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He saw her every day like clockwork at five past the hour. From what he deduced; she was more than likely a freshman. What with taking afternoon classes that ended by 4pm so she could sleep in in the mornings just like everyone did in their first year of college. He figured that’s why she was always at the coffee shop in the late afternoon. If that wasn’t enough, the university-labeled apparel from her wardrobe was the sure giveaway. No one really wore anything with the words ‘Chandrila U’ across their sweaters or t-shirts unless they were bright-eyed freshmen excited for the next chapter of their adult lives.
She seemed like a creature of habit, having the same routine each time she stepped foot inside the café. She would order the same beverage – roasted hazelnut latte with almond milk – and sit at the same table at the corner of the room. Her laptop would be open to a word document and her textbook would be placed beside it, opened to a bookmarked page (whatever chapter her class was currently on).
There weren’t many tables at this establishment since it was right next door to the university’s library, but the few people that did sit around usually chatted for a bit between classes. This girl camped out and worked for a couple hours seemingly on the same assignment as she only ever took out the same brown textbook to work on. Not that anyone at the café minded. Students could do schoolwork, the Wi-Fi was free, and coffee was available. Who wouldn’t want to do schoolwork at a coffee shop?
This was a regular thing for Ben. After barely staying awake through his morning lectures and making about 200 cups of coffee for customers throughout the day, seeing this young beauty with the chestnut hair and the prettiest hazel eyes come into the café at 4:05 PM every afternoon was the highlight of his day.
Not that he ever did anything or made a move. The most he’d ever do is say “hello” and make her drink while she set up her things at her table. But those two seconds and brief exchange of words were enough for him to be a goner for this girl. Once he could have sworn that he may have seen a dust of freckles splayed across her cheeks when she stared at him for a half second longer than usual and greeted with ‘Happy Halloween’ instead of their usual ‘hello’s’ in October. But he’d never know really. He was comfortable admiring her from afar.
She doodled almost all the time. When her assignment was hitting a roadblock, she’d grab a napkin and have a quick doodling break. When she was satisfied with her “masterpiece”, she’d return to her laptop and try to finish her assignment.
By 6 pm she’d pack up her things, push her chair in and leave. When the bell chimed at the door signaling her departure, he would immediately go over to her table, finding her doodle and stuffing the napkin in his pocket.
He didn’t always clean up her table when she left. One night they were understaffed, and the usual busboy called off during his shift on the count of being “so hungover” so Ben had to clean tables that day. He came across her table to pick up her mug when he saw her first doodle – it was an owl. Or the beginnings of one. He noticed the next day and days after that how she took doodle breaks, and since then insisted on cleaning up her table whenever she left hoping to find another one of her artistic creations.
He wasn’t the best artist. His artistic level could be thought of as kindergarten finger paint and even then, according to his coworkers and best friend Rose, it wouldn’t be refrigerator worthy. His shift supervisor, Poe, who was always the one “with the times” decided one day for their baristas to try latte art. Rose and their other coworker Kaydel were fast to pick up the art, but Ben was behind on it. Poe promised to work with him, in the meantime he would just stick to making the drinks and leave the art to everyone else.
One evening the crowd was thin so Poe asked Ben if he wanted to practice his coffee art. Ben could barely draw a flower, let alone an adequately shaped heart. When he was decent enough at making a smiley face, Poe asked what else he wanted to try. Ben recalled the many napkin doodles and the owls. So, he decided to try and perfect the bird.
“Are you sure about that, buddy? An owl may be a bit too advanced for you. We can try to make leaves or a rose maybe?” Poe suggested.
“No, I really want to draw an owl,” Ben insisted.
“Is that your favorite animal?”
“Something like that.”
~.~.~.~
He spent weeks trying to make a decent owl. It went from a lopsided blob to a very round face that could’ve been literally any creature. Not until the last day of the semester did Ben get a decent looking owl’s head right with a makeshift artsy heart-shaped body that Rose taught him to draw.
Now that school was out for the holiday not many people would be visiting the café on campus. Ben took the opportunity on the slow workday to practice his latte art. Poe promised him that he would be allowed to draw some art for customers come next semester. By then he hoped to draw some art on that girl's order, hoping she'd notice his hard work.
Fully concentrated on getting the bird’s eyes right, Ben didn’t even hear the bell from the door signaling a new customer. Moments later he wiped the small bead of sweat from his forehead and for once smiled at his creation. Kaydel looked over her shoulder as she passed him by to restock the napkin holders and gave him a high five. Ben finally perfected that damn bird.
“Is that an owl?”
He glanced up at the owner of the gentle voice that spoke and met eyes with her.
He was speechless, like a deer in headlights, gaping at her with wide eyes.
Thankfully Poe nudged his back as he passed by, knowing full well that Ben had been secretly pining after this mystery girl all semester.
“Uh-er—what?” he managed to mutter after a couple seconds.
“An owl,” she repeated. “Is that an owl on the coffee?”
“Oh, um… y-y-yes, yes it’s an owl,” he stuttered a bit, trying his best to calm his nerves.
“That’s really cool, you’re good at that,” she complimented.
He felt like he was on top of the world.
“Thanks,” he softly smiled.
She could have sworn she saw red ears peaking out of his raven mop top of hair.
“Is that your favorite animal?”
“You can say that,” he said.
“Owls are cool, but my favorite animal is a ladybug,” she said to him.
“A ladybug?”
“Yeah, but I’m probably impartial to them because I love polka dots,” she giggled, pointing at her red and white polka dotted scarf wrapped around her neck.
