Hidden Revenge

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I picked up another cup and began to dry it slowly. The evening shift at the coffee shop was always the slowest except for during finals week. During that time we seem to be going nonstop. Moving 90 miles an hour just trying to get one cup of coffee made for 85 people in line. During finals week our hours or longer. But right now times seem to be dragging. I kept a firm eye on the people I did have in shop. Because I wanted to jump at the chance to help them if they needed even the smallest thing. A napkin a spoon hell a damn tissue. If they needed it I was there. Just please give me something to do other than drying these cups. I picked up another cup and started to dry it as the door chimed.

“Hey, Welcome to Sal’s” I spoke as I started to turn around. I was stopped in my tracks by the customer standing before me. He wasn’t someone that I’ve seen before but his eyes were familiar to me and some odd way. He walked very slowly into the coffee shop. He came up to the counter and rested his forearms against it looking up at the menu.

“What can I get started for you tonight” I questioned him. He looked down from the menu and made eye contact with me. Just to break it and look back up at the menu. After a few minutes of pondering over the choices that we had. He told me he just wanted a cup of straight black to go. I studied the rough lines of his face as I poured the coffee into the cup. I popped on the lid as I said it down on the counter in front of him.

“Is this going to be it for ya” I asked him. He nodded

. “It’s on the house. Have an Incredible night..” He stood up straight hell he had to at least be 6’5, he was making me feel very short. His blonde looking hair was covered by a worn down baseball cap. He pulled out his wallet and laid a $10 bill on the Counter. Smiled politely picked up his coffee and turned around for the door.

“ thanks for the coffee ma‘am” he said walking out the front door Without looking back at me. I picked up they had $10 bill and stuffed it down in the jar labeled tips. I was the only one working so I had no idea why I didn’t shove it in my pocket. I went on about my night. I found myself thinking about the tall mysterious Stranger that had wandered in from the night. I wondered what his name was and where he had come from. Oh well time to move on.

A few nights later the tall Stranger wandered in again. This time he just only glanced at the menu already knowing what he had wanted. He cleans up very nicely. He was wearing some very nice clothes and was missing that old broke in baseball cap. I could clearly see his hair was blonde now. He had it all spiked up and done very nicely. There wasn’t much more conversation than last time. But he did stay around a little longer. He stood very calmly at the counter pretending to watch the TV for a few minutes.. Then simply nodded it at me, leaving a $20 on the counter and then headed out the door. He returned a few days later this time he just skipped the menu. And ordered his coffee. He stood there looking at me and then scrolling through his phone looking back at me and then scrolling through his phone. I could tell he wanted to have a conversation with me but just didn’t know where or how to start it. And me being a shy picked on girl didn’t even know where to begin. Especially with somebody that was as good-looking as he was. He laid another 20 on The counter. When I was busy with another customer he snuck out the door into the darkness like the cape crusader. I seen him a few more times during the week there wasn’t much conversation going on between us too. Other than coffee orders and simple smiles. Both of us were lost and had to talk to one another. Saturday morning rolled around in my tall mysterious Stranger wandered in again. The impulse to speak to him was unbelievably uncontrollable but somehow I manage not to make any more conversation than was necessary. Making sure that I didn’t make a fool out of myself. Finally after he placed his order I could tell he was ready to speak and he broke the long silence between the two of us.

“You go to school here” he questioned me making decent eye Contact. I smiled.

“Yes I sure do” I answered him trying not to seem too excited that this God of a man was having a conversation with me.

“Well that’s cool. Me too” he paused As if he was going to say more. “So what’s your major” now he was asking me questions about myself. Was this really happening right now. I looked around to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I even stuck my hand under the counter behind my apron and pinched myself on the leg. This person that had been coming in For three straight weeks never saying anything more to me then a stupid coffee order was an now wanting to know my major..

“ psychology“ he chuckled at my answer. “Well what is yours mister” I said in a very flirtatious tone. I even tucked my hair behind my ears and maybe even bat my eyelashes a little bit.

