Love Me 'Till the Rain is Gone <Hiatus>

Chapter 3

Mr. B wasted no time leading her into the back room where he was able to supply her with a brown apron. Ari slipped it on over her all-black outfit (she wore it because it matched almost every store's uniform) and then followed him out into the cafe area. In the strangeness of the past half hour, she had forgotten how crowded it was. And how early. Somehow, the throng parted when Mr. B showed up, and within no time at all, Ari was at the counter.

"Drew, I would like you to meet Drew. She's your new co-worker." The boy at the counter, whose name Ari had stolen, took one look at her and sighed.

"Come on Jake, I don't have time to train a new employee right now." Already, Ari could feel a strange sort of kinship toward the boy. He wasn't afraid to speak his mind, and he was willing to work hard.

"Give me five minutes." She blurted. Drew and Mr. B turned to look at her. "Let me watch you for five minutes, Drew, and I'll be able to do everything you do in that time. I swear. And until the five minutes are up, I won't slow you down at all." As if to illustrate her point, Ari jumped up on a counter, where she would be quite out of the way. Drew shrugged.

But it was only two minutes later when Ari hopped down from her perch. Drew shot her a look, but she ignored it. While Drew went to prepare a coffee just ordered, Ari walked up to the cash register. She waved the person waiting for his order aside.

"It'll be ready in just a second." She assured him. Then, she turned to the next person in line. "What'll you be having?"

Drew didn't question her after that, and they worked side by side quite easily for the next hour or two, Drew taking an order and then preparing it while Ari went up and took three more orders. She found the work to be easy and distracting, and gratefully fell into a smiling, pleasant facade. Time started to blur.

Finally, the tension outside became too much, and the storm started. At first it was just a heavy drop or two, tumbling lazily out of the sky, but Ari knew that it would fall into a full out electric storm within a few minutes. The shop started to clear out. Just about everyone on the streets was smart enough to go home. A few people entered the shop, intending to wait the storm out. One glance at the clouds told Ari that they would be waiting for a while. Probably all night.

"So, is you name really Drew?" Drew hopped up onto the counter next to Ari.

"Nope." She said, but offered no further explanation.

"Come on, tell me your name." he pleaded. Ari leaned forward, laughter in her eyes.

"Nunya." They both laughed at that for a while. Ari wondered if it was the feeling of being trapped inside a building by a wall of water tumbling from the heavens that was making everything funnier than normal. When they eventually stopped, Ari asked a question, "So, you called the owner of this fine establishment Jake. Is that his real name?"

"I don't know." Drew trailed off. "I guess the pestering of the question in my head is blocking all other thought processes. I honestly can't remember if that's his real name." Drew tapped his chin, as if thinking real hard.

Ari took a deep breath and blew out at her bangs. For a moment, she just watched the black tendrils wave above her head. "Fine. I answer a question, you answer a question, got it?"

"Sure." A mischievous glint was in Drew's eye. Ari didn't like it.

"I'll go first."

"No, you just asked me a question. You asked me if I 'got it'. It's my turn now." So that's what he had been planning. Amateur.

"That doesn't count." Ari protested.

"Are you always this pushy?" Drew's tone was teasing.

"Nope. Only until I get my way." Ari flashed a smile and then stuck out her tongue. "Now it's my turn." Drew stuck his tongue out too, and for a second, Ari imagined what this would look like from an outsider's point of view. She almost giggled at the mental picture. "Is Jake the owner's real name?"

Drew shook his head. "No, I just call him that. It felt so weird to not know somebody's name, so I started calling him Jake. What do you call him?"

"I call him Mr. B." Ari saw the confused look on Drew's face and kept going. "It's short for Mr. Beeswax."

Drew chuckled. "I'll bet he laughed when you started calling him that. He must love you already."

Ari smiled at his flattery and then asked her next question. "So, what's your full name?"

Drew looked affronted. "Nuh-uh. It's my turn."

Ari smirked. "No it isn't. You just asked me what I called Mr. B."

Drew huffed, and Ari was sure she heard him mutter something that sounded a whole lot like. 'I hate this game.' She laughed at his childish antics. "Fine." Drew said, this time a little louder. "My full name is Andrew Nathan Adams. Now, what's your full name? "Drew had monitored her words carefully, making sure that he didn't accidentally ask a question.

"My full name is Aribella Jasmine Cane. I just go by Ari, though." She smiled at Drew, the first real smile she'd had in a long time, and privately Drew decided that she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. He smiled back, and, in her head, Ari decided that she was never going to forget the way he looked right now, and that he was by far the most attractive boy she had ever met.

"My turn again, what's your favorite color?" And they went on like that all morning, while the rain pounded on the roof of the cafe. Every now and then, one of the people waiting out the storm would ask for a coffee, to be polite, or maybe a doughnut, and one of them would get it, but for the most part they were left alone.

Ari found she was able to look, really look, at Drew for the first time. He had blonde hair flopping into green eyes, but that was just the easy part. He carried himself with a quiet confidence that showed that he was popular at school but had never been out of the country before, or anywhere unfamiliar for that matter. He was optimistic. He smiled often, laughed more, and seemed to be the type to forgive easily. She had never known anyone quite like him.

Drew found himself watching Ari too. She had long black hair and stormy grey eyes. There were deep circles beneath her eyes too, and Drew wondered if there had been a mirror available when she had done her hair. And there were other things too. There was calm in her eyes that spoke of hardship. That told of a time that she was in a rough spot, and came out in one piece. And there was something about the way she was standing, as if at any moment she might decide to run. To sprint out of the room and leave everyone else behind, wondering if she had ever really existed in the first place.

She was beautiful.