Coffee Shop

Chapter 19

"Hey I just wanted to let you know that I'm on the way now. It'll be about five minutes. "

"Okay. I'm going to unlock the door. Do you know what you want?"

"Same thing as yesterday?"

"Two or one today?"

"How about two with five pastries? I wanna take my parents and brother a pastry. Plus I'm hungry and I thought you may be too."

Amelia inputs it into the register. "You do realize that'll be twenty seven dollars and sixty three cents."

"Yeah. It's fine. I have a paid internship as a teacher aide at the community college. It's not a lot but I've been saving up since I got the job. Plus, I get paid everyday and I've been working there for two months."

"How long have you been in town for?"

"Well I got the job before we moved but my parents figured that it'd be a good idea and change of scenery so we moved."

"Oh wow." Amelia said as the lock clicks and she hits the switches for the store and the open sign. 

"Hey I see the lights on. Alright I'm going to let you go."

"Okay."

"Bye Amie see ya soon."

"Bye." Amelia says smiling then getting to work on the drinks and pastries. In the middle of the second coffee she hears the bell ring notifying her of a customer and she turns around to see Benjamin. He looked like he just rolled out of bed and hadn't been woken up by a phone call. His hair was a mess and he was wearing pajama pants and a wrinkled t-shirt. She looked at his feet and saw crocs. She was amused and started laughing silently.

"What's so funny?" Benjamin asks throwing his arms out to the side. He looked like a teddy bear. 

"You're wearing crocs. I didn't expect to see that."

"Hey don't make too much fun of them. You may not get your frappe girly."

"You wouldn't!?" Amelia asked incredulously and wide eyed.

"I so would."

"But it's named after me so I think you owe me for it because if I hadn't been drunk that night you wouldn't have gotten turned onto them."

"I do owe you. Twenty seven dollars and sixty three cents to be exact." Benjamin started pulling out his wallet and slid his card this time. Amelia smirked. She handed him his receipt and the pastries. She quickly finishes up the frappes and takes them to the table he sat at.

She sat down and he passed her a pastry and her coffee. Before she could grab it though he pulled it back. "What is the magic word."

"Um.. Dawsons famous frappe?" Amelia says questioningly. She wasn't expecting him to play that way. 

"Okay. That'll work." Smiling he slides across the table to her and she leans against the wall sipping on her coffee. 

"So, when do you get off?"

"Ten. I open then at nine the other manager shows up then her help comes in at ten and relieves me and I go home. Why?"

"Well I can let Cat know we're here and we can go to a movie later the three of us."

"Um.. sure. I should have enough in my account to pay for a ticket. I could probably pay for the three of us."

"Okay. Cool. But I'll pay for mine. No need in making you pay more than necessary."

"Let me tell you Cat doesn't play with her sleep. She won't be up until about nine, ten the latest and if she is woken up earlier than that she will be moody all day. Or at least until she gets coffee."

The door rings and both Amelia and Benjamin look up. Amelia raises her eyebrows in shock to see the she- devil herself trudge through.

"Coffee." Cat says dramatically sounding like a zombie.

"I gotcha."Amelia says reluctantly getting up. She inputs the regular takes Cats card and swipes it. Amelia and Cat are so close they may as well have a joint bank account. 

Whipping up her latte she hands it to Cat and steers her towards where her and Benjamin are sitting.

"I thought you said she didn't wake up this early?" Benjamin asks quietly.

"She doesn't. I'm just as surprised as you are." Amelia sits next to Benjamin to avoid getting hit by the demon formerly known as her best friend. 

They watch as Cat slowly sips on her latte and even more slowly comes into humanity instead of being the living dead. 

"What movie would you want to see?" Benjamin asks while they kept their eyes on Cat.

"I don't care. I'm not too picky."

"Okay. Well I guess we can ask grumpy over there when she joins in."

Amelia and Benjamin look at each other and nod. "I'm still not sure why you would even wake up this early and come hang out with me."

"Well," Benjamin grabs his pastry and takes a bite, " you're a friend and given what I know I'd rather you not be alone here especially since your father knows you work here."

Amelia stays silent and takes a bite of the pastry. She's always loved these pastries. They're so flaky and buttery and warm.

"Hey," Amelia starts but Benjamin stops her by wiping a crumb off her chin with his thumb. She forgot how to breathe for a second and he was just staring at her. 

"Sorry. I just didn't want anyone else coming in here and seeing that. Especially considering it's unprofessional and you are a messy eater."

"I so am not!" Amelia squeals. 

Cat clears her throat and groans. "I wish ya'll would stop. You're making me miss my boobear. Benny what are we doing later? I vaguely heard you talking about after she gets off." Cat points thumb in Amelias direction.

"I thought maybe the three of us could  go see a movie. But Amelia doesn't care about the movie choice so you pick?" Benjamin states as his face gets red with embarrassment.

"The new one that just came out. It's a scary movie. Would you mind though if I brought my boyfriend along? I just wanted to ask. I don't want ya'll thinking this is a double date or anything."

"Yeah that's fine." Amelia pipes up giving Cat a look to let her know that she knows what Cat is trying to do.

"Awesome. Alright well I need to go home and start getting our clothes ready and let my baby know what's going on. Benny stay here and protect our Amie." Cat says in a baby voice.

"She is a lot to handle." Benjamin said once Cat walked out the door.

"Yeah but she's loyal and has stuck by me through everything so it's worth it." Amelia says checking the time. It was close to six thirty.

"Hey why don't you-"

"I was about to have to say bye. I need to get the rest of these pastries home before they wake up. They're about like Cat except food is what wakes them up not coffee and they're not as zombified." Benjamin chuckles as he rubs the back of his neck. He looks down at Amelia as they stand up and pulls her in for a hug once she stops stretching.  She pulls back enough to look at him and say bye except she can't quite say anything because his hair was falling just right and his eyes were pulling her in. 

Benjamin leans in and kisses her and pulls back just as quickly. "I'll see ya later Amie. I'll walk you back to Cats when you're off. See ya at ten?"

"Um.. yeah. Bye Ben-jamin."

"You can call me Ben sober now. You did on the phone before you walked into the café." He turns around and walks away. Amelia is left standing there with her cheeks flaming. 

She turns and grabs her cleaning tools and starts sweeping, mopping, wiping down menus, wiping tables and making sure each table is good on sugar, napkins, salt, pepper, jam the works.

When she's done she sits on the stool behind the counter and sees it just turned eight. She had two hours before the movies with Cat her boyfriend and Benjamin. She was nervous, but it wasn't  double date so it was good.