𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 ✓

16 • Reasonable Question

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: REASONABLE QUESTION

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The next day, two days before Angel was scheduled to leave for the States, she was working her last shift before the holidays. For Christmas Day, Adam had found a temporary helper, twenty-three-year-old Paolo, a guy Angel knew from college. While her boss spent the day instructing her new co-worker, she served the few people who came in. The snow had gotten even heavier somehow, keeping people from leaving their houses. 

The beating breeze was freezing cold, whirling up the snow into piles that went up to the young waitress's knees. She was glad to be inside, in a comfortably warm surrounding that smelled like coffee and pie. As she prepared two plates of apple pie for the couple at table three, the one by the storefront window, she caught a glimpse of a familiar silhouette through the slightly reflective glass. It was getting dark already, being after four p.m, and she wasn't sure whether she'd seen correctly. However, seconds later, her assumption got proven right.

Steve entered the café, rubbing his hands to warm them up before taking off the scarf, hat, and coat. After hanging them onto the coat rack behind the door, his eyes searched the room. When his gaze landed on her, his eyes lit up, and he made his way through the room until he reached the counter.

"Hey, you," Angel greeted him with a beaming smile as if she didn't just see him this morning when he had prepared blueberry pancakes in her kitchen — shirtless. The memory of that was savored in her mind now and led tingles all over her skin.

"Hi," he softly replied and sat down on the empty barstool by the counter, his hands resting on the black countertop. Today, he wore the same grey sweater he'd worn the first time she'd met him. She recalled how she spilled coffee over him accidentally — which turned out to be one of the most fortunate accidents of her life. She finished the preparation of the two apple pie plates by adding whipped cream on the side. She got out from behind the counter, the tray in hand.

"I thought I could visit you, maybe get another one of those great Caramel lattes?" he suggested with a faint smile hinted in the corners of his mouth. Angel stopped next to him and leaned over, placing a kiss on his cold, stubbled cheek.

"This time I won't spill it over you though," she joked, and he huffed. As she continued her path to table three, he heard his teasing voice.

"Funny that you're so confident about that..."

She laughed to herself and got the pies to table three quickly. When she returned, Adam had just shown Paolo how the coffee machine worked and dragged the young man to the kitchen to show him the oven, Steve had his fingertips tap the countertop in some rhythm.

"So, Caramel latte for the gentleman?" she jested as she scooted back behind the counter, getting a mug from the stack next to the coffee maker.

"Yes, ma'am," he teased back, making Angel blush and chuckle. Adam returned from the kitchen, wiping his forehead with the cloth draped over his shoulder.