Spare time in Autumn was frequently available. A mix between preplanned Uni study sessions and empty time slots between sleep and meals made Lila Rossi free to do whatever she wanted.
She enjoyed many activities to pass the time. Like taking long, calming walks underneath the trees that shed their foliage. Feeling the crunch of broken twigs and rustling of fallen leaves under her shoes set her at ease from the problems of the world outside her mind. It was a white noise that she could always relate to, depend upon. Birds chirping, the distant rumble of cars far away from the parklands. Empty from the civilisation that overthrew nature.
Whenever she took these long Autumn walks, she never wanted the journey to end, and yet it always must. Admittingly, walking in circles could grant the wish of an endless escape from the world. But even beauty needs to be limited for special occasions. Stopping to smell the roses and pausing to take in the majesty of life meant you always had to continue your journey to find the next opportunity for life's small considerations.
These walks; while they were long - they always felt short.
The City's parkland could only reach so far before it melded back into buildings and roads, stripping immersion from the environment.
However, frequently at the end of the walks, there would always be that fifteen or so minutes Lila had spare. An empty gap that she couldn't seem to fill for the first few weeks.
Except on one afternoon, while she was waiting for her study session to slowly creep up on her, she noticed a small shop just on the corner of the public park. Right on the edge where civilization crossed into the boundaries of nature. From afar, it looked to sell coffee, maybe some pastries, an odd breakfast meal here and there. But the colour scheme of the awnings and the window tints seemed to match with the surrounding palette of Autumn, merging the two worlds together in some sort of strange hybrid.
The moment she saw the shop, she could instantly tell she was drawn toward it. It had this feeling she couldn't rightly put down.
Taking a small detour from the usual path, she cut through the treeline and approached the front door of the building.
Inside was quite like the outside of the cafe; a few chairs and tables, a shop counter, retro orange sporting all the decorations. It had a high ceiling with large lamplights suspended by their cords. Lila peered around the room, eyes jumping from each unusual feature that drew her attention. No customers sat at any of the tables, nor anywhere, for there weren't any customers. The area with empty tables and seats to the left was carpeted, yet the front counter area had a wide strip of orange-wood linoleum right in front of it, probably for accidental spills. And on the far right wall was a pinball machine, which felt really out of place.
"May I help you?" a voice spoke from behind the counter. Lila snapped her attention away from the decorations and locked onto the man standing at the register in a dark orange apron.
The shock of his sudden appearance caught her off guard. He seemed to just meld into the background like he was part of the little cafe's decorations. He had long reddish-brown-dark-orange hair that was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and a set of glasses perched on his nose that looked like a pair of aviators with the sun lenses poked out. His bluebell eyes blinking at her caused Lila to stammer a little bit.
"Yes, yes, could I have..." she paused with her mouth hanging open, still recovering from the unexpected shock. He blinked patiently a few more times, which didn't help her situation in the slightest.
"A... coffee?" he finished her sentence.
Lila awkwardly smiled and gave him a set of finger guns as if to agree with him. "Yeeep, that's what I'm here for."
He nodded with a smile and turned around to start making the coffee. Embarrassment slowly crept up on Lila's cheeks. Finger guns? Seriously? She mentally smacked herself for doing something so childish.
"What do you fancy?" he asked her while his back was turned.
"Pardon?" Lila asked as she took a few steps towards the front counter.
He held up a to-go cup and shook it a little, his back still turned. "The Coffee; Brew, Cream, Sugars?"
"Oh, umm," Lila stopped and thought about it a little, "Just, just make it however. I'm really not in a hurry."
With that answer, he nodded and set to work. Lila pulled up the closest chair and dropped her bag beside her. While she waited for the coffee to be finished she looked around once more. Everything in this cafe seemed old, yet aesthetic. And for some reason, her eyes always caught on that one pinball machine by the wall.
The odd placement of this game perturbed her. Just a random pinball machine in an old looking cafe. Well, curiosity got the better of her, and before she knew it, she was already standing in front of it.
