[coffee sips]
~
In which a romance sparks between a boy and a girl who visits 'Coffee Sippers' on a nightly basis.
~
"Her lovely smile kept me awake better than any coffee could."
"Get me a mocha, will yah?" a teenage boy - a mere nineteen years of age - asked the only waitress on the night shift, Astacia.
The young waitress gave a curt nod of her head and swiftly turned to walk to the counter, her ugly, brown and weathered work shoes making a rapid staccato across the wooden floor.
The teenage boy looked around the tiny café. It was mostly empty, with only him and a girl from across the room as customers. The both of them were waiting for what they had ordered, and if they were to have another thing in common was that they went to the same college, and were both racing to do their assignments.
For the past month and a half, the teenage boy made it a nightly routine to visit the café close to his college and sit for a caffeinated drink. More specifically, a coffee art mocha.
He brought no one with him every time he paid a visit, because he was too busy day-dreaming over a girl.
The girl from across the room.
The girl whom he had an instant crush on the moment she walked in and ordered a caramel latte and two large soft cookies.
It wasn't her captivating eyes that struck a cord in the boy's heart the moment he laid eyes on her, but rather, it was her reflexes.
She had entered the café one cold, windy night in mid-October right when Astacia was carrying a mountain-pile of plates just centimetres away from where the door had opened. The waitress lost her balance, and the plates would've come crashing down if it weren't for the girl. She caught each plate in swift motions like some descendant of Wonder Woman, and the boy couldn't help but watch in awe.
It was the teenage boy's first time entering Coffee Sippers that very day she walked in. The café - unlike during the day - was a quiet temple, with just a few plates gossiping among themselves at the table.
He wasn't much of a big caffeine addict before, but with a twenty-page assignment he had to complete by the next day, it was as if coffee was the teenage boy's final resort to keep himself awake, or at least, awake enough to survive his ordeal. Besides, the intricate coffee art designs made his having to stay up late at night worth it.
An art enthusiast, he was.
Three cups of coffee into his assignment, the bell at the door of the café had rung, and at first, the boy didn't want to give the person entering the café a second glance, but he did.
A girl with a pale face had entered the café with what looked like a silver MacBook clipped at her side. She looked tired, stressed. Even after she had saved the plates from what would've been their porcelain mess of a demise, she just flashed Astacia a weak smile before continuing to walk towards an empty, two-seat coffee table.
The boy watched as she plopped herself on a black cushion chair. He already had a growing sense of curiosity over the girl, and though he wasn't the type to pry on other people's privacy, he couldn't help but be an observer.
She looked to be about his age. The girl was obviously lacking sleep and rushing to finish what he assumed to be a college assignment. Despite only wearing a plain grey t-shirt, leggings, and no make-up, she looked stunning. He didn't even need to analyse each and every feature to know that she was aesthetically beautiful.
