Her little alarm clock rang and Mia turned around, reaching her hand out to turn it off. Then, she sat up, rubbing her face with her palms. She glanced at the small alarm clock. It was seven o'clock in the morning. Her eyes felt heavy and hazy and she wished she could go back to bed. But she couldn't. Waking up early was something she did everyday and she wasn't about to change. That didn't mean she wasn't tired though. Belle had kept her awake all night, gossiping, chatting, binge-watching Netflix.
Mia climbed out of her bed and walked to the wardrobe. The previous day, the girls had help her arrange her dresses and clothing in the wardrobe. She pulled the door to the wardrobe opened and picked out a sweatpants and a tank top that stopped right above her belly. After wearing them, she wore her sneakers, picked up her headphones and her phone and walked out of the room.
As she walked downstairs, she heard movement coming from the kitchen, so, she walked there and unsurprisingly, she saw Lisa, Belle's mum, standing there. Aunt Lisa was always a early riser. "Good morning, Aunt Lisa." she greeted.
Lisa raised her head and smiled. "Mia, honey, good morning. Are you going somewhere?"
"Yes. I thought I would go for a little jog," Mia answered.
"Oh, honey, can you go all by yourself? Why don't you wait for Isabella? She goes for her own jog around nine."
Mia frowned. Nine? "That's a little late but thank you Aunt. I can go all myself."
"Okay, bye honey."
"Bye, Aunt." Mia answered, walking away from the kitchen to the door in the living room.
She pulled the door to the house open and sighed as the cool breeze hit her face. Stepping outside, she pulled the door close and started to jog.
She jogged for a while, past a few houses. Sometimes, she paused and stopped to see if she could still remember a particular place and when she couldn't, she continues jogging.
After about thirty to forty five minutes of jogging, she stopped in front of a café and decided to get a cup of tea. She walked into the almost empty cafe. Only a few people were there, something she was grateful for. She wasn't a fan of crowd and she preferred to visit places with a small amount of people.
She walked to the counter, stopping beside an auburn haired boy, dressed in a vest that did nothing to cover his bulging muscles and in a pair of trousers. "Good morning," she said to the teenage boy at the other end of the counter. "A cup of tea please," She added.
"A cup of tea coming right up," The boy answered with a cheerful smile. He turned away to pour her a cup and then said, "So, are you new here?"
"Yes, I am. How do you know?"
"I've never seen you here before," He answered. "And people come to this place a lot."
Mia glanced around the almost empty café. "Um..... yeah, I.... don't see it," She answered, eliciting a chuckle from the guy standing beside her. She glanced at him, then, quickly looked away.
"People do come here a lot," The muscled guy said, without staring at her. "Right now, it's just a bit too early."
"Right," she answered. "Anyway, I'm not exactly new," She said, referring to the guy pouring her her tea. She waited for him to bring it closer. "I've lived here before but I had to leave for a certain reason. But I've never seen this place before."
"We opened two years ago," He answered, passing her her cup of tea on a saucer.
"I see. So, I guess to me, you are kind of the new one," Mia answered as she picked up the cup. "Thanks for the tea, by the way."
"Anytime. I'm Eric."
"Nice to meet you Eric," She answered. "I'm Mia."
"And I'm Jason," The muscled, auburn haired guy said, turning fully to Mia and she finally saw his face.
His face was sculpted with such sharp jaw and high cheekbones. He had a ring on his lower lip that jus made him look hotter. As Mia stared at him, all she could think was that his face was supposed to be sheltered in a glass and placed in a center for people to pay money and see. He had this rugged yet smooth quality about him. Mia cleared her throat. "Hi Jason. Nice to meet you," she said, turning to leave. His face caused her insides to dance around wildly.
"Mia - pretty name," He said to her.
She turned her head, managed a small smile and croaked, "Thank you," before trying to hurry away to find herself a seat. As she walked briskly, she heard footsteps behind her. She didn't need a sorcerer to tell her that it was the guy who introduced himself as Jason walking behind her. She could pretty much sense his intimidating and domineering aura.
Mia quickly branched to a seat close to the window. She kept her heard lowered, concentrating on her cup of tea, but however unable to pick it up for fear of being clumsy. When she heard the scraping of chair on the floor, her head shot up and she saw him taking a seat across her. She took a deep breath in order not to stutter before asking, "What are you doing?"
He raised a brow at her. "Sitting down, obviously."
"Yes, but why here? There are plenty of chairs and tables around."
