From Paris, With Love [GirlXGirl]

Epilogue

There's this unusual person in the café I work at.

A woman, who always sits at the corner booth, alone, and quietly stayed there. This woman, brown hair and light brown eyes, goes to this café, every day, for the past five months and not once did I ever knew her name.

She reminded me of the Greek goddess, Athena; Intellectual and disciplined.

Ever since I started being a barista of a well-known coffee shop, I always see that woman, probably older than me by a year or three, having coffee without anyone with her. It's weird in a sense that, every day, she goes in the shop and head straight to the corner booth, without giving anyone an acknowledging glance or even ordering anything. Then, after she's settled in, one of my co-baristas will make a café Americano and asks me to serve it to her.

I asked my co-baristas about her, like the name of this woman, but they all shrugged and told me to leave her alone. And when I insisted, they all said that the owners of the café – all three of them – gave a strict rule about that customer.

To never interrupt her; unless needed.

So I followed their rule. But that didn't mean I would stop noticing her.

Whenever I served her drink, I noticed that she was just typing on her laptop, never looking at anyone; even me. Once, I saw what she was typing and it was either several technical words or as those I.T people call it, codes, or plain paragraphs that looked like a story.

She caught my attention among the patrons of this café. A woman who piqued my curiosity.

"Hey! Take this to the miss, will you?" one of my co-barista told me, pushing a tray with a cup of café Americano.

"Like always." I smiled at my co-barista and carried the tray towards the corner booth.

On my way to the mysterious woman, I noted that the she was not working on her laptop – a rare feat – and just staring outside the glass-pane. She had a look on her face that resembled longing and sadness.

It was raining outside; probably the reason why that woman had such breath-taking expression.

Setting my sights on her, I admired how she looked today.

White long-sleeved polo with black suspenders.

Slim black slacks.

Black loafers.

And what strikes out from her monochrome ensemble was the necklace with pendant that I'm not sure what it looks like and a ring with a blue gem on it. It looked like a diamond ring. And she was playing with the jewelry with her right hand.

'Must've cost a fortune...' I mused.

With my attention on the said jewelry, I didn't notice that I was already a table apart from her and my knees hitting the table. I groaned loudly while making sure that the coffee on the tray I was holding didn't spill.

'Sonuvabeach!' I checked on her to see if I spilled anything on our valued customer or hurt her in any way.

I thought my heart jumped to my throat when I found myself staring at those light brown eyes. Eyes that are staring back at me with a mix of surprise and worry.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

And I thought she ignored everyone.

Showing a small smile, sucking in the pain, I placed her coffee on the table. "Yeah, I'm fine," I assured her. Seeing her worried expression just made me even more curious about this quiet woman.

She shook her head as if not believing what I said. "I don't think that you are, Miss Lacroix," she said, taking her cup and smelling the aroma of the coffee. "You should have that knee checked."

Could she be any more alluring? I swore to Hera that this woman is an epitome of maturity!

Letting out a forced laugh, sounding pathetic, I brushed off the advice. "I'm built for durability, so I'm fine." Then I noticed that she said my name. "Wait, how did you know my name?"

The brunette looked at me with a smile – a dashing one at that. A smile that's in par with Aphrodite's!

"I know everyone's name here. Kinda friends with the owners," she informed me and stretched out her hand. "Elise Zaragoza."

I think my brain got fried the moment I saw her dashing smile. Nodding, I took her offered hand and shook it. "Averia Lacroix..."

Getting her name, seeing her smile... 

I think I have a crush on this woman.