It seemed old, kinda like the cafe, but it had that slight techno feel to it that made the whole machine really stick out like a sore thumb. She looked down at the controls and noticed the buttons were a little worn... Obviously been played quite a bit.
Looking up at the high score on the backboard, she then noticed one name dominated all three available spaces... 'KUBDEL'
"Huh," Lila remarked. There was no way she was leaving this cafe with those records relentlessly mocking her...
Lila was already pulling a coin purse out of her jeans and loading a euro into the money slot - when the man behind the counter turned around with her coffee.
Lila's hands came down on the machine. Her left fingers resting where the paddle buttons were and her right hand on the plunger. She took a deep breath and steadied her gaze on the small white ball in the loading bay.
As if she fired a shotgun, the spring was pulled back and released at full speed. As the ball sped away from the bottom of the game, Lila's eyes followed it like a hawk. Her fingers remained still on the buttons, only moving the paddles when the ball needed to be hit, granted she was practically smacking the machine every time pushed the buttons. But regardless of her violent technique on the outside of the machine, it was plain to see she was racking up the points.
10,000 points - 15,000 points - 25,000 points - 55,000 Points!
"Left Paddle quickly!"
Lila smacked the left paddle.
"Now right! Spam it!"
Lila repeatedly smacked the right paddle as fast as she could.
It was only then she noticed the tall figure hovering to her left. Lila whipped her head around and looked at the man standing - no - practically invading the personal space needed for a game of pinball as he excitedly called out advice. He had one hand rested on the machine and the other one gripping her coffee. Her eyes grew wider as he suddenly tore his attention away from the machine and looked at her dead in the eyes.
"Don't stop now! You've nearly got second place beat! Keep going!" he almost shouted.
Lila felt time slow. She could see that passion in his eyes, the competition of the game that hid behind that tiny glint of light reflecting from the pinballs bright colours.
Without thinking for the third time today, she snapped her attention back to the game and just barely saved the ball from being flushed down the final hole.
"Yes! Go, go, go!" He did shout. "Faster!"
Both of them stood hunched over the machine, Lila furiously smacking the buttons while the points slowly climbed and climbed.
"Haaa, Haaa, Haaa," Lila panted as she drew the sweat off her brow. "Well, would you look at that... twenty-three hundred points from first place."
"You did amazingly!" he cried.
"Heh, thanks..." Lila rolled her neck and groaned at the cracks. "So, how do I put in my name?"
"Left button for changing the letter, right for confirmation!" He excitedly cheered.
Lila chuckled at his enthusiasm. "You seem a little happy I broke two of your highest scores."
"Oh, so you knew those were mine?" he raised a brow.
"Not until you started cheering me on," Lila said, smiling as she began tapping away at the left button. "Plus, I don't really see an access door for behind that countertop."
"Hahahaha!" he laughed aloud. "Yeah, I may have been a little bit too excited and vaulted the counter with your coffee in hand." He paused and had a sudden epiphany. "Oh! Your coffee!"
He stuck his hand out and produced the to-go cup. However, both of them could tell from the severe lack of any warmth from the cup that the beverage was now undrinkable.
"Woah, just how long was I playing?" Lila asked as she experimented a sip from the lid, which tasted disgusting lukewarm.
"I think around twenty to thirty minutes."
"Santo Cielo! I'm late for a study session!" she turned to grab her bag and ran for the door, leaving him with the to-go cup in his hand.
"Wait!" he called out to her. "You didn't put your name in the Machine!"
"My name's Lila," she called back as she opened the door. She paused before she ran outside. "Gotta ask, what's yours?"
"Jalil, Jalil Kubdel!" he called back, even though she was still in the shop.
"Well, Jalil Kubdel, you owe me a proper coffee next time," she barked while pointing a finger at him. "And bet your burro I will be back to beat that high score of yours."
His eyes lit up. "Its a date then!"
Lila took a moment for before smiling a cheeky grin. "Yep. See you then."