It All Started With A Payback

Two: Meet Jane

"What brought you here this early anyway? " Jon glanced at his wristwatch. The rooster hadn't even crowed yet.

"You're supposed to be sleeping now." He stated the obvious.

His friend's bewilderment was expected. They were hands on on their two business ventures. Each of them regularly took turns in watching over the coffee lounge by day-restobar by night and the car wash with coffee shop that both of them owned. Last night was his turn to watch over the bar, he didn't usually get home before four thirty in the morning.

He helped at the bar until it closed and assisted in cleaning it as well. He shrugged, "I was on my way home when I remembered I left my charger here yesterday."

Jon nodded and continued to watch him curiously as soon as he locked the glass doors. "Ready to talk yet?"

He stared at his friend for a long time, "It depends, if you are just going to make sport of me, then no."

Jon just glanced at the seat beside him and stared at him pointedly. He heaved a huge sigh as he straddled the chair.

The thought of not finding Jane again weighed heavily on his chest. It was insanity, he didn't know a single thing about her.

Nine days earlier.....

"That's alright Mel, I'll cover your shift for you...." Louie trailed off. The barista on the other line who couldn't report for work was completely forgotten.

His eyes were glued to the woman who just entered the coffee shop. He absentmindedly put down the wireless phone on the countertop.

Please don't let him be her boyfriend, he silently pleaded to no one in particular. He felt weird feeling a tad jealous over someone whom he doesn't even know.

It seemed to him it took them hours before they reached where he was. Only to be terribly disappointed. She merely glanced at the menu board and told the guy she was with what she wanted. She left, barely glancing at him to find a table.

That rarely happened to him. Modesty aside, women almost always did a double take when they saw him.

There really was something about her. The way her chin jutted out as though telling the world she didn't give a sh!t about what everyone thought of her.

He felt his heart skipped a beat when a memory of a person from not so long ago resurfaced.

He watched her closely, getting inexplicably jealous again whenever the guy leaned a little closer to say something.

BASTARD, he muttered angrily. He was so sure he was deliberately making his voice inaudible so she would have to lean towards him too.

He wondered irritably what the as$hole was saying. She was hanging on to every word coming out of mouth.

The guy got up and went to the restroom, he was sorely tempted to lock the door from the outside.

"Who is this for?" He asked one of the baristas, he was already taking the tray from her even before she answered.

She nodded in the direction of the woman he had been watching since she set foot in the coffee shop.

"Thank you," she said before she looked up from the cellphone she held when he set down the mugs of coffee and the plate of carrot cake on the table.

Her sensuous lips were curved into a heart stopping smile. She blinked twice.

Ah...there's the reaction I expected. He thought smugly when they finally made eye contact. He gave her his most disarming smile.