My abrupt entrance into the coffee house makes an older woman on my right jump almost a foot off the ground. She releases a yelp as she clutches her chest as if she worried that her heart is going to leap right out of it.
"Oh—uh—sorry. Sorry," I cringe slightly as I quickly apologize to the small woman.
She shakes her head at me and turns to continue talking to the other woman beside her, still eyeing me with a cold stare.
Mumbling another apology, I quickly scan the people behind the counter. I don't recognize any of the three people shuffling around behind the counter. I don't know why I do, but I just know that none of them are who I'm looking for. Even though I don't know who I'm looking for. It may just be my head trying to find logic in my imagination but whatever it is I'm going to listen to it. It's gotten me this far, hasn't it?
I quickly rush up to the counter just as a blonde, middle-aged barista turns around. I nervously tap my thumbs on the counter as I wait for her to walk over to me. She raises her thin eyebrow, probably sensing my urgency but seemingly shrugs it off and sends me a warm smile.
"Hi, what can I get for you today—"
"Look, this may sound crazy, actually I know it sounds crazy, but I need to ask you a very important question," I say in one breath.
She raises her eyebrow again and nods slowly.
"Ok..." She responds.
"The flowers, that are there painted on the window out there, who painted them?"
She looks at the windows, where I'm pointing and smiles once more.
"Oh, why that was one of our employees. She painted them on there not too long ago. Lovely aren't they?"
"Yes, they are," I nod quickly. "But my main question is, and I know you're probably not supposed to give out the name of the employee but you see I need to find someone—well I guess you could say I'm following a whim to look for someone and I've been led here and I don't know if this—uh—whim is right or I'm just imagining it but it's very important and I—"
"Oh my god."
"What?" I ask, breathlessly.
The woman's smile drops as she looks me dead in the eyes.
"You're him aren't you?" She asks slowly.
"I—uh—who?"
"You're looking for Daisy. You're him, the boy."
"Daisy! Yes! I'm looking for Daisy! I'm Alec!"
I suddenly start jumping, smiling, laughing, running my hands through my hair and god knows what else, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I don't know what to do with myself. Just hearing her name makes me want to run 50 laps around the town.
"SHHH!"
I turn around to find the older woman and her friend glaring at me.
"You should learn to be more respectful," she hisses.
"And you should learn to be more relaxed—and I'm sorry I don't mean that I'm just very excited right now and I just can't contain it!"
I'm so busy jumping around that I don't notice the barista is still trying talking to me.
"Oh, sorry...What?" I cringe.
"Stay there, I'm coming out. Margot, can you take over for me?"
"Sure, no problem," Margot nods.
I watch as the woman slips out from behind the counter and quickly shuffles over to me. She ushers me into the corner of the coffee house, closer to the window.
"I can't believe you're here," she says, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Daisy. Is—is she here? Or, where is she?" I ask nervously, but I guess also a little excitedly.
"She's here."
My heart starts banging aggressively against my ribs.
"But she's out running errands."
I can't lie and say I'm not at least a little disappointed, because I am. But the feeling only lasts for a second, then it's replaced with determination. A type of determination that I am positive I have never felt before. A determination that will undoubtedly take over my whole body and probably already has.
"When will she be back?" I ask, shifting from foot to foot.
"In about 30 minutes. You can wait in here for her if you want," she shrugs.
30 minutes?! I don't think I can wait even 30 seconds! 30 minutes is literally forever, and not really but I would feel like it in the state I'm in right now!
"Or...you can go out and find her."
My head snaps up.
"Alec you should go. I know you want to. I know she would want you to," the woman smirks as she sends me a wink.
I speechlessly watch as the woman pulls out a pen and pad from her apron and starts scribbling down some numbers and words. Is this happening right now? Is this actually happening?
"Yes it is happening and yes you were thinking out loud." Funny, that sounds like something Daisy would say. "These are the places she's going and their addresses, the order she's going to them in and how long she usually spends in them. Daisy is a routine girl and she almost always sticks to her routine."
"Yeah, I know," I laugh. "Wait, who are you?"
"I'm her aunt Sandra and also her boss. But you can call me Sandy."
"Oooh, ok. That makes sense, you remind me a lot of—"
"Alec, she's on the move on her schedule so there's not a lot of time for chit-chat if you want to find her right now." She folds over the piece of paper once and hands it to me.
"Right, of course," I nod, taking the paper from her hand.
"Now go." Sandy quickly ushers me to the door
Just as I'm about to step out onto the sidewalk I turn to the coffee house once more and smile widely.
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I gotta go see about a girl!"
And with that, I slip out the door and start sprinting down the sidewalk. Once I realize I'm running towards the edge of the town I come to a abrupt halt and start sprinting in the other direction.
"It's the other way!" I yell as I run past the coffee house again. "Eh, it was still a good exit."
Now I have to go see about a girl. Daisy.
YOU ARE READING
The Number On The Napkin
Short Story"Is your refrigerator running?" "No, my refrigerator is not running." "Well you better...wait, what?" "Actually, it broke down a week ago because it knew that you were going to call with that stupid line and it decided it would rather die than liste...
