"What a freakin day" I thought to myself as I pulled into my favorite dunkin donuts café and parked the car. "Why the hell am I here?" I moaned out loud. I have a perfectly nice house, with a perfectly good internet connection, and even a fresh bag of DD coffee sitting on my perfectly good counter, and yet here I am, yet again, 2 weeks straight I've ended up here, laptop in hand. I hate admitting to myself that my boyfriend Jake has pushed me out of my own house…ok correction my EX boyfriend Jake has pushed me out of my own home, it just doesn't seem right being there without him. I hate him for that, that and a million other reasons. And yet, oddly enough hoping to hear from him is exactly why I'm here. "Maybe he's emailed, maybe I'll get an IM…maybe I'm an idiot, yes, that's definitely it, I'm a freaking idiot!!" I half thought, half mumbled as I opened the door and stepped inside.

"Large cinnamon spice, with two sugars please" I said, without even thinking about it to the barely put together girl behind the counter. My favorite coffee, my version of chocolate, on boring Tuesday nights when my real version of chocolate; a 12 pack of blue moon isn't deemed acceptable. The girl brought me my coffee, Jessica I think her name tag said, I paid and gave her a tip before finding my usual table. A quiet table in the back by the window is my favorite spot, there's almost never anyone sitting back here and when I'm disappointed by my empty email I can sit and watch the city traffic wondering where everyone is going.

"UGH!" I moaned to myself as I turned the corner and found a man sitting at the table next to mine! He lifted his head and looked my way as I threw myself into the chair like a spoiled 3 year old who didn't get her way. I threw a half hearted smile his way, my attempt at being polite and apologizing. He shouldn't have to suffer my bitterness!

I finally got all my stuff situated and begrudgingly opened my email "1 UNREAD MESSAGE" The butterflies immediately started. This was exactly what I had been waiting for…exactly what I had been dreading, here it comes, finally, the breakup…in email of course because he's a coward!! I clicked on the link nervously and read "WANT TO INCREASE YOUR SIZE? MAKE HER SCREAM!!! CLICK HERE!!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud, all of that anxiety over a penis enlargement spam email! I shook my head at myself and started watching the traffic. "All of these people had lives, they were all driving off to somewhere, driving home to their families. And here I sat pining over some stupid man who didn't just break up with me, no he left the country, left the country to go off to freakin WAR and didn't even tell me he was leaving, just POOF, he was gone" I thought bitterly to myself.

My idle daydreaming about all the random people's lives was brought to a frightening halt when "YAAHHHOOOOO" came booming from my computer. "HOLY SHIT" I yelled as I jumped and hit the mute button on my laptop. I had gotten a new email, and all the anxiety came right back. I quickly clicked on the link to find an email simply titled "hey" sent from Sam Black. "Why the hell is Jake's brother emailing me?? Oh god I hope Jake's ok" I started to panic!

"Hey Bella, I just wanted to drop you a quick note. We heard from Jake today. He made it to Afghanistan safely, and asked me to get you his APO. I hope you're doing well. I know things weren't the best when Jake left, but he's doing well. Take care! Email us back soon and let us know how you are, I'll let you know if the address changes"

Sam"

"He had his damn brother email me?! WHO DOES THAT?!" I screamed in my head, slammed my laptop closed, and began watching the traffic again trying to fight back the tears quickly filling my eyes.

I had been sitting, thinking for a while when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the guy sitting at the next table was looking at me, I turned my head and caught his eyes for a minute. He looked away quickly obviously embarrassed that I had caught him looking. I hadn't noticed before, but he was actually kinda cute. Not in a conventional way really, more in the punk rocker, bad boy kinda way. Totally my type, and yet somehow the type I never dated. I have a thing for tattoos, and he had plenty of them. He had short bronze hair, a bit longer than the usual military cut you find in this town, and the most gorgeous green eyes. I found myself completely engrossed in studying him…his tattoos, wondering what they meant, why he decided to get them. Figuring he was one of the "green people", that's my clever nick name for all the army guys around here, but maybe not, he didn't look like the typical soldier. He looked over out of the corner of his eye a couple times, probably wondering why the crazy chick who kept laughing and talking to herself wouldn't stop staring at him. I also noticed the star bucks cup he was holding "weird" I thought to myself, and then began watching traffic again.

