The heavy drizzle outside matched Serena's current mood. She pulled open the door to the coffee shop she had come to find solace in, shaking out her umbrella of the water droplets. As if today had not been bad enough, the bank official she was supposed to meet in person as requested by her boss wasn't around which meant her workplace issue could not be solved today.
The scenes from her botched presentation leading to a scolding from her boss replayed in her head and this scrunched up her face even more, cursing the retard handling the printer. She was wet, tired, and craving caffeine to salvage what little was left of the day.
The line was long, annoyingly so and the high heeled shoes Serena wore didn't help her mood either. She undid the shoes , breathing a sigh of relief as she did so, she then shuffled forward, grumbling under her breath. She reached the counter and placed her order, her voice clipped
"Large cappuccino, extra foam. Please."
As she turned to wait, she caught sight of a man sitting by the window. He was effortlessly attractive—dark hair tousled just right, pale skin contrasting with the black sweater he was putting on, a sharp jawline, and the kind of eyes that seemed to see too much. The rain droplets falling on the window he was sitting near further created a good background for him.He was reading a book which seemed to have him too engrossed to notice someone staring at him.
As if sensing her gaze, the man glanced up and their eyes met, his face expressionless. He didn't look away. Instead, he gave her a small, knowing nod.
Flustered, Serena quickly turned back to the counter, pretending to study the intricacies of the brand logo of the shop broadly displayed above the counter.
'He must have gotten the wrong idea' Serena thought as she berated herself for ogling a total stranger. Not that she wasn't used to seeing men this attractive, but this one gave her a different feeling.
She couldn't bring herself to look back at the gentleman the second time, making for an awkward few minutes of looking at the counter and other things she wasn't really interested in.
'what if he was watching,' she thought, not wanting to come off as weird.
On hearing her order being called out, Serena stepped up to the counter to receive the order she had placed as she turned to the left section of the shop, making a mental note to sit as far away from the stranger in black sweater as possible.
Serena sat down at the empty table she had had her eyes fixated on that was located on the other side of the room away from the stranger.
Not more than a minute later, she could see in her peripheral vision, that the stranger had moved from his seat and was approachimg her table.
'Stranger danger!!' Her thoughts screamed.
Looking up from her coffee which she hadn't yet touched, she could see the man standing in front of her.
"Rough day?" The deep baritone resounded in Serena's ears
Just as she was about to respond, her phone rang,
"Sorry, I have to take this."
While she was making an attempt to stand up from her seat, she had mistakenly swept her hand over the table hitting the coffee cup in the process.
This chain of events had led to scalding coffee spilling all over the pants of the man in the black sweater.
Serena was in a turmoil, panickedly picking up the napkin on her table and handing it over to the man, all the while apologizing repeatedly.