Coffee Shop Crush

8

Mum decided to go for the afternoon to see work, she wanted to clean my apartment first. I cleaned my apartment three times this week and she still thought it was a mess, and seeing it after, I'm starting to think it was still a mess.

We walk up to the small shop, the afternoon sun seemed to light up the shop. "Oh!? You work at a coffee shop? I thought you hated coffee?" I push the front door open and hold it for her.

"I don't hate it; I just don't drink it. Besides I'm just the dishwasher here." My mum loves coffee, she is very picky about it too, hope she likes it here.

"Oh Loid, thought you were told to let your hand heal?" My mum turns to me and eyes my hand, I laugh as I close the door behind us.

"It's fine now, plus I'm not here for work, my mum wanted to see the place." My mum took this as her queue to walk up to the counter to shake Mary's hand, she looks surprised at how forward she was.

"H-Hello." I could practically see a halo around my mum's head, her face having a massive smile, I think she likes Mary.

"Oh my, who's this Loid?" Kristine asks leaving the kitchen.

"This is my mum." Kristine quickly walks over to my mum, and they seem it immediately hit it off. I mean the shop was quiet, but why was everyone interested in my mum, even some of the customers were watching them.

"Oh, how about I treat you to some chocolate cake, I owed Loid some anyway." My mum loves chocolate cake, like a lot.

"I mean if you're offering how could I say no." The two women laugh with each other as Mary takes her coffee order and the other barista gets the cakes.

"Loid, you're ok!" I jump as Damien leaves the kitchen too, he has soap up his arms, guess he was the dishwasher while I was gone. He rushes over to me and smiles brightly, his eyes weren't cold anymore, which I'm thankful for.

"Oh hello, are you Loid's co-worker too?" Damien stares at my mum as she approaches us, he looks confused. Which itself confuses my mum. I cough which makes Damien stand up straight.

"Uh yes, we're really close," he says wrapping his arm around my neck and pulling me close. My mum was very confused now, she knows I don't like people touching me.

"Damien relax that's his mum, she isn't gunna try stealing Loid from us," Kristine laughs bringing over a tray with my mum's drink and cakes. Damien's face turns red, he quickly let's go of me an apologises profusely, saying how he thought she was my girlfriend. I mean my mum looks young but not that young!

We sat down at a nearby table, my mum was practically beaming after that, she was basically told she looks half her age. She forces Damien to sit with us, even sharing her cake with him, he was awkward about it at first but agreed because she wouldn't stop trying to feed him. He was now trapped talking to my mother. I smile and eat my own cake; it was really good.

"When are you coming back to work Loid?" I look up, my fork stuffed in my mouth, I sadly swallow the cake in my mouth so I could respond, I wanted to enjoy it a bit more.

"When Kristine lets me, she doesn't want my burn to get worse." Damien looked relived.

"I thought you quit," he says smiling softly.

"He was in a bad mood all morning when he saw you wasn't working Loid." Kristine laughs as she leaves to go back into the kitchen, waving to my mum before closing the door. Damien looks at the empty plate in front of him, saying nothing.

"What did you even do to your hand?" I turn to my mum, she had her elbows propped up on the table, her coffee cup in her hands.

"I was drunk and burnt myself with a tap," she puts her cup down and looks at me surprised,

"You went drinking?" I nod and shove another bit of cake in my mouth, Damien was watching my cake now. I sigh and push it over to him, he looks up to me with puppy eyes, I could hear 'are you sure!?!?' just by looking at him. I wave it off and he starts to eat what's left. My mum looks so scared now.

"Mum, you good?" She blinks a lot then starts nodding her head.

"Yes sorry, I'm just surprised, you work in a coffee shop even though you hate coffee. You let someone wrap their arm around you without pushing them off, and even shared your food. You never shared your chocolate cakes with me," she says doing a dramatic sigh at the end, "I can't believe what I'm seeing, your own mother, and you don't share with me." I roll my eyes at her over dramatic scene. She was right though, I'm not one for sharing food... or letting people touch me. I guess it because...

"This man is like a giant puppy, he won't leave me alone unless I do what he wants," I sigh. My mum laughs and resumes drinking her coffee. Damien had stopped eating his cake, his soft brown eyes watching me intently. I cough, "If you're not going to finish that I'll take it back," I say pointing to the cake, him watching me made me feel weird. He jumps back slightly and starts eating the cake again. My mum watches him and smiles.

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The spare seat at our table was in constant rotation of co-workers coming to speak to my mum, knowing how well she gets along with people I wasn't surprised. But it felt like hours, there was even a stack of cups from Kristine coming to drink as well. They're working but they still found ways to sit and chat. It wasn't busy, and when someone arrived, they left to serve them, but still. I was drained just listening to them.

I didn't even notice Damien being a lot closer to me than before. He was watching me until I caught him, now he's just looking at his hands and biting his cheek, he wants to say something. "What is it?" He looks up at me surprised I spoke.

"It's nothing," he says rubbing the back of his neck. I shrug.

"Kay." He looks back at his hands.

"Um, actually, I wanted to say sorry about last week, I don't know why I acted like that," I smile, he shuffles awkwardly.

"What, staring at me as you made out with someone??" He coughs.

"Ye... me and Mary aren't dating by the way!" OK? "Um, I don't know, it's silly I know, I just felt agitated when you saw the hickeys on my neck." Hickeys? Oh!

"Those red marks?" He nods, readjusting himself in his chair.

"Yeah... I don't know what I wanted to accomplish that day," he laughs awkwardly. I couldn't help but snort.

"You dickhead. I was so confused man, I thought you were trying to make me jealous or something," I laugh. He looks up to me, looking serious now.

"I was." Without another word he stands up and leaves. going into the kitchen. I just stare at his seat.

"Huh? Why did he leave?" I didn't respond, "Loid?" I jump and look at my mum.

"He said he had to catch up with the dishes as he left them for so long," I lie. My mum checks her phone.

"Oh my, it's been that long already. We better get going I'm going to miss my show." We say goodbye to everyone, well my mum did, I was confused. Why did he want to make me jealous? "You coming Loid?" I snap out of my thoughts and follow my mum to the train station.

Jealous...?