"So, what, you just walked from there?" Isabelle called. I was in the back room while she worked the till. I almost wanted to laugh at her. Some high school girls thrived on drama and my sister was without a doubt one of them. She would have to settle for the half-told, edited version of the story, though. She didn't need to know the specifics about my conversation. "You're way too dramatic about the breakup, Alec."

I smiled. Let her think I was overreacting. As long as she didn't go asking me why just yet.

I slid a tray of cookies into the oven. Everything at Java Jones was fresh, none of the packet stuff. I'd gotten a couple crash courses in organic baking from one of the other staff in my first week so I could keep up with restocking but Isabelle was banned from the kitchen. Mainly because she couldn't enter one without producing some kind of abomination. Her brownies were little chocolate crimes against humanity.

"He just kept going on and on, Iz. Anna this, Anna that." I wiped my hands down on the much-hated waist apron which was part of the uniform before I went to join her on the storefront.

She was serving some tall guy with a scarred face. He took two mugs back to a grinning girl with braids who was sat waiting for him in one of the booths. I recognised her from school. Maia Roberts; she took Lit just so that she could stare at Mr Greymark. Not that there was any problem with staring at Mr Greymark…

I shook that thought out of my head and turned back to my sister.

"She is his girlfriend now." Izzy pointed out. Her voice sounded indifferent, sure, but her fingers tugged on end of her long plait uncertainly. She'd had that nervous gesture ever since we were kids. It told me that she wasn't half as comfortable with the situation as she pretended to be.

"And Mother was his wife." I said with finality. Izzy pouted.

My sister had been unfortunate enough to come home before Robert was completely gone. She didn't hear them fighting but she came walking around the corner while her Father was throwing his things into the boot of the car. I could remember her grabbing his arm and asking all the questions I was too shocked to ask at the time.

'What's going on?'

'Where are you going?'

'Why is Mother crying?'

He didn't give her any answers. He had just gotten into the car and sped off, leaving his daughter stood alone in the driveway. Then she looked at me, with her confused black eyes wet with tears. It nearly killed me to see her that way.

"Why don't you go play waiter?" Isabelle said, bringing me back to reality. I glanced around. There were a lot of people at the tables but there was no line for the till. They were probably all hoping the rain would stop before they had to go outside again. I didn't blame them but they really had to order something if they planned to spend so long sitting around.

I sighed and grabbed a notepad and pen from behind the counter. I hated talking to random people but my little sister always staked her claim on the till so that she didn't have to walk around very much. That left me doing most of the work.

"And you should start with that guy over there." Isabelle nodded towards one of the other booths where a man sat alone. He was reading what looked like one of the fashion magazines she always had on her. "He's been checking you out since you got in."

Typical. She was always trying to set me up with random guys. I jabbed her in the side with the pen and scoffed. I love her dearly but she's always been a terrible busybody. Ever since I told her I was gay she'd been trying to arrange dates with everybody and anybody who so much glanced my way.

"Lots of people looked when I came in, Iz. I was dripping puddles onto the floor."

After my walk in the rain I had been soaked to the bone and glad to get into uniform when I arrived. Izzy had huffed and puffed about having to mop up the floor while I was changing so I didn't have much time to towel my hair off. It was only damp by now, most likely curling up all over the place. If anybody was looking at me it was because I looked awful.

I took a look over to the booth anyway. The guy she was talking about was actually stunning. He would have looked better if it weren't for the rainbow stripes and glitter in his black hair. I never much liked that whole 'out and proud' scene. Straight people don't go around with '2QT2BGAY' plastered on their apparel. I didn't need to advertise.

That wasn't all that put me off, either, attractive as he was...

"He must years on me." I said. Apparently Izzy had overlooked that pretty vital bit of information.

"So what? I bet he knows what he's doing." She smirked. Okay so she hadn't overlooked it. She was just ignoring it. Like I was ignoring her. Nobody wants to hear their baby sister talking like that. "You should ask him out."

"Or I could, you know, not?" I said, throwing in an eye roll for good measure. Izzy often had these not-so-masterful master-plans. She gave me a stern look, which was actually more funny than threatening.

"If you don't, I'm asking him for you." She said.

The actual threat was just horrifying enough to get me walking. Isabelle could not be trusted with that sort of thing. You never knew what she would say or do besides that it wouldn't be good. She grinned triumphantly as I headed towards the guy's booth. I was so going to get her. Maybe put green dye in her shampoo.

As I walked I felt like I was going to trip over myself any moment. Being myself something was bound to go horribly wrong. It was stupid to be nervous, I knew. I was just going to ask if he needed a refill and move on to the next customer. Nothing more. If I made a little small talk I could go back and tell Izzy he wasn't interested without her knowing I didn't ask. Fool proof, right? Wrong.

Eventually I was stood next to him. His hand glinted when he slipped it into his pocket, when it emerged again I noticed that he wore glittered nail polish. Somebody liked sparkles.

"Hey there, can I get you anything?" I said in my happy 'work voice' with a nod towards his nearly-empty coffee. He smiled at me. He had a great smile. His yellow-green eyes were bright and... I looked down at the notepad.

"That, blue eyes, is an awful pickup line." He said with some amusement. When I snapped back to looking at him I must have seemed like a deer caught in headlights. It made him laugh. How embarrassing.

"It wasn't a-"

"I was expecting something like: 'Sorry, it's just you look a lot like my next boyfriend'." He smirked when he interrupted my defence. Well… That was the last thing I expected.

I took a panicked glance over to my sister who was observing without a trace of worry.

"I'm just going to go." I excused myself, feeling nothing short of mortified. Sod customer service. The customer was being unreasonable. How was I meant to string a coherent sentence together with him talking like that? With him talking at all. He had this smooth voice with a thick accent. Not the annoying kind which keeps you from understanding somebody; the kind you want to listen to forever.

Before I could leave his fingers wrapped around my upper arm. He was firm about it when he turned me back around, but not forceful. Even so if it had been somebody else I might have just hit them off.

"Hey now, don't just run off." He purred. "You came here with something to say, didn't you?"

It took me a second or two to recover and try to defend myself again. It was an awful attempt. "What? No. I'm just making the rounds."

"Your sister isn't very quiet." He said. Didn't I know it? "Should I go ask her for your number?"

I blinked at him. There was no way the words I had heard were the ones he'd said. He shook his head when I didn't say anything and grabbed a napkin from the holder on his table.

"You need to relax." He told me, then plucked the pen right from my hand and proceeded to jot down some numbers. His number. Underneath he wrote his name in a jagged sort of cursive: Magnus Bane. Xx.

"I'm Alec." It sounded so stupid saying it out loud like that when 'Magnus' didn't actually introduce himself. He touched his fingers to my chest and I think I felt my heart stop. Mostly in alarm. Then I realised he was only touching my nametag.

"Not 'Alexander'?" He asked with a slight frown. I shook my head, glad that the conversation had taken a more normal turn.

"My sister got it printed that way." I scowled. Izzy had found it really funny at the time. "Only my Mother calls me that."

Magnus laughed again and handed me the pen and napkin. "Well, 'Alec', make sure you text me."

I heard Isabelle squealing when he dropped me a wink. How in the hell are you supposed to react to that? Nothing clever sprang to mind.

And nothing average sprang to mind.

Nothing at all sprang to mind.

Then he was up from his seat and heading for the exit. All I could say was "Bye."

I've never had much of a way with words. There was no time to dwell on it though; Maia was flagging me over to her table.

A big thank you for reading. I promised myself I'd leave more time between posting but this was already written so why not? Next up: 'The Little Things'