The passing cars didn't hold my attention for long, and I found myself studying him again, and decided I needed to talk to him.

"That's blasphemy you know?" I said casually, barely looking at him.

"Uh…huh?" He said confused looking at me and away quickly. "aww he's shy" I smiled to myself, a very rare find in a town filled with overly obnoxious, overly eager soldiers!

"A star bucks coffee in a DD, that's a sin, they should probably throw you out" I said very seriously, but smiling.

"Oh, the internet was down at star bucks so I had to come and slum it here" he smiled back.

"WOW, they definitely need to get you out of here, I'm getting the manager" I joked. "What's your name?" I blurted out.

"Oh, I'm uh Edward" he fumbled. He was obviously nervous talking to me "too freakin cute" I thought smiling.

"Well, nice to meet you Edward, I'm Bella" I replied.

He just smiled back.

We fell back into silence, him back into whatever he was watching on his screen and instead of the traffic I started watching, the girl behind the counter interact with her cute coworker. It was kinda funny watching her obviously flirt and him be completely oblivious to it. Maybe he was trying to flirt too, I really couldn't tell. But truth be told, I wasn't paying enough attention to know, this man beside me had me completely curious. He hadn't even shown a sign of flirting with me, didn't use any cheesy lines or even ask me for my number. I'm not totally full of myself, but like I said this town is full over OVERLY eager soldiers, so getting shamelessly hit on is just kind of normal. I couldn't pull myself away from watching him, wondering where he was from, what was keeping his attention so intently, my eyes again finding the tattoos covering arms, and then wondering back up to his gorgeous eyes and then to his messy bronze hair. Yes, he was definitely attractive, how could I have not noticed before??? "I should talk to him more" I decided in my head.

"So are you in the army?" I asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Oh umm, yeah, well sort of" He answered seeming a bit shocked.

"Hmmm" I muttered automatically.

"What's hmmm for?"

"How exactly can you be "sort" of in the army?"

"Well, I'm not exactly a HOOAH let's go kind of guy, I'm really not sure what made me enlist in the first place, I guess it was the money. And they've pretty much screwed me out of everything they promised, and then broke me in about 5 different ways so yeah I'm sort of in the army cause I'm just here waiting to ETS" He replied, obviously bitter with the army and then returned his eyes back to his screen. I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with my chatter or just still shy.

"So where are you gonna go and what are ya gonna do after the army?" I asked not sure if I was prying too much.

He smiled "Back home to Maryland" He was silent for a minute before he continued "Back where people are normal, there are actually seasons to the weather, where I can do all the things I love, back to my friends and everyone I care about"…"I can't wait to get our of here" he finished almost to himself. "I'm not completely sure what I'll do, maybe music, maybe some computer stuff, maybe some tattooing, or I guess if all that falls through, I guess I could always turn back to selling drugs on the playgrounds" he said with an amazing crooked smile. I couldn't help but laugh, even though that was a horrible joke. I couldn't not smile back at that grin.

"Oh I definitely vote corrupting young children, why work hard, when lunch money is just sitting in their pockets, practically begging for you to take it…definitely that'd be my choice" I answered casually, not able to completely hide my smile.

He laughed, a smooth laugh "You're funny Bella."

"Well, duh, just one of my many charms" I joked back.

"Oh wow, it's getting late, I gotta get going. I'll see you around" He said getting up and packing up his things.

I was a bit shocked, and even a little annoyed, but most of all disappointed. I didn't want him to leave yet. He was the first person who had really made me laugh in over 2 weeks, and for the first time since he left, I hadn't spent the whole night wallowing over Jake disappearing.

"Oh umm yeah, I should probably head home soon as well, it was nice to meet you Edward" I smiled…"shockingly nice, like breathing again after being stuck under water for too long, like the sun coming out from the clouds after days of rain" but I kept those thoughts to myself, no need to present myself as a creeper just yet!

I watched him pick up his things and walk towards the door, just before walking out he looked back and gave me the crooked grin again. Seeing that grin made my heart pick up and I even got a little fidgety, I waved awkwardly, completely caught off guard by my odd reaction. "weird" I thought to myself as I began to gather up my own things.