Change (BWWM)

Chapter 1

The Meet

Friday, November 1, 2016

The snow hit the pavements of New York hard as I walked to Lola's Café. This was my daily routine: wake up, get ready for work, school, then head back to the dorms to eat, sleep, and repeat. I've gotten used to my monotonous life, never thought to change it up other than the occasional outings I did with my small group of friends, but then again those were very rare. It was now thanksgiving/winter break, which made things drag on longer than before. While everyone else was visiting family I was staying here working. Not like I had family to visit.

As I walked into Lola's the smell of coffee grounds filled my nose. "Hey, Aiden." Lola said, one of my other closest friends out of four, see small circle.

"Hey how long have you been here?" I asked as the bell above the door dinged when it closed.

"Since five this morning. I wanted to get everything situated before customers came." She said as she straighten up the napkin holders on each of the tables. "Well I'm gonna go clock in and put on my apron," I said as I walked towards the backroom where the aprons and hairnets were. I worked the espresso machine- you know the one that makes the coffee, barista- or occasionally I'm the waitress.

I enjoy my job. It wasn't too easy or too difficult. I mean, yeah, sometimes you had those douche bags that were rude to you or sometimes you were the douche bag yourself because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but that's everyday life. Can't really escape that. On the plus side Lola gives me free coffee every morning and sometimes my lunch break. As I tied my apron around my waist I went back in the front to help clean around the counters. "Why do you clean in the morning if you already cleaned last night before we closed? I mean literally this place is spotless." I asked.

" I just want the place to look nice for the customers and the Grade A on the window doesn't come from dirtiness." She said changing the closed sign to open. "Get ready we should be expecting customers soon."

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Finally it was my break. The café had been in full swing for hours now and I was exhausted. "I going on my break." I yelled out to Lola, who was sitting in her office. Probably organizing the finance bills. I was beginning to think she had OCD. Lola and I met Freshman year of college when I was barely even starting my life out here in New York. You see I was born in Glendale Wood, California. Where the sun mostly shines and its always humid. My childhood wasn't the best. It was tough due to my parents finally getting a divorce, after I became 16, because my father was a drunk who couldn't control his anger and a cheater, while my mother who was a manipulative women, who stole money from my father. Now you can understand why I moved so far away.

I grabbed myself a small cup of coffee and vanilla bean scone. Sitting at the farthest table in the corner away from everyone I pulled out my book. I was reading The Impossible Knife of Memory, it is a marvelous book about a girl having to watch over her father because he has PTSD. As I began to read from the corner of my eye I could see three men take a seat in the table next to me.

"You should really host a charity event to help show the media that your company is really serious and beneficial to the community here." I heard the one closest to me say. I tried not to eavesdrop, but they are sitting so close and talking really loud. Or at least is was loud to me. They also smelled very redolent, but in a masculine way.

"Yeah by you doing that it will get the media off your back about what happened that night... maybe things will change back home." There was a pause before he continued. "Plus you literally are too serious for your own age. You are the youngest, most richest, cold hearted bachelor in New York. Maybe an event will actually show them that you have a heart still buried deep within."