LIVING THE DREAM ✅

Ten: The customer, the interesting couple and the almost date

The building, Merryland Stationery and Internet Cafe stood a few meters away from the busy part of town. It wasn't that big of a building, which could be the reason why Mitchell had never seen it despite driving through that part of town from time to time.

With her laptop bag in one hand and phone in the other, she walked away from her car and approached the building. There were no customers inside and she could see Austin sitting at the counter scrolling through his phone. He didn't see her approach until she dropped her laptop bag on the wooden counter and he looked up at her, his eyes wide.
"Mitch! What are you doing here?"

Mitchell laughed. "Is that what you ask your customers?"

"Well, no. You aren't a customer, are you?" he paused with a laugh but quickly stopped when Mitchell didn't laugh along. "Holy shit! You are a customer!"

"Bingo!"

"Wow, okay. This is a pleasant surprise. What do you need help with?"

"I have a deadline for some designs and the power outage at home cut off my WiFi. In short, I need to use your internet."

"Alright. Follow me," he carried her laptop bag and led her to a corner with a couple of computers. "Choose one of the computers. You'll be paying three bucks an hour since it's your first time."

Mitchell sat in front of one of the computers as Austin stood behind her, his arms around her as he clicked on some function to enable the internet connection. Mitchell couldn't help but notice how good he smelled - like mint and aftershave. His body was radiating some heat and their proximity was not helping her red cheeks. When he shifted a little bit, his breath fanned her neck and she felt her own breath hitch.
"Uh, so you took the job?" she said trying to fill the silence and distract her wandering thoughts.

"Y-yeah. I thought it'd be ungrateful of me to refuse the job yet Claire has done worse jobs for me"

"That's nice, I guess. She seemed happy talking about you."

"Really?" Austin asked with a hopeful look as he finally released the computer mouse and stepped back. "When did you talk to her?"

"This morning. We had breakfast together."

"Really? How the hell did that even happen?"

So, as Mitchell logged into her Adobe account to continue designing a few posters and an advert, she also narrated the events of that morning to Austin - who by the way had an expression of an abandoned puppy.
"Are you sure the WiFi here is private? I have pretty confidential information on my email and I wouldn't want anyone to access it," she asked him

"Hold on, I'll go ask my boss. He's in the back room in his office," he pointed towards the back with his thumb.

By the time he returned from the backroom, Mitchell was already halfway with the advert. The transitions, colors, b-rolls were all coming out great.
"You're a natural at this," Austin whistled. "Basically, you can edit a movie too, right?"

"That's overestimating me," Mitchell replied with an eye roll. "What did your boss say?"

"He was on phone the whole time, but I'll ask him when he's off. I didn't want to stay in the backroom for too long. A customer could come in and-"

"I get it, Austin. Relax."

She felt him tense behind her after which he cleared his throat.
"This is the first time you've said my name."

"Is it?"

"It is. You should use it more often."

"Why?"

"No reason. You pronounce it nicely."

"Nicely?" Mitchell scoffed. "How can anyone pronounce your name badly? It's so easy unlike mine. People call me Michelle - like Obama's wife. I hate it."

The conversation went from names to cyber security - because Mitchell was a computing nerd sometimes, and then finally to movies - romcoms in particular. By then, Mitchell had already submitted the work to her client and was reading a few emails and replying to comments left by her readers.

"So, you are leaving now?" Austin asked when he saw Mitchell logging out of all her accounts

"Yeah. I'm done here."

"Do you have plans later?"

Mitchell shook her head. "Not really. Hayley is with Hannah and your sister and I don't have any new jobs to work on."

"Alright," Austin smiled. "I'll be off in a few minutes. If you don't mind, would you like uh to like want to grab a bite with me?"

Before Mitchell could answer, the door to the printery opened and closed and two youngsters - a girl and a boy, both almost Hayley's age - came running to the counter.

"Austin," the girl rushed towards him and held onto his bicep. Woah girl, slow down. You wanna jump him in public? "Can you please tell Declan that books are better than movies?"

Not making a move to remove the arm around his bicep, Austin turned to the girl and shook his head. "Sorry, Jean. I'm with Declan on this. I can't imagine myself reading a book."

"But why?" the girl - Jean - whined. "Books are great. You get to imagine your own characters, read character backstories and stuff. How do you people not see this?"

How do you not see that you are almost jumping a man who is almost eight years older than you?

"First of all," the guy, who had been quiet, spoke. "Books are boring."

"Hey!" Jean finally released Austin's bicep and turned to the guy - Declan apparently. Phew. What a relief! "I'll have you know that nobody says first of all in real life. You're boring!"

"Well, as much as I'd like to see you argue like a married couple, I have places to be. Have fun with your shift," Austin said and gestured for Mitchell to follow him.

"Ooooooooh," Declan, the guy, clicked his tongue. "Austin has a date?"

"You shut up," Jean slapped his shoulder. "At least he has guts to ask someone out. You haven't asked me out since you started dating me-"

Austin grabbed Mitchell's hand and opened the door as they both went out.
"They are an interesting couple."

Thank God they are a couple! "Why do they even work together?"

"For starters, Jean's dad owns the printery. Secondly, I don't know why. But let's not talk about them. Do you still wanna go for lunch?"

"Can't say no to free food."

Austin scoffed. "Bold of you to assume that I'll be paying!"

Cutting the long story short, Austin paid for the food. He also paid for the movie tickets to watch Just Go With It, the snacks and drinks. Judging from the number of romcoms Mitchell had watched, it almost looked like a date. Almost. It'd be one if Austin thought it was one.

But did he?

Double update. Thanks for reading.
Next chapter will be live on Friday, 1st March 2024.
Ps: Mitchell's name is pronounced Mee-Cho