A/N: Short update but the next one should be longer and ready to go by tomorrow. Happy reading! :)

I woke up five minutes before my alarm the next morning. I could already hear Mia moving around in the next room as she got ready for work. I laid in bed, waiting for the alarm to actually go off. Unlike me, Mia had no problem getting up and going most mornings. Also unlike me, Mia had a successful and interesting career. That she had also studied and worked hard for. Also unlike me who had never even attempted college. My alarm suddenly began ringing shrilly, abruptly ending my personal pity party.

It was my day off. However, I'd been attempting to be more of a productive human by forcing myself to get up anyways. Otherwise, I'd lie in bed all day and watch Netflix or prowl youtube and never get anything done.

I didn't just work in the coffee shop, though. I was also trying to write a book. This had been increasingly hard, though, considering my laptop was still trapped inside of Shawn's apartment. I refused to go and get it.

Actually, I refused to speak to him in general or partake in anything that had anything to do with him.

So instead, I'd bought a crappy, cheat little laptop that broke down on me approximately once a month. I'd taken it to the computer doctor at the beginning of the week and was looking forward to picking it back up. I'd been trying to write in a notebook and it just wasn't working. Hand cramps. Smeared ink. No thanks.

I dragged myself into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. Mia was just shrugging on her jacket.

"Morning!" She grinned at me. I made a face at her. Mia was a morning person. I was not. "Come on, it's gonna be a good day! You get your laptop, you get a day off…you met Tom Hiddleston yesterday."

I rolled my eyes. "Still don't know who he is."

"Who cares? You have eyeballs, right? He's gorgeous." She countered.

I shrugged, mainly to annoy her. Of course he was gorgeous. However, I preferred to deny Mia the satisfaction of showing any sort of interest in any male specimen. No matter who he was. "He's okay."

She pursed her lips. "You're a horrible liar, you know."

I shrugged again before taking a sip of my hot coffee.

"Well, hey, here's some good news for you." She ignored me and I smirked a little. "Landon had to leave early for that shoot."

I knitted my eyebrows together, leaning back against the counter. "And why is your boyfriend being out of town good news for me? Oh, wait…is it because I no longer have to watch you be all gross and cute together?"

Mia perked an eyebrow. "I'm immune to your sarcasm. So no, that's not why. He's out of town so he can no longer be my date to that charity gala next weekend." She paused, looking at me expectantly.

It took me a few seconds to get what she was trying to say. "Oh no…no way! Last time it was a total disaster."

"Oh come on! It was fun!" She insisted.

"I spilled wine all over that Vampire Diaries girl." I groaned, the traumatizing memory resurfacing from where I'd tried to bury it. "And she was pissed."

Mia wrinkled her nose. "Well, yeah. She was pissed. But I mean, other than that it was fun."

I gave her a glare. "We have very different ideas of fun. You fit in…you do their hair and make-up and know all their secrets. You're like a chameleon. And I'm your awkward…chimpanzee friend who just is an embarrassment."

"Chimpanzee?" She snorted.

I nodded. "And that's me being nice to myself."

Mia was shaking her head as she picked up her purse from the island counter and shouldered it. "You need to take a good long look in the mirror, my friend. I'm running behind, but we'll talk tonight. You're going. You need to get out, Stells…" She trailed off, and the conversation instantaneously took on a more serious tone. "Look, I know it sucks. But living like a hermit isn't doing you any favors. I miss the real you."

I sighed, staring into my coffee cup. "Yeah, I know."

She squeezed my arm as she walked past towards the door. "They're both assholes. You're a thousand times better."

I knew she meant Shawn and Catherine. I didn't know if she was right, but I loved her for saying it anyways. "It's too early for this sap. Get outta here." I forced a grin at her.

She rolled her eyes. "The gala. You're going." She didn't give me a chance to respond before slamming the door shut behind her.

"Am not!" I shouted to the closed door. It was silent on the other side, though. "Am not." I muttered again despite the fact that I knew I would. Or more likely, Mia wouldn't give me a choice. Deep down, I was a little grateful for that.

#

Right before I was due to leave to pick up my laptop, the phone rang. Ironically, it was the laptop people calling to inform me that my device was a little shittier than expected, therefore wouldn't be ready until the following day. Perfect. I'd hung up the phone feeling a little deflated.

I sat down at the kitchen table and pulled my notebook towards me, flipping it open to the last page I'd been working on. I skimmed through it and made a face. I still couldn't figure out a logical way to get the main character and her love interest together. Everything I tried seemed to too cliche. Too overused, or possibly too far-fetched to even be believable. On this page, I'd sketched out ideas of them meeting at the super-market. Their carts would accidentally bump and they'd laugh it off before discussing…what? The nutritional value of eggplant? I drew a huge 'X' over the page. Boring. Besides, grocery stores weren't cute or romantic.

An idea suddenly popped into my head and I flipped to a blank page. In the empty margin, I wrote two words accompanied by a question mark: coffee shop?

I tilted my head slightly to one side as I studied the words. Not a bad idea. Coffee shops could be cute. And possibly romantic. I'd seen plenty of couples cozying it up in Common Grounds. And I'd seen plenty of strangers strike up conversation in line. Once a girl I worked with even wrote her number on a cup for a customer. Of course I had a rule against giving my number out to complete strangers, but apparently that wasn't the case for all of humanity.

I thought about what Mia had said the night before, about how I should've given Tom the actor my phone number. I imagined myself writing it on the cup and handing it to him…only for him to immediately frown at me and throw the cup in the trash before walking out. Whether or not that was a realistic scenario, I had no clue. However, it was still a possibility. Hence why I never gave my number out and why never in a thousand, million years would I try and think a celebrity would willingly take my number.

Still, that didn't mean my main character couldn't give hers out in a coffee shop.

I opened Spotify on my phone and scrolled through my dozens of playlists. Mia made fun of me because I had a playlist for every occasion (including cleaning the bathroom and doing the laundry). I found writing playlist #4 and hit shuffle. As the music started playing, I set my pen to paper and got to work orchestrating a meeting between a girl and a boy in a coffee shop.