The shop had only been open for two minutes when Clara heard the first jingle of the door. She sighed and looked up. The costumer was an odd looking guy who was dressed as if he should be speaking at a boring lecture. She watched as he set up a workstation in the back of the store. 'That's strange,' she thought 'we've only just opened. People don't start with the laptops until at least 11 o'clock.'
He stumbled over to the cash register and said "Hey. Give me my usual."
"Excuse me, sir, but I've never seen you around here before," Clara said. She was almost offended by how blunt he was.
"This is my regular spot. How could you not…" He trailed off and looked around. "Oh! My mistake! I usually go to the one up the street." He looked down at his feet sheepishly.
"Oh, it's no problem. What would you like today?" She was glad the counter was between them.
"A coffee with a pump of vanilla and a blueberry scone, please." He said wiping sleep from his eyes.
"All right, name please."
"The Doctor."
"I'm sorry, what?" She blinked in confusion.
"You asked my name. It's The Doctor." He smiled.
"Okay, Doctor." She started to make his drink. "Rough night?" She asked as he sat down.
"A bit." He put his head in hands.
She examined him. He had on a tweed jacket with, of all things, a bowtie around his neck. He had a floppy mop of hair that could use some brushing. She wondered what his story was.
"Doctor!" She called the name, even though he was the only person in the store. He slowly got up and carefully took his purchases from her. He retreated to his corner and became engrossed in the world he had set up for himself.
'That was an interesting start to my day' she thought. She was happy she had met him. She loved meeting interesting people and she could just tell he was going to be interesting.
The costumers started coming in for the morning rush and a few more of Clara's co-workers arrived for their shifts around 8:00. Clara shifted her eyes to the corner and saw that the Doctor, or whatever he called himself was still working. Clara went over to him once she felt the worst of the rush was over.
"Hey," she said. He provided no answer when she realized that he was listening to something and couldn't hear her. She tapped his shoulder and he jumped. The man looked up at her and took out his headphones. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "That was some great coffee this morning, thanks!"
"What were you listening to?" She asked.
"Oh, um, just some music." He exited out of whatever he was doing on his laptop.
"Cool. So like what kind of music?" She sat down in the seat next to his.
"Just a band that I liked when I visited London last month." He turned to face her.
"A British band then? I hope it's not One Direction, because I didn't take you for that kind of guy." She smiled at him.
"They're called Bastille." He said meeting her eyes for the first time.
"Huh, I'm pretty into music and I've never heard of them." She was surprised. A band she had never heard of? Clara had met her musical match.
"Yeah, their album hasn't released in America yet, but they're really good. Would you like to listen?"
"Absolutely! I adore new bands." She took one of his ear buds. They listened to one song and started another when Clara's supervisor came to yell at her.
"Hey! Get back to your shift and stop bothering this man!" He then addressed the Doctor. "I'm so sorry sir, I hope she wasn't distracting you from anything too important."
"No," he said. "Quite the opposite. She was helping me with some of my work, thank you, miss." He smiled and Clara noticed that his cheekbones were even more prominent when he actually lifted the corners of his mouth. "I didn't catch your name!" he exclaimed as she was walking away.
She turned and put a hand on her hip. "Clara," she said simply. He blinked at her, said, "Right, um better get back to work. The pair of us." And flipped open his computer yet again. She walked back to the counter, trailing her boss and dreading the rest of the day to come.
The rest of the day came and went with no stunning events to report. All of her co-workers had gone and no one had come through the door for 15 minutes, yet the Doctor was still in his secluded little corner. She glanced at her watch. 9:00. Closing time. She decided to wait to close until he left so maybe they could talk more. Just then, he closed and stared to pack up his laptop, pulled on his coat and started to head out the door. He had one foot out of the shop when Clara shouted at him, "Hey! I never got your name either! And don't give me that 'Doctor' crap because I know that's not true." He turned around and smirked a bit, "My name's Alex." and with that he ran out into the rain.