Nazzarie Café
Marie rhythmically tapped her short, red nails on her cooling cup of coffee, glancing every so often at the cute barista flustering over the coffee machine. Marie was a frequent customer at the small coffee shop, Cul-de-sac Café. The café was a surprisingly popular hangout, much to Marie's annoyance, because it was considered 'hip' due to its very small and poorly state. Because of the many customers in Cul-de-sac Café, the barista/owner/server/cutie never had a moments' rest even though she had a few employees. Marie hadn't even had the chance to ask the barista's name, let alone her number. So day in, day out, Marie ended up back in her window seat in the homely coffee shop with slightly-too-sweet coffee resting in her hands. Marie honestly wasn't very positive what she was doing there. The coffee was best described as decent and despite the nice atmosphere, it was often packed full of young people. Thinking about it, Marie supposed she was only clinging onto the hope that the barista would have time for a chat or maybe – if Marie got lucky – a date.
Marie spared another hopefully casual glance at the barista before getting up and chucking her coffee in the trash and heading to the door. The barista noticed Marie making her way out and smiled a farewell before continuing on with someone's order. Marie felt her heart skip a beat and felt a little silly that the owner of such a busy coffee shop would recognize her. Perhaps her frequent visits were a bit excessive. Surely anyone would understand why she visited so often though, because one look at the barista could make anyone melt. The barista had short, honey blonde hair cut in a bob hairstyle that framed her face very nicely. She usually wore light makeup and her clothes weren't very stylish (they usually had coffee stains on them – the dangers of owning a cafe) but her beauty was all in her smile. Her face lit up, her cheeks dimpled and her blue eyes crinkled at the corners. Even just imagining the barista's smile, Marie felt her own lips tug into a grin. Marie had her suspicions that she was not the only one hopelessly attracted to the barista. She wondered if part of the store's success depended on the owner's winning smile. Realizing that Marie had been standing at the crosswalk outside the Cul-de-sac Café for far too long, she lowered her head and hurried across the street where she readied herself for another long day of job-hunting.
Marie sighed happily as she entered the Cul-de-sac Café, over a week after her last visit. She had been too busy looking for a job and avoiding her landlord to visit the small café. Throwing off her hoodie and resting it on her usual chair, she eagerly stepped in line for a hot chocolate. It had been getting notably colder the last few days and she was more excited for the drink to warm up her hands than she was to actually drink it. As she got up to the front of the line and stepped up to greet the barista with a smile, she was suddenly shoved forward so she was almost bent over the counter. Straightening up and turning around, Marie saw the person who shoved her was an employee that the blonde coffee shop owner had hired a while back. He had been rushing for the door and in his hurry hadn't noticed Marie in his way. Marie opened her mouth to yell at him but decided against it at the last moment, not wanting to make a scene in the middle of her crush's shop. Instead she dug her painted nails into the palms of her hands and narrowed her eyes at the man. The employee took no notice of Marie however because his full attention was on the barista.
"That's it!" He shouted, "I've had it up to here with your constant nagging! All I asked for was a raise!"
The store went quiet and all eyes turned to the barista who's face had started growing red. She scowled and put one hand on her hip, saying "I've already told you; I can't afford to pay you any more."Here she gestured to the people sitting down. "So not cool, dude, you're bothering the customers."
The man laughed and spat out, "Whatever, they're not my customers anymore. I quit!" Throwing off his apron and giving it a kick on his way out of the café, he slammed the door behind him.
The café's noise level rose back up to normal a few moments after the ex-employee's departure. Marie turned back to look at the barista who was massaging the space between her eyes and frowning. Bending down, Marie picked up the now dirtied apron and handed it to the barista who smiled gratefully.
"What would you like? The usual?" The barista asked, referencing to Marie's slight coffee addiction.
"Hot chocolate, this time." Marie responded, taking her wallet and counting the change to pay for the warm drink.
Handing the money to the employee now handling the cash register while the owner worked the coffee machine, Marie moved to the side of the counter to wait for her drink. She watched the barista's endearing concentration as she pushed buttons and smiled slightly at the cuteness of it all. As the barista moved to make someone else's order, Marie picked at the chipped paint on her nails.
"Here you go, sorry for the wait." Marie startled out of her daydream and reached for her hot chocolate. Her fingers brushed against the cute barista's and she felt her ears go hot. Turing around, she sat down at her table and people watched, doodling them down quickly. When she finished her sketch of the man with a scarf and weird black hat, her eyes drifted back to the barista. Her pencil flew across the page ad she grew accustomed to the barista's kind face slowly, sketching out her facial features and doodling her expressions. Once she had filled nearly three pages' worth of barista-themed drawings, she realized the sky had been steadily growing dark and that the amount of people in the café was getting gradually smaller.
Marie stood up and stretched, a bit sore from staying in the same position for a long time and began gathering up her things to leave. Throwing on her jacket, she stopped her walk to the door and glanced back at the blonde-haired barista. She faced forward, taking a deep breath, relishing in her accelerated heartbeat and flopping stomach and headed toward the barista, hoping to god that she looked casual and cool while doing so.
Marie finally reached the counter of the coffee shop and waited impatiently for the barista to look up from where she was picking at her cuticles. Realizing Marie wouldn't get the barista's attention from just standing there, she cleared her throat, grabbing the blonde's attention.
"Hey," Marie croaked, not having used her voice in a few hours she cleared her throat once more, "What time do you close shop?"
"Oh, well," the barista tucked a strand of her honey blonde hair behind her ear, "I close up pretty late, I need to clean the shop after closing too..."
Marie looked down, wondering if that was a rejection (she had never been good at picking up these signs from people) until the barista started writing something down on a spare notepad paper.
"Here's my number, I'd love to go out with you sometime," the barista said with a smile before adding, "My name's Nazz, by the way."
"I'm Marie," Marie giddily took the paper from Nazz and pocketed it ,trying to not look like an idiot with the huge shit-eating grin on her face as she walked through the café door.
Later, while Marie turned on the shower to let it heat up, she smirked to herself as she sunk to the floor in her towel going through her drawings from earlier that day. She reached for a spare pencil (among the many all over the floors and surfaces in her apartment) and wrote 'Nazz' at the top of one of the sketchbook pages. Staring at the name, Marie drew a tiny heart underneath the word in question and despite feeling like a child for drawing that, she left the pencilled in heart in favour of a hot, welcoming shower.