The Shape of Love

#2 Monday Morning "Rain Worn"

"May I?" The woman posed the question sweetly, her voice as calming as the steady pang of rain drops on the window.

Lacey nodded, unsure of what to say. All at once it felt as if the air in her lungs was caught and when she opened her mouth a squeak was the only sound that prevailed. With that Lacey jumped from her seat and marched to the supply closet. Grabbing two towels the staff used to lay out overabundant ceramic mugs for drying she held them out to the woman.

She smiled in thanks and Lacey wondered if her own face mimicked the reaction. On that thought Lacey had the sudden urge to check her image. She sat down and glanced at herself in the dark screen. Her hair hung loose about her face and subconsciously she tucked it behind her ears following the action by fluffing her shirt free from wrinkles.

"I'm sure these don't come for free." The woman remarked a tinge of humor in her voice as she flashed Lacey another smile.

The tooth that Lacey noticed to be out of place before seemed perfectly at home, snuggled between the others. The woman's brown eyes peered into Lacey's as she waited for an answer. Lacey couldn't help but notice the smudges of eyeliner and mascara that blotted her lower lash line. Still, somehow, it looks as if she'd planned it. The way her dark hair was combed away from her face, as if she'd just walked off a photoshoot.

Quiet honestly, the woman sitting a foot away was gorgeous - and smiling at Lacey.

"They do if you work here." Lacey finally replied. Her words were forced as the air she'd been piling up in her lungs broke through an invisible damn. "Besides, a shivering customer isn't exactly a winning endorsement of our hot coffees."

The brown eyed woman noded. Satisfied with Lacey's response she leaned back adjusting the towel to wrap around her shoulders and the other to wring out her hair.

Lacey tried not to stare as the woman removed tangles of her hair away from her chest, leaving the skin exposed. The cloth covered buttons of her blue dress hung loosely as the soaked material fashioned itself to every line of her body.

"Are you on break then?" The rain worn woman cut into Lacey's thoughts and she wondered if she noticed her staring.

Lacey wiggled the mouse pad to reveal the clock in the corner of her screen. "Not for another seventy two minutes."

"But who's counting?" The woman winked as she fluffed out her hair with the towel, careful to avoid flicking water at a nearby table. "I take it you're not the type to be fashionably late?"

"I think that's called strike one where I work."

"Out of how many?"

Lacey mused. "Not sure. I haven't tested it."

"There's the problem." The woman leaned forward. One palm resting on the table while the other formed a point directly at Lacey's puzzled expression.

"Oh?"

"You don't know what you can get away with."

Lacey scrunched her eyebrows together. "That sounds very amoral."

"Doesn't have to be." The woman shrugged and slouched back in her seat. Lacey however sat stick straight, enthralled by the path of their conversation.

"How do you figure that?"

The stranger's brown eyes scanned Lacey up and down, from her plain black pocket shirt to the tip of her forehead. "How much time did you spend charting before you went out today?"

"Excuse me?"

"Charting, planning, making little lists in your head of the 'dos' and the 'don'ts'."