A Cup of Coffee

c h a p t e r 0 9

Elizabeth

It's been twenty hours since I last saw Adam. Katie already printed out the photos she took with this zinc portable printer she have and gave me a mini album filled with the pictures from dinner. I realized she snapped at least three pictures of me hugging Adam and five more of us just talking to each other at different angles.

"Katie!" She rolled over on my bed to face me.

"What?" Katie grinned and tickled me at the sides. After a moment of struggling, she stopped as we just laughed for a solid minute. I settled myself down and put my head on her stomach as we just stared at my bare ceiling.

"I think I have a crush on Adam, "

"You don't say,"

"He's so handsome but he seems so," I stopped, not being able to find the right words to describe how spacey he was.

"You think he's the one after meeting him once?"

"Our first encounter was at the coffee shop, I remember how he smells. And last Sunday, I saw him as well at the chocolate aisle. My wrist stings every time I see him,"

"No wonder he kept staring at you last night. I was surprised he didn't leapt off his seat to eat you up," we both laugh because he did glance at me a lot last night.

"He almost did,"

"Yeah he was watching you the entire time you were hovering around the cheesecake as if you were going to disappear," I blushed and told her about how it felt when we touched.

"Now that you have a good feeling about it, why not talk to him about it?"

"What if he doesn't feel like it's right?"

"Does the whole world have to revolve around soulmates?"

"Well no, of course not. I've been waiting for this time for so long. And I fucked up."

"You did not! Shut up," flicking my forehead slightly. I sat up and have the sudden urge to see him again.

"I want to go see him," I declared, more for myself than for Katie. She shot me a flabbergasted look, I was never the forward type of girl but I wanted to get this whole soulmates thing a chance and before I back out, I need to do this.

I hoped off of bed and dusted a little bit of make up and dabbed a little bit of pink listing on my lips. I threw on some jeans and a red sweater pairing it with my red pumps. After Katie walked me to the front door to give me some words of encouragement, I bolted to the elevators.

The coffee shop was about to close. Luckily for me, Phoebe was wiping tables at the booths so she let me in after kissing me on the cheeks.

"I was half expecting you to come back with the gift but I'm so glad you didn't!" Phoebe so kindly gave me a typewriter for my birthday. It belonged to her sister who passed on years ago and she wrote me a letter saying that I shouldn't let this beautiful typewriter go to waste.

I enveloped her into another hug, saying how much I appreciated it and not to worry because I was not planning on returning it anytime soon.

"What brought you here?" Phoebe asked the moment Adam stepped out of the kitchen wearing an apron on top of his black T-shirt. "Where are the rags?" He asked in an annoyed voice, he looks like he doesn't want to be here.

"Oh dear sorry, at the tables," She said gesturing to the booth she was wiping as she turned back to me.

"I was actually here to," I paused and looked at Adam across the coffee shop, "I was here to have a word with Adam."

"Oh okay, of course Dearie," She smiled widely and gestured Adam to come to us. She took the rag from him and headed to the kitchen behind the counters.

"Hey," he greeted, wiping his hands on the back of his jeans.

"Can we talk?" I needed to get this over with before my nerves get the best of me. My palms were clammy and I felt like peeing my pants.

"Yeah sure, you wanna go out?"

"Here is fine," we slid into one of the booths and sat there in silence for a moment.

"And what was it that you wanna talk about?" He raised his eyebrow, blue eyes staring right at me. Strands of his brown hair lightly covering his face. I took a deep breath as he continued looking at me with a questioning stare.

"Umm I'm not sure if you believe in soulmates and the whole wrist thingy and how they countdown one year before you meet your soulmate. Mine appeared more than a year ago and I kinda met my soul mate? Not really but like my wrist was zero but I was distracted and I never met mine but with you around, my wrist just hurts and they said that -,"

"Breathe," he gripped my cold hands with his warm ones as he stared at me wide eyed. 

"Well okay ummm so my wrist hurt whenever I'm around you which was like three times and I don't want to seem like I'm too forward because I'm usually not like this but like -," he cuts me off and I finally took a breath.

"ELIZABETH,"

"Yes," I whispered.

"Calm down, I felt it too remember," he ordered and lets go of my hands, "I've been meaning to ask you as well. Were you here last Saturday around noon?"

"Yeah, I was heading out,"

"Well, I was heading in and this shorty didn't watch where she was going,"

"WELL EXCUSE ME, I WAS NOT THE ONE ON MY PHONE,"

"So you do remember?" He smirked, looking at me with amused eyes.

"That was you?"

"Obviously," he rolled his eyes and drummed his long, slender fingers on the table.

"Okay,"

"So do we like do? Do we just move on with our lives?"

"I don't know, I never really thought about it. I was hoping you knew," I admitted. I knew I liked him but he didn't seem all that interested in me. It's not like being each others' soulmates mean that it will work out perfectly.

"Well then, you can go. I have enough on my plate and I barely know you," I stared at him, horrified at the words that left his mouth. I know he was a bit sarcastic and rather cocky but he was being flat out rude. After years of being put down by people, I usually stand up for myself.

I don't know why but I stared at him once more before leaving the coffee shop without another word I didn't even say goodbye to Phoebe like I normally do. You would expect your soulmates would be more willing to figure things out with you but he just didn't want anything to do with me. It was heartbreaking but at the same time it was my fault for thinking it mattered. My parents never worked out so what makes me any different? I bolted to the dorms without turning back and luckily by the time I reached our dorm, Katie already left for Nathan 's apartment. Nathan 's housemate went back to his hometown so they had the place to themselves.

I locked the door behind me and just cried on my bed till I got tired. I don't usually cry for guys that much. Daniel hurt me a whole lot but this pain was hurting my heart. I only talked to guy yesterday we exchanged barely thirty words and here I was bawling my eyes. At the only time, I decided to pluck up the courage to go and talk to a guy, he turns me down.

I fell asleep, ignoring the stinging pain in my wrist. I don't want to care anymore but a little part of me does. But tonight, I'm just going to sleep it off.