Slam! The door to the café bursts open. The cold winter breeze whips through the small shop, rustling the loose strands of my ebony hair. Momentarily distracted, I barely notice the hard wall of a body until it is too late. Crash! The sound of several ceramic mugs shattering against the unforgiving concrete floor jolts me back into awareness. As if making a huge mess wasn't bad enough, the sound echoed throughout the room and now several, if not all, eyes in the café have been drawn to me. As the spilt coffee slowly spreads across the floor, so too does the hot, red flush of embarrassment across my cheeks.
"Wow," I think "Today can't get much worse than this."
A shiver runs down my spine and a sense of foreboding fills me.
I crouch down and begin to clean up the still growing mess. I still feel the pressure of too many eyes staring at me.
"The cost of those will be coming out of your paycheck!" A harsh voice booms out from behind the counter.
"So... I guess I was wrong, today can get worse." I mutter under my breath.
"What was that? You know I can't stand you lot muttering." The voice barks again.
"I said sure Frank, just add it to my tab" I reply, almost visibly straining to keep the venom out of my voice.
"Another deduction from my paycheck" I think, carefully making sure that I'm not saying it aloud this time. "That's going to make this month hard. I mean, I know I'm clumsy and all but give me a break. I swear one more deduction and I am going to give him something to complain about. I swear this is all about not having to pay me rather than any so-called 'damages' I have done."
A warm hand grazes mine and drags me back out of my thoughts. Glancing up my gaze meets the warm, brown eyes of possibly the most drop dead gorgeous man I have ever seen. He smiles as he brushes some of the loose hair out of my face. Immediately hot anger begins to fill me.
"Sorry" he says, bringing his hand back to his side. Annoyingly its been so long since I've been touched like that, that I kind of miss it. "Let me help."
"You can help" I begin to say coldly, "By not touching someone without their consent. It's just plain rude. I mean, I don't even know you."
A look of disbelief briefly crosses over his face, but he quickly replaces it with a smirk. His eyes flash gold as he says "Let's start again. Forget everything that I have said and done up to this point. We are just now meeting for the first time."
*****
"Oh! I am so sorry" I say. "I'm such a klutz. Let me clean this up while you do and find a seat. I'll be over once I'm done to take your order." I flash him my best customer service smile as I begin to clean up the mess. It doesn't take long for the stranger to crouch down with me.
"Here let me help." He says beginning to pick up shards from the ceramic mugs up from the floor.
"It's fine, really." I say, if Frank catches me allowing a customer to help clean up my mess I will most definitely have a fight on my hands. "It's against store policy, honestly it'll be much easier and quicker for me to do it myself"
"Well, if you're sure?" He says, sounding as if he thinks I'm unsure about this. "Which section is yours? Just so I know I'm getting a waitress that is so dedicated to doing her job just right."
I point it out to him and then lower my head to continue to clean.
"My name's Xander. Just so you know what to call me when you come over." He smirks then turns and walks to my section and takes a seat where he can still catch my eye occasionally.
"Sylvie! Why on earth is that mess still there? Haven't you got it cleaned up yet? Or have you been too busy flirting rather than doing your job?" Franks voice yells out. "We have customers waiting."
I look around, noting that at this moment Xander is the only customer without a drink in his hand. Beth, the wonderful co-worker that she is, has already replaced and served the drinks I had dropped. Turning back to the mess still covering the floor I quickly throw the shards of broken ceramic onto my tray and wipe up the spilt coffee with my apron. I head to the kitchen at the back of the store and drop the shards into the trash and quickly swap out my now soiled apron for a clean one, before grabbing an order pad and heading back out.
"Hey Xander," I say, slapping an authentic smile on my face. "Sorry about the delay. What can I get ya?"
"Well, I will take a hot chocolate and the time of your next break?" He says a smirk once more flashing across his features.
"Would you like marshmallows with that?" I ask, skipping over his question.
"Sure" he responds. "But you didn't answer my question. When is your next break?" His eyes once more flash gold and I find myself blurting out "I don't have another break today but my shift ends at two. So in about twenty minutes."
"Why oh why did I respond?" I question myself internally.
"So I will see you then, and on second thoughts can I take that hot chocolate to go?"
"Sure."I find myself saying as I turn to go hand Frank the order slip.
A few moments later I carry Xander his hot chocolate in a to-go cup.
"That comes to…" I begin to say.
"Here." he interrupts handing me a twenty dollar bill. "Keep the change. I'll meet you outside once your shift is over."
His eyes once again flash gold, and I know in my heart that I will be meeting him once I finish.