Yellow Letters

Chapter 4

Tiny bells jingled as we entered the quaint coffee shop. "I missed this." I turned to look at Dakota, who closed her eyes and inhaled the homey scent of coffee beans and pastries.

"You and coffee," I muttered, shaking my head with a smile.

As we walked up to the counter, the barista greeted us. Dakota recited our usual order. "Two vanilla lattes, please."

"Is that all for you two?" He questioned, glancing at me. There was something oddly familiar about him, and he looked at me like he was thinking the same thing about me. I nodded and glanced away, but not before Dakota noticed. She quickly paid for the coffee and I thanked her. I walked across the shop, finding an open table for the two of us.

As soon as she sat down, she looked at me expectantly. "Well, what was that about? Do you know him?"

"Actually, I'm not sure. He looked familiar, but I can't figure out where I know him from," I replied, sucking on my teeth and wracking my brain for any memories.

"He's kinda cute." She glanced back at him, watching for a few moments as he made our drinks, and I hummed in agreement.

But thoughts of the barista melted into those of my recent situation at the grocery store. I'll probably have to tell her sooner or later. She caught my expression and furrowed her brows. "What is it?"

Before I could respond the barista called out our drinks, and we walked over to grab them. He looked at me once more, but my mind still came up blank. I grabbed my drink, thanking him quickly, and hurried out of the shop with Dakota hot on my heels.

"Okay," Dakota cut in, "you've really got to tell me what's going on, Lily."

I huffed, heading towards the park across the street. "I know, I know. It slipped my mind earlier, but I'll tell you now."

She squealed in excitement. "Does it involve boys?"

"Yes," I said, pausing for a moment. "But not in the way you're thinking. You gotta lower your expectations."

"Okay, well anything involving you and a boy must be exciting," she noted, sitting down on a park bench.

"Well, I'll let you be the judge of that. So this thing, it happened yesterday," I began, diving into the whole encounter, my face heating up from reliving my prior embarrassment. Dakota listened eagerly the entire time, gradually lifting a hand up over her mouth to cover her smile. By the time I finished, she was full-on grinning.

"Oh. My. God," she said dramatically, before laughing. "Only you, Lily. I have to admit, I'm getting second hand embarrassment from just hearing about this–and it didn't even happen to me!"

I scowled at her. "You're not helping, Kota. I was mortified. I still am!" I exclaimed, lowering my head into my hands.

"It's okay. Maybe he thought it was cute? He was cute, right?"

I couldn't control my blush. "More than cute." We grinned at each other.

Suddenly Dakota had this look in her eye, full of mischief, and I knew that I wouldn't like the words that were about to come out of her mouth. "Well, you did say you wanted an adventure this summer."

"Yes."

"And to do something new."

"Yes." I didn't like where this was going.

"And some spice in your life."

"I didn't say it like that," I huffed, but Dakota looked pointedly at me and I conceded. "Okay, yes."