Devil's Advocate - A.R & K.M

Chapter two

Having waited twenty-four banal hours, I at last found myself standing at the entrance to my newly acclaimed favourite place on earth, aka Cuppa Coffee. The last few whirls of winter air, as it was now late February, did nothing to prevent my ever-growing heat forming countenance from reaching a point of sun worthy fever. Despite this, I decided to suck it up and lay my hand on the door handle, ready at any given moment for reality to hit me.

As I opened the steel door, I saw the same sight I had for months now. A counter with a waitress behind it, and a few mostly empty tables that held the story of a thousand beverages. However, as I glanced upon my usual seat on the far left of the café, I found myself looking at a wonderful sight. The sight of the woman from yesterday, whom looked as confident and glamorous as ever, with her silky brunette hair tied up in a high ponytail, and eyelashes as long and luscious as humanely possible; I noticed her giving me a similar glance up and down. The right corner of her mouth tipped up, providing me with a knowing smirk. After a few seconds of me not making any effort whatsoever to interact, her left eyebrow shot up too, giving me a questioning look.

Now realising how creepy I probably looked, my throat went dry, and mouth went to speak a simple "hello" or "how are you", but yet again left me entirely bare of any form of courtesy.

I suppose she must have now gathered that I would certainly not be the one to initiate a conversation, and so the (now noticeably shorter) woman, arose from her seat and held her white hoodie sleeved arm out to shake mine. Now I may find difficulty in speaking in foreign situations, but I am never purposefully rude, and so therefore I shot my hand out at a rapid speed.

She almost looked shocked at my eagerness to make contact, but instead bit down any comments and clasped her hand in mine.

"Can I buy you a drink? I haven't stopped thinking about you since yesterday," my eyes went wide, caught off guard at the extremely open comment she had made. "Oh, uh, by that I meant about how I spilt your drink!"

I now felt a slight wave of disappointment wash over me, but disguised it with a smile. "Neither has my shirt. I think it'll remember you for a long time."

She nervously laughed, but as soon as her reaction came to an end, a whole new one arose as she noticed our hands still clasped together. "I... I'm Alessia. Thank you for following through with the offer," I tried distracting her from the awkwardness of the situation after having unclasped our hands. It's strange, because as soon as her hand left mine it felt as though a part of me was missing.

"How could I not? It was the least I could do, really." I smiled widely at her, but realised she still hadn't revealed an important piece of information to me: her name.

"Is now a bad time to tell you I have to leave in ten minutes?" I laughed nervously.

"Well then that coffee better hurry up, shouldn't it?" I could sense a slight sound of hesitation in her voice, as if she was withholding something.

A few moments of slight awkward silence later, to coffees reached our shared table.

"Mmm..." I hummed, still not getting over the sweet bitterness of coffee. "Thank you, again..."My voice trailed off as I tried hinting for her to tell me her name.

Clearly hints are not her strong suit, as the woman just kept sipping her own drink and staring out of the window.These few moments of silence allowed me to really gathering my bearings, and notice the small things about her I'd failed to see before.

Like the tiny freckles dotted across her skin and the subtle hint of forest green in her eyes. Yet again, she caught me staring, however this time she didn't smile or smirk, but instead she furrowed her eyebrows and sighed.

"Are you okay?" I asked, curious as to what was making her display a sense of discomfort.

The question clearly made her uncomfortable, as she slightly choked on her drink, and her view went from my eyes to the door behind me.

"How come I haven't seen you here before?"I asked, again switching the role of who would pioneer the conversation.

"I don't usually come to this side of London. I live in St. Albans." Her answer was short, but dignified my question in a satisfactory manner.

"Ah, well I think you should move to Hammersmith, great location for parks... and coffee!"

"I would, but my job wouldn't allow it. Plus, St. Albans has almost as good coffee." Her smirk returned, and I felt my whole body relax as I could tell she was getting more comfortable.

Big mistake, as it was almost time for me to leave.

After having drained every last sip of the cappuccino, I checked my watch, noticing if I didn't leave imminently then I would be late. Late for my first day of work.

I thought me checking the time and practically swallowing my cup whole would be a good enough sign that I had to leave, but instead the woman remained staring into the distance, not uttering a word.

"I... I've got to go. First day on the big job!" I slipped my black coat over my shoulders.

"Big job huh,? And what would that involve?" She questioned, still gently sipping on her coffee.

"Match reporting for Aston Villa v Chelsea," I wasn't sure if I should tell this stranger my occupation, but there was something about her that compelled me to trust her.

"A journalist, hey? You clearly must not be a very good one,"

I scoffed and scrunched up my face in confusion. Who was she to say that on our first "date"?

"Oh really now, what makes you think that?"

"Well, you don't recognise me."

"And I should, because...?" This cockiness from her was now scratching my last nerve.

Her arm shot out again, mirroring our first greeting of the day.

"Katie McCabe, number 15 for Arsenal."

Ah.

"Again, I should know you because....?" I smirked, hoping to lower her ego a little by the end of the day.

A slight shaking of her head and bite of her lip allowed me to realise her ego wouldn't be the most annoying thing abut her. It was how damn attractive she was.