Spontaneous Love

Smoothie Cafe

Sofia is getting ready for the day, even though it is 1:00 in the afternoon. First, she showers, then gets dressed and does her hair and simple makeup. Getting ready for the day is probably the best thing about most of her days. She loves the fresh feeling of it and how it gives her something to do. Breakfast is something that this girl does not partake in, but now lunch has arrived. Her mother has gone out for tea with some old friends of hers, and so Sofia is now home alone. 

She goes downstairs to the kitchen to search for food, but finds nothing. Or at least anything that she wants to make for herself. She's been craving a smoothie all morning, and maybe some fries or chips too. She decides to find some place to eat at in town. She vividly remembers her mom suggesting this smoothie cafe place a few days ago and decided she'd try finding it. She puts on her shoes and walks out the door. Just as she starts going into the garage, she remembers that her mom took the car, so she'll have to walk. "Damn me!" she mumble yells to herself. She is not in the mood to walk anywhere far today, and the rainy weather certainly does not help. 

She pulls up a map of the Smoothie Cafe on her phone and follows the directions. the phone says it will be about an 18 minute walk. She will do whatever it takes for this smoothie right now. When Sofia gets hungry, she does not mess around. She's off right away and finds that the walk is actually more peaceful than she thought. She's listening to a Phoebe Bridgers playlist in her wire airbuds the entire time. Only 5 more minutes, she thinks. 

The walk only felt like half the time, which Sofia was thankful for. The music does help to pass the time. She turns the directions off on her phone before entering the Cafe. It's dimly lit, exaggerating the gloomy weather outside, but making it cozy and warm. The walls are painted a grayish blue with gold lining across the floors. The chairs in the middle of the room match the walls, along with a round Persian rug beneath them. It's not too busy at the moment, but still more people than Sofia would've liked. She gets social anxiety pretty badly. The scent of blueberry puff pastries and fresh chocolate croissants instantly greet Sofia's nose, almost making her mouth water. The nice lady at the counter welcomes her in and asks to take her order. Sofia walks up to the counter and orders a strawberry kiwi smoothie. 

The worker starts making the smoothie and Sofia takes a seat on one of the high stools at the front counter. She begins to fidget with her ring. It's not long at all before her drink is ready. The lady handed it to her in a fancy glass cup along with half a strawberry perched on the side. She dipped her finger into it immediately and found that it tasted perfectly. Maybe even the best smoothie she'd ever had. The drink was gone within only a few minutes. Suddenly she hears the door open with a jingle of a bell hanging right above. She turns her head to see who it is, knowing it wont be anybody she knows. But to he surprise, it's the same boy from before. The boy from the emergency room. Tate. But this time he is alone. Not accompanied by his father, or even a nurse. 

He walks straight to the counter to order whatever it is he was getting. He didn't look around at all, yet. As soon as he was done ordering, he looked around for a seat. He made eye contact with Sofia. Their eyes locked for a brief moment, recognizing each other. He smirked a little, and slowly started walking towards her. Sofias heart sped up a little, and she wasn't sure if it was because she thought she might be blushing or just because of her anxiety. She begins to freeze a little but tries to act normal. He's getting closer, she thinks. "Hey," Tate says. "uh, Hi" Sofia says nervously.  "You're the girl from the emergency room, right?" Her mind instantly blanks, and she's surprised that he even remembers her at all. 

"Um, yeah" She says while laughing nervously and shakes her head. 

"Yeah I thought so." 

"I remember you.." 

"Yeah? Mind if I take a seat?" He glances to the stool next to her. 

"Oh, yeah of course" She motions to the seat. 

"Cool, thanks." He says, and they just kinda sit there awkwardly for a few short seconds. "Oh, my bad, I'm Tate by the way. Tate Montgomery" 

"Yeah, I know."  She says. "Sorry, that sounded creepy. I just remember the nurse repeating your name." 

"Ahh, no you're good. Whats your name?" 

"Im Sofia. Sofia langford." 

"Well, it's nice to meet you Sofia Langford." Tate says. 

"Likewise, Tate." She smiles a little.

Tate grins. "So, how are you doing? what were you at the ER for?" 

"Im going good, thanks. But it's kind of an embarrassing story." 

"Oh, don't worry, it can't be worse than mine. shoot." He says. 

"Okay okay, well, I was messing around at work- Mind you, nobody was around at the time- and I was doing stupid tricks and I ended up tearing my MCL. I heard my knee pop and I had to use crutches for like a week. How dumb, right?" She confesses. 

"Ouchie. That is kinda embarrassing. No offense." He laughs aloud. 

"Hey!" She pretends to take offense and nudge his arm with her shoulder. 

"Im sorry, I'm sorry! But mine is way worse than that." 

"Oh really? tell me what happened then." Says Sofia. 

"Well... i was trying to do a backflip off of a ladder and into a pool. I was not successful. The ladder ended up tipping over as soon as my feet had left it. Then I fell on top of the ladder from about nine feet up in the air and I have this massive bruise on the side of my torso now." Tate tells her. 

"Damn, that is worse. Well are you okay now?" They laugh together about their stories. 

"Yeah i'm fine, it's healing pretty fast now, and luckily I didn't break anything. But safe to say, I will not be trying that again, haha" 

"I'm glad to hear it. God, we can both be kinda stupid sometimes, huh" Sofia says. 

"Yeah, I guess so." They grin together. Tate's food finally arrives. "Mmm this smells amazing" 

"Is that the blueberry pastry?" She asks. 

"Yeah, want a piece?" Tate offers. 

"Hm, maybe just a small piece. Thanks." 

Tate tears off a corner and hands it to her. They both bite into the buttery, delicate pastry at the same time. "This is so freakin good, i've never had one before." Sofia admits. 

"Wait seriously? I order these all the time. they're my favorite." 

"I can see why. I thought nothing could top my smoothie I had earlier, but I was wrong. That was amazing" She says. 

"I agree... Hey, wanna where are you going after this?" Tate asks her. 

"Uhh, I was probably just gonna go home after, why?" 

"well, if you want, we could maybe walk to the library or do something fun, whatcha think? but of course, we don't have to. Just a thought." Tate starts to fidget with the hem of his shirt while he waits for a response. 

"That actually sounds kinda fun! Yeah sure, i'm in. My mom is gone anyway,  and she won't be back for a while." 

"Okay, great! lets go then." Tate gets up and leads the way to the library.