A date on the Eiffel Tower

Chapter four:

A song rings in my ears. The melody of sleep being torn apart by the beating of this tune. I try to run from it, only running to it. My alarm clock. A small, painfully annoying little box that ruins every good night sleep I ever have. I spring up seeing the time, knowing if I ignore it any longer, I will be late, and rushing to my wardrobe and picking out my uniform. I button up my white shirt, rolling the bottom of the sleeves up and tucking it into my black pencil skirt, hugging my figure. I tied up my grey trainers and slipped my work heels into my bag before lugging it over my shoulder and leaving.

I am running late and wonder if I will make it in time. The sky starts to fog grey as storm clouds crawl in. The rain drizzles down at first but as I burst in through the entrance of the coffee shop, it starts to hammer it down, the pellets of water thumping against the clear glass as distant growls of thunder become present.

I change into my heels and tie my apron up around my waist. Within the first hour of beginning work I have already split two drinks on me and have decided that today is not my day.

I stand behind the counter serving the usual customers their second cup of tea today when a young man walks in. His hair is dripping wet and his face is glassy with water. He stands at the entrance making a pool of water at his feet. He is wearing at white shirt which is soaked through and black trousers.

As the customers I was serving returned to their table the man walked over. He looked up at me and we locked eyes. He has hazel brown eyes that took my concentration away from everything. He smiles at me as I stare at him and a light freckle of a blush creeps onto my cheeks.

He reaches his hand up to his face as his hair falls over half his eyes and drips water down his cheeks. He clears his throat which snaps me out of my trance. I finally realised what I'd been doing and turned around looking for somewhere to put the tea towel I was holding until I figured I was making the situation worse and I should just serve him.

"Oh... ummm yeah... what do you want no I mean sorry... sorry I didn't mean to sound rude. I'm sorry." I apologise awkwardly as he laughs lightly under his breath. "Sorry. What can I get you?"

"I will just have a pumpkin spiced latte please." He asks but I freeze. That's what I get every morning before work. It's the least drunk drink. I quickly snap out of it again as I remember how awkward it was last time. I sort out the machine to boil the water as I set up the mug to go.

"It will be one minute." I smile at him as he smiles back then looks through his pockets and pulls out a dripping wet wallet. He lays it out on the counter looking for change as I smile at him while he is looking away. He bites his bottom lip softly as he concentrates in counting.

"You're British then?" he asks as I raise my eyebrows in shock that he knows that. His gaze shifts to me briefly before returning back to the wide amount of change he has before him.

"H-how-" I begin as he interrupts me.

"Your accent. And you spoke to me in English automatically." He takes his gaze off the counter top, looking at me and smiles. "Thats a good thing though as I barely know a word in French."

I smile at him softly as I sort out the drink. I don't want to speak much as I get a bad feeling I will make myself look absolutely ridiculous or completely embarrass myself. I hand him the drink as he takes it in his hands still leaving puddles of water everywhere from the down pour outside.

"Should probably know more french though seeing as my grandparents are from france." He smiles with a small laugh. I smile back as he turns around to walk away.

"Wait." I call after him as I walk around the counter to stand next to him. The top of my head comes to his eye level with my heels on. I hold out a dish cloth in front of me for him to take. "Here, it might help to dry you off a bit or you're gonna catch a cold."

"Thanks." He gives me a warm smile before taking it from me. As he does our hands brush together giving me butterflies. I turn around quickly and walk off hoping he doesn't see my blushing face.

A couple more customers come and leave while he sits there on an empty table in the corner reading. His hair has dried to a dirty blonde which bounces in loose curls above his eyes. He packs up his things then brings his cup over to me, sliding it across the counter top.

"You could have left the cup on the table. I would have cleared it up." I say politely as he smiles.

"Nah I hate doing that, you put in the effort to make it for me so I should put in the effort to bring it back to you." He replies making my face flush red. Maybe this is my day after all. "I'm Thomas." he extends his hand over to me and I shake it.

"Amber Rose." I reply softly.

"Pretty name to go with pretty eyes." I can feel a pleased smile growing on my face. Nobody has ever said I had nice eyes before. "How come your working here?" I raise my eyebrows at him, silently asking him to rephrase the sentence that quiet frankly came across as very impolite.

"No no I didn't mean it rudely or anything." He defends himself. "I mean you look really young. Around the age you should be travelling around, living your life, not working in a coffee shop."

"Thank you." A blush threatening to spread over my cheeks. "I guess it had always been my dream to live here. Besides I'm not that young, and you don't look much younger." I say with a small laugh.

"I'll take that as a complement." He smirks. "I'm eighteen so I guess not that old." I start laughing a little more at his comment as he joins in.

"See I told you, not much older." I say grinning. "Seventeen."

"If it's your dream to love here then why work here, in a coffee shop?" He looks at me with questioning puppy eyes.

"Well this is only for now. I have another job but I don't get paid yet." He smiles then a phone rings. I look down at mine but there aren't any notifications so I look up at him.

"Shit. Is that the time? You made me stay around too long." He grins at me. "Normally I just come in here for five minutes then leave." he laughs gently as I join in. "Maybe I'll see you again, Amber Rose. Bye." he smiles then runs out the door into the rain waving at me before turning down the street. I feel butterflies flutter around in my stomach as he turns back to look at me.