She's American - lrh v afi

8. Coffee

Hailey's POV:

I hopped in the car in my work clothes and turned on the engine. I turned on the radio and sure enough, one of my favorite songs just so happened to be on the radio. "Chocolate by The 1975". 

I drove my car down the roads of Cape Cod with the windows down, letting the warm summer air fill my lungs and dreading the next 4 hours of work. 

I pull into the coffee shop's parking lot and park directly next to Lily's car. I am assuming she just got here as well due to the fact that I can hear the music blasting from her car. 

I look over and she smiles and waves at me, looking beautiful as ever, even for a 4 hour shift at work. 

We both hop out of our cars and meet each other outside.

"Hailey! You will never guess what happened!" Lily said with such a sweet and happy tone. 

"What happened?" I replied awaiting her exciting news.

"Calum and I are friends!" She said with excitement.

"Oh! I thought you were going to say that you like... hooked up with him or something." I replied with a tone of disappointment in my voice. 

"Ugh, no! He doesn't like me like that! Don't be crazy. But we spent the entire night together, he literally wouldn't leave my side! I guess he wants to be like best friends! This is so fun, ugh, I love making new friends." She trailed on.

"Are you sure he doesn't like you?" I say hesitantly knowing the answer is yes and Lily is just too oblivious to tell. 

"Yes Hailey, I am 100% positively extremely sure." She replied.

"I'll take your word for it, I guess." I reply as we begin walking into the coffee shop.

As I open the door to let Lily in before stepping in myself, getting hit in the face with the scent of coffee that I would eventually get used to during my shift.

Lily and I walk to the back, put our things down and get straight to work.

After dealing with a good two hours of non stop coffee making and cleaning tables I finally got to take my break. 

I walked to the back and pulled out my phone and noticed a text from an unknown number. 

"Hey Hailey, it's Luke. Frankie told me you were working today, is that true? If so, I think I'm going to come visit. Eh, who am I kidding, i'll visit anyway. See you soon."

Shit. I read the time and saw that it was 12:00 and this text was in fact sent at 10:56. In the midst of my panic, I was interrupted by Lily yelling back to me from the front counter.

"Hailey! Someone is here to see you!" She yells back to me while then taking the customers order.

Shit, shit, shit, shit. I stand up in the back and run to the bathroom to check to see if I look okay. You would think that after last nights events I would be absolutely turned off by what Luke did but there was something so alluring about him. I just hoped I would be able to learn more about him and maybe even break down the clear walls he was holding up.

After checking myself in the mirror for a good minute or so, I hear Lily call for me again.

"One second!" I yell back to her. My heart is beating out of my chest. After the awkward encounters from last night, I was just hoping Luke wouldn't remember any of it. I for sure did. 

I walk out of the back room and see Luke standing to the side waiting for his coffee while playing on his phone. 

He hears me and immediately looks up sending a genuine smile my way. It was odd, seeing him smile genuinely at me after what happened last night. He was acting exactly like he did when I first met him at the mall yesterday. Was he just a dick last night because he was drunk? God, what am I getting myself into. 

Still somewhat angry and anxious about the events of last night I say hi to him

"Hey Hemmings, heard you wanted to see me?" I say with a bit of sass to back me up.

"Hey Hailey! Yeah actually, I just wanted to apologize about last night." He replied.

Apologize? Literally for what, we just met, we aren't dating. 

"Apologize for what?" I reply.

"When do you get out" He asks. 

"at 2?" I question.

"See you then." He says as he grabs his coffee and walks out the door. 

Leaving me extremely confused, Lily comes back up behind me.

"He seems so nice!" She gushes. 

I just stood there, frozen in confusion. 

The rest of my shift consisted of the same exact thing I was doing before. Making coffee, cleaning tables, mopping the floor, everything an underpaid employee loves doing. 

The end of the shift rolled around fairly quickly, thank god. Lily and I went to the back, grabbed our stuff and made out way out the door.

Immediately as we walked out the door I was greeted by the lovely face of Luke Hemmings. He made a look towards Lily that meant "Hey Lily go away!" And Lily took that as her sign to leave. 

I watched Lily nod, slightly wave goodbye to me, and make her way to her car. 

"So..." I said anxiously.

"So..." Luke replied back.

"You wanted to talk?" I reminded him.

"Oh yeah, um..." he paused. "I just wanted to apologize, for last night. I was really drunk and I didn't mean for you to see me making out with that girl-"

Ugh, there it was.

"-and I also wanted to apologize for the whole thing in my room, it was really uncalled for and I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." He finished his sentence anxiously fidgeting with his black lip ring. 

Now what do I do? I can't be mad at him anymore, he just apologized for what he did. God I wish Ashton was here right now, I need his advice. 

"Okay, well I really appreciate you apologizing, but I have absolutely no idea why you are apologizing." I respond reminding him that we quite literally just met.

"No I know, but like... it's awkward for anyone you know? Also, I just really want to get the chance to get to know you. Ashton came home today and talked about how cool of a person you are and my fear was that I lost you before I even had you." 

Lost me... before he... had me? My mind starts racing at what he means by this. I stayed silent for a bit after he said that.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He said, sounding flustered, nervously cracking his fingers while taking his eye contact away from me.

God this conversation is AWKWARD.

"No, no, no it's okay!" I reassure him, finally getting words out of my mouth. He looks back up at me and I can tell he has a bit of worry in his eyes.

"What's the matter?" I ask with a small frown on my face. I hate seeing anyone worried, but it felt weird we were having an intimate moment in the parking lot of my job. 

"Nothing, nothing." He deflects. "Hey, can I bring you somewhere?" He asks, curiously.

"Uh... can I go home and get changed first so I don't smell like coffee and dish soap?" I ask causing a small chuckle to escape Luke's mouth. 

"Oh yeah, I'll... meet you at your place in 30 minutes? Is that okay?" He asks. "It's right next to our house right?"

"Yes, and yes thats completely okay." I say with a small smile. 

Luke nods and I wave a small goodbye before walking to my car which was parked a few spots over.

Now, why did I just agree to go somewhere with Luke after what happened with last night. I thought I was supposed to be getting over these random quick feelings for him but I guess not! There was something so reassuring about seeing him nervous, it gave me a clear sense of hope that maybe he isn't a bad person. 

This is going to be fun.