The Coffee Shop || A Romance

His Return

Peyton took a week off from work hoping to relax after the encounter with Luciel, which she refused to believe anything that came out of his mouth. He just seemed a confused man. When she returned everything seemed back to normal, or the way everything always was.

"Ah, Peyton , are you feeling better?" Sunny asked seeing her boss enter the small shop with a neutral expression.

"I am fine, but... the man... did he return?" Peyton asked wondrously.

"I have not seen him since... well the day you left, sorry," she replied.

"It's fine," Peyton said while walking to grab her apron.

Work sped by and Luciel never appeared. Peyton did wonder if he would ever turn up, but at the same time did not want him to shop up, she did not want to remember anything. By the closing time a classier than regular car rolled up, parked and out came Luciel. He sat outside right in the front opening the menu elegantly. 

"Sir, welcome back, same thing today?" Sunny asked while pouting him a cup of water.

"Actually, I would like one gourmet waffle, no coffee today, and also, I want to speak with Peyton, please," he replied.

"I will check with her and be back with your waffle!" She pranced off back inside the coffee shop. She whispered to Peyton telling her that the man was back. Peyton had a feeling in her chest of relief when she heard he returned. She did not know why, and attempted to shoo the feeling away.

"I will serve him, you can start cleaning up," she sent Sunny off, grabbed the waffle, and with a gulp went over to his table.

"Oh, Peyton, good afternoon," Luciel looked up from his phone with a smile.

"Luciel... hello, here is you waffle," she handed him his waffle.

"Sit?"

"Um... sure, I don't have a lot of time," she lied of course, her life consisted of nothing but the coffee shop. This was the first time in years that her life changed from the normal go to coffee shop, leave coffee shop, repeat. Her change of attitude towards him was slightly surprising as she was trying to recover from her attitude the other day. She seemed to have left him on a bad note which bothered her because her personality include excessive guilt over any mistake.

"Why are you staring like that?" Peyton looked at him as his eyes seemed to be looking into her soul. He moved his hand to grab something out of his pocket, a picture.

"This, is you, it has to be," he pointed to the girl in the photo next to a boy, "and that's me."

"Luciel, I really do not think you are correct, I think you are mistaking me for someone else," she lied feeling worse than before.

"Listen, Peyton, I know it is you, and if you won't admit it, then I will try my best to get you to, I won't give up," he stood up, picked up his bag, and headed towards his car. Peyton watched, for some reason, eyes filled with tears. She wanted to stop him, but she barely knew the new Luciel, the rich, arrogant-like boss. She stood up and walked back into the coffee shop telling Sunny she needed an early leave because she was not feeling well and headed off.

Thoughts only filled her head, and not very good ones. She was overly confused pacing around her apartment flat not knowing what in the name of God to do. An hour passed by when she heard a ring, it was her doorbell. Nobody ever came to her apartment, ever. She looked through the peephole seeing a man dressed in black but wearing a hat.

"Ma'am, you have an order of flowers?" The man spoke up. She opened the door in more confusion.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"These flowers, well, someone ordered them to be sent here," he replied setting them down on the floor and walking away. Peyton lifted the woven basket by its handle with the delicate and colorful flowers inside it. She saw a small card within the flowers as she set it on her small, black cherry dining table. Picking up the card with a little yellow umbrella on it she opened it and out fell a small black business card. It can't seriously be... she thought as she bent down to pick up the small matte card.

Luciel Min Hyuk
CEO of LMH Company

Office: +1-202-555-0110

How the hell did he find her address, what was he, some stalker? She kept the flowers though, with some sort of feeling within herself telling her to give him a chance. She picked up her phone and began dialing the number. It rang for about three more times until she heard someone answer on the other line. Taking a deep breath she spoke.

"Hello? Is this Luciel?"