The Asphalt Cafe At 5 AM

Part One

Jade West loved coffee. Like, she really loved it. If coffee were a person, and was single, she would probably marry coffee. She loved everything about it, and everything that came with it. This included Beck Oliver. This especially included Beck Oliver.

It's not like she went to the Asphalt Cafe, the coffee shop not any farther than a block and a half from her apartment, specifically to see Beck. It just didn't hurt that he always worked the morning shifts from 5­ to 7, which was the only time Jade ever got coffee. And if she just happened to be one of the three people who actually stuck around in the cafe at this time ­the others being a lady that Jade could s mell t he crazy off of and a man that Jade was almost positive was homeless­ then so be it.

"Somebody looks like a little ray of sunshine today," Beck greeted her as the little bell attached to the door rang, signifying her entrance into the shop. They'd gotten to the point in their friendship where they were comfortable enough with one another to tease, and yet they'd never even met once outside of the shop, "did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"Do you have my coffee?" She asked and walked up to the counter, leaning her elbows on the black marble counter, arching the eyebrow with a metal ring sticking through it. She'd pierced it for a role in a movie she'd gotten months ago, and still yet to take it out.

"Black with two sugars and a blueberry scone, just the way you like it." He grinned the award winning smile that Jade couldn't help smiling to in return. It was rare that Jade smiled, and it was even rarer that the smile was a genuine thing. But Beck brought out something new, something that Jade hadn't experienced before, at least not to this extent.

Yes, Jade West was completely, totally, and irreversibly in love with Beck Oliver.

Which really sucked for her, because if she was wrong about these emotions, she'd have to find a new coffee shop, and she didn't j ust c ome to the Asphalt Cafe for him. Their scones were pretty damn amazing too.