Fareeha Amari sat in the corner of the cafe, sipping a warm cup of coffee. She always stopped by this place on the way to work, to freshen herself up before the stresses of the long day.
Sitting in the quiet little place always was relaxing to the Egyptian woman, bringing a sense of tranquillity to her often chaotic life.
She always had the usual. Black coffee, no sugars. Fareeha hated the taste of sweet coffee. The stronger the taste was, the more awake she would be.
She looked down at her phone, seeing a text from her friends Brigitte and Emily, wondering if they wanted to come over to her apartment tomorrow night.
Emily would no doubt be bringing her new girlfriend Lena, whom she had bragged would get on very well with Fareeha.
She'd be the judge of that.
The only reason Brigitte and Emily were still friends with her was that Fareeha's mother and their father were co-workers when they were younger. Fareeha tended to keep to herself mostly, having not been the same since her mother passed away a few years earlier.
She sighed. She knew she couldn't say no to them, but realised that she needed more company in her life other than those two friends. If only she wasn't such a picky person when it came to friends.
As she sat on the chair by the window, looking out at the cars going by, sipping her coffee softly as the warm liquid trickled down her throat, she heard a commotion from the other side of the establishment.
On a chair on the other side of her, two men, both of whom appeared to be Australian, seemed to be arguing with one of the waitresses.
Fareeha had seen the waitress before. She was a rather timid woman, with short blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She had served her coffee before, so Fareeha was quite familiar with her.
"Oi! We have the special membership deal!" One of the Australian men argued. "You should put our bill down! It's supposed to be 15% off for us!"
"I'm sorry, sir," The waitress replied, in her swiss accent. "But I was told your membership expired a few days ago. Please, just pay the bill and not make a scene."
"Not make a scene!" The man growled. "Bitch, I'm making all the scene I want! I come here every morning with my buddy and you come and show me up like this! I should report you to your manager! I bet he takes complaints very seriously!"
"No, please don't do that," the waitress backed off, clearly intimidated by the two men.
Fareeha scowled. She couldn't let this woman lose her job because of two scumbags who were bad at math and dates. She put down her coffee and stood up from her chair, trying her best not to lose her temper too much at the two men, as much as she wanted to.
Her mother had taught her better than that.
"No Habiti, you mustn't let your anger take over you. Violence is never the way to solving a problem."
Ironic words from a woman who had served in the military for most of her life.
Fareeha then cleared her throat, as she stood by the two men. "Excuse me? What's all this bickering about? she inquired, her arms folded at her sides.
The Australian man looked at her, scowling. "This here dumb blonde is making us pay more! We got a coupon!"
"Coupons expire, friend," Fareeha stated, glaring at him. "Maybe you should have checked the date on yours."
"We did! It had a whole month left on it!" The man argued. He then took out the coupon from his pocket, showing it to Fareeha and the waitress. "See! It expires next week!"
Fareeha looked at him then at the coupon. "Seems you can't count, dingo. It says it expires in thirty days and... Miss, when did this gentlemen have this coupon first?"
"He's had it for more than a month," the waitress replied. "Please, you needn't bother with this. I can take care of myself."
"Yeah, you 'erd her," the aggressive man stated. "You should just leave us alone."
"No, because I don't like seeing innocent women be the victims of scum like you," Fareeha snarled. "So unless you want more of a scene in this place, I suggest you leave."
The man looked dead into Fareeha's eyes, seeing literal flames within her irises. He knew he had been licked and he had been licked good. He then looked at his companion, a rather chubby man with white hair. "C-Come on, Hog, let's get outta here."
As they left the cafe, the waitress sighed softly, looking over at Fareeha. "You didn't need to do that, miss... but I appreciate it."
"It's alright, um..." Fareeha tried to remember if she knew the woman's name.
"Angela. Angela Ziegler," the waitress introduced herself. "You come here often, don't you?" She then said, recognising Fareeha.
"Yes, you've served me on a couple of occasions," Fareeha replied, smiling. "My name is Fareeha. It's nice to meet you, Angela."
She then gestured to her empty table. "You want to take a seat down? Standing up to those two like that must have been exhausting."
Angela nodded, taking off her apron and sitting down. "Thank you ever so much." She rubbed her forehead. "God, some people can be hard to deal with."
"You shouldn't have to put up with that, my dear," Fareeha said, returning to her coffee. "Cute girls like you shouldn't be harassed like that. People should respect women, not demonize them."
Angela softly blushed at Fareeha's kind words. "You are too kind to me, my dear." She then looked at Fareeha's cup. "If you'd like, I could write your name on your cup for you."
Fareeha smiled. A humble gesture like that seemed a fitting reward. "Sure, go right ahead."
Angela then took out a pen, picking up Fareeha's cup and scribbling something along its side. "There, all done." She looked up at the counter, seeing someone call her over. "Oh my, it seems I'm needed." She smiled at Fareeha. "Thank you for your assistance."
"No problem," Fareeha replied. "Just keeping the skies around me friendly."
Angela chuckled and headed back to the counter, ready to start her next shift.
Fareeha then picked up the cup, wanting to see her name on it. When she turned it around, she was greeted with a rather pleasant surprise.
Written in felt-tip was her name, but below that, in smaller writing, was a phone number and the words "Call Me" written beside it.
Fareeha then blushed, turning to her left to see Angela winking at her from the counter. She had a playful smirk, one that said she was smitten with her.
The Egyptian woman quickly sipped up her drink, before hiding her face away from Angela, clearly embarrassed.
It seemed she had made more than just a friend that day, someone Brigitte and Emily would be dying to meet.
xXx
Author's note: Another idea from Tumblr! This one was quite funny to do, I actually did it last night hehe. Hope you like it!