cigarette smoke | jamie drysdale

Chapter One

"Matt can you fill up the grinder for me please?" I yelled across the floor of the coffee shop.

"Yeah." He replied dryly. I was making a couple drinks when the door chimed, notifying us that someone walked into the cafe.

"Hi there!" I yelled happily. I hate customer service. It's annoying, people can be real bitches. I looked over the espresso machine and saw two tall guys walk in. "Dylan you're on cash, take the order please." The 16 year old, Dylan, walked over to the cash register and started taking the guys orders, it only took a couple minutes for them to walk over to the coffee window where I was making the drinks.

"Hey sorry, I think I forgot to ask for cream in my coffee." The dark red haired one said.

"No problem, which name was yours under?" I asked him.

"Cam." He replied. I nodded and made his coffee for him, handing it over the counter.

"Bella, when are you off?" Matt asked as I finished making the other guys' drink.

"Alrighty, here's the coffee with two sugar. Have a great day guys, thanks for coming in." I said. The brunette guy was cute, he gave me a soft smile as he grabbed the drink. "I'm off at 3." I replied to Matt.

"Bella, huh? That's a beautiful name. Is it short for anything?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's short for Arabella." I smiled.

"Wow, that's even more beautiful." He said. "Well, have a good day, and thank you." He said and the two of them walked out.

"Hey, he was cute." Matt said. Matt's one of my best friends, he's always trying to see me up with customers for some reason. I wouldn't say I'm lonely, but I am the only person who works in the cafe without a partner. It's a small family owned business, the owner owns a couple restaurants and I'm the manager of the cafe. There's only 6 employees here so we're a pretty close knit bunch.

"He was cute, he had really nice eyes." I replied to Matt

"Next time he comes in you should try and flirt with him, try and get his number." He said. I chuckled a little bit and nodded as I washed the milk jugs out. 

"Yeah totally, that sounds like something I would do." I said, laughing. 

"You still coming to the game with me tonight? Sara has a family thing." He asked, Sara, his girlfriend of 4 years. I love her, she's the sweetest.

"What game was it again?" I asked him.

"Flyers game, Bella." He said. 

"Oh, yeah, sure why not." I replied. 

"Sweet, if I pay for parking do you wanna drive?" 

"Yeah, sounds good." I said. We continued working for another couple hours before I left the shop at 3. I went home and had a shower, I knew I smelt like a mix of coffee and food. At 5:30 I left the apartment and drove over to Matt's to pick him up and head to the Wells Fargo Centre. His dad had gotten some free tickets from work and wasn't able to use them, they were really good seats, against the glass behind the Flyers net. We sat down right before warm ups started, each with a container of fries. 

"Wait a second." Matt started.

"What?" I asked as I shoved a fry into my mouth. 

"Do number 8 and 9 look familiar to you at all?" He asked. I tried to get a good look at them but couldn't really tell who it was.

"Honestly I can't tell." I said.

"I think it's the two cute guys from the coffee shop today." He said.