Eliana:

I was shivering slightly when I woke up, and I regretted not grabbing a blanket earlier. I felt as though I must have been asleep for hours, but when I looked outside it was still dark. A look at my phone and a groan told me that it was way too early to be awake, but I knew I wasn't about to fall back asleep. Instead I rolled onto the floor and then stumbled to the bathroom so that I could take a shower. I knew the hot water was going to be limited so I hopped in and out as quickly as possible, but I was still left shivering. I avoided turning on the heater in my apartment unless I had to, it was an extra expense that I tried to live without, but my body naturally ran cold and I didn't want to freeze this winter.

I pulled my tights and dress out of my closet, but with a couple more hours until I had to open the shop, I decided that I would just switch into sweatpants and a hoodie again. I piled myself underneath blankets and started on some of my schoolwork but all day my mind remained fidgety. After I switched into my clothes for work and locked my door behind me, the early walk to work didn't make my uneasiness any better. I always took precautions while walking to work in the dark, I didn't put both headphones in, and I kept my bag across my body, but this time I clenched my pepper spray and knife in my pockets.

When I got to the shop and opened it up without any further incidence, I thought I was home free for the day. I had calmed down enough and there were plenty of people around me, so I wasn't jumping quite as high at every sound. Little by little, customers began to trickle in as well as a few more employees. Mondays seemed to be one of our busier days, I could only assume that it was because everyone needed that extra boost for the work week.

Mr. Walker had come in and taken his spot by the window long ago, but it seemed as though he was going to stay a little longer than usual today because he was stuck on the crossword from the day's paper. The lunch rush was starting to calm down again, and I was about to go refill Mr. Walker's coffee when a new man walked into the shop.

I could tell this was his first time in because I would never have forgotten someone like him. He was incredibly handsome, but also slightly terrifying, like the blonde man who had come in before. Based on the way that this new one was dressed, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew each other, much less worked in the same field. While their suits and intimidation were similar, their facial features were distinctive.

This new man had extremely dark hair, jet black from what I could tell, nothing like the blonde one from the previous days. They were both glued to their phones, but even from behind the register I could see that this new man had more than just strong cheekbones, it was his jaw too, and his build was even more broad. Overall this added up to make his demeanor seem more dangerous than anyone I had ever seen, but in the early years of my life I had adopted the ability to read people quickly out of self preservation. Everything about him yelled danger, but I didn't have the telltale warning shivers that almost always ran up my spine when I sensed I was in a bad situation.

He finally looked up when he reached the register, and while his aura of menacing power was obviously supposed to scare people off slightly, it didn't bother me very much. I had been much more scared of people in my life, and I had momentarily thought I had seen one of them yesterday. Customers like this could be unnerving, but my consolation was that they would leave in couple of minutes and never think twice about people behind the counter.

"Good morning sir, what can I get you?"

"A black coffee and," He glanced at the menu and although he kept up a cold facade I could see a bit of confusion and desperation there, "Maybe one of your chocolate laced frappuccinos? Do most people like those?"

I couldn't help but smile slightly, "It depends, does your friend have a sugar tooth?"

He hesitated, but I could only think of a couple situations that would explain someone ordering a coffee for someone they knew nothing about. "Meeting or blind date?"

"Date," He muttered grudgingly.

"Does he or she have a favorite food or desert that might give you a hint?"

"I suppose I must have met her before," He confessed, "But I'm not sure."

I tried not to laugh at his predicament. Someone of his stature was probably used to total control in every part of his life, but in that moment, the choice of coffee was crippling him and reducing him to exasperation. "I usually just take mine black or with a little bit of cream, but I've got an idea."

I leaned back to yell through the kitchen window, "Hey Kelly, what's your favorite drink?"

I distantly heard her response from deep near the store room, "Chocolate laced cappuccino with almond milk."

I turned back to the man in front of me, "How about that?"

"That sounds good," He nodded. The daunting man wasn't smiling, but he wasn't scowling anymore, which I considered to be about the same thing. Almost as an afterthought, he added, "A friend of mine also recommended getting the girl some cake, I think it was lemon?"

"That sounds about right," I grinned. I wrapped a piece of it in paper and gave him the total, to which I nodded to the other side of the counter with a small smile, "If you want to wait over there, we'll get your order to you in just a moment."

The man leaned against the wall by our pick up area, absorbed in his phone. I sent him a couple furtive looks, but thankfully he didn't catch me. I stayed at the counter and checked out another couple, but then there was a break in the line. It was the perfect opportunity to check on Mr. Walker, so I walked over to him with a pot of warm coffee, "Are you doing alright?"

He sighed, looking troubled, "It's this darn crossword, Eliana. I'm stuck."

"Maybe I could help? I'm not particularly adept at them, but I could give it a shot."

With his old age, he squinted at the paper, "A man's name, whose pet is both alive and dead. Eleven letters."

I thought for a moment before it clicked. "Schrodinger," I smiled victoriously.

