The Caffeine Fix

CHAPTER 23

It was mid-September already. A week had passed since the relationship between Carla and Alexa had strained and there was no scope of things easening between them any time soon. Carla repeatedly apologized to Alexa as she had predicted but Alexa ignored her and preferred to talk to Sarah and Tyla instead. Alexa had to keep sharing a room with Carla as she could not find another place to live but she stayed away from her room most of the time, either hanging out by herself or with friends when not at work. A good friendship had bloomed between Tyla and Alexa and both of them learnt a lot more about each other. 

Things had certainly changed a lot in the past few months. Tyla had kissed a celebrity and she had made friends with Alexa, both of these were things that she would have never imagined to have happened before. However, Tyla had still kept the fact that she kissed Patrick James a secret from Alexa, as even though she trusted her, she just did not want the word to spread around anyhow and she did not wish to think or talk about it anymore.

The summer mornings had become extremely pleasant in Los Angeles. On Monday morning, Tyla was walking outside the university campus with her friend Cecille after some quick coffee at a nearby cafe. They passed by the new cute flower shop that Tyla had wanted to check out since quite some time. The exterior was enthralling, with fake but colourful flowers kept in ornate pots arranged in a line on an erected space near the windows. The windows had faint, beautiful paintings of orchids and other flowers and plants. 

"Oh, hey! I have been wanting to check this shop out for a while now," Tyla said excitedly.

"Really? You want to buy flowers for someone?" Cecille asked in a suspicious manner.

"Yeah, for me," Tyla chuckled.

Before Cecille could reply,Tyla quickly stepped inside the shop and Cecille quietly followed her inside. 

Tyla was amazed by the beautiful arrangements of various potted plants and flower bouquets. All of a sudden, her eyes met with the cute guy who worked at the shop. He smiled at both of them. Tyla kept staring at him. He had a youthful face with greyish-blue eyes and dark brown hair. He wore a checkered shirt and dark blue jeans. He looked like a young and fresh college student. She felt an adrenaline rush in her body. It was a familiar feeling and so she became wary of it and turned her eyes towards the plants. Cecille had been noticing Tyla and whispered playfully,

"That guy's cute, right? Should I get his number?"

"I don't know…..if you want," Tyla muttered, without looking at her.

Suddenly, Cecille's phone rang. It was Stephen, another friend of theirs. She went outside to talk to him.

Tyla was left alone standing awkwardly. She turned to give an awkward smile to the guy who returned a polite smile. The guy tried to ease the awkwardness by saying,

"Good morning!"

"Good morning….," She replied nervously.

He suddenly gazed at her in a manner as if trying to think something.

"So, what are you looking for?"

"Um….."

Nothing. She was actually looking for nothing. She randomly pointed towards some potted roses.

"Roses?" The guy asked in a confused manner.

"Oh, you know what, I am actually…..,"

Before Tyla could complete the sentence, Cecille called out,

"Tyla, we're getting late for class!"

"Yeah, right! I am getting late for class now, so I'll come later!" Saying so, Tyla quickly rushed outside the shop and joined Cecille.

"Awkward…..," Cecille teased.

"What?" Tyla asked in a mildly annoyed manner.

"You and the guy….I totally saved you back there,"

"No, not at all!"

"Doesn't he look like he's 18 or something though? You want to relive a college romance?"

"What are you talking about?" Tyla asked in a nonchalant manner but gave in after a few seconds, "Okay, I hope he's not 18…..,"

"You could use an easy-breezy romance," Cecille kept on teasing her.

"You know I am looking for some serious stuff," Tyla tried to counter the teasing.

After classes that day, as Tyla, Stephen and Cecille walked to the bus stop, they passed by the flower shop again and Cecille smiled in a strange manner while looking at Tyla.

"You know you want to go inside," Cecille teased.

"What's this about?" Stephen asked.

"Oh, nothing, Tyla may have gotten a new crush. A bit younger of course, but no worries," she continued.

"What? Crush? Hardly. I don't even know him," Tyla dismissed the teasing though in her mind, she actually wanted to talk to the guy more. But she knew that she could not do it in front of her two friends or else they'd have a field day teasing her. And if the guy actually turned out to be an 18 year old college student, then it would just be too embarrassing. So she decided to hop by the shop sometime later to catch him alone.

She got off on her bus stop, walked around for some time and took another ride to the university campus, feeling silly about whatever she was doing and what she was doing it for.

'This is ridiculous. Why do I even want to do this? I wonder if someone would do this for me,' she thought to herself.

As she got off at her stop, she stood quietly for some time, questioning her decisions.

'I have come here, but what's the point? What will I even talk to him about?'

However, now that she was there, she had to do something. The setting sun reflected light from the glass windows of the shop. She slowly entered the shop, looking for the guy. But she saw a different guy, with similar looking dark brown hair, arranging some of the potted plants in neat rows. She was nervous and turned to leave but then heard a voice call out,

"Oh, you? Hold on,"

She turned to see the guy. The other guy arranging the plants turned around to take a look at her and then continued his work.

"Oh, hi," Tyla blurted out nervously.

"Hello. So, you were looking for roses, right?"

The guy had a mature voice but Tyla was not sure what to expect.

"Oh, no, I….," Tyla pondered over what to reply when she suddenly noticed some plants kept in a section labelled 'stress-relieving plants'

"Those," She quietly pointed towards the plants.

"Of course, those are some of the best. Let me show you some of them."