Heart Pulled to Pieces

4 - Taking care of business

Monday morning came a hell of a lot faster than I'd have liked. Saturday and Sunday flew by in a flash, and I hadn’t really done anything except set up my room and watch TV. After throwing on some nice, casual clothes, I left the house nearly an hour after my roommate and started my walk to work.

As I ducked in to the café, I saw Beth deep in conversation with Frank as they stood on opposite sides of the counter. Both turned toward me as I got closer.

“Morning, Andi.” Frank raised his paper cup in greeting. “And how are we on your first day?” He asked, sounding excited.

“Ready to go,” I said, trying to make myself sound the same.

“Don’t strain yourself, dear.” Beth handed me a cup. I cautiously took it as I handed her the five in my hand. I sniffed the drink.

“How the?” I started to ask.

“Lucky guess.” Beth smiled and winked. “That, and I remembered what Tony brought you the other night.”

I smiled warmly back at her, finding myself growing fonder of my roommate.

"Excuse me," I heard a guy's voice behind me, and I stepped aside for him.

The man was bald, his scalp perfectly smooth with the traces of dark hair follicles beneath his skin. On his chin and upper lip was thick, dark blonde facial hair. He was wearing head to toe black except the red trimmed, primary blue vest with a white patch on the left side with the name ‘Rob’ embroidered on it.

Rob. Ha! If this was the famous Rob then I'd have no problem defending myself against his charms.

“Hey Beth,” He said quickly, “The usual.” He took money from his pocket, “Two, actually,” He handed Beth a couple of fives.

“Two Americanos,” She called down to the bar. I glanced over and saw Tony grab some lids. He handed the already made drinks to Beth.

“Thanks sweetheart,” The supposedly irresistible man said with a wink as he took the drinks from her.

“Ah,” She started to say though he was heading out the door. He stopped anyway, turning to see what she wanted. Beth tapped her name tag pinned to the left side of her apron, causing him to look down.

“I effing did it again.” He took off down the hall quickly, mumbling something incoherent.

 Beth laughed. “Freakin’ idiot can’t even read the vest.” She shook her head.

“Why, what?” I looked around at everyone as Nikki came in and walked up to the counter with a sneer. She handed Beth a bill and Tony handed Nikki a drink.

“Ugh,” She sighed, “Doug just about ran into me. I swear he was going to get coffee all over my new dress. I can’t afford to replace it.” She took a sip of her drink, making a disgusted face before sipping again.

“Doug?” I said to Frank as we left the Cafe. Beth calls out “See ya later”, and we turned to wave. I noticed Nikki roll her eyes before she leaned on the counter.

“Yeah, Doug’s bad for grabbing the first vest he sees. Usually he’ll grab Rob’s, but every once in a while he’ll grab a part-timers. He once he ran through the mall wearing Emma’s.” Frank smiled.

“So he’s not Rob?” I said stupidly as Frank stopped in front of the store to unlock the gate.

“Hey Frank.” A familiar sounding voice said behind us. Frank glanced over his shoulder.

“Oh, hey Rob.” Frank replied.

As I met the eye of the ladies’ man whose job I stole, I began to sweat. I did know him, sort of. He was the rust-haired pretty boy that I ran into in the mall a couple of days ago. I silently prayed that I wasn’t memorable.