Chapter 3: Coffee
She decided to never go to La Push again. After the fiasco with Paul, she wasn't going to make the same mistake again. She would just forget it ever happened. But his lips haunted her dreams at night. She woke up in a cold sweat, tossing and turning all night. Her animal tearing at her skin hating her for not going to La Push and being near Paul. What was wrong with her beast? She wasn't sure if they were on good terms anymore.
She needed to get him off her mind and quick or she was going to go insane. It didn't help that Bella constantly asked Daiane to came with her to the reservation after school. She went there every day it seemed. She had overheard Bella talking to Jacob on the phone saying that he wasn't around when she went over to La Push yesterday. Why wouldn't he be around? That was the whole reason Bella went there. Maybe they were going through another rough patch. I swear they acted like they were dating but refused to admit it. She was getting a little tired of their strange relationship, they were a couple but they had friend zoned each other at the same time. She couldn't understand it, Bella was just so clingy.
Well, that wasn't her problem, she was not going to the reservation again. She got up early for her shift at the coffee shop, not like she was sleeping anyways, with Paul haunting her dreams. She walked to work, about two miles, so it was good she got up so early. The morning air felt wonderful on her skin. The walk never bothered her, at least it helped her stay fit, sometimes she would even run all the way to work, in human form of course.
She gets to the little shop in the tiny downtown of Forks. It was quaint with only one main street running through it, small row houses flanked the street with display window in front of each shop. She walks up to the local coffee shop in town, The Morning Grind. It was owned by a kind elderly couple, James and Martha Summers. She didn't think they realized that their shop's name had a double meaning, but she wasn't going to tell them either. Or maybe she had a dirty mind, but people at the shop did asks her about it sometimes. They were getting a bit too old to maintain the shop so Charlie suggested that she work there. She was so grateful to Charlie for believing that she was a good enough person who deserved a second chance.
She could handle the opening of the shop by herself now. She really didn't need help; everything was pretty easy here. She remembers the owners were so impressed that she was strong enough to pick up some of the equipment, in more ways than one, when she first started. She was a fast learner.
As she finishes the opening tasks and turns the sign in the window to open, it never takes long for customers to trickle in. Jon from the post office, an old black man with an air of announce in his every move, when she first started working here. She found out that he wasn't upset it anyone or anything in particle, he just had a bad hip and knee. She used some of her healing power on him a few months ago when she caught him in conversation one morning. She had found out about his ailment and when she took his hand to shake it, she sent her healing power down his arm and into his hip and knee.
She didn't normally do things like that. She would always ask if she could help first. But no one knew that she could help, and she couldn't tell them. But she was a healer at heart and she always felt the need to help those in pain.
The next day he arrived with a huge smile on his face, pain free. Just like today, "Hi Post Master," she says waving to him. "What can I get for you?"
"Oh, you know," Jon answers with a laugh. They talk about their coming days as she makes his coffee, black coffee with two sugars, while more customers enter the shop for their morning cup of joe.
She knew most of the morning regulars by now. Charlie being one of them. He uses to scold her for walking to work in the morning when he could have driven her here. But he eventually came to understand that she enjoyed the morning walks and/or runs; he stopped nagging after the first month.
She was on the tenth order of the morning when the bell over the door rings again. She looks up at her next costumer, only to have her eyes go wide as her eyes lock with chocolate brown ones. Paul's tall frame fulling the doorway of the shop.
What was he doing here? He didn't come to see her? Of course, he wouldn't, why would he, the crazy girl who ran away at his kiss. He probably thought she was the most ridiculous person in the world after their last encounter.
She feels her cheeks go bright red, and hope her skin tone can hind her blush a little. God, she couldn't even go hide in the back, she was the only one working this early.
He walks up to the counter in his black tee shirt and jeans, no jacket even though it's in the 40s outside. Guess the cold doesn't bother him either. She looks up at him with her best retail smile and ask, "What can I get for you?"
He pulls his eyes away from her and looks up at the board behind her with the menu then quickly says, "A Blue Moon Espresso."
She quickly turns around to hind her nervousness, as she works on his drink order. But she can feel his eyes on her. She quickly finishes with him and move on to the next order. Paul looks disappointed but moves to a table in the small sitting area of the shop, and makes camp. As she works on the next few orders, she notices him take out a book and his cell phone as he puts his espresso on the table.
She had asked as she made his order if it was for here or togo, and of course, her bad luck, he said it was for here. So, his espresso was in a little white cup on a saucer. It looks so tiny in his large hand really, like he was going to a little girl's tea party. Paul didn't look like a guy that would ever agree to go to a little girl's tea party. Thinking about him in a big pink boa with a princess crown on his head made her crack up a little.
Her sudden brake in character makes a few people turn their heads in her direction, and she quickly sober and focuses on work after that.
