The Everlasting

Seven

“Rainey, would you let me get a word?”

    Click.

   And just like that, Rainey had hung up on her. She sighed heavily. She knew her friend wouldn’t be mad at her for long, so she pocketed her cell phone, and pushed through the door to her work.

    Heather turned away from David at the counter, and gave her a concerned look.

    “Hi,” Rose waved.

    “Well, I’m glad to see you’re okay. How are you feeling?” Heather asked.

    “Fine, actually,” Rose replied, giving her her most convincing smile.

    She smiled at David, and he returned it with a small one of his own before returning to work.

    Heather watched him cross the café to wipe down tables. Once he was well out of earshot, she turned back to Rose and gave her a coy smile.

    “So guess who was crazy, out of his mind with worry for you yesterday?”

    She lifted an eyebrow.

    “David,” Heather whispered with a broad smile.

    “David?” Rose asked dubiously, glancing in his direction.

    “Yes! He’s been pining after you ever since you began working here. I would’ve thought you had noticed by now.”

    Well, it seemed she must’ve been very obtuse, because according to her two friends, not only Shawn, but also David was after her affections.

    She glanced over at David and watched him as he worked. He wasn’t bad looking. If he smiled more, Rose would even venture to call him handsome.

    But he always seemed so nervous and straitlaced. Could she ever have a relationship with him?

    When she tried to imagine holding his hand, his olive toned one was replaced with a paler, larger one, and when she tried to imagine falling into his coffee colored eyes, and running her hands through his short dark hair, she was gazing into a striking gold pair and her hands were entangled in a mess of blond.

    She shook her head to clear it of the image. She had already decided that Eli was off limits.

     Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to go on a date with a completely normal guy.

    Who was she kidding?

    She turned back to Heather and rolled her eyes to show her that she was wrong; there was no way David could really be interested or that she could actually go out with him.

    “Make me a coffee, please?”

    Heather nodded her assent as Rose found her way to a table. She put her head in her hands. The coffee would help clear her mind.

    She rubbed her face vigorously before looking up.

    Rose froze.

    “It’s good to see you again.”

    Rose didn’t know, or maybe had forgotten, how to breathe.

    Eli’s eyes searched hers before nodding at the cup of coffee sitting in front of her.

    “I thought I’d deliver it to you myself,” he said.

    Hearing him speak, she expelled the air she had been holding.

    Before she could think about it further, she reached up and slapped him hard across the face.

    She grabbed her coffee and hurried to the door.