Brow furrowed with concentration, the dark haired barista scribbled something on his Starbucks cup. Rumford Gold leaned against his cane, waiting his order.
"Are you quite finished?" he demanded, "Or is Mr. Gold too hard for you to spell?"
"Just a sec!" she replied, lilting accent unfazed by his snarly attitude. Tucking the pen behind her ear, she grinned at him before making his coffee.
"There you go, Mr. Gold," she said, and he tried to ignore the brush of fingertips as he took the cup.
Outside, he examined the cup, what could have taken so long? But on the side was not his name but, "I've lost my teddy bear! Can I sleep with you instead?"
He flushed. Limping away as fast as possible, he tried not to look back at the coffee shop- or at the beautiful, blue eyed woman inside.
Of course, he came back the next day. He was able to glance at her name tag (Belle) before ordering. For her part, Belle didn't act as if anything was different, she merely took her time scribbling on the cup.
Today it read, "Are you my Appendix? Because I have a funny feeling in my stomach that makes me feel like I should take you out."
He stared at the cup, not quite comprehending, "What?" why the hell was she putting bad pick up lines on his cups? Who did this Belle think she was?
Wednesday the cup said, "I was wondering if you had an extra heart mine seems to have been stolen "
Thursday, "Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see!"
Friday, "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I would put 'U' and 'I' together."
Saturday, Rumford Gold stormed into Starbucks and, cutting in line, banged his fist on the counter.
"I demand an explanation!" he bellowed, but looking up, he was met with not Belle's blue eyes, but green ones belonging to a red head who's name tag said 'Ariel'.
"Dude, chill," Ariel said, "Belle's over there."
He followed her gaze to where an off duty Belle was staring at him, coffee stirrer frozen in hand.
He paced over to her, "Well? What do you think you're doing?!"
"Stirring my coffee," she said.
"I mean with the cups! Everyday! A horrible pick up line!"
She giggled- giggled.
"Did you like that? I thought they were cute," she look up at him from under her eyelashes and added, "Like you."
Rumford sputtered, "I- you- I- what?"
Belle stared at him as he flushed, waving his hands in confusion. She gave a little nod.
"Oh c'mon, you moron!" some nosy coffee connoisseur called out, "Kiss her all ready!"
And he did. In the most awkward fashion, his lips crashed against her soft ones and she stilled, surprised. Then, realizing what was happening, Belle wrapped her arms around him, deepening the kiss.
As they broke apart, Rumford leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Do you have any raisins?"
"What? No-"
"How about a date?"