Monday morning, 7:50AM

Alyss nervously looked at the digits on her phone. 07:50. She had ten more minutes to get to Pauline's office or she would be in trouble. She sighed and checked her phone again. 07:51 and the line hadn't shortened. Her damned neighbours. They had had a party until early in the morning and the music had been so ear-deafening Alyss couldn't sleep. As a result, she slept right through her alarm this morning.

07:52. Alyss yawned. She had skipped breakfast, but if she would skip her coffee as well she would probably fall asleep at her desk, she feared.

"Psst! Hey, Alyss!" She looked around and saw Jenny standing at the side of the counter.

"Here." The chubby blonde slid a to-go coffee and a muffin towards her. Alyss took them and smiled thankfully at her old friend. "Thank you so so much, you're a sweetheart Jen!"

But Jenny waved a bit and smiled in return. "You can thank me later, go be on time!"

As the barista turned back to helping customers, Alyss turned around and wriggled herself through the other customers standing in line. As she checked her phone once again to see how much time she still had, she didn't notice the young man and walked right up to him. One of the coffee cups that he had been holding was spilled over his white shirt.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Alyss exclaimed. She grasped some napkins from a nearby table and tried to clean up the mess as well as she could. The man grinned at her.
"Don't worry about it. I like the smell of coffee, it's nice that I can carry it with me all day."

She looked at him. He was at least half a head shorter than she was, she noticed. But he was muscly and athletic and not in the slightest intimidated by people taller than him. In fact, he carried himself quite confidently, she noticed.

"Are you sure? I'd feel bad all day!"

"It's okay, don't worry about it. I've got tons of fresh clothes laying at work."

"Let me at least buy you another coffee!" But again, he shook his head and raised his left hand with the remaining coffee cup. "I'm all set! Look, don't worry about it. I'll be fine. You, on the other hand, look like you desperately need to get somewhere…"

Alyss looked at her phone. 7:56.

"You're right, I really have to go. Again, I'm so sorry. Nice meeting you though!" And in a hurry she left.