He counted them out and chuckled when it fit. "You nailed it."

"Let me know if you get stuck again," I advised him with a wink and patted his shoulder. I headed back to the counter and felt a pair of eyes on me, an intuition I had honed into a fine sense over my past years, but when I glanced around the shop at the remaining customers, they were all absorbed in their own things. I began to clear up the scattered receipts and cups that littered my area of the counter, but a hand on my shoulder made me jump violently and drop them all again.

Ezrah stepped back, "Woah there. Are you still this jumpy from what happened yesterday?"

"Sorta. Sorry, my nerves are fried and I didn't get a lot of sleep."

"How much sleep?"

"It doesn't matter-"

"How much?"

I sighed and gave in, "A couple of hours, in and out of sleep on my couch."

"Eliana, you have a bed for a reason."

I laughed, "Yeah, I have a mattress on the floor. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, but I'll sleep wherever I need to. It's all the same to me."

"Why don't you stay with me for a little while? Would it make you feel better?"

"Thanks Ezrah, but you know that I like having my own place. I need that right now in my life. My apartment isn't big and it's most certainly not fancy, but it's mine, you know?"

"With paying for classes and everything, it might make sense for you to move in with me for a little while."

I thought back to the bills piling up, but my stubbornness was winning out. I genuinely did feel like I needed to live alone for a while, after everything in my life I just needed to feel like no matter what happened, I had a place that I could control.

"I'll keep it in mind," I promised him.

He nodded but I knew he didn't like it. Ezrah and I had spent a lot of time together, he would never have actually believed that I would do it. "I'm thinking of running next door to the deli, would you like anything? Can you hold down the fort?"

"I'm alright, thank you though. And yes, with Kelly and Monica working the back, we should be able to ensure that we won't burn the place down."

He nodded and grinned at my sarcasm, but I noticed the way that he fixed his shirt collar and he plastered a smile on his face. I quickly raised my eyebrows as discreetly as possible, but I was beginning to get the inkling feeling that he had a thing for the woman who ran the shop. It gave me a hopeful feeling that maybe Ezrah could be happy again. He was working through everything for the past few years and if he was ready to pass content and into happy, it was a good thing.

No customers were standing in line, but the one man was still leaning against the wall on his phone. It shouldn't have been taking Kelly and Monica so long to make two relatively basic drinks, so I turned around to call to them through the order window. I placed my hands on the counter and leaned through, only to catch them whisper yelling at each other. It was slowly growing loud enough that soon the whole restaurant would be able to hear, so I quickly stumbled through the door to the kitchen.

"Then give it up, it doesn't matter," Kelly was growling.

Monica spat back, "It matters if you're going to use your long term daddy issues to be mean to the people who are just trying to get through a shift with you!"

I stepped in between the two, which forced them both to take a step back. I stared down both, "You two need to cool it, the customers are going to be able to hear you soon."

"But-"

"No 'buts' unless you want to take this outside." I gave them a knowing look. They were good girls, both were effective workers and sweet, but sometimes they knocked heads and didn't agree. They were both young and sometimes a little hotheaded. Usually they could just work through it on their own, but it seemed like this time was an exception. "Look, you're both great people. You're smart and reasonable, you're also better than attacking each other like this."

I turned to Kelly, "Monica's right, not about the daddy issues thing, but about you sometimes getting tunnel vision and not listening to other people. And Monica," I faced her next, "You know better than to accuse her and use whatever happened in her past to blame her now. Ezrah hired most of us because we had no home and all needed work or something stable, and none of us were ever required to disclose what got us to this point in our lives. We owe it to our boss to try and get along and not cause problems here. We're all on the island of misfit toys together, and if there's a mutiny then none of us are going to come out of it well."

Monica sighed and looked at Kelly, "I'm sorry, it wasn't fair of me to say that or dredge up anything."

Kelly glared but when I gave her a raised eyebrow, she sighed and gave Monica an apologetic look, "And I'm sorry for being a jerk. I shouldn't just assume that I'm always right."

"Thank you both for being mature about this," I clapped them on their shoulders, then headed for the door again. "Now catch up on those coffees, our customers can't wait forever."

"Yes ma'am," Kelly saluted playfully.

Once I was back at the register, I glanced at the man by the pickup line, "I'm sorry, sir. We'll have your order ready shortly."

He gave me a curt nod, but after what seemed a second thought, he added more kindly, "No problem."

As I picked up all of the receipts, it crossed my mind how much people must spend on coffee. It was an odd thought to go through my mind, but when I considered that some people stopped in almost daily to get their caffeine, it added up. I'm sure that some people spent enough on food that I could pay for my entire apartment for months at a time.

There were days that I had to skip meals entirely to make ends meet and ration out what I bought, I had blatantly lied to Ezrah's face about it before because I knew he would be mad. I was independent to a fault, I could admit that. It just didn't always feel fair that I worked maddening hours and odd jobs, but minimum wage might not even cover my classes for the next semester. No wonder social mobility was so hard.... It's easy to tell people to get jobs and work their way up, but legally there are only so many hours you have in a day, and so much you can be paid. It's much easier said than done. And here people were spending so much on coffee that I could have lived off of it.

