Monday.
Jess had started working at the small café, Rise, just over twelve months ago and it turned out to be the escape she'd been desperately craving.
The hustle and bustle of being at the very heart of Manchester, in a city that never slept.. It appealed to her busy brain, and more importantly, there was rarely any emotional baggage to be brought home at the end of the day.
These days, she was holding down the fort more than her actual boss. Not that she had minded, Jess had her way of doing things and she was quite happy to be left to it.
The place was unnervingly quiet on that particular Monday morning. Even at 7.30am, it was usually bursting at the seams with students and commuters.
Jess ended up occupying herself chopping fresh ingredients for smoothies, humming away.. she hadn't even noticed him walk in, he just appeared at the counter and his presence hit her like a freight train. If freight trains were a hundred feet tall and painted golden.
"Morning", Jess followed his height until she reached his eyes. Blue.
"Morning.. ahh..", he glanced down at her name badge which was pinned to the breast of her apron, seeking out her name.
"Jessica.. Good morning.", he nodded.
"Jess is fine"
"It's nice to use a proper name"
She smiled. He smirked.
Two weeks.
It had taken him two weeks of the same routine to strike up an actual conversation with her, something other than his order.
She couldn't put a finger on his accent, but he spoke every word perfectly. Beautifully.
"What can I get you...", Jess wanted to push her luck.. to try and coax his name out, but it was lost on him, standing there all doe-eyed and eyebrows raised. It took him a few seconds before it eventually clicked.
"Ah! You want my name. Yes. It's Erling."
Those. Blue. Eyes.
They made her stomach back flip. A feeling she'd not experienced in ages.
Most customers didn't even look her in the damn eye these days, everyone was in such a rush, places to go, trains to catch, headphones embedded into their ears. It was all part and parcel of working in a big city.
"That's not a name you hear in these parts", she was intrigued.
"If you believe... I was born in Leeds... but spent the last years in Norway", he proudly announced.
"So you're a Yorkshire lad really then"
"I guess", he smiled and it made his eyes deliciously scrunch up.
"So what can I get you.. or is it the usual?", Jess asked, gesturing to the large menu board hung on the wall behind her.
"I would like a smoothie. As usual.", he didn't even bother looking up at the board.
"I can recommend a gre-"
"No. I will tell you exactly what I want. Like normal?", Erling didn't let her respond before rhyming out his very specific order, "Do you think you can do that for me?"
As if I haven't for the past two weeks, she thought.
Jess tapped her pen against the pad on the counter and nodded, "yes.. of course.. I'll bring it over to you.. Erling"
She thought he was going to change his order today.. hand the reins over to her and give her some essence of control in this little game he seemed to be playing.
But then his personality flipped so rapidly.. he obviously despised being predictable, even though he was.
At least she knew his name now.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, he looked as though he was about to say something, but decided against it as a couple of people entered and stood behind him, waiting to order.
"Thank you, Jessica", he pulled his hood up over his head and planted himself in his regular spot in the corner, his bulky back to the customers and the rest of the world.
And that was when she knew he was different.
~
Saturday. 6.30pm.
The evening rush had dampened Jess' mood. People were so fucking unnecessarily rude when they wanted to be.
The two extra Saturday staff had called in sick. The till kept crashing, the card machine wouldn't connect and everyone just seemed to want to complain about anything and everything.
She couldn't wait to just crawl into the safe haven of her bed and peace out until Monday.
Jess was on her knees, dustpan and brush in hand, sweeping up the mountain of crumbs that had been left by the messy kids that were in earlier when she heard a light knock on the door.
CLOSED.
Why can't people read.
She marched over to the front of the shop, cursing under her breath and all guns blazing as They. Were. Clearly. Closed.
What she didn't expect, was to be met by the image of Erling on the other side of the glass. He tugged his hood down, and the glow of street lights illuminated the sharp contours of his face.
He was just looking at her through the pane. Staring.
And she was staring right back.
A raise of his eyebrow caused Jess to remember herself, jolting her back down to earth like a lightening bolt right through the middle of them.
She opened the door for him and he marched straight past her, pacing around the shop floor very clearly not knowing what to do with himself. Jess slowly locked up as she watched Erling's movements, wondering what the hell was going to happen next.
Why was he even here?
He never comes at this time.
"Hi... I mean.. Erling, we're closed but I can make you some-"
He smirked at her words.
"No Jessica. I don't want my usual."
What on earth was he playing at?
It was all getting abit bloody weird.
He was obviously in some sort of crisis.. as from what she'd seen of him, in these four walls, he was pretty easy going if you sung from the same hymn sheet.
"Okay..", was all she could muster up as she watched him he lift himself onto the counter. There's a whole host of chairs to choose from, but let's not aggravate the situation.
Jess didn't know what he wanted and she was just desperate to get home at this point. So she carried on. Carried on sweeping and cleaning.
The man watched her every damn move so carefully.
"Your day.. it went to shit too?"
Oh, he has a voice.
"You could put it that way. You?"
"I don't want to talk about it", his voice stern again.
Jess slammed the dustpan onto the floor, undoing her hard work.
"Well, why are you here?" She looked up at him, accusingly, "I haven't got the time or energy for this. I'll always be a friendly face and a shoulder for my customers, but only if I get it back."
Her words lingered in the thick, dense, fog between them.
"The nights... they are long when you are alone, eh?", he jumped from the counter and made his way over to her.
What.
"Make it make sense, Erling", she folded her arms under her breasts.
He stepped closer.
"It doesn't have to make sense, Jessica"
