Kiss It Better?

Umbrella Days

Flipping the plastic sign on a coffee shop door to 'closed' is one of the best feelings at the end of a busy Monday morning.
It's one of the busiest days of the week, with everyone still zombified from the weekend before and with the start of regular life again, it makes for good business, but horrible for stress.

The rain skitters against the windows cruelly as you flip the sign over. You scowl at the outside, mother nature knew you forgot your umbrella. The bitch.

Jessy, your co-worker, was still polishing the tables and it was his turn to clean the tired coffee machine.

"Jess, do you happen to have a spare umbrella? Or did a customer forget theirs today? I forgot mine" You say, dropping your bag to tie up your hair.

He looks up from his table cleaning "You'll have to fight me if you want the half-broken umbrella that the business guy left behind. I called dibs" he snickers, spraying down a different table and attacking it with his cloth.

"You're such an asshole" you joke

"Well, yes, of course. I'm a guy who got stuck working in a coffee shop. What else did you expect?"

With that, you waved him goodbye and stepped out into the drizzling downpour. Using your duffle bag with your work uniform in it as an artificial umbrella as you dashed for cover under the bus stop.

You were too poor for a car.

Probably around seven minutes later, the bus pulled up to your stop and you jumped on. You tapped on, but your balance was inefficient. The bus driver must have pitied you and just let you on.

You snag a seat at the back, placing your bag next to you and getting comfortable in the heater's comforting brrring murmurs.
The heat back at your apartment was expensive, so you appreciated the bus's heating while you could.

The bus pulls away from the stop and starts to drive down the slumbering road. The view of blurred streetlamps through raindrops acquainting you at the window. You liked the rain, just not being in the rain.

A few minutes pass and your hair tie abruptly snaps, letting your hair loose. "Fantastic..." you mutter, trying to control it.

You've always had thick hair. Your mum called you "lion" because it looked like a lion's mane. You hated it though, snapping hair tie after hair tie- not to mention the amount of shampoo and conditioner you needed to keep it tame. A living nightmare.

The bus perches outside the hospital, picking up a couple of people. Some scoring casts or head bandages, while the others consisted of nurses and doctors who have retired for the night.

After everyone was seated, the bus was off down the lonely roads again. By this point, you had just let your hair run wild, there was nothing you could do, the floof was too powerful.

A few more stops later, your eyes got bored of the gloomy outside rain. So, like every other functioning human being, your eyes started to wander around the seats.

You eavesdropped on a couple of phone calls, but none of them were very interesting. So you proceeded to just stare out the window.

When your stop pulls up, you clamber yourself from the seats like a newborn calf learning to walk. Getting off busses should be a national sport or ranked on deadly sixty at least.

Using your bag for cover again, you dashed down the street with your hair going absolutely everywhere in the wind.

You screech to a halt at a stoplight, childishly smacking the button as many times as humanly possible before waiting for the walk sign. Tapping it once or twice more for good measure.

Before you could push the button again, you notice a man standing next to you in scrubs and a weather coat. He was smiling at you with a raised brow.

Sheepishly, you retract your hand away from the button and laugh awkwardly. Trying to focus on the cars passing to avoid his gaze.

That's when you noticed that he'd drifted his umbrella to shelter you too. "Has anyvone told you to bring an umbrella vhwen it rains?" the man says, startling you slightly. His voice was not what you expected at all to come from his lips. He had a very thick accent.

"O-Oh, yes but... memory isn't a thing I'm good at" you lower your bag slowly and chuckle nervously. "Thank you though..." you mumble, gesturing to the umbrella he's holding.

"No vworries! I vwould do it fo' anyvone" he replies.

The green man blinks onto the walkway and you both cross the street, still with him holding the umbrella over your head.

"Vwhere are you headed?" he asks.

"Oh! No, it's fine. I-I'm good. I can just run"

"Are you sure? Zhat hair of yours looks like a battle to vwash."

"Yeah, I could just cut it when I get home..."

"Cut it?" The man chuckles as if you're joking "Vwhy vwould you vwant to cut such pretty hair?"

You feel your face heat. -There's a point in everyone's lives where you become flustered over stupid things because you haven't had a compliment in like... forever.- This is one of those times.

"I-well, uh...I- thank you..."
Talking to customers is easy. They're all tired and out of focus before they get their coffee. Outside of work? It's difficult for a lot of reasons.

You hear him laugh quietly. Was he laughing at you? Glancing up at him, it didn't seem like a testy laugh. You also managed to get a better look at him. He has dark brown hair and pale skin, along with a short stubble that crept up his jawline, with sharp blue eyes that hid behind glasses that sat ajar on his face. You'd be lying to yourself if you thought he wasn't decent looking.

"Your accent... uh-"

"German, it is a blessing und' and curse. Some zhink it's attractive und' some can't understand vwhat ze hell I'm saying" he banters, pushing his glasses into a more correct position on his face.

You give him a generous laugh.

"So, do you vwant to take up my offer on shielding you from ze rain? Or vwould you like to get drenched?" he teases.

"That... would be nice" you answer, fiddling with your bag handle.

The wind howls and the man struggles to keep a grip on the umbrella, but manages "Vwhere am I taking you?"

"...Smith Street"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking up to your apartment building, you notice your curtains open... Shit.

"It vwas nice chatting...?"

"Y-Y/n"

He holds out his hand "Henrik." he greets as he shakes your hand.

You nervously glance between him and your window. Nipping your lip.

"Again, thanks for doing this. You saved me... a lot of conditioner."

"No problem, I hope zhat I catch you in ze rain again sometime" he follows up sweetly, throwing you a clear innocent wink.

Your hands had never been so shaky as you dug out your card to tap into your building, eventually doing so with stupid amounts of difficulty.

"Goodbye," he gives you a wave.

"Bye..." you reply, closing the door behind you.

You stare at the broken elevator, then the cruddy carpet stairs, sighing tiredly before beginning to trek up them.