I'VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU, tyler galpin

1 / the meeting

If you dance, I'll dance

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"So, this is the place?"  Alice looked around her aunt's coffee shop and sighed. "Looks a lot emptier than I last saw it."

"Yeah, ever since you left, the place got run down because everyone kept leaving Jericho." Her aunt Nancy explained as the two walked over to the counter. "In general, ever since you've been gone, the entire town fell down. All of the regulars moved out and it's been as empty as ever."

Alice leaned against the counter and smiled. "I'm sure it's not been that bad, Nancy. But I missed this place, a lot even."

"I bet, Minneapolis is probably a shit place." Her aunt sarcastically remarked before she noticed one boy behind the counter working. "Tyler, take a moment and come meet my niece."

The boy looked up and his eyes landed on Alice almost instantly. Taken by her unexpected presence and beauty, he could feel his anxiety rising. "Uh, this is, uh, your niece?" He walked over to them with an unsure smile.

"Yeah, Alice meet Tyler, he's one of our regulars here." She introduced the two. 

Alice smiled at him and put her arm out to shake it. "Pleasure to meet you."

But the boy just stared at her in awe for a second before coming back to reality and shaking his head. "Yeah, I could say, uh, the same for myself." He hesitantly shook her hand and was blinded by her warm smile. 

"So, is working with my aunt been hell or heaven?" Alice sarcastically made fun of her, getting a playful eye roll from Nancy.

"All right, enough, I'll leave you two, okay? I got some errands I need to run." Nancy said and kissed Alice on her forehead. "You'll be fine?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be okay." The girl reassured her aunt before she walked out and let the two teenagers have their moment.

"So," Tyler cleared his throat and smiled. "What are you doing back here? I was told a lot of stories by your aunt."

"Oh, did she really? She can barely talk about anything else but me sometimes," Alice shook her head. "What did she tell you? I hope it wasn't something embarrassing."

"No, nothing like that," The boy reassured her and chuckled. "She said how smart and great you are." When he looked at her their looks caught each other and as if there was an invisible force, they couldn't look away. "So, uh, would you like to sit down?"

"I was hoping you could sit down with me," Alice moved in closer. "I don't have a lot of familiar people here."

All that Tyler could do was stare at her in shock at the suggestion. "Um, sure, give me a moment."

After exchanging smiles, Alice went and sat down at one of the tables with her bag. She pulled out her book and began reading it, completely not noticing that Tyler couldn't take his eyes off her. 

A couple of minutes went by and Tyler walked over to her table with a coffee. "Figured you're a cappuccino person."

Alice looked at the coffee and chuckled in disbelief. "Is that some sort of skill you have gained after working here?"

Not knowing how to respond, Tyler stared deep into her eyes and broke his gaze. "Guess you could say that." Then he noticed her book and smiled. "You like reading?"

"Oh, I do just more than that," Alice closed the book and smiled. "I want to be a journalist, that's why I left Jericho in the first place - to gain some experience working in the news outlets and go somewhere abroad."

"They let a 17-year-old work in the news?" Tyler asked in disbelief. "Did you like it?"

"I loved it, but I still have to finish high school. Because it's summer break and august, I thought about taking the last chance to visit this place." She explained. "But enough about me, tell something about yourself."

Tyler furrowed his eyebrows and nervously chuckled. "There's-there's nothing interesting I could tell you about myself."

Alice took the cup in her hand and began stirring it. "There's gotta be something, and even if there isn't, it's okay."

The boy's smile was as wide as ever talking to her, to him it felt like something had opened up. "Well, the most interesting thing is I work here, which means I know everything in this town."

"Now that's something good," Alice nodded and put her coffee down on the plate. "Have some gossip to share?"

"Not really," Tyler shrugged. "It's mostly a quiet town if we're not looking at Nevermore."

As he looked out the window, Alice heavily sighed. "Yeah, I've heard chilling stories about that place."

Tyler turned his head to face her but saw her looking out the window with a dreamy gaze. It felt as if he was hypnotized, not able to take his look off her. But when Alice turned to look at him as well, he nervously looked away and cleared his throat. "So, I gotta do some work."

"Oh, yes, sorry for holding you here." Alice quickly said as he stood up.

"Don't apologize, it was, uh, nice meeting you Alice." He looked down at her with a soft smile.

As before, their eye contact was strong and neither of them wanted to look away. But eventually, Tyler did and walked back to his space. Unbeknownst to Alice, he watched her peacefully read the entire time.

Occasionally, Alice would see him staring at her and internally smiled, but the moments were so warm it felt comforting. He had his eyes on her the entire time until she finished her coffee and packed her bag, walking up to the counter with an empty cup and placing some money.

"Oh, don't worry, it's on the house." Tyler quickly told her.

"You sure?" Alice asked him. "At least keep it to herself as a tip."

"I don't think it's any problem the owner's niece is drinking coffee for free, you know?" Tyler leaned on the counter his hands and came closer to her.

Alice looked at him with a warm smile and put the napkin on top of the cup. "It's been nice meeting you, Tyler. I hope to see you again."

The boy followed her with his eyes out of the shop and heavily sighed to himself. He had his eyes on her more than he did on anyone else. But when he picked the napkin up and saw Alice's phone number written on the top, the smile on his face said it all.

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