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"HAPPY birthday!" Maia cheered while resting her cell on her shoulder. "I'll see you later, okay?"
With a flick of her hand, she ended the call with her best friend, Caroline, and walked in the direction of her favorite coffee shop. Today was already a good day, for it had started off with seeing her favorite children at the kindergarten she worked and now she was going to have a simple coffee date during her lunch hour with Derek, also known as the man she would be marrying in the upcoming months.
The day had been slow. She saw her usual kids, gave them a snack, read them a story, and then lunch. At this time, it was her free period, and as much as Maia loved to work with the children, she was happy to be out of the stressful environment. Nonetheless, her day was going better than normal. Things were great; things were grand. She really had nothing to worry about.
Maia opened the shop's door, smelling the familiar aroma of coffee beans and chai tea. After ordering her usual – a medium black coffee with an spoon of sugar – Maia stood by the pick-up station, and before she could reach for her cup, a pair of hands folded around her eyes.
"Guess who?"
Maia chuckled. "Well, let's see: large hands, chubby fingers, the smell of Justin Timberlake's cologne ... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it's Derek."
Derek's expression went dark for a moment. Had she complimented or insulted him? Was he angry that she said he had big hands? Derek slowly let the comment slide, in fear he'd look confused in front of Maia.
"The cologne is a tad bit overwhelming," she mused. Maia grabbed her cup when her name was called and turned to her fiancé, who stood before her with a sly grin. "You're not funny," she sneered as Derek reached for his own coffee, which he must have ordered while she wasn't looking.
"I happen to think I'm hilarious," he smirked, leading her over to their favorite table, right by the huge window on the right of the shop. "So, I must give you the recap of Game of Thrones from last night."
Maia rolled her eyes at Derek's obsession. Each week, he told her what happened on his favorite HBO show, and although at one point she was curious about it, she saw no point in watching it anymore when Derek told her the details of every episode. She would watch it with him from time to time, and could retain some scenes of it in her mind, but fantasy drama wasn't he thing. She did, however, have a great memory, and was interested whenever Derek like to talk about. Maia retained all his information, coming right from his exhilarated words.
She barely got a word in during his whole ramble, because he was too busy repenting his awe at all of the characters. When he finally finished his recap, she realized he used up all the time they had. "Wow, that Dany chick seems like a boss," she laughed while throwing away her empty cup. "I'd love to stay, but I have to get back to work."
