Air: An Elemental Story

3

Astrid's shift was almost over. She worked at a small breakfast restaurant called Nana and Poppa's House as a waitress. She didn't make much, but she loved to make the customers smile as well as the older couple she worked for. They were so kind, and they had never had children so they treated everyone as if they were the family they never had.

As soon as the last table was done with their meal, they would be closed. All she had to do was straighten up the lobby and then with the last of the dishes and she could go home. She really wanted to talk to Jackson about last night. She simply couldn't get their weird neighbor out of her head. She didn't know his name, but his eyes haunted her every thought. She wondered why he had such sad beautiful eyes. The swirling storm that they were, made her want to grab hold of him and just hang on to him until he had a true smile. Just remembering the depressed and lost look on his face made her want to run back home and tell him that everything would be okay.

Astrid looked up from her station when she heard her last customer clear his throat and push his coffee cup toward the edge of the table, signifying it was empty. She shook her head to get her strange neighbor off of her mind, picked up a pot of coffee and walked over to him. "Do you need more coffee sweetie?" She asked the man.

He looked up from his phone. "Yes please." He looked down at her shirt. "You have a beautiful name." He said pointing to her name tag. "Where does it come from?"

She shrugged, "My dad said took one look at me and he knew my name was Astrid. He told me once that it was my destiny to have the name." She said with her best customer service smile.

"He was right." The man said, "Quite unique as well." He smiled then, flashing his beautiful white teeth. This guy was really well dressed in a black fitted suit. His eyes were a beautiful dark chocolate brown. He had broad muscular shoulders and a face that could make any girl fall to her knees. He had a long black, well groomed beard that matched perfectly with his midnight colored hair. His nose was straight and perfect. Is it even legal to look that good? Astrid thought.

"Well thank you sweetie, did you need anything else?" She said to change the subject, She just couldn't get over the fact that he was basically a god. She needed to get out of his presence and fast.

"No. Thank you." He said with a smirk.

She slightly bowed her head, "Just holler if you need anything." She walked away from him as fast as she could without him thinking anything of it. He was definitely someone she could get in a lot of trouble with. Why was she almost swooning at every new man she met lately? She felt like one of those love sick girls in romance novels.

After a few minutes he signaled for his check, so she printed it out and walked over to him. "Here you go, hun."

"Thank you Astrid. I hope to be seeing you again," He said, giving her shiver up her spine. It felt like both a promise and a threat. She didn't know what to think of him. Part of her wanted to go with him right now and never leave his side again. The other part of her wanted to run away from him and hide until he left.

She just smiled, hiding her internal debate. "Well, I'm here almost every day."

"Good. I just moved to town, thank you for being so kind."

"Anytime, sweetie."

He took out his wallet and pulled out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to her "Keep the change." He said, making her eyes almost pop out of her head.

His ticket was only $9.50 "Oh that is way too much, I can't accept that."

"Please, I insist. I won't take no for an answer." For some reason, she thought he was talking about something else. She internally shook her head, he is probably a really nice guy.