It is a beautiful summer Monday. I seldom think that days are beautiful though, thanks to my deadlines, eating up my hours of sleep. I spent the day at the coffee shop again, reading the first few pages of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book for my school book review. I took a sip from my usual Java Chip cup, then looked around.
There I go again. Procrastinating. I may have a strange way of doing it but I look around and go people watching as a form of my procrastination. There I see familiar faces, common customers of the shop. I see the old lady with her usual caramel coffee and the daily newspaper in her hands. There are the two girls gossiping again, I assume they're sisters or best friends who love frappuccino so much. And the man with the glasses, always making his paper work at the corner of the shop, with a roasted coffee on the left side of the table. Then there's a guy at the table at the center of the shop. I haven't seen him before but he is definitely one who is good in the eyes.
He has perfect brown hair, wearing a black and white Varsity jacket. He is, I think, sketching something using a blue pencil. In front of him, he placed his cup of Vanilla Bean Cream. I stared at him longer than I usual do to other people. He catches me looking at him and smirks, looking down again at his sketch pad. I looked away once his eyes met mine. I blushed, hoping he wasn't creeped out or anything.
I snap back to reality, looking at my book, realizing that I'm re-reading the same paragraph a couple of times already. I decided to stand up for the counter to order a donut. My phone rings and the tone echoes inside the shop. I immediately answer the call after the second ring.
"Where are you?" A girl's voice asks from the other line of my phone. The girl who takes photographs for our school paper.
"I'm just finishing the article." I reply even though my little fib didn't actually answer the question.
"Whatever. You need to come here, Joney."
"What's the emergency?" I ask with disinterest.
The girl explains and she finally catches my attention. My heart beats fast as I end the call. Without thinking twice, I immediately walk fast towards the exit.
"Excuse me miss, wait." The boy wearing a Varsity jacket tries to stop me as I pass by his table. I ignore him and I didn't look back. I need to go to the hospital as soon as possible.
***
It's been two days since our adviser died. I didn't even know that he had cancer. If I did, I would have been more obedient to him, always finishing my articles ahead of deadline and not complaining on how strict he manages the school paper and website. He was a good man but I didn't have the chance to tell him that. The new adviser, she's okay, but it's just not the same.
I entered the coffee shop, went to the table at the corner, sat down, turned on my laptop, and started typing down the first few words of my article. I was more focused on my work now, realizing how such a lazy ass I was before, until something catches my attention. In front of me is an empty table but it isn't actually empty because there is something on top of it.
How in the world did my book get there? Then I realized that I have left that book a couple of days ago in the shop where I was reading it.
I stood and took my book and directly went back to my seat without looking around the shop. I open my book and I noticed it immediately. There is some kind of a doodle drawn on the bottom right corner of the second page. When I turned to the next page, there is also a similar doodle on it and on the next page and so on. Then I realize that each drawing is actually different and if you flip the pages fast, it kinda shows you this little animation as the doodle moves per page. As I flip the pages, I see a girl, drawn in stick figure, drinking a cup of steaming hot coffee. I smile and I haven't been actually smiling for two days now. Who would do this? Who would actually waste his or her time to make a flip animation on a stranger's book?
"I see you've found your book. Hi. Can I sit with you?" The boy, with the perfect brown hair from before, asks me.
***
"My name's Alexandra Jones Legaspi but you can call me Joney. I'm 20 years old. I'm a college student, studying journalism. I do almost nothing but read books in this coffee shop and write articles for the school paper, I probably procrastinate a lot too. So, that's about my life actually. Okay, you're turn." I say to him as he takes a long sip from his coffee and smiles.
"Well, I'm Michael Rodriguez, or Mike, and I'm 21. I'm studying Fine Arts at University of San Carlos. I'm here for the summer to join an art project with a group of artists in our school." He tells me.
"Wait. The University of San Carlos? As in, in Cebu City?" I ask to clarify.
"Yeah, it's a great school." I just nodded my head and thought that this guy reminds me of someone else I met years ago. "So," He continues. "I saw that you left your book days ago and I tried to approach you before you left but it seemed that you were in a hurry."
"I was." I confirm. "I went to the hospital to visit my dying adviser. But when I got there, it was too late."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He says and looked shocked as he put his cup of coffee down. "I didn't know." His brown eyes shows a bit of concern.
"It's okay really." I smile cause I meant it, I'm actually okay now. I know my adviser's the kind of guy who doesn't want people feeling sad about his death, especially his students. And I know all he wants us to do is graduate and pursue our dreams, which made me happy for him to be a part of our lives, a part of my life.
"Well," He clears his throat, trying to change the subject and break the silence. "I went here on the next day and the day after to check if you're here but you're not. I chose to check up on you today and then I found you. Now, here we are." He looks at me and forced out a smirk. I try not to look at him.
"Okay, but what's with the animation on my book?" I ask him out of curiosity.
"Well, since I get to have your book for a couple of days, why not use it?"
"Use it? And you chose to drew on it instead of reading it?"
"That's what artists do, Joney. I also wanted to see you smile as soon as you receive your book back." And he did. "Besides," He continues. "I've already read it and by the way, in the end, Bod left the graveyard."
"You spoiler!" I whine and he laughs an adorable laugh.
I check the time on my watch and realized that I'm already late for my meeting with the staff of the school paper.
"Hey, thank you so much for the book but I have to go to a meeting and-" I tell him until he interrupts.
"Of course, I understand. I enjoyed chatting with you, hey we should hang out some time, yeah? Call me when you can." He stood up from his chair and winks at me before he left.
Did he just say call? I grabbed my book and opened it, scanning through its pages. There, written on the corner of the last page, his phone number. I caught myself blushing again.
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