They stood just staring at each other for a few minutes before either one of them had the presence of mind to say something. Daniel broke the silence first.
"So how have you been?"
Juliette felt like saying I'm working at Wal-Mart at three o'clock in the morning, how do you think I'm doing, but she kept it to "Good, you?"
They just stood there in silence, neither one knowing what to say, so Juliette continued ringing up the items. After she was finished, Daniel pulled out his money, and having finally got his thoughts together tried to restart the conversation by asking,
"So how long have you lived here and what have you been doing in Colorado Springs?"
Juliette looked at him and thought, boy if you only knew. Instead she said, "About ten years. As for why I'm living here it's a long story, what about you?"
Daniel laughed, "Same thing for me. Weird, huh!" He took a deep breath. "Would you want to meet me later this week for coffee or something. Wait, you don't like coffee, or at least you didn't" he paused for a second, she nodded her confirmation and he continued, "So make that hot chocolate. "OK?"
She thought about that for a second then figured he had to find out sooner or later and sooner was better. "Sure, how about on the 23rd at Anna's Café?"
"That's great! How about we meet at 9:00? Hopefully the morning rush will have died down."
"Sounds good to me," replied Juliette.