Fake Me To Church

The Name Game

"Are you really just gonna sit there all by yourself? Gets lonely around here late at night, you know."

I twisted my head to the left, angling my gaze squarely away from the six-foot flirt standing at the corner of my table with his hands in his pockets.

"Not a talker, huh?" He didn't take the hint—refused to.

I hate coffee shops.

The aroma of foamed milk and creaming sugar filtered through the air, melding with the brewing espresso as tiny vapor clouds rose and disappeared under the air conditioner's rhythmic breath. Behind an elevated counter, a scowling barista pumped streams of syrup into a blender filled with ice and frothy white liquid.

"Do I at least get a name before you shut me down?"

I grabbed the steamy paper cup off the corner of my table and began sipping it, just as he paced over to the chair in front of me and took a seat.

My eyes met his for the first time. I drummed three fingers along the right side of my coffee cup and raised my lips thinly to the 'gentleman' with whom I now shared the table. He's cute. I'll give him that.

"Was that a smile?" he quipped. "Now we're getting somewhere."

Tossing back another sip of coffee, I grinned and closed my lips together over the cup's edge, felt the imprint of both dimples flowering on my cheeks.

He chuckled lightly. "Playing hard to get, eh?"

This guy's pick-up lines are literally the most prehistoric thing I've ever heard in my life. "Only as hard as you want me to," I finally replied, smiling again and flashing teeth this time.

"She speaks!" He started clapping raucously.

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, just as I was about to twist my finger through my hair and giggle like a dumb broad.

"Oh, bummer," I fake-whined, puffing out my lower lip as I glanced at my phone screen. "My baby sister just texted me. Gotta go pick her up from Chadwick's."

He frowned. "The hardware store?"

I froze. Crap.

"Why would..."

"I—I meant the mall," I stammered, then stood up from the table and turned to leave.

He stayed seated. "So you're just gonna leave like that? Without telling me your name?"

What a tool. "Alice," I said over my shoulder, speaking as I strode through the door and into the star-lit shroud of a dark night. "Call me Alice."