Falling to Flying

Chapter Three- Distracting Eyes and My 10am Shift

Absolutely not,” Mel glared at the dress I held up.

“What?” my mouth hung open. “What’s wrong with it?” I looked over the white long sleeve maxi dress that had blue flowers that splayed across the bottom.

“I’m going to a wedding as a guest, not the bride,” she flipped through the hangers of dresses on clearance. I frowned looking down at the dress, well, I thought it was cute. “You can’t wear white to weddings. It’s a no-no in bridezilla world, besides, I don’t want Luca’s sister to completely hate me.”

I stopped rummaging through the dresses and gave Mel a look.

“What?” she asked.

“Dude, if I walked in on you and Luca doing the hanky panky on my bed, I would hate you too.”

“I have two things to say to that,” she held up her finger and cleared her throat. “One, why in the hell did you call it hanky panky? Jesus, you sound like my grandmother,” she grumbled. “And two, we were only kissing!”

I gave her another look.

“Well maybe some clothes were off-“

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“-but that doesn’t mean she has to hate me.”

I just shook my head with an amused smile playing on my lips. Only Mel would think it’s acceptable to make out on her boyfriend’s sister’s bed. To make matters worse, I’m pretty sure that was the first time she had even met her too.

“Hey, what do you think of this one?” she held up a slimming black dress that I knew would make her look amazing.

“I like it,” I smiled.

“Really? It’s not too slutty?” she bit her lip as she looked it over a second time.

“Just go try it on,” I encouraged. “If it is, then buy it anyways. Luca’s sister can go suck a-“

“Alrighty, then! That’s enough help from you. Why don’t you go to that coffee shop we passed on the way in? I’ll meet you in a sec,” she shooed me away. With a roll of my eyes I made my way out of the boutique and crossed the busy streets of downtown Minneapolis.

“Welcome to Caribou Coffee! What can I get you?” a boy with impeccable fashion smiled at me. He had on the coziest navy blue that I instantly was jealous of, a sweater with a patterned bowtie sticking out, and hipster glasses on his face. I was almost tempted to ask what face wash he used because damn that was some clear skin.

“Uh-“ I glanced up at the chalkboard menu. “I’ll have an espresso and can I get a hot chocolate with that?” I knew Mel would want some chocolaty goodness coming in from the autumn weather outside.

“Of course,” he smiled at me. “That’s gonna come up to be $6.43.” I handed him his change and took a moment to look around me. I didn’t pay attention to his comment of it only going to take “a few minutes”, I was too busy looking at all of the cute and mismatched chairs piled around the fire place and the vintage looking bookshelf with a collection of novels. Before I knew it, I was over there fingering the spines of the old books, taking in the smell of the adventures written on pages mixed with coffee: my two favorite things in the entire world. I closed my eyes and listened to the soft indie playlist playing the background and inhaled deeply. I was already completely in love with this place.

“One espresso and a hot cocoa,” I heard being called behind me. I hurried my way over to the dainty counter and the question tumbled out of my mouth before I could even process it.