Chapter Text
His life had been exhausting from the very beginning, traveling from one town to another, with no real place to live and settle down. He aimlessly wandered around, taking along with him only the bare minimum, finding solace in brief moments of quiet. Now, Paz found himself tired, so when he stopped in yet another unfamiliar city, smaller than any other he had ever been to, he felt like stopping for a while.
Unaware that it was going to last quite some time.
So, as soon as he managed to find a suitable apartment to live in on a budget and a job to meet future expenses, he felt like something was going to finally move forward in the right direction, maybe. What he wanted now was to experience something that felt normal, or at least, normal enough for him.
Two days after moving in, he began his first day at work. It wasn’t anything fancy, an ordinary job as a barista in the local café. He had already worked in a coffee shop before, and this one looked reasonably quiet and simple, perfect to be comfortable enough to show his face since no one knew who he truly was.
He arrived early for his morning shift, and despite the snow-covered pavement, he decided to go for a walk around the block for a minute or two while smoking his first and last cigarette of the day.
He was trying to quit, but it was damn hard, especially with all the stress he was under these past months.
His new boss sounded pretty friendly right from the start, to the point where, during a chat over the phone, he had told him that he was glad he had found someone to help him out at the coffee shop in the morning. Since his daughter had started college and wasn’t able to help out anymore, he had to juggle between orders and paperwork in his back office in order to keep the boat afloat. The friendliness felt strange at first, but it was nice to have a person who trusted him for once. And he didn’t mind waking up early anyway.
It was still very early when the first customer walked in. He didn't care much at first until she spoke, and he answered back automatically, without a glance.
"Would you like something to eat with that?" he inquired, sticking to the script he'd learned to perfection a few hours earlier... but when he received no response, he raised his eyes for the first time that morning.
She was... staring at him?
No idiot, What are you thinking?
He politely repeated the question and saw her gaze focus on him again… and her cheeks turned slightly red.
Yup, she was definitely staring at him...
He managed a smirk when he finally took her order. It had been a while since anyone looked at him like that. Usually, the sole purpose of people staring at him was to pick up a fight, so he almost forgot what that felt like. And now that he had unintentionally made someone blush, a pretty girl nonetheless, he didn't mind that feeling at all.
As he approached the coffee machine, he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. When he instinctively turned to see what it was, he realized that she sat right in front of him, patiently waiting.
Luckily the place was almost empty, except for the owner who stayed in his office until lunchtime, so he could take his time as he enjoyed the view.
But then... his own brain returned to annoy him...
Don't ever think about it ...
Don't think about flirting with her
Just don't...
He engaged in an internal debate with his mind as he set the coffee powder in the machine and picked the right cup to use.
But Paz wasn't the type of person to think about something over and over again. He usually went straight to the point, occasionally dealing with the aftermath of his decisions in the worst way possible.
So after placing the lid on the cup, he grabbed a marker he always kept nearby and wrote a simple message, hoping he hadn’t misread her intentions.
That is if she saw it before tossing said cup in the garbage.
You're an idiot!
It's always nice when his own mind worked against him, but at this point, he didn't even care anymore. It was worth a try even if only to be rejected.
"Here you go, medium black coffee with two teaspoons of sugar," he then announced as he turned to face her again, wearing a smile so bright and genuine it caused her to blush once again, harder this time.
God, she’s even cuter when she’s flustered.
"Thank you" she babbled, taking the cup out of his hands. But as he was about to answer, her phone rang, startling her and making him mentally curse the damn thing for getting in the way.
He barely had the time to watch her hastily stand up and walk towards the exit and once at the door, turn around and smile at him once again.
His only hope rested on what he wrote on the cup he handed her and, for some odd reason, he actually hoped his gesture wouldn't go unnoticed. He knew deep down that he wanted to see more of her... again... and again.
He barely knew who she was and he already wished he knew everything about her.
Maybe, he thought, it was about time he went back to living his life the way he used to once...