He shrugged. "Free will," he answered.
Nervously, Mia grabbed the cup and took a sip of her tea. Then, she placed it down. Her palms were starting to get sweaty as she stared at the boy in front of her. Her heart was thumping so loudly, see was scared he would hear it. Okay, what's wrong with her? Why this weird reaction?
"So, Mia..."
"Hmm," she squeaked and he glanced at her, amused.
"You are new here, right? Where did you come from?"
"First of all, I'm not new," she answered. "And secondly, I came here from Texas."
"I see. And you arrived.....?"
"Yesterday."
"I can see you are already getting used to the environment."
"Like I said earlier, I'm not exactly new. I've lived here before."
"I've lived here all my life. How come I don't know you?"
"Gee, I don't know, maybe because I was still kind of a kid when I left," she answered, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
"Which was four years ago?"
"Interesting because I was still here four years ago," he said to her.
"Oh, I don't know, dude. All I know is that I left four years ago and now I'm back. Why is that - ?"
"You have such a nice voice," He suddenly said, cutting her off.
"What?" Mia squeaked, eliciting an amused smile from Jason. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand. She cleared her throat, "ahem," removed her hand and said in a slightly normal but tensed voice, "I'm sorry, what?"
"You have a very nice voice," He repeated. "Do you sing?"
"Um, no.... not exactly." She had a good singing voice but she wasn't so deep into singing like that.
"Really? Surprising, because you sound like you are singing everything you say," he said, looking at her with his sharp icy blue eyes.
He had blue eyes? Mia stared at him, suddenly feeling heady and giddy. She quickly looked away before she could make a fool out of herself. "Yeah, well, em...." she cleared her throat again. "You might want to check out whatever ear infection you have."
He smiled. "Are you enjoying your tea?"
"My what?" Mia's mind went temporarily blank at first as she once again found herself staring at his beautiful, sharp eyes. "Oh, my tea!" She said, glancing down at the cup of tea. "I didn't exactly drink it and thanks to you, it's not cold," she answered, pushing the cup away from her bit.
"Me? What did I do?"
"You are..." Distracting, she wanted to say but she couldn't say that. No way. So, she cleared her throat again - something she seemed to be doing so quite often because he just had this ability to render her speechless. "Never mind."
He raised a brow at her at first, then, he shrugged and said, "I know you said you are not new to L.A but there are a lot of new places since the time you must have left. I'd like to take you on a tour sometime."
"Awwn, honey, they are a lot of people already in line for that," she answered. "You can join the queue."
His smile grew wider. "I love a challenge."
"I bet you do." He stared at her, looking very amused. She stared back at him, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with his piercing gaze. His look made her feel hot all over and the silence was starting to weigh on her. "Nice muscles," she suddenly blurted out. Her eyes widened when she realized what she said. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry. That..... I wasn't supposed to say that."
"It's cool, I get that a lot," He answered, but she could see the amusement swimming in his eyes.
"Ugh," she groaned. "I'm so sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? I'm happy you noticed them, otherwise I've just been flexing them for nothing."
A small laughter crossed her lips. "Flexing them?" she said and he grinned in reply, wriggling his eyebrows at her. She laugh again. "Well, they are very nice."
"If you are good, then, one of these days, you will get to touch them."
She nearly blurted out, 'Really?!' but that would have sounded desperate, right? So, she kept her cool, raised her brows and said, "If I'm good?"
"Yeah..... but since I like you, I'll give you a special treatment and you can touch them now if you want," He replied with a shrug and a blank face that was so comical, it made her laugh.
Yet amidst her laughter, she couldn't help but imagine herself tracing her fingers all over his arms and it made her body burn. As she stared at him, she could feel her eyes getting glossy with desire. She quickly shook her head. Regaining her composure, she answered, "We'll see," in a flirty tone with a wink that she hope was as flirty as she had intended it to be.
He glanced at his wristwatch. "I have to go now but you know that queue you were talking about?"
Mia smiled. "Yeah?"
"Consider me there, except you have to decide if you want me at the front of the line. Here," He slides his number in a paper towards her. "Call me, text me. Whatever."
She grabbed the paper. "Okay, then."
He rose to his feet. "It was nice meeting you Mia. You are an.... interesting person," he said. "I will be expecting your text."
She nodded with a smile, giving him a small wave has he walked off. He called her interesting. Interesting wasn't a word people used to describe her.
She glanced at the number he scribbled on the paper in her hands and gave a half smile. Who knows? She might just call him.