She focuses on work as much as possible, but Paul never moves from his spot in the sitting area. Was he waiting for someone? Didn't he have a job or something to do? After an hour, she went over to the sitting area to see how he was doing. It was expected of her to check on the customers in the sitting area and clean off the tables for the next guest. That was all she was doing as she move over to his table. She didn't want to talk to him.
He was reading his book now; she watches him finger the rim of his cup as he reads. His legs out stretched on the chair across from him. She can't help but notice the strong way his hand grips the book as he reads, seeing the outline of his veins in his forearm. She approaches his table slowly, wiping down tables and chairs as she goes, her eyes always finding his form when she looks up after a task. Why did he draw her eye so much?
As she moves closer and then notices him tense and his eyes stop moving over the page. He noticed her, well, she couldn't keep shirting around him now, he would defiantly notice her intentionally avoiding him.
"Can I get you another one," she asks, pointing to his cup.
She watches him look at his cup, a dissatisfied expression crosses his face. He must not be a big espresso guy but from his eyes this morning she could tell he was tried, maybe he worked nights. Maybe he didn't like the bitterness of that type of drink. Watching his expression closely she decides to help him out a little and say, "How about I make you something else?"
He eyes shoot up to hers, a childlike glee in them. She could get lost in those chocolate brown eyes, but that thought gives her an idea, smiling she holds up one finger telling him to give her a moment and turns back to the bar.
She quickly starts mixing a Mocha-licious, a hybrid between an espresso and a hot chocolate. She put extra whip cream and chocolate shaving on top too. She also put a fresh muffin on a plate and walk out to his table.
As she rounds the counter she sees him, Paul has both feet on the floor now, no longer lounging, and he looks like he is concentrating on something very hard. He looks at his hands, clasped in his lap, mumbling to himself. She stares at him, puzzled from her position by the bar. What could he be thinking so hard about? Did he get some bad news or something in the few minutes she was gone? But as she starts to move towards him, he sits up straighter and tries to look casual, putting his arm over the back of the chair, eyes looking to the front window. But she had caught him, she would show mercy this time and not say anything.
"Here you go," she says, putting down the Mocha-licious and the muffin on his table. "I think you will like this more."
"Thank you," he says. He takes a sip of his drink, as she watches his eyes light up at the sweeter, richer texture of this beverage. His eyes dart to hers again, wonder in his eyes, like she just gave him a million dollars. It was only a fancy coffee, nothing that special. But she can't help laughing as she notices the tiny dab of whip cream on the tip of his nose. Laugher bubbles out of her uncontrollably, she puts her hand over her month to stop the sounds and gain some control. Paul continues to stare at her, but now surprised with a self-assured air in his eyes, unaware of the cream on his nose.
Daiane point to his nose and turns away to hind her uncontrollable giggles, and walking back to the bar to work. The rest of her shift is pretty normal. She notices Paul get up and leaves about 10 minutes before her shift ends, 6 hours sitting in a coffee shop, not something she would have thought was something Paul would be into. Frankly, this place could be a little intense for her at times, being surround by the bitten smell of coffee and cleaning supply did dreadful things to her nose.
Mike and James walk in to relieve her for the afternoon. Mike Newton was a 16 old year kid from the local high school, he was a nice enough kid. He was a little weird at times and maybe a little full of himself but really what 16-year-old wasn't, and she knew he was one of the most popular boys in school so that only added to it.
James was a man in his mid-70's, he may look old with gray hair and wrinkle around his eyes, laugh lines, but he could be a tough son of a gun at times. He was a little too thin, she could smell the cancer, but she didn't say anything about it. She had overheard him talking to his wife once, with her shifter hearing, he didn't want to go through chemo again at his age. He just wanted to enjoy the time he had left with his wife and the people he loved, and he didn't want them to pity him. She would fulfill his wish as much as she could, and one of the ways she would, was to not go around blabbing to anyone about his condition. This was one of those things that she couldn't heal, which saddened her, the world would be lessened without him in it.
She talks to them quickly about the morning rush and turns over the shop to them. Gathering her things, she walks out of the shop, to start her walk back to the Swan house. But as she walks out the doors, she is assaulted by Paul's scent still in the air. The scent of coffee overpowered his scent in the shop before. She didn't notice it before, but she did now and goodness did he smell good. Her animal purrs and paws at her to follow it.
No, she wasn't doing that. She had to talk to him in the shop, it was her job nothing more. Paul was handsome and smelled heavenly but she was not going down that road, she couldn't. If he ever found out what she was he would never be able to accept her, a shifter. Her animal growl at her for that thought, well it's was true she growls right back.
She turns away from the alluring scent and starts walking down main street and then down one of the side roads that would take her to the Swan house. But as she walks down the streets, waving to the people passing her on the street, she soon notices that Paul's scent is following her. What was going on?
She turns quickly into the woods, if he was really following her, she could confront him in here and found out what he wanted. Whatever it was she was going to give his stoker ass a good chewing out. But as she disappears into the woods, his scent disappears as well. Guess he wasn't man enough to confront her, stoker bitch ass.