Ari

Chapter 1

"Do you think Mark will let us close early tonight?" asked Hannah looking at her own reflection in the white porcelain mug.

"No way. If it is going to rain, he would want for some people to go get something warm," I said mater-of-fact staring out at the front behind the cashier. Days like this I hoped for anyone to walk through the door. Anyone. Even if they just wanted some water.

As soon as I turned around to look at Tom and Hannah, the ding of the front door whipped me around. I was expecting to find a person, but I wasn't expecting to find a person like this.        

His dark hair almost flowed out of his head in soft fluffy waves, parted to give perfect bangs. He was tall. Couldn't have been shorter than six-foot two with a stride that almost made it look like he floated. His face angelic but a masculine jawline to not ignore. Beautiful wide doe eyes, lips perfectly pouted pink. His skin was smooth and fair, as if airbrushed on his body. His broad shouldered frame wore a simple black hoodie and dark jeans, but it didn't look like anything you would dream of at the Gap.

Hannah dropped the mug with loud crash and it snapped me back into where I was.    

"Hi, welcome. What can I get you?" I asked in my usual customer voice, trying not to crack as my throat went dry.

He smiled and my legs faltered a second. "Hi, can I get an small Americano," he asked in the smoothest get grounding voice. It was strongly North American yet, I could tell it hid an accent.

"Sure, that'll be four-fifty," I said, ringing it up on the machine. He was staring at me so intently and I tried my hardest not to stare back, only when we exchanged money.

"Did you ask if it was for here or not?" asked Tom, looking at cups.

My cheeks warmed of the embarrassment.

"It's to go," he said with the same smile. I couldn't help but to grin this time. The filled cup appeared next to me on the counter and I handed it to him, trying to keep the same perky energy.

"Here you go. Thanks for stopping by," I said as he grabbed it from my hand, carefully. His fingers barely brushed against mine.

He took a sip as soon as he held it, and a warm "Hmm" bellowed from his throat.

"Thanks. I'll definitely come back." And just like that he walked out of the café as smoothly as he walked in.

I could have swore every eye in the room watched him leave.

"Holy shit," exhaled Hannah, still sweeping up bits of ceramic. "Who the hell was that?"

"You act like you've never seen a handsome guy," scoffed Tom.

"Not in this town," Hannah retorted. "He was like model hot. Like, Vogue hot."

I wondered why he was even here. Harrison was like any other simple, North Eastern town. Yeah, we had the grocery chains, one major hotel, and the mall was in the next town over, but we were two hours from New York City. Too far for anyone to just venture out to. Why a guy, that gorgeous, was in town limits was a mystery. He was a mystery. I didn't even catch his name with the order.    

"Well, he said he would be back. He obviously like the coffee," I said with a shrug.

"Screw the coffee. Did you catch that smile? Jesus. And Ari right in the line of fire. How did you survive?" teased Hannah.

"I'm just not in the market for men right now," I said simply, which was true. After ten years, I wanted to be on my own for a change. Dating was the absolute last thing on my mind.

"So if that guy asked you out, you would say no?" asked Tom, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.    

Nodding, I said I would. My reasons were valid. I was owed the single life. No matter how beautiful a guy is. And that one was.