[ I'm such an impatient liar. this isn't 'coming soon' it's coming now like Carolina next chapter — sorry. I stayed up past my bedtime to write the first two chapters, but tomorrow I'm gonna try to write the next free and easy chapter ]
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YOU COME HERE OFTEN?
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CAROLINA CARTER HATED CLIMATOLOGY. Sure, she had a passion for weather and meteorology just like her older sister did, but it didn't come naturally to her. She had to work hard every day to understand the complexities of how storms and various weather anomalies developed.
So, she was tucked away in her favorite booth just Milton's, sipping on her third Coke as she highlighted practically the entire textbook, writing notes in the margins. The final was three weeks from then, and she had a feeling this, out of all her classes, would kick her ass the most.
Since her booth was in the corner and tucked away, no one really bothered her except for Sally, the usual waitress that she had. Sally was in her forties and liked Carolina because she was a good tipper even though she wasn't much of a conversationalist. Caroline was fairly quiet and shy, especially when it came to people she didn't know well. And Sally was still considered just an acquaintance even after nearly a year of Carolina studying there.
It wasn't until after you got to know Carolina that you realized she had quite a spitfire attitude when she wanted to. The quiet and shy exterior was somewhat misleading at times.
"Thanks, Sally," Carolina managed to mumble without even looking up from her textbook as the waitress sat her fresh Coke down while also taking her empty glass.
She rubbed her tired eyes, wondering if she should take a break to scroll through TikTok and eat some tater tots, as she'd been working hard for at least an hour — maybe more. The gold watch around her wrist that was a hand-me-down from her sister was broken — it needed a new battery but she couldn't bother to go to a jewelry store to get one.
But then she took a sip of her Coke and got a second wind, putting the highlighter back in her mouth as she turned the page.
She was so focused on her textbook that she didn't even notice at first when two men sat across from her in the booth, much to their amusement. But a full minute later, a large hand reached across the table and slid her book away.
Carolina looked up, and the highlighter fell out of her mouth, hitting the wooden table that her elbows were rested in. But upon seeing two incredibly handsome men, she sat up a bit straighter.
One, the taller one, had dark blonde hair hidden away by a cowboy hat. The other had tan skin and a camouflage bandana wrapped around his neck, with a little mustache and patch of hair on his chin. One had blue eyes that looked like the color of the sea — not that she'd ever seen the ocean. And the other had deep, dark brown eyes that reminded her of the warm dirt she loved to play in as a child.
