“A Coffee shop, huh?” I said trying to hide my faint disappointment.
I mean, I knew he worked there. He had brought up the little place called Mug Shots, and his job there in every conversation we’d had online. The familiar topic seemed to relax him a bit and he began to open up more as he drove. “Well, it's not just coffee shop, it's more sorta like a bakery-café. It’s really just an awesome place. We’ve got this brand new espresso machine that looks like something out of the terminator, and we’ve got a whole bookshelf of free books we take from anybody who wants to donate, a mini stage where people-”
“Sounds…nice…But you know… dinner?” It wasn't too forward of me, right? I mean, he’s got to know that when a girl my size says she’s hungry, she means it. Right?
“Oh right! Well we do food too! Nothing super fancy, but big bowls of soup, and tons of fresh baked bread and all that sort of stuff, in fact we make so much of it some days we end up throwing some of it out. You’ll see when we get there….” He made a right turn effortlessly clearly excited about where we were headed, his mouth going on as fast as the car, not that I minded, I was glad he was getting over any shyness he may have had. "-and we really didn’t do the full menu stuff till after I started working there…Actually BEFORE I started working there, there was this girl named Laura who was always super nice when I’d get a coffee there. In fact you two met you’d probably be good friends, but she’s usually works the morning shifts now, at night……..Oh, shit.” He said suddenly pumping the breaks on the car, a block away from Mug Shots.
“What!?” I asked breathlessly. Something sour had clearly come over Alex as his mood had changed completely. He’d pumped the breaks so hard I seriously thought my belly was going to break the seat belt, and those were not the kind of stretch marks I was interested in.
“N-Nevermind.” He said calmly, ripping the steering wheel in the other direction, “We can just, uh… eat somewhere else.”
“What? You can tell me. Is it something to do with Laura?” 95% sincerely interested and 5% because I did not want to endure another lengthy car trip, without getting something, ANYTHING to eat.
“No, it's not her, Laura’s great. It's....R-Really Mel, it’s nothing. I just- I wasn’t thinking…” he sighed, readjusting his wheel, and shifting back onto Main Street. “I just kinda… forgot is all. There’s sorta been a, uh… schedule change.”
As the illuminated MUGSHOTS sign faded from you, I had to wonder what the actual fuck did his schedule change have to do with my appetite?
“-It’s kind of why I have Friday nights off now…It’s because…My last girlfriend is working right now…” he grimaced heavily as the words fell out.
“Oh!...Oh…” Now I could see exactly why he was suddenly so freaked out…
“I mean I guess that’s why they tell you don’t date your co-workers, things with me and Danielle...” he said, his throat sounding a bit clogged, “They didn’t really end up on the happiest note. But, hey... Life goes on right?... Sorry, I freaked, I’m just being stupid...Let’s just go back to Mug Shots.”
We spun back around and drove into downtown. Finally, after about twenty minutes since the whole date had started, and with my stomach about to collapse on itself, we arrived at a dinky little coffee shop, the aroma of the mornings baked goods still wafting through the rafters, sprinkled with the sweet smells of roasted coffee beans and vanilla.
“Welcome to Mug Shots!” a decidedly feminine tone came from the cash register, “What can I do for you toda-Oh…It’s you. Hey Alex.”
And that’s when I saw her; Danielle, Alex’s ex-girlfriend.
She was…
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