I pulled her back, returned the hug and gave her a small peck on the cheek.

"It's a date," Quinn immediately flushed and I was sure that my face was beginning to show tints of red as well. I could only hope that that peck wasn't too much.

Definitely too much.