Hatchetfield and Friends

4 - Sweet Dreams

Emma was extremely groggy as she tried her best to get through her shift at Beanie's. Nora and Zoey were gone off somewhere so it was only her. This has its ups and downs. On one hand, she won't get bothered and yelled at, but on the other, the customers would. Sometimes the customers could be very...out there. And, of course, the morning and four o'clock rushes, where customers can be even more rude and obnoxious.

Emma was in the middle of making three different drinks for two teenagers and a little girl with a baseball cap when the bell on the door alerted her of another person entering. She silently cursed the universe.

She hurriedly finished the drinks, asking if any of them wanted free pastries. They were almost ready to be thrown away, and honestly should've been by now, but Nora insisted that they were fine and could be eaten. I disagreed, so I wasn't about go make the people pay, whether they're shitty people or not, for absolute crap pastries. Plus, everyone in town knows about the customers; mom was a poor alcoholic who had two children and dropped the second one on the head and fucked her up. Shitty parents, shitty people spreading that around, those people are the real assholes.

"Thank you, come again soon," she called after the group as they walked out the door. "Hello."

"Hello, Emma," the customer greets her.

Emma froze for a moment? Did this person know her? How? Was he friends with Jane? No one had seen her since she left Hatchetfield after high school, granted she didn't change much....

"Um...do I know you?" She asks.

"Well, yes. In your dreams. I'm Paul Mathews," he says this with a nervous yet reassuring smile.

It clicks. "Paul...oh my god. Oh my god, Paul!"

She races around the counter and envelops him in a tight hug, inhaling his scent, desperate to hold onto every inch of him and never let go.

Paul returns the hug, a lot more gently, and chuckles a bit. "Nice to officially meet you, Emma."

She pulls away. "I can't believe you're here. I really, really, can't believe it. Oh! I have to finish my shift, dammit. Hey, do you wanna...hang out after? Get to know each other?"

"I'd love that Emma," Paul smiles.

A goofy grin spreads across Emma's face. "It's a date."

After a long shift lasting a good majority of the day, Emma waited for Paul to return. It was, after all, six, and the end of her shift. Paul didn't seem like the type of person to be late.

Despite her worries, Paul eventually pushed through the door and shot her another adorable smile. Emma returned it with glee, and practically bounced over to him.

"I know it's six, but do you wanna go anywhere special?" She asks.

"I'm up for whatever you are, Emma," Paul responds. "I don't have work tomorrow, so I don't have to not stay up until three in the morning."

"Well then that's what we'll do!" She exclaims, barely noticing that she was acting like a total dork and not at all her sassy, spunky self. "Your place or mine?"

Paul blushes a little. "W-what?"

"Your place or mine?" She repeats. "I have alcohol and a shit ton of comedies and horror films. No clue what's at your place, but I don't care where we go as long as I'm with you."

Ugh, did she really just say that?

"Oh, your place is fine as long as your fine with it," he smiles nervously. "My apartment is a total disaster."