Sorrow | 18+

10 Sweet

"Congratulations, honey. Nice that you are moving to our home city", Rem gave me a genuine smile and I suddenly hugged him. I could have cried. I was excited but stressed at the same moment.

"We are entering the nickname zone?" Rem murmured as he hugged me back tightly.

"Don't test your luck. And wash your face!"

~~~

Midnight was approaching slowly and I was bored. No customers. Nothing to do at the café so I was on my laptop looking for apartments and getting frustrated. August clearly wasn't the month to move into a crowded student city. Everything was either too expensive or big or ugly for me. I could have just bought an apartment but I did not want to waste too much money as there wasn't anything that screamed for me and doing a renovation while trying to fit in a new school sounded too stressful. And sharing a flat with strangers sounded even worse. So I was pondering what I could compromise on.

The doorbell rang and I dashed my laptop under the counter. A young man entered the café. He was wearing a beige t-shirt and the shade did not compliment his fair olive skin. I picked up some nervous energy from how he murmured his order and how his hand combed through curly brown hair and beard the whole time he waited for me to prepare the black coffee he ordered. He sat down on the far right corner to get more privacy and took some books from his backpack. He seemed to be a student. For half an hour he simply sipped his coffee and flipped the pages of his book. Hamza dropped by and took over his usual place on the high chair next to the counter, complaining about an impossible website to hack. For the second half of the hour the atmosphere stayed the same, quiet and calm, until Zero arrived.

He hadn't been at the café as much lately, at least not during my night shifts. Joel had also returned last week with his skin tanned and burned as he commented using sunscreen while working outside was clearly necessery. Hamza didn't even flinch, but from the corner of my eye I saw how the anonymous guy blinked his eyes towards Zero and tightened his grip on the book. Bizarre. My gaze locked with Zero's eyes. I was wearing my usual low bun and even my work outfit was the same, green shirt and black skirt, but still he took a moment to simply stare at me. Like memorising every part of me. He did it often, I had noticed. Every morning I looked similar, but the staring didn't disappear. Or his hand on my thigh when he drove. I always waited for him to say I was pretty but he didn't. His eyes stayed on my lips like he wanted to kiss me, but he restrained himself. His touches were always subtle, except when I asked him to cuddle me in the mornings he wasn't occupied. You also stare at him every time.

Normally he would have gone to the office, but this time he sat down on one of the green couches and waved me over. So I circled the counter and stopped next to the other sofa in front of the one Zero was occupying.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as his intense gaze made me blush a bit. He was wearing straight black trousers and a tight t-shirt, that made his tattoos pop and my imagination went wild about his hands on me. Again, merde.

"Come here, closer", he replied and I squeezed between the glass coffee table and sofa to stand in front of him.

"Stop bossing me around."

"I need an excuse", he ignored my statement and his hand sneaked next to my knee, making goosebumps appear in my skin. I was pretty sure his vocabulary was ninety-nine percent made of commands like get in, come here, shut up and others.

"What?"

"You see that guy studying? I need to keep him here for a moment. Be my distraction."

"What do I get from that?" I questioned. My suspicion has clearly been correct. There was something weird about him.