They met at a little coffee shop…. (Credit: London Time Out)
By Rifath Islam
On December 1st, a 25-year old-man ducked into a coffee shop named The Coffee Bee. His voice was gruff, his hair was a light brown color and he had gorgeous mossy eyes. His name was Theo Reed.
There was currently a blizzard plaguing the town and he needed to get to work…but he forgot his phone and his wallet back home. It was too late to go back home now, especially in this weather.
Theo walked up to the barista and cleared his throat to catch the girl’s attention. As soon as the girl turned around from talking to another boy with ginger hair, Theo’s breath got caught in his throat. The girl had black hair that was thrown up into a messy bun that gave her the perfect “just rolled out of bed” look and she had the most beautiful caramel colored eyes that Theo could just stare at all day.
Snapping out of his trance, he offered the barista a smile who offered one back.
“Um, do you guys have a phone maybe that I could use for a little? It won’t be long, I promise,” Theo bargained. The barista gave an unsure smile. “Well the only phone I know of is in the boss’ office and I would need to ask him. Would that be okay?” Theo nodded gratefully. “That’d be great.”
The barista nodded again. “Okay, well you can wait here while I go ask. You can take a seat anywhere.” Then the barista turned around to the ginger boy who was scrubbing down a counter at the work station. “Matthew, do you mind taking over? A customer needs something.”
The boy, Matthew, nodded and wiped his hands on his green apron. As the other barista left, he took over her spot and Theo retreated to one of the tables nearest to the order station. It was hard, considering that most of them were taken over by people who presumably had also taken Theo’s route and ducked into the shelter of the coffee shop hoping to escape the crazy weather outside.
Theo sat for 2 minutes before the girl with the pretty brown eyes came out of the room which Theo assumed was the boss’ office. With hopeful eyes, Theo stood and the girl headed over with a smile.
“Gabe said it was alright, just as long as you don’t make a mess of the room. I don’t quite understand how that would happen…” the barista said, “but that’s just Gabe for you. Anyways, come on, the phone is this way.” She led Theo to the back room where there was a phone.
“Thank you so much!” Theo said gratefully to the girl who he still had yet to ask her name.
As the girl stood there quietly minding her own business, Theo dialed up the one person who he knew would come to his rescue. “Hello?” A voice said from the receiver. “Oh, Jen, thank God! Look, I need you to come pick me up,” Theo said to his older sister. He cast a glance in the barista’s direction. She was currently wringing her hands together as if she were nervous and looking down at her very old Converse sneakers. Dean held back a smile at the cuteness of this girl.
“What? Where are you?!” Jen asked frantically. “I’m at that coffee shop. Um…the one called The Coffee Bee. I didn’t think I would need my car, but the blizzard was so unexpected. And I forgot all my stuff back home. Come pick me up, please?” Jen sighed on her end of the line. “Alright, just stay put. I’ll be over in maybe 10 minutes if the blizzard isn’t too bad.”
“Thanks Jenny Bean, I’ll be waiting,” Theo said knowing how his sister resented the nickname because ‘it sounds so stupid, you can’t call me that’.
“Shut up,” said a grouchy Jen and hung up her phone, leaving Theo listening to a beeping line. So he put down the phone and turned to the barista. “Thank you so much, I’ll be out of here soon, sorry for the inconvenience,” Theo said, catching the barista’s attention. “Stop saying thank you, it really wasn’t a problem, I promise,” the barista replied. She gave a sincere smile. And Theo thought wow she smiles a lot.
“Uh, would you like a coffee or anything while you wait?” The barista offered. Theo shook his head. “Nah, I can’t, I left all my stuff back home.”
The barista shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house. You seem like you really need it.” Theo looked at her with his eyebrows raised, and the girl’s face flushed.
“Sorry, that sounded really mean. I just meant that you seemed to be having a pretty bad day and so a coffee could probably help,” the girl blurted out.
“It’s okay and I really shouldn’t,” Theo said with a smile. The girl was nice, but he would feel weird if he accepted the offer.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll go prepare it. What would you like?” The barista asked. She was ready to walk out of the room to make his drink. After much hesitation, Theo finally answered. “Black coffee, no sugars, please”
“Okay, got it. But, you might want to go wait at the tables. I think Gabe will want to come back into his office now,” the barista said with a little laugh.
Theo hurriedly followed her out of the room. Just as they were walking out, the barista turned to Theo. “What’s your name?”
“Theo. Dean Reed. You?”
“Adeline Evans. Pleasure to meet you,” she replied.
“That’s a beautiful name.” Theo said breathily. And oh God, did he seriously just say that? Now she was going to think he was flirting and she’s going to think I’m a weirdo.
Adeline blushed, but didn’t comment on what he had just said. Instead, she pointed to an empty table. “You can go sit there,” she said. With a grin, Theo seated himself at the table and Adeline left to go make the coffee.
(TO BE CONTINUED NEXT MONTH!)