“ criminal justice with a minor in wildlife conservation“ i’m not going to even lie to you when I say that I was a little impressed by his answer.

“Well that’s neat” I said trying to play it cool. I’m not quite sure I put up that good of a front though. Because when I did he chuckled and smiled a little.

“Name is Adam ” he smiled. “ Peyton right?” He pointed to my name tag and I felt myself blush a little. “Well thanks for the coffee and the wonderful chat best be going” without me being able to answer back to him he was gone. Just in that one small conversation I figured out more about him then I had known the past month of seeing him. Yes I would call that a very much improved situation don’t you Think? I mean I know his name and that he was going to Barton. And that he was studying criminal justice.

“Was that Adam Jacobs” one of my coworkers asked. She was the type of person that had to have her nose in everyone’s business but The bright side of that is that she knew a lot about other people and if I needed any other information on Adam I knew that I could get it from her.

“Yes” I was excited to have his last name.

“He is a cutie right!” She giggled letting me know that she was attracted to him. “But he is a Teak And they are known to be assholes“ She had a point that most of the guys that belong to Tau Kappa Epsilon that I had met on this campus had been real jerks. That does not mean that all of them were though so I had to give Adam the benefit of the doubt. She flipped her hair pretending to be all that and a bag of chips. I just shrugged not knowing how to respond to what she had just said to me

“I will say though that it is good to see him coming back in here again” after her statement she just walked off without my response. I assumed that she was going to finish her morning tasks that should’ve been done an hour ago. But who am I to judge poor Paige. So the Information I knew about Adam was adding up. I knew that he was a criminal justice major and I have learned his last name and that he had belong to the teaks. When it was my break time I Took to f*******: to learn everything I possibly could about a Mr. Adam Jacobs but That search was hopeless I couldn’t find him anywhere. I spelled his name in every way possible that I could think of but still nothing. So then I took to Twitter and i********: and hell even tinder but no such luck. I found one picture one lonely picture of him on the TKE website. They were telling you the offices that he had held while being a member. That was all I could find on Adam.It’s like this guy was a ghost that had just floated into my life. But apparently he was well known around campus because Paige knew him. Then I found myself wondering why he had stopped coming into the coffee shop. Maybe I would work up enough courage to ask him one day. I had so many questions that I needed answered. The more I thought about him the more questions that rolled through my mind. I was starting to get the feeling that Adam was just in my mind but like I said Paige our resident gossip queen knew him so maybe I should just ask her all the questions that I have about him. If I did that though I may not like some of the answers that she had for me. So maybe I should just wait to ask him if it ever got that far! The next few days just roll together Adam came in and got his cups of coffee and we have very civil small conversations. Until the following Saturday I was in the back doing some stocking and sorting when I heard Paige’s voice call to me.

“Hey Peyton, your needed up front” I heard Paige’s voice call to me.

“Okay, hold on just a moment please” I quickly finished putting the to go cups on the shelf where they belonged. Made sure that my apron looked presentable, and hurried to the front. I was stopped frozen in my tracks by Adam standing there. He was wearing a green shirt which made his green eyes look absolutely stunning. He smiled and waved at me. Which was a response I hadn’t gotten from him yet so it was a little unexpected. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Paige giggling. I had to will my feet to move forward to the counter. I broke eye contact for a brief moment. Then looked back at him and smiled sweetly

“How can I help you today“ I asked him. It was important to keep up good customer service even though I could tell that he wasn’t here to be a customer. I was secretly giggling inside but I couldn’t show him how excited I was for him to be here.

“Umm” he was stammering over his own words. His cheeks began to flash a rosy red color. He was embarrassing himself just to talk to me. I didn’t understand why I didn’t feel like I was that hard to talk to. I rocked forward on my toes nervously. I smiled at him again. He chuckled and made eye contact. “ what time do you get off“ he asked me A little more confident now. Maybe he had finally gotten it together and worked up enough courage to ask me out. But the real question was did I have enough courage to actually say yes to him.

