✩ #17 in body positivity ✩
Holly needs a job. And some cash.
That's how she ends up at Cafe by the Sea, hired by the assistant manager, Oliver, who's cute, annoying, and totally unattainable. She's not really looking to fall in love though - it's...
"Morning." Holly slouched in with a Salted Caramel Macchiato in one hand and her forehead in the other.
"Something wrong?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Just need some coffee." She smiled weakly and lifted up her plastic cup with her name scrawled in messy, black Sharpie.
He eyed the cup in her hand. "You like that?"
Holly shrugged. "I just didn't know what to get, and I was in a rush to get here." She didn't want to tell him that the reality was that there had been a group of wannabe teens behind her, scrolling through their Instagram feed and gossiping while throwing back their waist-length blond hair, all the while silently judging her shorts and crop top.
It irritated her, since they had been younger than her (probably weren't even in 6th grade) and were already cattier than some of the girls she knew. And they made Hollywood movies about those kind of girls.
These girls were a whole different breed of bitch. She had a feeling Hollywood would never run out of Mean Girl sequels at this rate.
Oliver gave her a crooked grin and gestured for her to hand over the cup. She did so obediently, even though she had no idea what he was doing. "I have something better, and it's not going to give you such a crash after a few hours."
She eyed him skeptically and he laughed. "Nothing illegal. I'm not kind of guy."
And he indeed, didn't look like that kind of guy, so she waited on the other side of the counter as he went to the back room. He came back a few minutes later with the same cup, but instead of coffee, it was filled with something green and thick, like a smoothie.
"What...is that?"
He laughed again and slid it over the counter to her. "It's a green tea latte. My mom always drinks this instead of coffee, because she's one of those ex-health nuts."
She gingerly lifted the cup back to her mouth and took a small sip. She could taste almonds and something earthy, which must have been the tea. "Ex-health nut?" she asked a moment later.
He scratched his nose and shrugged a little. "She used to be really healthy. She was into healthy eating and exercise and that kind of thing. Now she's stopped. Thank goodness," he added, the grin coming back full-force to his face, "I don't know how many tofu dinners I could have taken."
She had an urge to just crawl over the counter and hug him at that moment. She didn't really know why, since she didn't think she was a really huggy kind of person, but she just - he was just really sweet and kind. It was kind of like the feeling you got when a puppy first opened it's eyes and it saw you and came right at you, it's wet nose snuffling at the ground.
But she did manage to restrain herself. "Thanks for the drink. It's really good."
He scratched the side of his this time. It was a slight motion, and it could have been mistaken for just scratching at a mosquito bite or something, but Holly had been around Oliver for nearly three weeks now, and she knew most of his small tics. "It's not a problem. If you want anymore, just let me know. I can fix one up for you."
"Thank you," she said sincerely.
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