Chapter One

It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of winter in New York City. I'd just returned from my lunch break to my crowded coffee shop. My new barista Sophie was swept off her feet. She had a long line of customers, as well as every single machine behind the counter working full speed. As usual, her long, dark brown hair whipped from side to side as she darted from this coffee machine to that oven. Her hazel eyes landed on me standing in the doorway, and she heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Steve! Thank god you're back! It got crazy busy after you left!" the young student exclaimed. Her maroon apron was dusted with sugar and flour, and streaked with coffee stains. She'd only worked here for a few weeks, yet she knew the menu off by heart, and most of my regulars.

"You look like you could use some help," I said jokingly as I tied my own apron around my waist and got to finishing off two cinnamon lattes.

"No kidding! I still have assignments after this!" I chuckled as she flashed a bright smile my way. She was currently studying astrophysics at university, as well as a bunch of other scientific things that I hadn't even heard off. I really had no idea how she had time for it all.

"Earth to Steve!" she shouted at me and clicked her fingers.

"What?" I asked, still in a daze. Her sharp words bringing me back to reality. "Sorry."

"What's with you? You've been hazy all week, are you sure you're okay?" she asked with concern as she handed Earl his usual Tuesday afternoon cappuccino. "Is there anything on your mind?" I forgot to mention she was also minoring in psychology, and took great pleasure in making me her patient.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said quickly before turning away. As I continued to work I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. I wanted to tell her the truth, but I couldn't. How does one tell his employee he has feelings for her? And besides, she already had a boyfriend, some hot-shot Australian surfer she claimed to be in love with. I'd done my best to shove my feelings down, but as feelings often do, they somehow found a way to rise back up until they were sitting in my throat waiting for me to spit out how much I liked her.

"Hey Soph, I have to go grab something from upstairs, from my apartment, can you hold the fort for a moment?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure, just hurry back," she said over her shoulder as she tended to another customer. I got halfway upstairs to my apartment before turning back to look at her. Long, toned legs, slim build, perfect posture, long brown hair and the most beautiful, bright face. I mentally smacked myself on the head.

'Get a grip Steve!' I told myself angrily as I glanced around my rustic, old-fashioned 40's apartment looking for my phone. Tony had been bugging me all week, telling me we should 'hang out' and 'catch up'. Ever since the invasion he'd tried time and time again to bring us together as more of a team, if you could even call us a team. Last I'd heard, Natasha and Clint were in Canada wrapping up official S.H.I.E.L.D business, Bruce had dropped off the radar, Thor had gone back to Asgard and Tony had gone back to his billionaire lifestyle. And here I was, running a coffee shop. Tony dropped in occasionally to say hi, but other than that it's been pretty quiet on the Avengers front. Not even Hill or Fury had tried to contact me…yet.

After locating my phone under the brown, leather sofa, I checked my e-mails. There it was, seven new from Tony, and one from Bruce telling me he was back in town and wouldn't mind stopping by. I instantly deleted the ones from Tony, and told Bruce it'd be great if he stopped by. I glanced at my watch for no good reason and realised I'd been up here for twenty minutes! I wasted no time rushing back down to the café, but everything was swell. There was no line; all the customers seated seemed contempt. I looked around for Sophie, and found her at one of the tables, perched on her boyfriend's knee, feeding him apple pie, my best recipe. Before I knew what I was doing, I was walking over to their table. I caught them both by surprise.

"Hey Steve, took you long enough!" Sophie said with a little giggle as she fed him more pie.

"Yeah, sorry about that," I mumbled.

"So, Steve, what are ya, bus boy?" her boyfriend asked with a smirk, his Australian accent a stand-out from her American one.

"Actually this is my café, and I would really appreciate it if you would let my barista get back to work," I almost snarled. He held up his hands in surrender.

"No problems man, I'll see you later gorgeous," he said and gave Sophie a…big kiss.

"Don't you just love him?" she swooned as he waltzed out of the café, waving over his shoulder as he went.

"Suuure."

"Is that sarcasm I'm hearing?" she said defensively, her arms crossed.

"Nope," I said quickly, and left before I could put my foot in my mouth anymore. Not surprisingly at all, she trotted behind me as I made a bee line for the counter.

"What don't you like about him?" she asked me seriously as she placed her elbows on the counter.

"I… I guess I just don't know him that well," I said as I wiped down the benches." Over the past few weeks, you've kinda become like family…" I trailed off. Nice going Steve, nothing better to do than tell the girl you like that she's almost like a sister.

"Well that's no problem, Steve! We're going out tomorrow night, you should come with us! Tyler won't mind at all!" she said excitedly. "We're only going to a movie."

"I can't tomorrow; I'm catching up with a friend, but sometime soon, yeah?"

"Yeah," she said a little glumly. She took her elbows off the counter, and went back to tending tables, offering refills and taking checks. I sighed in frustration. I'd now subconsciously gotten myself into a day with Tony.

…

"Yippee! Stevie boy, we are going to have the greatest night! Just you wait!" Tony had exclaimed into the phone once I'd told him I had a free night.

"And, I heard that Banner is back in town, we should invite him too?" I suggested, hopefully he would be a calming influence on the night ahead.

"Banner? Really? He's kind of a downer, but okay, fine, I'll call him," Tony had reluctantly agreed, but it was masked by over-bubbling excitement.

"Have you heard much from the others?" I asked, in case he'd heard something I hadn't.

"No! Widow and Hawk went straight back to work, no surprise. The demigod went home to slay some monsters, and Banner disappeared. Why?"

"I was just thinking it would've been fun, to have a team reunion," I mumbled into the receiver. I could just imagine Tony snort in disgust.

"Well, it'll be a little hard when half the team has fucked off to places unknown, won't it?" Tony replied sarcastically.

"Just a harmless suggestion, Tony."

"Moving on, I'll stop by at eight to pick you up, okay? Yes? Good, bye." Before I could get a word in he had hung up. I gently threw my phone onto my bed. It landed with a soft 'plop'. Now that that was sorted, I went in search of food. I'd closed the café, Sophie had gone home to her one million and one assignments and it was fast approaching dinner. I'd ransacked my cupboards and my fridge, but found nothing more than a box of cereal and a mouldy lime, with blue fur growing on it.

"Come on!" I exclaimed angrily. You'd think for a guy who owned his own café, would have at least some sort of food right? Apparently not, I'd been so busy with the café that I'd forgotten to go shopping. With a huge sigh, I trudged downstairs to the café store room. This is where I stored all the food that didn't get sold. It seemed like such a shame to waste it. So, I sat down on a rickety stool, and tucked into a caramel tart that I'd made around this time last night, only half of it was gone. I knew it was enormously unhealthy, but at this stage in time I didn't care.