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration and exhaustion as my lack of sleep began to catch up to me. I reached into my apron pocket for a bobby pin or hair tie, but somehow one of my old paintbrushes had ended up in there, so I just stuck it through my loose bun to hold it in place. It wasn't the most effective method to keep it out of my face, as small wisps still hung by my cheeks, but it was better than nothing. I hadn't painted in a very long time, Ezrah had given me a set for Christmas when we first met, but lately there was no more time or money to continue, although I had to admit, even if it was just to myself, that I had a knack for it. I must've just grabbed my brush instead of my pencil or pen when I was getting ready this morning in the dark.

I felt a pair of eyes on me again, but unlike when my senses usually alerted me to being watched, I didn't panic this time. Instead it felt oddly calm, for once it wasn't threatening, merely curious. I glanced around the room, hoping to find out who it was, but Kelly called me to the window for the two coffees before I could really look. I took them and set the two in a carrier, as well as the package of lemon cake before handing them to the man absorbed in his phone.

He looked up just enough to take it with a nod as I tried to give him a friendly smile, "Have a nice day."

Without glancing back, he was out the door and Kelly leaned through the order window, "Who was that, and where can I get one?"

"Kelly, you're sixteen," I laughed.

"Age is but a number," She teased dreamily. "Speaking of, why didn't you try to get his number?"

I raised my eyebrow, "Because I've got more important things going on than dating right now- like trying to make rent and pass classes."

Monica popped up next to her, "Based on the look of that one, he could pay for your classes and rent, you've just got to get him hook, line, and sinker."

"Not interested, sorry."

"How could you not be?" Monica protested. "His jawline could have cut marble."

"I can objectively admit that," I muttered. "That doesn't change the fact that I know nothing about his personality, which is the important part, and I'm pretty sure he's the wrong kind of 'dangerous' for me. That was something other than just your average bad boy, and I don't need that mess."

"Got experience with bad boys?" Kelly inquired, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Sorry, you must be a level five friend to access my 'tragic backstory'," I gave her a sarcastic grin. "You two aren't quite there yet."

"Who is?" Monica probed giving me one of her signature pouty looks.

"Only one person- my pet rock, Richard. Only he is privy to my deepest, darkest secrets."

Kelly laughed but Monica gave me one of her playful eyerolls that she was also famous for. "If he ever comes in here again and stops scowling long enough to act normal, you should seriously get his number."

"I really don't think I'm his type. I'm pretty sure he's more of a supermodel sort of guy, stilettos and all. That's not really my thing."

"You've got your own thing," Kelly encouraged. "It might not be what's most popular, but your look is a cute one."

"Don't get me wrong, I know that I'm not about to get signed by a modeling agency, and I'm more than happy to keep it that way, even if it doesn't attract a ton of men. I'm good with where I'm at."

Kelly seemed to accept what I said and went back to her work with a smile, but Monica seemed slightly skeptical. I knew what they thought. I was a young woman in her twenties, and they were still young with high school aged boyfriends- they imagined their twenties were going to be very different than what mine were. Even if they were open minded, I interrupted their picturesque model of what life was going to be.

It wasn't all bad. Being single meant I could dress every day in my skirts and braids, I didn't have to worry or consider what my significant other would think. I didn't have to spend money on anyone else or try to fit anyone else into my already messy life. There were definitely trust issues that prevented me from getting too close to people, and I was independant so much that I knew it could easily be categorized as stubborn. Being alone could be good in many ways, but sometimes I did worry that I was blocking myself off from opportunities.

Either way, this man would have no interest in me, and he seemed too cold to be someone that I could get along with realistically. That didn't mean that i completely dismissed him from my mind, however. The unusual influx of extremely attractive men that I had never seen before was not wasted on me- it wasn't like I remembered every person's face who ever came into the store, but our shop wasn't in the 'nicest' part of town, and men that looked like that didn't often appear. Businessmen, yes, but young ones who were that terrifying? Rarely.

The thoughts followed me as I walked home in the dark, glad that I was wearing tights since it really was getting a bit colder. The two men's faces continued to pop up into my mind, even as I got home, triple checked my lock like I always did, then took a shower. In accordance with my normal tendencies, I checked the lock one more time before I went to sleep, then again once I had already laid down and began to question myself on whether or not I had really done it correctly.

The whole time, I kept questioning why this man would make any particularly lasting impact on me. Yes, he was unusually attractive, and yes, he stood out because of his stature and intimidation, but those things rarely caught my eye. I was slightly oblivious when it came to anything like that, never once had this happened. Had he done something that I subliminally noticed and found interesting? He hadn't been overly nice or even friendly, but he was still on my mind hours later, so something must have been different, even if I couldn't pinpoint it.