“ A couple of hours why“ I should’ve found it odd that he was asking me when I was getting off or how long my shift was but I didn’t.

“ OK there is somewhere I want to take you. Well if that’s OK with you” he second-guessed himself in the moment. I knew that I needed to reassure him that it was OK that he was asking me out. I also know that me not knowing him at all this statement should have freaked me out more than it did.

“ OK sounds great“ I said in a happy cheerful voice. I think he expected me to put up a little bit more of a fight than what I did. The look on his face faded to one of surprised when he found out that it would be easy to take me on a date. But little did you know that I’ve been waiting for weeks for him to ask me to go out. I know what you’re going to say that in this day and age it’s OK for a woman to ask a man but I’m not that kind of girl I never have been I have always hidden my feelings from people and I continue to do it now with Adam.

“Okay I will see you in a few hours” he said waving sweetly and turning away from me to head back to the door. I watched him walk out and then giggled with excitement. Paige and I did a little happy dance in a celebration.

“Oh my Bologna and cheese sandwiches, your going out with Adam“ Paige beamed with more excitement than I had in this moment. And then all the sudden it hit me like a big yellow school bus the fear and paranoia setting in. I didn’t know him yet and I just agreed to let him take me somewhere. I had no idea where this somewhere was going to be or how we were going to get there. I didn’t know what was going to happen and that frightened me a little. I wasn’t sure if Adam was a nice guy or a complete psychopath but the only way to find out was by going on this date with him. I guess you’ll never know if you don’t try right. But apparently I was wearing my emotions all over my face because Paige’s face changed. She was on it though she jumped into action. “You will have a great time I’m sure of it. Just take a chance.” She smiled at me. Was this her way of putting my mind at ease because if it was it sure did the trick. Even though she was a drama queen and she always had the latest gossip Paige was always there for me she had my back. In someway I guess she was right I just had to jump in feet first. God I hoped she was right!

* * *

I watch the clock every minute as it got closer to the end of my shift. Not wanting to seem too anxious I made myself look busy. I heard the door chime and I looked up. Adam’s eyes met mine and his face lit up like a little Christmas tree or a firework on the Fourth of July. He waved to me. I finished what I was doing told my coworkers I was leaving and walked over to him slowly unsure of what this was going to entail. I smiled at him as I stopped in front of him rocking back and forth on my toes.

“Hi” he said in a shy voice. I couldn’t imagine somebody that was as popular as Adam was on campus being this shy but here he was standing in front of me nervous as hell and all I wanted to do was let out a corky little giggle at how cute he was being. “ well you ready” he said pointing to the door. I nodded. He held open the door with one hand and placed his other on the small of my back to guide me out the door. It was so unusual because guys my age didn’t do that anymore. This was only something I had seen my aunt and uncle do growing up. he was quickly behind me out the door. I stood there awkwardly waiting for him to lead the way. This uncertainty of where we were going was absolutely killing me literally it was eating me up inside. I was doing everything I could to hold my tongue and not ask where we were going but it was starting to become uncontrollable I needed to say something

“ so where are we going? ” he smiled nervously.

“ well if I tell you I’ll have to kill you” he joked nervously. I think it may be the wrong time for that kind of joke though. I was already nervous enough and the little joke that he just thought was cute put me over the edge. “Joking.. I need you to trust me” he put his hand towards me. I looked at it and then back up to his face with hesitation I took it. He interlaced his fingers in mine. It felt natural which was not a feeling I was used to. He pulled me down the sidewalk just a little until I realized which direction we were going. Then I walked following him but still holding his hand. He was leading me back towards My dorm rooms. He tried to make more jokes on the walk but they seem to all fail. I laughed anyway because I wanted him to be comfortable around me. We made it to the park that was in between the coffee shop and the dorms. He took one of the walking trails that lead you into the woods. Now I started to get nervous a complete stranger was leading me into the woods I prayed to Jesus that he wasn’t leading me to my early Demise. We came to a big clearing in the trees, a big boulder was sitting in the middle of some dirt. It had smaller rocks around it. There were candles and flower petals spread all around. A blanket was laid out in front of the big rock. It looked like there was a bottle of wine with two wine glasses and some cheese and other kinds of snacks. How precious was this that Adam had planned a little picnic for us. It was a smidge creepy that it would in the forest but it was still romantic in some creepy horror film way.

