"You should ask for help next time!"
Bryan almost jumped out of his chair. It sounded as if he was facing his arch enemy. That voice came with so much warning, hate and mockery!
When Bryan finally had a good look at who had startled him, he asked "I'm sorry, what?"
"Don't mind me. That was a joke! I don't do that a lot." She gave a mind blowing smile. She was one of the most beautiful women Bryan had ever seen in Haston city.
Her fair skin, dull black eyes that were sparkling, straight black hair and well cut out face. Bryan took a little bit too long to react and ended up staring at her like she was a painting.
He wasn't like this all the time he saw pretty girls, but something about her just attracted him....
"Oh..." Bryan replied, "Then you got me on that one!" He smiled back at her and turned back to continue with the computer.
"Would you like anything to drink?" The lady asked and walked around to stand before Bryan.
"Yeah. A cup of tea with extra sugar." Bryan said without raising his head. He was relieved now that he knew that nothing was wrong. For a moment there he thought he had walked into an unfriendly friendly cafe!
Bryan logged into his game account and a few notifications popped up, some were just messages about how he had been away for a long time and hadn't competed with friends which had led to him falling down the rank.
"Here you go!" The girl delivered the cup of tea, "with extra sugar!"
"Thanks!" Bryan took a sip and then said, "It tastes great!"
"I made it myself!" She beamed.
You sure like praises... Bryan concluded and decided not to be stingy.
"Wow, you have great hands then." Bryan commented and took another sip.
"You have a great face too!"
Bryan choked on his tea and coughed a bit.
Wasn't she being too direct?
And here he was thinking he would have a quiet time...
"Ah...thanks. No one has told me that before." Bryan said honestly.
"By the way, I'm Maria, how about you?"
"Is it necessary for you to know all the customers' name?" Bryan found it odd that she was being extremely friendly.
"Not really. Never mind anyway, I probably won't remember ever meeting someone like you by tomorrow!" Her face became gloomy.
"Why is that?" Bryan asked curiously. He had never heard of people waking up every day without any memory of yesterday...at least not normally...
"Well, if you tell me your name I'll remember you!"
Oh, so that was a trick huh?
"Bryan Derrick!" He decided to tell her his name and get it over with.
They chatted a bit more and she even pulled a chair closer and sat beside him. This made Bryan wonder if she wouldn't get into trouble for not working.
"I see you're interested in Death Race." She said when she saw the game he had logged in but hadn't played yet.
"Yeah, I'm ranked pretty high, number 24!" Bryan bragged about his achievement.
Maria's eyes glowed in admiration, "that's so cool. I'm 4 on the leader board though I don't play often!"
Bryan face palmed again inwardly. Why do I always lose to women?
"You're pretty good then," was all he could say to hide his embarrassment.
"Aren't you going to get into trouble for sitting here with me?" Bryan asked after a while.
"Maybe. But the boss isn't around at the moment!" She seemed happy about it, "plus you're one of fifteen customers, the other workers can handle that."
"You seem to have a high position among the workers."
"Really? What makes you think that?" Maria asked playfully.
"No reason." Bryan glanced at her. He found her to be entertaining and the more time she spent with him the more he found her strikingly pretty.
They continued chatting about different topics which made Bryan forget the reason he was there.
Maria had a lot to talk about. For her it wasn't just about making a customer happy, she had never had a friend before because of her memory issues and the only people she was close to were Fred and Ben. She felt that Bryan was a good person and she instinctively wanted to become friends with him.
She felt a kind of inner peace she never felt before while talking to him and she didn't want it to end, unfortunately, he had to leave after a while.
"Will you come back?" Maria asked hoping he would say yes.
Bryan felt awkward. She was the second girl to invite him back to their shop, the first was Emily.
"I don't know. Maybe on Sundays?" Bryan said. Sunday was the day he had more free time.
"Ok. Bye."
Bryan left the cafe after saying goodbye.
He kept reflecting on what had happened the whole day while walking down the street. He had parked his bike somewhere else.
He only stopped when someone called out his name.
"Detective Derrick? I'm Mabel, a friend of Angelina Ezekiel." The girl spoke hurriedly.
Bryan was silent for a while.
"I want to talk to you about what I know about the murder of Miss Angelina Ezekiel!"
Bryan felt his hair rise. Was this a clue?