Constellations & Cactuses

Chapter 5

"I'm really sorry Millie, I swear I didn't ask or anything, his mum came down just as I was turning to follow you out the door and she just handed me the job, I tried to protest but she wouldn't have it, I swear on my life, I'm so sorry!" I rambled through the phone on Saturday afternoon.

"Beth calm down," Millie exclaimed. "It's okay its not like I really enjoyed working there, I can get another job."

"But-" I started

"Elizabeth Bonaire stop apologising right now!" Millie said sternly.

"Okay, okay," I cried, "I'm sorry!"

We both burst into laughter.

"Beth!" Millie laughed, "It's okay really, I know you'll enjoy the job more than I did anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked curiously.

"Don't play dumb Beth," She said slyly, "I've seen the way you look at him."

"Oh my god! Millie!!" I exclaimed loudly. "I don't like him like that!"

"That's not what your eyes were saying..." Millie teased through the phone.

"We're just friends!" I argued. "Anyway where do you think you'll work now?"

"Hmm I don't know yet," Millie confessed, "let's brainstorm."

We talked for hours brainstorming different places Millie could apply for a new job, but didn't really come up with much of a list. After a kind of unsuccessful couple of hours we hung up with the promise of going job hunting tomorrow.
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Millie came to my house at about 9 o'clock in the morning ready to find herself a job. After pulling on our coats we headed into the October weather ready to go job hunting.

Autumn has always been my favourite season. It's when the blistering British sun fades away along with the sticky humidity. The ocean breeze finally starts to settle in and the luscious green leaves turn to a crisp auburn.

Millie would say otherwise though. She prefers the sticky humidity and the glow of a fresh new tan.

"Ugh, it's so cold!" Millie complains pulling her coat closer to her body as we walk down the Main Street handing in her resume at every second shop looking for employees.

"Oh! This place looks nice!" Millie exclaims cheerily as she draws me out of my thoughts.

I look up at a cute little coffee shop that you would read about from an adorable romance novel.

"Let's go in," I tell her looking around in awe at the soft pink brick work and the amazing floral plants that looked surprisingly familiar surrounding the building and on the tables.

Millie opens the door to the cafe but at the same time a familiar mop of brown hair exists with their back to the door and stumbles slightly and knocks into Millie causing her to bump into me and somehow spilling coffee down the front of Millie's shirt.

I look up to meet the eyes of no other than Parker. His hair is unlike his typical straight brown hair, it's curly and ruthless and sits on his head just adorably. I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer his curls over his straight hair.

I mean it looked 'okay'. Yeah I meant okay.

Maybe this coffee shop is the start of a romance novel, except my best friend is yelling at the boy in front of me for spilling coffee on her shirt.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't see you!" Parker quickly says defending himself.

In his hands he is holding two coffees one now spilt and dripping down the cup, the rest soaking into Millie's shirt.

"So you're calling me short now!? What is your problem!" Millie yells, over exaggerating the situation.

"No that's not what I meant, I just.. I didn't mean to bump into you. I was in a rush, I'm really sorry," Parker tries to explain himself, stumbling over his words flicking his eyes to mine half way through but quickly back to Millie.

"Whose the coffee for, huh, your girlfriend or something?" Millie asks nosily.

"My Mom," Parker replies, cheeks tinging a soft pink.

Millie smirks slightly.

"Mumma's boy," Millie teases.

Parker rolls his eyes.

"Millie.." I warn her.

"Thank god I always have a spare shirt with me, hey what's up with your hair?" Millie asks stifling a laugh while looking through her bag.

Parker's eyes widen slightly and his spare hand flies to his hair, he grabs the curls and tries to run his fingers through them to straighten them out.

I think it's cute.

Suddenly both Millie and Parker are looking at me. Millie raises an eyebrow at me with a smirk as if to say I told you so and Parker's cheeks turn a deeper shade pink.

Wait.

DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD.

There would be no better time for the world to swallow me whole than now.

I looked at my shoes awkwardly feeling completely embarrassed. When I finally lifted my eyes from my shoes, I saw that Parker looked just as uncomfortable as I did and that Millie was still trying to find her other shirt. As I was shifting my gaze to look at something else I caught Parkers eye accidentally, my gaze automatically went to my feet again.

"I found it!" Millie cried loudly making both Parker and I jump, "come on Bethy, lets go!"

Millie grabbed the door to the cafe and pulled it open. I started to follow Millie through the door keeping my gaze on my feet.

"Bye Parker," Millie said as she walked through the door, "watch where your going next time!"

"I will, I'm so sorry. And I'm sorry about the other day," He stated quietly.

As I turned back around to walk through the door Parker spoke up.

"You start work on Monday."

"Okay, thanks." I said quietly following Millie inside. "Bye Parker."

"See you then Ellie." He said as the door closed behind me.