Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 20

KATE

I'm still not used to this sun, I thought as I began the walk to work. I plugged the address into the GPS on my phone and began walking. It was a fifteen-minute walk from my school and I decided to call Axel since his shift didn't start for another hour.

"Hey, Kate," he answered after the second ring.

"Hey, I'm walking to work right now," I explained to him, finding comfort in his voice.

Woah, Kate, slow down. You'd only just started talking to him two days ago. My conscience warned me.

But it felt weird. It felt like I'd known him my whole life even though I knew that couldn't be true. I was in New York for the majority of my life. And he was in California.

"Hello? Kate? You still there?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I was looking at my GPS," I lied.

I knew the way to get there, I just liked the comfort of the GPS in the event I took a wrong turn.

"So, how much longer do you have?" Axel asked.

"Um, twelve minutes," I answered him, turning onto a new street.

"Okay, want to continue our game?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay, what's your favorite movie?"

I laughed. "And we're back to cliché questions," I teased, "But it's The Notebook."

Axel laughed. "That is the most cheesy movie I've ever seen. Are you serious, right now?"

I could just imagine him rolling his eyes. "Yeah, it was the first romantic movie I'd ever seen and it still remains my favorite."

Axel laughed again. "You're such a girl, but whatever, it's your turn now."

I turned onto another street, my GPS saying I still had eight minutes left.

"Okay, um, what do you want to be when you grow up? Like after college."

Axel cleared his throat. "A professional soccer player."

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"No," Axel said, laughing softly. After a small pause, he said, "I want to be a history teacher."

"Oh, that's cool."

"What about you?"

"I want to be a math teacher."

"You're such a nerd."

I laughed. "Thanks?"

"Oh, it's a compliment. I wish I were good at math."

"If you let me help you, maybe you could be."

"Wow, I see what you're saying here, you want to spend time with me alone, don't you?" Axel teased playfully.

I felt myself blush. "Not what I meant, but okay," I said, arriving at my job.

"It's okay, Kate. I want to spend time with you, too," Axel said, sounding serious.

I blushed harder. "Well, I'm at work now so I gotta go. I'll see you in an hour."

"Bye, Katie," and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I took a deep breath, hung up, and headed inside.

I pulled my uniform out of my backpack, the green t-shirt, a pair of black shorts, and black ballet flats.

I pulled my hair up into a messy bun using a hair tie from my wrist and headed into the lobby, hanging my backpack on a hook in the back room.

"Hey, Kate. You'll be doing drinks today, I'm sure Thomas could help teach you. From what Axel had told me, you'll learn pretty quickly. Good luck," Penny said, filling a cup with coffee and heading into her office.

A guy with a name tag that read, Thomas, waved me over. "Hey, I'm Thomas."

"Hey, I'm Kate."

"Nice to meet you, newbie," Thomas said, flashing me a friendly smile.

Thomas had dark hazel eyes and chestnut brown hair. He wore the same uniform as me, except he was wearing his with dark jeans and black boots. He had freckles sprinkled across his cheeks and his nose that were the same color as his hair.

"So, what drinks should I make?" I asked him.

"Well, since your new, I think we should start you off easy, here, I'll show you how to make coffee."

For the next hour, I prepared coffee and avoided crashing into my fellow employees behind the bar. Thomas and I talked in between breaks about college, working here, and he taught where some of the ingredients were located.

Finally, Axel walked in. He was wearing a casual white t-shirt and blue shorts. He waved at me and Thomas and headed into the employee's restroom to change into his uniform.

"You know Axel?" Thomas asked me.

"Yeah, he trained me," I replied.

Thomas nodded, handing a customer a toffee flavored frappuccino. "I don't understand what people like about those," Thomas said, sticking out his tongue in disgust. "They're so bitter."

I laughed. "When you get older, your taste buds get weaker so some people can handle bitter."

Thomas laughed. "Wow, you're a real nerd aren't you?"

I smiled. "Yup. And proud of it."

Thomas and I began to laugh and when Axel got out of the bathroom, I couldn't help but notice that the color green looked really good on him.

"Katie, could handle this next customer? I gotta make another frappuccino," Thomas said, walking around me.

I nodded, saying the line Thomas had told me to. "Hello, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you?"

"Hi, could I please have a decaf coffee?" A tall woman asked me. A little girl beside her poked her knee and she smiled at me. "And a cake pop as well, if you don't mind."

"No, not at all. What flavor?" I asked.

"You're doing great," Axel whispered into my ear as he passed by me, making my cheeks flush bright pink.

"Um, birthday cake, please," the woman replied.

"Of course," I said.

I handed her the cake pop over the counter and began making her coffee, following every order Thomas had given me.

The woman looked at Axel then back at me. "He's cute," she said with a wink, dropping her change into the tip jar and heading out the door, her daughter munching on her cake pop.

I flushed bright pink and covered it up with a cough when I caught Axel staring at me. As I helped out another customer, I couldn't help but think that the woman was right, Axel was definitely cute.