He would have loved to keep hearing her laugh, because it was an angelic sound, but at that moment Ben was a bit confused.
“But I thought owls were your favorite…”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because the nap-” he immediately stopped himself from continuing.
“The what?”
He was stuck. If he told her he kept her napkins she might think of him as a creep. But he didn’t want to lie to her on the off chance that they hit it off he’d hate to have told her a lie in the very first real conversation they’ve had with words other than “hello” and “Happy Halloween”. Though that second scenario was a long shot.
“Okay, this might make me look like a creep,” he took in a deep breath and continued, “but I would see you doodling whenever you’d work here and usually I’d clean up your table when you leave to find that you draw owls most of the time. I figured they were your favorite animal or something.”
Ben braced himself for the worse.
Surely she’d think of him as a creep and never step foot back in this establishment ever again. Who in the world would be obsessed with making an animal for their crush which turned out not to even be her favorite one?! On top of that, who would be insane enough to intercept those doodles and turn them into latte art? This was not looking good for Ben. He was already letting the notion of this girl being interested in him sink to the lowest pit of his humility.
Instead, he heard her melodious laugh again, looking up to see her covering her mouth with her giggles and smiling at him.
“Oh, you mean the napkin doodles? I was drawing an owl because I had to write this horrendous 30 page paper for my economics class. My professor is a stickler for the Purdue OWL APA format and whenever I had to look up and cite my sources I’d get exhausted, so I’d draw for a bit. I drew an owl because of the acronym,” she childishly grinned.
It all made sense. But it didn’t help.
Ben didn’t even need to look in a mirror, he was pink in the cheeks with embarrassment and he knew it.
Then realization dawned on her.
“Wait, you saw my doodles?” she quirked a brow at him.
“Um…” Ben stuttered. He quickly sighed. No use lying now. “Yeah. Like I said, I usually picked them up after you left. My supervisor wanted us to try and make coffee art and I was trying to make an owl since that’s what you always drew…”
It was her turn to be speechless.
Yep that me, creepy stalker barista guy who works at the coffee shop you frequent, Ben moronically punched himself in his mind.
“So, you drew the owl for me?”
He looked at her a bit taken aback. It was one thing to be nice about the situation, but for a moment he wondered if she was just as insane as he was for not being put off by literally anything, he had said in the past five minutes. Then again, if a woman didn’t think he was insane for his actions and his unhealthy crush on her, maybe she was perfect for him after all.
Here goes nothing, he said to himself.
“I think you’re really pretty and judging by the time you use when you’re here you look like such a hard worker and I’m just a big moron and I can’t ever find the nerves to just walk up to you and say something other than ‘hello’ and I just really wanted this whole semester to be able to just ask you out on a date and get to know you more… and… I probably should stop talking before I make an even bigger fool out of myself huh?”
He said that last part in response to her growing bewildered expression. Ben knew he blew it. Good news was it was the end of the semester. He wouldn’t have to work for a month and surely by next spring she’d find another coffee shop to frequent for her studies.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what I was thinking spilling that on you. I know something like drawing an owl for you on an overpriced cup of coffee wouldn’t change the fact that you wouldn’t go for a guy like me. Someone who’s been admiring you from afar and collecting your napkin doodles.”
Ben was about ready to dump the mug of his best coffee art to date in the sink, reaching for the handle when a small hand stopped him.
“Is this for me?”
She looked at him expectantly.
Wordlessly, he slid the mug to her and nodded.
She softly smiled and picked up the mug, bringing it to her lips and took a sip.
“Hazelnut latte with almond milk… My favorite. You remember.”
“Well, I am the barista here… so that’s not a creepy stalker thing that I know about you, I swear!” He defended.
Then she did something he didn’t expect. She laughed again.
He was officially confused with this entire interaction and this enigma of a woman.
“I know you know my order; I’ve been asking for the same cup every day this semester.”
She placed the mug down and examined the now slightly warped owl art.
“If we’re being honest,” she said, eyes still glued to her drink, “When I first saw you, I thought you were really cute. It’s why I kept coming back to this coffee shop instead of the one two blocks from my dorm. I live on the other side of campus. My last class is right across the street. It’s how I discovered this café in the first place.”
This time she looked up at him, a shy smile on her face, her bottom lip stuck between her teeth. He was not expecting that revelation.
“I looked forward to our ‘hello’s’ every day too,” she admitted. “But I figured no senior guy like you would be interested in a nobody freshman like me.”
“Are you kidding? You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” he said boldly. “And you’re definitely not a nobody. Not to me.”
“Neither are you,” she said.
“Also… I’m only a junior, if that helps,” he chuckled.
They exchanged rosy smiles and stood silently for a moment.
Then Ben realized something very important.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Rey,” she said, holding out her hand for him to shake.
“I’m Ben.”
“Hi Ben, nice to officially meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Rey.”
When their skins touched Ben could have sworn that he felt a jolt of electricity from their connection. Talk about a spark!
“So… um… How much do I owe you for the drink?”
She started to pull her wallet out of her backpack until he stopped her.
“You’re the first person to compliment my latte art so it’s on the house.”
Rey grabbed her mug and smiled before taking another sip of her drink, walking to her usual table and making camp at that cozy corner of the café.
“Oh, and Ben?”
She turned around before she placed her things down.
“Yeah?”
She flashed that thousand watt smile toward him, the first of many heart melting smirks he’d soon encounter.
“I’d love to go out with you some time too.”
The End