Ian watched a man walk in his small corner stall.
These days, it was rare for the business to get walk-in customers as most of their sales come from online orders. More than a year ago, he decided to put up a small cafe attached to the shop to keep the business going and, so far, the decision was paying off. The cafe was doing well.
Another good thing came out of it. One of his first customers was a young woman around his age.
On the day they had a soft launch of the cafe, she strolled in, looking like she just came from the gym and ordered a flat white. "I'm glad to see a cafe here. I always pass by this corner."
"Oh, good. I hope you drop by more often...?" He leaves his sentence open-ended for her to give him a name for the cup.
"Selene." She spelled it out for me. (Pronounced: /seh-len/)
"Oh! All this time I pronounced this as /see-leen/."
She chuckled.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Ian looked at the man. "How may I help you?"
The man, in his mid-thirties but looked much older, in a suit, glasses and his hair parted at the side, smiled. "I want to get my officemate some flowers. I want to tell her I want to date her."
Ian chuckled at the man's honesty. "Would you know what she likes?"
"Not really."
"Her favorite color?"
"Not sure."
Ian was stumped. "Okay. Hmm. If you want, we could go with something safe, like roses, but in a different color so that it would be memorable for her?"
"Good idea. But can you keep it to the not so expensive ones?"
Ian took pity and gave him a discount with the orange cabbage roses. He made a simple arrangement and then handed the man the bouquet. As Ian was processing the payment, he told the man, "Maybe a note with the card would be nice, too."
"Oh. I, uh... I don't know how... what do I put in?"
"I'm sorry, Dude. But, that has to come from you."
"Help me out here. I really don't know. You look like you know how to woo the ladies?"
The man took in Ian's lean body, coming from years of soccer training, and a face that was easy on the eyes, partly covered with a full goatee.
"Alright," Ian agreed. "At least, tell me what she's like?"
"Wonderful. Smart. Easy to talk to."
Ian was clueless about what to write to this unknown woman, so he conjured up an image... and Selene's face was the first that came to mind. He smiled.
"Beautiful flowers that remind me of your smile." Ian wrote, which the man signed, "Jorge."
"Good luck, man." Ian bid.
Jorge waved goodbye, happily.
Ian checked his watch then went to prepare Selene's regular orders before she arrived in a few minutes.
They would regularly have short conversations nowadays.
"Ian, you should check out this article. They have a good article on a new planet forming in some part of the universe," Selene said one day.
"Oh cool! What website is that?"
On other days, it was Ian who would suggest. "They're putting up a new soul cycle studio two streets from here. You might want to try their workout."
Soon, they looked forward to those brief moments of each other's day.
Selene wasn't as upbeat at work when another barista gave her her morning coffee because Ian was out-of-town.
Another time, Ian delayed closing to the last minutes possible because sometimes Selene passed by to get some pastries at night. But, even if he kept the lights on, while he cleaned inside, she never showed. She was held up at work, rendering overtime with her colleagues.
Still, their only interaction has been within the confines of this flower shop/cafe.
