Home to souls

Chapter 3

"Frappuccino, coming right up," Liza chimed. Working on a Saturday afternoon at Linda's Café probably wasn't every student's idea of fun, but Liza loved it. The chaotic atmosphere of the café made her feel alive, and her bank account seemed to love the job too.When she'd first moved to the town she'd been desperate to find a job so she always had an extra bit of cash. It turns out many at the university didn't understand the need to get a job, and so Liza was left to walk from street to street, alone in her job hunt. However, Linda- being the compassionate being she was-had taken pity on the girl walking in the rain and had offered her a job at the café. To be honest, it had surprised Linda that a student of the age of 19was looking for a job-seeing as when Linda was a teenager a job was the last thing on her mind-but Linda didn't mind an extra hand in the café; 'the more the merrier' she'd claimed when Liza had come by.

Today, the mustard walled Café seemed to be buzzing with the regulars-artists, pensioners and students. Linda's café may have been small compared to your regular Starbucks, but it was no less exquisite. The black and white pictures and dim lighting helped to create a snug environment. Moderate sized windows littered throughout the building gave way to the bustling high street, but blocked any noise from the outside. Inside the café, the air was filled with undistinguishable chatter on a background of soft acoustic music. The black and white tiled floor gave an impression of luxury; it turned out Liza came from wealth, but hated having to always make conversation with the pretentious, so chose to run this café.

"Table 6, Liz! And he looks like a hottie," Linda called out from her spot on the counter, making sure the last part of the sentence was quiet enough so that only Liza could hear. Liza's lack of boyfriends was known amongst all the staff at the café, and it seems everyone took the opportunity to match her up with anyone they could, much to her annoyance.

Liza grabbed her little notebook, before looking towards table 6. The stranger oozed confidence in his black fitter suit, "probably a wealthy aristocrat," Liza mumbled before walking over to him. Liza could not see the man's face itself-since he was busy observing the menu- but from his dark hair and pale colouring assumed he was popular with the ladies. Liza, like many before her, wasn't immune to the charm of handsome men, but she was intelligent enough to realise that charm was disguised poison;that was why she'd never had to suffer a heart break, she was too intelligent for men like that, and she prided herself in it.

Usually, Julian would go out of his way to be pleasant to the humans, especially the attractive ones, but today he was not in the mood. He had called Aria forty times already, and she had stubbornly rejected all of them. It was not that he couldn't track her down with human technology, but such an act will only rub her the wrong way. He knew matters of the heart had to be dealt with tenderness, going in head first will not be beneficial in this situation, and so he had to be careful how he played his cards. 'This is dumb' he thought, his cousin was ruthlessly childish but even Aria knew the consequences of fooling around with the other house. How will he get through to her if she wasn't prepared to even pick up his calls? All this thinking was making his head pound, so of course, all manners went out the window as he demanded 'an expresso' without acknowledging his waitress.

Liza, who hated arrogance, stood dumbfounded by her customer's rudeness. She was sure he was having a bad day, but that did not permit him to be so disrespectful to others. "I don't think there was a please anywhere in that sentence,," Liza was going to teach this moron a lesson. Her customer, however, did not seem to want to be educated on manners today. His irritated, dark chocolate eyes studied her from head to toe, before looking at her name badge. "Please forgive me, Elizabeth, but I do not recall telling you to speak. I would like an expresso," Julian went back to staring at the menu as a means of ending the useless conversation. He had no idea what had gotten over him, he was known for his flirty personality and thrived on his charm,however it seemed this matter with Aria was affecting him more than he had initially thought. Liza would have liked to say something in return, but she was aware that probably would have not led to anything but trouble, so she bit her tongue and walked back to fetch his stupid expresso.

She had underestimated the stranger's beauty from afar, but his personality stank worse than a sewer. "Just give him the damn expresso, and then walk away. Don't let him get you down, you've got other customers to attend to, remember?" she mumbled to herself as she walked towards him with his order. The stranger didn't even look up as she placed his expresso on the table. "Asshole," she muttered under her breath. The same penetrating dark eyes lifted to meet hers, "Excuse me?" Liza's own brown eyes widened in surprise as she realised she'd been louder than she had initially intended to. "Err, I said expresso! Your expresso," she pointed to the cup as she said it. "Yes, that was what I ordered," there was amusement in his voice now. "Not even a thank you," she huffed. "Why should I say thank you when it is your job to serve?" Julian knew this was probably going make her mad but he couldn't help himself. She growled, "it's a good thing I spat in that expresso, you asshole." "That's alright, I wouldn't mind tasting your spit. Although if that's what you'd wanted from the start, you should've just said," he was smirking now. Liza's mouth dropped open at the turn of events, what the hell just happened? "Errrrr, no...that...that isn't what I want you asshole," she quickly breathed out as she tried to gather herself back together. The handsome stranger took his cup of expresso and stood up. She hadn't noticed his height before, but she was very aware of it now. He slipped out a white card and placed it in her trouser pocket as she stood frozen, "in case you change your mind," and with that he exited the café, leaving a confused Liza to try to pull together what had just happened.

Julian couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as he exited the café, not that he would hold back a smile-he knew he looked positively dazzling when he smiled. He stretched-he felt rejuvenated-he would have to return to the café again sometime-Elizabeth had been exquisite to converse with. He knew she would call him soon-they all did-but still, he hoped it would be sooner rather than later.