cappuccino kisses

flashback #1; meeting him

[flashback]

ZAHRA HOPPED OFF THE BUS AND STOOD BEFORE what used to be her favourite café.

She had just come back from a tremendously yawn-inducing lecture, only to find that they had completely taken down the building, and replaced it with piles of dirt. The wind blew her chocolate hair in different directions as she stood there, her tan cheeks and nose coloured pink from the cold, and her hands stuffed in the pockets of her favourite oversized hoodie.

All of her friends had worked at the coffee shop and hung out there ever since high school, and although lots of them had either drifted apart or moved cities, the café was the one thing that always remained constant. The one aspect of her life that reminded her of good memories.

So there Zahra stood thinking to herself how lame this was, getting emotional over a café.

The builders on site were huddled together in a circle enjoying coffee in takeaway cups, all of them cladded in bright orange safety vests and matching helmets. Zahra narrowed her eyes at them, almost feeling insulted that they were enjoying a cup of coffee on the ground where the world's best café once stood (at least in Zahra's eyes it was).

Oh god, there are people in Africa starving and here I am complaining about coffee, she thought to herself as she realised how stupid she was being. There were plenty of coffee shops around the city and it was simply a matter of finding a good one, so she decided to do exactly that.

The sound of her pre-loaded ringtone blaring snapped her out of her thoughts and she fumbled around in her purse for her iPhone. She glanced at the phone screen, it was her brother Zackariya.

"Did you know you're my favourite sister?" Was the first thing she heard when she answered the phone. No hi, no hello, just that.

"I'm your only sister." Zahra knew this was going to be something stupid.

"Ok so, you know that girl in my lecture that I was telling you about?" As soon as he said it, she definitely knew it was stupid.

"What do you want?"

"And you know my friend, Adel right?" Zack asked, rather hesitantly.

Zahra sighed again. "What do you want?"

"Can you be Adel's date this afternoon for a coffee date?" Zack said quickly, to the point where it was just a long, barely-distinguishable string of words. "It's this hangout and he'll be 5th wheeling if he goes without a date, which he refuses to do."

"Why me?" She asked. "And the answer is no." Come on, how old were they?

"Zahra, please!" Zack begged over the phone. Zahra sighed for the 10th time that phone call.

"Fine, you owe me big time. When and where?"

"5 at McLarens Café." And with that he hung up. Zahra shoved her phone in her pocket and started walking towards her apartment building.

– – –

It was a modern café in the midst of skyscrapers, surrounded by honking cars stuck in traffic. Zahra stood on the concrete steps looking at the café, taking a deep breath before pulling the glass door. 

Except it didn't open.

"You have to push it," a guy who had just walked up the stairs said to her, an amused smirk plastered on his face. He gestured to a half peeled blue sticker stuck on the glass that read 'push.'