Breathe

Two

Nora

The second time I met him, it was at the local coffee shop, Joe's.

I stopped by Joe's to get my daily coffee, as I was honestly barely functional without it and a dysfunctional Nora, was not a good one.

 I did my normal routine upon entering, which was checking out which customers were here today. The same mother and her two young kids sat playing among them while the mother drank her coffee filling out papers, which I assumed to be checks for bills, she normally did that here. An old man and his wife sat at their booth, talking lively between themselves. Admiration was obvious between the two and I felt my heart tug in awe. They weren't here everyday, but I still had seen them before a few times. I remember they had said that they had met in the coffee shop that was here before Joe's and that when Joe's was put in, they still came in memory of their meeting. I had always wanted something that those two had had. A part of me was craving that much. 

After that my eyes had led me over to him. Not once had I seen him here, and I was a daily customer.

He'd looked worn out, his dark blue button up shirt had the sleeves folded at the elbow, a pair of black glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, his eyes tired. His forehead was marked with creases as his eyes were trained on his phone resting in his hands.

I stepped forward in line, the click of my heels on the tile was the first to gain his attention. He shot it head up and looked over in my direction. Upon my newfound attention I kept my stare on my hands, not daring to look at him. My hands rested on the inside of my sweater sleeves finally and I subconsciously tugged at my skirt sitting around my hips. 

I wasn't cursing this time, only because I didn't look like a hobo. I'd stepped up to the counter and ordered my drink, paying over the usual two dollars for coffee. I licked my lips and finally turned to face him, pushing what strands of hair that had fallen from my bun out of my face.

He'd pointed to the vacant seat in front of him and gave me a heart stopping smile. I took my coffee from the worker and walked over to him, taking the empty seat. Feeling as my mouth was parched, I sipped my delicious drink and returned his smile.

"Hey, Cal?" I bit down on my lip lightly giving him a confused glance.

"Calvin." He corrected and laughed softly at my questioning of his name. I never quite caught it last time we met, what was I supposed to do?

"What's got you all dressed up?" I quirked an eyebrow looking at his appearance again, taking in the slacks he wore with his shirt and all black vans. Classic.

"Well I was just fairy hunting with this," he points to himself. "And it seems I've caught myself a fairy."

I rolled my eyes and glanced to see him grinning wide in my direction. "Quite the charmer Calvin, but I am nothing close to a fairy." I'd crossed my arms over and leaned back in my seat setting my purse off to the side.
"Contrary to belief," Calvin started before sipping his drink. "Collin seems to think that you're a cotton candy fairy. He won't stop talking about Nora the cotton candy fairy and her so soft hair."

I chuckled and shook my head at him, my fingers lightly tracing the lid on my coffee cup.

"You'll have to tell him that I said hi then," I hummed and flitted my eyes to the clock sitting across the coffee shop. Once I saw that it was nearly 2, I let out a groan. I'd used up ten minutes of the fifteen my boss gave me for my first break.

"Will do Nora," He hummed in response before raising an eyebrow. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, I hate to cut our conversation short, but I'm going to be late for work from break if I don't leave now." I frowned and leaned over grabbing a napkin, scribbling down my number before handing it to him. "That way Collin can reach me if he wants to."

He took it with a soft smile, waving, "Until next time Nora."