“This is beautiful” I whispered. He turned and looked at me and smiled passively. Helping me gracefully sit down onto the blanket. He kind of plopped down next to me, he reached out and grabbed the wine bottle and began to open it. Sadly this is the most relaxed I have been in a while. And I had him to thank for this but what I tell him heck no. That would give him a big head and we didn’t wanna go there just yet.

“Wine?” He held up the wine bottle gesturing if I wanted some. I nodded and held up a wine glass for him just to make it easier. He poured about half a glass in mine and then about a glass in his. He pulled out cheese and grapes and other things out of a picnic basket. “ I wasn’t quite sure what you liked so I just grabbed everything I could think of“ he said sweetly.

“ it’s all great. I love it all and this is really romantic thank you so much for bringing me here“ he smiled at my response to his sweet gesture.

“ this is where I come when I need to think. I come here and sit on this big rock and stare up at the sky. Until whatever I need to clear my head of is gone.“ now it’s even more romantic he brought me to his special place. But then it hit me how many girls does he bring here. How many girls has he had s*x with on this very blanket. His face changed because I knew I was acting different now. “ you’re the first and only girl I have ever brought here. I didn’t want my special place to be tampered with. I needed it to be peaceful I just figured that you would like something like this“ he was making a grand gesture and I couldn’t be more appreciative. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek softly. That should let him know how grateful I was for him bringing me to his special place. This was the place where he went to be alone. When the world around him was just too loud to function in he would be here escaping from his problems.

“ so tell me about Adam“ he chuckled because when I asked the question he was in the middle of a bite of cheese. And he thought that I expected him to answer the question right then. “ Take you time” I told him with a smile. We had all the Time in the world together I had no plans for the evening. And if he brought me here that clearly told me that he didn’t have any plans for the evening either. Which to be honest with you I didn’t think was such a bad thing that means I got him for an entire evening.

“ well was raised in a small town by my mother my father left when I was really young so I didn’t know much about him “ he choked down another piece of cheese I could tell that the conversation was uncomfortable for him. “ I wanted to get away from that life so I came here for college I got a job join the lacrosse team and became treasurer for the fraternity“ he grinned when he was finished. “What about you?” Was I fully prepared to tell him about my childhood. It was now or never though this was a true test if I told him how messed up my childhood was what he stick around I guess let’s find out.

“ well, my parents separated when I was eight. Because of that separation my dad took to drinking and when I was nine I moved to my aunt and uncles farm in Willingham. I was raised there by them in high school I made really bad choices. Which led me down a dangerous road so I chose to change my life and go to a college that was far away. A place where no one knew me or my face. So I got the job at the coffee shop and I support myself. “ that was a long story to tell him on our very first date. But his facial expression did not change in between the facts of my life. He seemed to be very supportive of how my childhood was. It brought me a sense of comfort to know that he wasn’t bothered by what happened.

“ well that sounds familiar to my life” he joked. “I’m glad that we kind of started out in a similar way” he said finishing off of the cheese that he had brought for us. Yes, I would agree with him that our lives were similar but they were very different in the same breath. It seemed like ours that we had sat there and joked and laughed and just had a good time with each other. Finally he looked at me with a smile. “I have had a great time” he said helping me up. I nodded and told him that I enjoyed his company as well. He walked me back to the coffee shop, where we said our good byes and parted ways. I walked back to the dorms thinking about Adam’s face every time he smiled. Or the way he looked every time he took a bite of food that he liked. I really had a wonderful time with him. I was already thinking of the next time I was going to get to see him. I kind of hoped and prayed that it would be very soon.