Cities that Never Sleep

ii

The first time she really looked at him was when he had given her the wrong coffee.

Although she was already at the door when she had realized that her drink tasted sweeter than normal, and that she couldn't even taste the coffee in it, Katherine was going to walk back to the counter. She was going to notify the young man behind the counter that he had given her the wrong order.

But as she turned around to look at the boy, he was smiling. Smiling.

He was smiling rather mischievously, although Katherine could tell that he was trying to suppress it.

So after hesitating at the entrance of the cafe, she turned her back and walked into the city street, instead of barging back to the counter like she had originally planned.

And despite the day that lagged her behind, dragging her by the ear, Katherine smiled. She laughed.

She was laughing at the barista boy who had purposely given her the wrong coffee. The boy who seemed to know, all with just one, simple action. A silly, pointless thing to think about, really.

She was laughing because she couldn't remember his name.