Burning Souls (F.T Sequel)

Chapter Four

I groan silently behind the caffe's counters when I hear the bell jingle which signals another customer's arrival through the door. I was just about to clean everything up and close The Chocolate Cocoon up for the day since Silas left earlier for personal reasons, and I've been looking forward to a nice, hot bath all day. I turn to greet the customer with what I hope doesn't look too much like the scowl that I imagine myself wearing, and smile brightly with surprise instead when Julia steps in front of the cash register, her eyes scanning over the menu hanging above my head on the back wall. She hasn't seen me yet.

I lean onto the counter with my chin balanced on my right hand and gaze at her with amusement when her face scrunches up in an expression of intense concentration. "Umm..." She begins, waving her finger around in the air between us as her eyes still on a drink that she's found on the menu. "Could I have your special 'chocolate rose latte' please?" She nods in agreement to herself and reach down into her bag that's slung over her shoulder, pulling out her flower-printed wallet with a satisfied smile on her face. "Do you take card- Oh my God..." She finally sees me and her smile widens in sync with mine as I straighten up behind the counters. Her eyes lower to my Chocolate Cocoon employee's name tag and back up to my face. "...you work here?"

"Just started today." I confirm, moving to take the credit card that she's holding in between fingers that stopped mid-air when she saw me. I'm about to get it when she breaks out of her surprised state and whips her hand away, away from my reach. I lean back, confused, and look at her with scrunched eyebrows when she neatly places it back into her wallet and zips the bag shut when she's packed it up again.

"Hard first day then?" She asks, crossing her arms. Not sure where this is going I nod, but look around me insecurely.

"Yes, but umm... are you going to umm... order... anything?" I mumble with confusion, and she shakes her head, pointing a finger at me with excitement.

"Nah-ah. I'm taking you out to dinner." She states.

"It's five in the afternoon." I counteract calmly, and she shuffles a hand through her dark hair, letting out a pained expression and tilting her head back slightly.

"An early dinner then. Or a late lunch. I really don't care about that, besides the fact that I know that the manager here is smoking hot, and that you're going to tell me everything about that other smoking hot guy that just happened to appear in your apartment last night!" She lets out a breath to calm herself and inhales deeply. I watch with amusement and pick up two rag cloths, wetting them with water from the tap.

"Okay, I'll agree to early dinner, or late lunch." I reply, grinning when she laughs at my words. Her laughing stops though when I throw one of the wet cloths at her and she catches it without thinking. "But I have to clean up first, and you're going to help me."

"I just had a mani-pedi." Julia defends, throwing the back of her hands up in front of my face to show me glistening, freshly-painted and pointed nails.

"The faster we close up the faster you get to hear the latest gossip about my absurdly attractive male company." I mock teasingly, watching and restraining myself from laughing when her expression morphs from one of disgust to utter determination.

"Fine!" She exclaims, raising her hand that's gripping the cloth at my face with an accusing pointed finger, "But you're telling me everything."

And then we set to work.

...°...

"So Hunter's his name?" Julia asks with excited interest, before raising a piece of sushi to her lips. The faint hum of conversation flows through the calm atmosphere of the candle-lit sushi restaurant, where all guests are sitting on soft oriental pillows on the floor, eating foreign delicacies of different assortments of fish from beautiful coasters on low, wooden and squared panel tables. A soft tune of flute meant to relax mixes with the conversations all around us as Julia eats eagerly, leaving me to talk. That works well for me, because it's given me an excuse not to eat anything. Yet. I'll have to come up with something eventually.