Coffee {Jaya AU}

Chapter 1

***Here's the first oneshot I wrote...***

***(Nya's POV)***

You don't know me. No one does.

I take my favorite spot in a café that serves good beans and good reads. It's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant just outside Ninjago City, and it's my favorite place to stay under the radar and occupy my free time.

Two years ago, I would've found this café boring, but I'm not the girl I was in Ignacia.

I run my finger down the side of my romance novel and take a whiff of the decades-old book. It has that delicious smell a novel gets when it's left on a shelf, alone and unwanted, for years. The smell that begs me to read it. The smell that –

"Hi," says a happy voice.

Hi? I thought I was entirely unnoticed!

I paste on my poker face and look up, closing the pages of my novel over my index finger to keep my place.

I'm met with laughing blue eyes, a freckle-smattered face, and a recycled paper coffee cup.

"Hi," I say, for lack of anything better. "Have we...met before?"

"Oh, lots of times. Um, but we don't know each other well. I usually take your order here; we make small talk while you count out exact change. Man, you must have a lot of change. You always have the perfect monetary amount for your drink."

"Um..." I can never come here again. "Yeah. I guess...I just didn't recognize you at first." Who the heck is this guy?!

"Anyway," he beams, "I brought you your drink today. I was making mochas instead of taking orders this afternoon, but I was just about to go on break, and I saw you sitting down, and I thought...well, would you mind if we sit together?"

No. No! "Uh, I'm, uh, leaving soon." I actually had no intention of leaving until about two seconds ago, but it seems like a good idea now.

"Oh." He looks disappointed, but his face suddenly perks up. "That's okay. I'd be happy to sit with you for a few minutes, or however long it is until you plan to leave. If it's all right with you, that is."

I cough. I'll just look suspicious if I refuse, so I guess I'll have to wait out a few minutes of sitting with this guy. "Um, okay. Have a seat."

He presses my coffee into my hands. "Thanks, Nya."

What the...he knows my name? No wonder they always get my name right on my drink! But...no one is supposed to know who I am!

I should've developed an alias.

I clear my throat. "It suddenly occurs to me that I don't know your name." Now tell me so I can look you up on the Internet later and avoid you like the plague.

I can't risk anyone having connections to me, or my old connections will find me.

"I'm Jay. Jay Walker." He seats himself across from me. "Whatcha reading?"

"Oh, uh..." I hold up the copy of the book I'm reading.

He gasps. "Jane Austen? That's so cool! I'm a sucker for romance, too. What's your favorite book of hers?"

I smile down at my drink. "Sense and Sensibility."

"Really? Why?"

"Because the smart older sister gets proved right in the end, while the stupid younger sister gets stuck with her second choice for a husband." Because that's the way I wish real life worked. I wish there was justice like that.