We never know when the love bug might get to you. 

 

I hated rains. They always managed to give me a headache. My boots created a splashing sound as I ran, dodging people who were either in a hurry to get back to work after lunch hour or were just running around looking for a shelter from the rain. The strap of my bag clutched tightly, I quickened my pace, not wanting to be late.

My boots squeaked as it hit the pavement in front of my favourite cafe, Aroma. This place was my escape. My escape from the real world filled with stress and anxiety.

I pushed open the door and the bell above it created a sharp jingling sound. As I stepped in I surveyed the inside of the cafe. As usual, there were not many people inside because it was just 4:30pm. It started filling up somewhere around 6pm. I hung my wet umbrella on the rack beside the door and proceeded to the counter to order.

Sarah gave me a big smile and said

"The usual, Sierra?"

I returned her smile shyly and nodded my head. She went ahead to prepare my mocha latte as I stood and looked around. On my right, an old man sat drinking a cup of tea. He was deep in thought and seemed to be in another world entirely. Two tables away from him sat a young couple talking and laughing in hushed voices. Just then Sarah came back with my latte and a slice of red-velvet cake and I turned back to her.

Sarah was a wonderful person, always cheerful and had a bubbly personality. I had been coming to this shop almost every day for a year now and in that time span I had learnt that Sarah was also extremely helpful. She was in her final year of college and aspired to be a fashion designer. This was her aunt's coffee shop and therefore she helped her aunt by working here. She was extremely passionate about her dreams and from the few designs I had seen, she was absolutely fabulous at it.

I put the money on the counter, grabbed my food and turned around to go to my usual seat. It was right beside the window and was usually secluded as it was almost at the end of the shop. There was just one more table behind my seat.

I dropped my bag on the ground and plonked onto the seat, placing my tray on the table. Then I took my laptop out and placed it beside the tray. Once I was comfortable, I switched the laptop on, getting ready to let my thoughts fly. I loved writing, whether short stories or poems or even random thoughts. I loved putting them together. It calmed me and took me to a world of my own. I wrote romances mostly because, yes you've guessed correctly, I'm a hopeless romantic.

But sadly I've never experienced love even though I'm already twenty and in college. This is natural when you are socially awkward and have almost no friends.

My best friend Lillian Reynolds is the only friend I have and she's more like a sister to me. We had grown up together. She was my neighbor. We even came to the same college though we have different subjects. She was the only one besides my family before whom I did not stutter. The side effect of being shy was that I would get tongue tied in front of new people, which would lead to a lot of embarrassing stuttering. Boys were a big ‘no no’ for me.

Nobody looked my way twice and I'm sure nobody would want a girl who wasn't able to string together a sentence without stuttering and pausing a million times. The only boy I've ever interacted with is my father and sometimes my cousin brothers. But Lillian would always keep telling me to not lose hope. But I was sure of one thing, which was, that I Sierra Marianne Williams would not be meeting my soulmate anytime soon.

To escape this hopelessness I entered the fantasy world of stories where I would meet the man of my dreams, my boyfriend or maybe husband. My fingers flew over the keyboard at an alarming speed as I created yet another story about the girl I could have been. My red-velvet cake and latte were finished in no time and by the time the clock struck six thirty I was on my third latte.

It was almost time for me to leave. I ran a hand through my dull brown hair and rested my hands on the table to rest my aching fingers. I looked around the cafe only to realise that it had become quite crowded. There were just two or three tables left empty.

I sighed and started packing. I saved the word document, shut my laptop and put it in my bag.

When I turned back around to reach for my coffee to finish it, I noticed a boy, about my age, sitting on the table right in front of mine. He was seated facing me and so I could see his face clearly. He was frowning and scribbling intensely into what I assume was his diary. His dark brown mop of hair fell onto his forehead. Even though I could just see half his face, I could still understand that he was good looking. His pen moved almost in a blur as if he was trying to pen down his thoughts before they disappeared.

Suddenly my mind registered the fact that if he caught me staring at him like this he would definitely think that I was creepy and weird. But my decision to look away was a tad bit too slow because in the next moment he looked up, straight into my eyes and I found myself looking into the most mesmerizing pair of blue eyes that I've ever seen. Call it sixth sense or anything else but at that moment I was absolutely sure that I would never forget those eyes. 

Somewhere in those few seconds of staring into his eyes I had already started falling for him.

 

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