Page 6 of When Love Becomes A Need
My mind shifted to the woman at the coffee shop again. Since things went left with Kylie and me, I didn’t get too invested in women, but something about the young girl kept pulling my thoughts to her. The way my presence clearly made her nervous was cute to me.
“Hey, Neal, your next appointment is here,” Laci, our receptionist, called out.
“Cool, put him in my room and I’ll be in there.”
“For real though man. You’re too guarded. It’s okay to let someone in.” Neal turned and walked out of the room.
Usually, I would tell my employees to mind their business, but Neal and I had been cool since we were in Junior High. He’s been with me since the beginning. The closest person to a best friend I had. Still, I wasn’t sure what the hell was up with everyone telling me that shit today. I wasn’t trying to take it there with a female. I did that shit once and it didn’t work out.
Not bothering to read into it anymore, I finished cleaning my area up so Icould leave.
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Stepping into the coffee shop, I stood by the door and watched the girl from the other day move around behind the counter.
Her back was to me and I couldn’t help but admire her. The smell of freshly brewed coffee beans filled my nose.
I looked around the coffee shop. It was small but gave you a cozy at home feeling. I was big on energy, and the energy in here was calming. It wasn’t super busy and crowded likeStarbucksor any of those other big coffee shops, which was a plus. You could come in here and have peace.
Making my way up to the counter, I stood there silently watching the barista. The energy radiating off the girl seemed to fill the room. It was upbeat and vibrant, instantly putting you in a good mood. My eyes went to her ass. It jiggled a little as she moved around behind the counter.
“Oh, shit!” she shrieked, grabbing hold of her chest when she noticed me. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”
I gave her an amused look. “You’re not very aware of your surroundings.”
She looked at the door before giving me a shy smile. “I usually am, but not many people come in here when we first open, so I usually have at least a half hour to get myself together.”
She approached the counter. “What can I get you?”
I looked her over, noticing the name tag attached to her apron. “Fatima? I like that.” At first, she gave me a confused look until I nodded toward her name tag. She glanced down.
“Oh yeah,” she nervously laughed.
I noticed that she became nervous when I was around her. It had only been twice, but both times she seemed to be reserved for some reason. I felt like that wasn’t normally her.
“Let me get the Wake Me Up smoothie and—"
“A toasted croissant,” she finished for me. I tugged on my beard and smiled at her.
“Yeah.” Nodding her head, Fatima turned to get my order ready.
“I’ve never seen you in here before. You new to the area?” Fatimaquestioned me with her bright, round, brown eyes. I considered how smooth her skin looked, almost as if it was glowing.
“Nah, I just switched gyms, so instead of going across town to the other place I used to go, I decided to check this place out.” Fatima nodded.
“And I assume you liked the smoothie?”
Tucking my bottom lip between my teeth, I took my eyes off her to the small oven that just beeped. Fatima walked over to take my croissant out.
“Yeah, it’s cool.”
I watched her finish getting my order ready. When she walked over to ring me up, I had my money ready for her.
I grabbed my order, handing her the twenty in my hand, preparing to leave.
“What’s your name?” she asked me. “I try to know all our regular customers,” she quickly followed up with.
Smirking at her, I narrowed my eyes, taking in how she pulled on the end of her hair. It must be something she did when she was nervous. Today she was wearing a curly ‘fro that surrounded her oval face.
