Wings

Chapter 2

Arella

The school day was finally over and that meant it was time for my shift at Lenard’s, the local coffee shop, that was, lucky for me, right on my way home so it was really easy for me to walk there everyday after school. My life was not the most exciting at the moment, only leaving the house for either school or work, but I was okay with that. I appreciated it.

Excitement doesn’t always mean good.

“Hi Ella.” Anna said with a bright smile when I got to the dress room.

“Hi, Anna.”

“How was your weekend?”

“You know… I… studied…”

“I was wondering, since you barely leave the house, why don’t we go out one of these days?” She asked, a hopeful look on her face, which did not change when she saw my uneasy one and added “It’s a chill place, I know you’re not much of a crowd person.”

“Can I promise to think about it?”

“Well, it sure is a start. Agreed.” She grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s go.”

Lenard’s was usually not the most popular place, however, it seemed particularly full today, which was making Lenard himself pull his hair out since he was alone. Between us and the morning shift there was a 15-minute window which the man himself promised us with the biggest and brightest smile that he ‘can manage it’ and ‘I mean, can’t be that hard, right?’.

The minute his eyes landed on us, he raised his arms and looked up, pretending to be thanking God for our arrival. We both laughed at it.

“I know it’s not quite the time yet but could you girls please help me out?” He cried.

We started preparing the requests one by one, bringing them to the costumers, watching as the pile of papers decreased. Apparently, according to Lenard, they had all arrived almost at the same time, giving him no time in between to prep the requests so he decided to take all orders at the same time and pray to ‘whoever was up there’ – his words – for us to arrive.

Lenard was a nice guy, but very clumsy, especially when he had a lot of costumers. His parents left the coffee shop – named after his father – for him to run after they died, but he was more of a math kind of guy. He would tell you in a heartbeat how much sugar we had left based on the number of clients we’ve had, but he would make a mess if he had more than three tables with costumers.

I loved working there, people were nice most of the time, so we got pretty lucky on the polite field. Lenard was also the best boss ever, always nice and worried about us. And I could work with Anna who easily became my friend, because we both started working on the same day and also because she’s the kind of person you can’t just not like. She taught me a lot about the job, giving me some tips and tricks, since she’s older and had worked on other places before.

I was turning around to deliver the table 7’s request when I bump into something, making me drop the latte I was carrying. I mean, I’m pretty sure it was someone, not something. I’m quite familiar with the coffee shop by now so I would know if Lenard had placed a pillar in the middle of the place.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were- oh God, it’s right all over you. Just- okay, I’m pretty sure I can find something-anything to fix it.” I quickly grabbed a clean cloth and tried to clean to latte from the person’s shirt, even though, in a normal situation when I’m in the full control of my brain, I know it wouldn’t remove that stain.

“It’s okay-”

“I will take it to dry clean it myself or… something like that…”

“Hey, it’s f-”

“I’ll buy you a new one.” I said, not stopping my actions for a second, completely ignoring the person’s calm voice, until a second and familiar one sounded.

“You better.”

When I finally looked up, I felt as if a dinosaur had fell on me. Yes, that’s the kind of tension I felt. Right in front of me was Jessica, her eyes switching from my face to my hands which were holding the tanned guy’s shirt still. I quickly let go of it and took a step back, swallowing. I could not stand the way she was looking at me on that moment. It was as if she could kill me.

After all, my life was miserable because of her.

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Exist?” She cut, letting out a cold laugh while holding on to the guy’s arm. “I totally agree with you.”

“Jess.” He spoke, giving her a stern look, which didn’t stop her mouth.

“But since you’ve… blessed us with your miserable existence and poor coordination, the least you could do is buy my boyfriend a new shirt.”

“Jessica, get out.”

“Excuse me?”

“Get the f**k out.” He repeated.

“Are you kicking me out from a public space now, Luke?”

Luke.

Jessica crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, looking at Luke, probably thinking she either owned him or could intimidate him, but, all of a sudden, her face changed to what it seemed to be a scared expression and she walked out of the coffee shop.

When his eyes met mine, for the second time of the day, I felt a shiver.

“Huh… sir, I apologize for what happened.” Lenard’s voice sounded as he slowly came closer to us. In the background, I could see Anna trying to make my order again, while taking new ones as an attempt to distract the costumers from what had just happened. “Arella didn’t do it on purpose, I can assure you that. If you want, I do have spare shirts in the back.”

“There’s no need to. I was, in fact, trying to tell her that it was fine.” He mocked. “I will, though, if you don’t mind take that back’s exit, I’m pretty sure I have hell waiting for me right outside the front door.”

“She can’t be worse than hell.” Lenard let out, followed by a nervous laugh.

“Oh, trust me, I know I’m talking about.” He spoke in a lower tone.

“Well, then… Arella will show you the back.” Lenard awkwardly said. Will I now? “I can clean here.”

“Thank you.”

I took a deep breath and walked to the back of the coffee shop. It was where we had some of the supplies stored, as well as our dressing room only a few steps away and, of course, the door that we, the staff, usually use.

“That’s it.” I said just as odd as human can be. “A door. I mean, the door… the back’s door.”

“It’s quite the door.” He mocked.

Nice.

“Are you sure you don’t want a shirt?”

“Yes.”

“Will you let me get you a new one? Or at least try to get the stain out of that one? I feel really bad for what happened and the fight with your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

It’s not like I need to know that.

“Oh.”

Luke looked at me and I could see a small grin on his lips as he walked closer to me. Then, without breaking eye contact, he took off his shirt and handed it to me. I could feel my cheeks burning and I was wishing I had stayed home all day.

Although I was hardly fighting my eyes, they looked down at his torso. He was not that werewolf guy girls describe on books, who look like a freaking walking mountain and whose abs have abs, but he was fit and his skin was a beautiful tanned color.

It was his soft chuckle that brought me back to reality.

“So, was this all a scheme to get me naked?” He whispered in my ear.

Wait! Ear? When did he get THAT close to me?

“What? I- N-no! I just- I-” I shook my head quite violently and closed my eyes.

I tried to take a step back in order to create some distance as if that would make any less embarrassed, but my back hit the wall. Of course! Why is there always a wall behind a girl’s back when things like these happen?

“I’ll come back for that.” He spoke, this time his voice sounding further and when I opened my eyes, he was already at the door. “The shirt, I mean.” He winked, making me blush even harder. Is that even possible?