Once Charlotte left the cafe, the work demand increased exponentially for Aria and Jess. The influx in customers drove the demand even further stretching the two women to an almost breaking point.
The job advert was placed on the window and every lamppost in the street, as well as any social media and advertisement platform, but it was going to take some time before the right person applies.
Every evening, Aria collapsed in her bed as soon as she Aria walked through the door of her apartment. She was nearly falling off her feet by the end of the night.
It made it easier to forget Alessandro, at least for a moment. It was better that way.
It was hard to forget completely. Even when her body begged for rest, some nights her mind didn't comply and she laid awake for hours. Ever since meeting Alessandro, she felt the void that she never felt before. Her skin felt empty without his touch, her lips craved to be caressed by his kisses again, she yearned for the comfort of his arms.
Some days her mind played tricks when she was running between the tables and made her believe that she caught a glimpse of him pursued of the window. It was never him though.
Aria haven't fully worked out if if she was more anxious or excited at a possibility of Alessandro showing up one day. He knew where to look for her. He knew where she lived and worked. In retrospective, she didn't have a faintest idea where he was.
One particularly late evening, Aria and Jess sat down by the table with a spread of papers across it. Her mind was occupied with everything beside the numbers she had to look at.
"Ari, you're very distracted. What's going on?" Jess noticed her distant mood. She was caught clicking the pen instead of writing down the numbers that Jess dictated to her.
"It's nothing. I just thought that I saw…" Aria stopped mid sentence and blushed, looking back down at the printed spreadsheets. She was about to tell Jess that she thought she saw Alessandro again in the afternoon.
"God, Ari." Jess sighed. "He didn't come to see you yet?"
"No." Aria shook her head biting her lip.
"Didn't you say that he asked you to message him when you next want to see him?" Jess, the voice of reason, reminded her.
"Yes, he did say that." Aria nodded.
"Did you message him?"
"I told you that I won't. You agreed that it's a bad bad idea." Aria scowled at Jess.
"You know what they say, the bad decisions are to be made after 9pm. It's almost midnight." Jess said with a smile. "Message him. What's the worst that can happen?"
"I get my heart broken?"
"That is already happening." Jess pointed out the obvious for which Aria wasn't prepared. "So…?"
"No." Aria decided as she started packing up the printed documents. She wasn't going to get anything done.
"Ari… there's some hot dude that took your virginity out there waiting for your message. What if you're going to miss out on him because he might be impatient and you're stubborn?" Jess tilted her head.
"I don't want…" Aria was trying to collect her thoughts. "I am worried that I will like him and that he will turn out evil." She sighed. "I always feel like everyone else is my priority but I am never theirs. I know I won't be his. He is a hot dude who definitely isn't going to care for the inexperienced girl he just so happened to sleep with twice."
"He came back for more, that is a good sign. Besides, you are mine and Lottie's priority." Jess reminded her but Aria didn't even have the energy to protest. Lottie's priority was Suzie and Jess's probably her parents.
"You know what I mean…" Aria sighed.
"Yeah." Jess swiftly grabbed Aria's phone from the table, unlocked it, and within split of a second she send a message to Alessandro reading nothing more than 'Hey'.
"What the hell, Jess?!!!" Aria grabbed her phone back. The blood drained out of her face and her hands shook as she looked at the screen. "Are you mad?"
"Just see what happens." Jess smiled mischievously, grabbing her jacket and running out of the cafe before Aria could go ballistic at her. Aria was fuming. She looked at her phone and saw the blue tick show up by the message instantly. Three dots briefly showed up as if Alessandro was typing but they vanished equally quickly. And there was nothing. Silence. Aria felt disheartened by the lack of response, not willing to acknowledge it. It only reaffirmed her initial feelings.
Aria sighed and grabbed her own jacket, walking out into the cold night, locking the cafe up behind her.
The walk to the apartment was colder and lonelier than ever before.
Aria checked her phone again when entering her apartment but there was still no response. It hurt her in a way that she couldn't describe.
She didn't want to admit to the pain in her chest and the void that she felt. She felt as if something was stuck in her throat. She had to swallow back her tears.
Loosing all hope, she had a warm bath to make her sore muscles relax after a whole day of rushing around in the cafe. After refreshing herself she had a cup of tea. It was quarter to one and still nothing. Her hopefulness died a tragic death and with disappointment she went to bed. She laid down and stared at a dark ceiling. The sleep wasn't coming. She looked at the clock - 1:15 - about four hours of sleeping time left.