Crocs and Cafes

Chapter 1

Teal fingernails wrapped against the white plastic lid of a lukewarm coffee cup in a mindless pattern. The cafe was relatively busy, despite being noon, and the owner of the colorful manicure sighed once again.

Bringing the drink to her lips, she took a sip from the cup and touched her phone to check the time. 12:14 p.m. The person she was supposed to meet was late. As if to remind her the reason for being there in the first place, the sad paper bag sitting on the ground brushed against her restless foot.

Ashido grimaced herself and tore her gaze away from the otherwise innocent bag, turning her attention outside the window she sat beside. Willing on the oncoming headache away was proving to be fruitless and she could only hope the ibuprofen she popped earlier would kick in shortly.

Her mind wandered to the night she got herself into this mess. Her memory of it was still foggy at best, and she had no idea what exactly happened after her friends pulled out the jaeger in celebration of her promotion. All she knew was the next day, she had a bunch of emails that she didn't check until it was too late, and one by one the packages began to arrive at her door step. Apparently her drunk ass had gone on a shopping binge, no doubt egged on by her equally toasted friends, and bought random item after another. So far she received two toasters, a gaudy fur coat that she couldn't even wear due to the summer heat, and an awful second hand sweater.

But worst of all showed up that morning.

A pair of worn-in, black, steel-toed crocs.

It was the last straw in her reckless spending, and after seeing she had spent $150 on the atrocious item, promptly messaged the seller on ebay to ask for a possible exception to the no return policy.

As luck would have it, the seller was in town and agreed to meet up with her to discuss the purchase. Hopefully they'd hear her sympathetic story and cut her some slack.

The entrance door bells clanking noisily against the glass drew her attention. She watched curiously as a young man attempted to push the door inward and looked absolutely perplexed when it didn't budge. The bells chimed a bit more as he rattled the handle for good measure, then stepped back to check if the cafe was even open. Ashido smirked when another patron exited, swinging the door outwards in their wake. The young man looked like he was internally berating himself as he entered afterwards.

She took the chance to glance at her phone for the time, catching it just before she received a new text message from an unnamed number that read, "I'm here!". Looking around for someone she only just realized she had no way to identify, her eyes eventually landed on the same guy who had a mishap with the door. He was obviously frantically searching the room, looking as if he had just run a few blocks.

Their eyes met at the same time, and somehow she seemed to come to the immediate conclusion that it was him; it was the seller, and the previous owner of the horrendous pair of 'shoes'.

The young man seemed to realize as well, because he broke into a giant, sharp grin that radiated his friendliness and made his way up to her table, waving.

"Hi!" he greeted when he stood before her. "Did you by chance happen to buy some shoes off ebay?"

Ashido smiled. "Is that what you say to all new girls you meet?"

She appreciated his laughter while she took in his appearance; spiky red hair that he somehow worked for him, a tall and built physique and a handsome face that had positivity woven into every feature. She almost refused to believe it was possible that such an attractive person had possessed the terrible foot wear - until she did a once-over of what he wore. A button up shirt with a tiger print, greeted her and she took that as her confirmation.