How You Get the Girl

three|sorrow.

《unedited》

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I woke up that morning feeling refreshed and absurdly motivated to tackle the day, I lay in my bed thinking aimlessly for a few minutes before I gathered the energy to make my way downstairs. For once I was greeted with blissful silence instead of the howls and screams of my siblings, I smiled in content and made my way into the kitchen.

Upon walking in, I immediately noticed the post it note attached to the fridge on which my mum hastily scrawled that she had gone to work and had dropped the kids off at Aunt Jane's and that she had also made some pancakes and mine were on the table.

I sat down at our small dining table and heartily ate my pancakes whilst aimlessly scrolling through posts on my phone and when I had finished I downed it with some freshly squeezed orange juice, before heading back upstairs to get ready to cover my morning shift at Holmes.

When I first started working at Holmes, I was constantly anxious and worried that I would somehow mess up the orders and give the wrong beverages and desserts to the wrong people, but now I found that I had begun to ease into my job and, weirdly enough, found it quite therapeutic.

My legs ached from standing up for 5 continuous hours by the till, my legs were numb and felt like they were on the verge of dropping off. I leaned against the counter for support and when someone entered the coffee shop, which in response prompted the bell to ring signalling their entrance. I hadn't bothered to look to see who had walked in, but in response I straightened up, ready to take their order.

'One large chai latte, please.' I heard a familiar voice say. My heart raced by the prospect of Elliot coming over by the coffee shop to come visit. It wasn't anything new, he almost always came to visit when I had a shift, it was his way of making sure I was not dead or dying from working for so long and it always brightened my day.

'Coming right up.' I smiled in response.

I served around two to three people after Elliot before Chris, a sweet twenty three year old who made my shifts at Holmes somewhat more fun and bearable, took over.

'Go on, honey.' She said, 'Your friend is looking lonely, let me take it from here.'

I hugged her gratefully, before I took one of Holmes signature angel cakes from behind her and made my way towards Elliot.

'You look like death.' He said to me in greeting.

'I know.' I said, with a hint of a smile.

I looked at him and could tell from his demeanour that he was distracted and something was bothering him.

'What's wrong?' I asked, slightly worried.

And to my surprise he blushed, Elliot very rarely ever blushed and when he did it was noticeable, it crept up his neck and reached the tip of his ears. In this particular moment, he looked ridiculously adorable and I found it virtually impossible to resist the urge to pinch his cheeks.

'Aw, you're so cute when you blush,' I teased.

To which he responded by smacking my arm away gently and mumbling something.

'You know I hate it when you mumble, speak up clearly, love.' But in reality I never did hate it when he mumbled, I just hated the little leap my heart made when he was embarrassed, he was just so adorable I felt like I was going to melt into a pool of happiness.

He cleared his throat and said much more clearly, 'Erin Ford.'

My smiled slipped a little but I was able to recover, I was still quite oblivious to what he meant and prompted him to explain and he delved into the story of how Erin had recently been transferred into his chemistry class from physics. He explained that ever since she had been paired with him, he felt a certain level of fondness and affection that he had never felt before. He then, through painstaking detail, went through how he had slowly but surely begun to develop feelings of a great magnitude towards Erin.