Satin

Three

|Unedited |

For the rest of the evening, Aspen busied herself with other customers in the café. Since the colder weather had kicked in, Orion's had become increasingly popular. The laughter and conversation that rung throughout the building kept Aspen occupied enough, but she couldn't resist glancing over every so often. She allowed her eyes momentarily to dance over the empty coffee cup and plate; she hadn't dared move them.

'Here's your comet cake-' smiled Aspen as she placed a rock cake down in front of a young girl 'and your Milky way.' she put her favourite drink in front of the girl's mother. 'If there's anything else you need, just call.' Aspen smiled once more before tucking the black tray under her arm and heading back to the kitchen. The cold air from the AC hit her face and she closed her eyes, sighing. Tilting her head back, Aspen slid down the wall until she was sat on the floor and sighed once more. She was tired. More tired than she'd ever been. In fact, she was almost certain that if she didn't get up soon she'd fall asleep right there on the floor.

'What's wrong with me?' whispered Aspen, rubbing her hand across her face. Her eyes stung as the peculiarity of the past couple days caught up to her. Breathing in heavily, Aspen stood back up and shook her head vigorously.

'I am not going to cry.' She said, definitively 'I am strong and I am being stupid right now and I am not going to cry.' She kept repeating herself until the tears were gone and her breathing was normal. In the kitchen, Aspen could see James mixing brownie batter and cackling loudly at something Grace had said.

'You are wild, Missy!' He exclaimed, grabbing the bag of flour next to him a little too harshly. James squealed as a cloud of flour exploded from the top of the bag and covered him and the metal counter he was working at.

'Did you just... Squeal?' Asked Aspen, stepping out so James could see her. James' cheeks turned pink and his eyes widened as shook his head.

'I'm a man, A.W. I don't squeal.'

'I'm pretty sure I heard you squeal.' Aspen was struggling to contain her laughter. James was two hundred pounds of pure muscle. His dark hair, which was the same colour as his eyes, was cropped and messy. When she'd first met him, Aspen had been terrified that he was going to crush her. He towered above her at six-foot-six and he had angry eyes. She remembered the first time they'd ever spoken. Aspen had been working at Orion's for about a week and James had called her into the kitchen to pass on food for a customer. Aspen had thought he was going to punch her in the face so she hit him over the head with her tray and ran out of the kitchen.

Good times.

'James, I definitely heard you squeal.' By now she wasn't even trying to hide her amusement.

'Bruh, that was Grace.'

'Nope.' The woman shouted as she left the kitchen. James' face turned even darker as he realised he'd been caught out.

'Damn.' He whispered under his breath 'If you tell anyone about this, you will be so deceased.' He tried his best to be menacing but that only made Aspen laugh even more.

'I'm quaking in my boots!' she responded, sarcastically.

'What are you gonna do, Aspen? Hit me with that tray of yours?'

Aspen took the tray from under her arms and held it above her head. 'Why don't you find out?' James raised his hands in mock surrender and started tidying up the mess he made. Still laughing slightly, Aspen put her tray down on the counter and walked over to the kitchen door. Geoff came in as she was hanging up her apron.

'You off, Kiddo?' He asked, placing his tray of empty plates down.

'Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow.' She hugged him for a moment before putting on her coat.