What If Its Us

Eyes Meet. Hearts Pound

The walk over to the cafe is wholly uneventful. Thomas admires the beautiful landscape with rolling green lawns and flowering pots perched in front of buildings.

Thomas closes his eyes and inhales deeply.

"Do you smell that Lewis?" He asks his roommate who has yet to say anything since they had left the room.

"Smell what?" Lewis waves a hand in front of his face. "Does something smell?"

Thomas rolls his eyes. "No Lewis i was talking about the smell of opportunity." He spreads his arms wide gesturing to everything around him. "Look at where we are! We're starting our adult lives."

Lewis squints out across the lawn seemingly unimpressed. "Yeah i'm 18 unemployed and studying Applied Economics."

"Ugh!" Thomas shakes his head. "You're completely missing the point here." 

By then they are at the cafe so there is no more room for them to argue. Thomas thinks its perfect. The walls are painted a soft yellow with windows letting in the sunlight and student paintings adorning the walls. A small bookshelf is pushed up against one wall stuffed with what must be 100 books. The place smells like vanilla and coffee grounds and despite the late hour the tables are crammed full of students.

"Wow." Lewis murmurs. "Popular hang out place huh?"

Thomas shrugs his eyes milling over the crowd searching for James. The line moves forward and he spots him tucked into a corner with another man. 

"My friends over there, we'll join him when we get our coffee." He tells Lewis raising an arm to flag James down. 

He catches the gesture and waves back. Thomas still has his hand in the air when he turns to the counter.

And he freezes.

Because standing behind the counter is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. 

Close cropped chestnut brown hair pulled into a small bun, A green Woodstock tshirt and blue skinny jeans. A 5 oclock shadow and beautiful violet eyes.

He doesn't notice Thomas at first because he's talking to a kid on the other side of the counter whose leaning over and laughing. They're speaking Spanish and the barista isn't very good at it but the young man doesn't seem to mind.

"tambien lo haria llama un amigo?" The barista asks.  

Usnavi cracks up and he blushes obvious he made a mistake but he throws an arm around his shoulders anyway. "Mi amigo Alexander." He laughs.

Alexander, so that's his name.

"Alexander first rule of working anywhere is to tend to your customers." A perky red haired girl taps him on the shoulder. '' You can talk to your friends later."

He quickly straightens his apron and grins at her. "Sorry Suzie, you won't rat on me will you?"

She rolls her eyes playfully and shoos him towards the counter where Thomas is still staring, utterly speechless.

"Hello and welcome to Espresso Joe's!" He claps his hands like the host of a game show. "My name is Alexander, may i take your order?"

Thomas's hand drops to his side. He can't speak, this has never happened before but his lips won't form the words. 

Say something you idiot he thinks to himself. 

The barista's smile drops only slightly. "I'm sorry are you deaf?" The sentence comes out sharp and sarcastic and as soon as it leaves his mouth he claps both hands over it.