The bright, dimpled smile that greeted Evelyn as the bell above the door rang was a great start to her day.
"When the hell did you start working here?" Ashton asked as he strolled up to the counter, still sporting his bubbly smile. Evelyn laughed before responding,
"A few months ago," she said, a smile mirroring Ashton's on her face.
"I think I've missed you every time I've come here," he said.
"You better start coming early so you can keep me company," she warned jokingly.
"Does your friend Finley come to keep you company?" he asked her.
"She has classes most mornings that I work,"
"Ahh," Ashton said, resting his head on the palm of his hand that was lent on the white counter. "Oh yeah! I meant to ask you the other day before Mr. Grouchy-Pants left lunch, did you pick a major? The whole conversation was just Cal talking about himself, which isn't anything new," He asked Evelyn.
"Nope, I have an idea of what I want to do but I haven't had to pick yet so I'm still trying to figure that out," she said with an eye roll. "It's honestly more stressful than anything else in school right now. Finley and I moved up here mainly because I didn't have a major and she did, so we decided she could get in a good program here and I could find something that interests me,"
"Where did you move from?"
"Colebrook, Connecticut. It's a pretty small town and Finley and I kind of always wanted to move to New York to get out of there," she lightly smiled.
"Well I'm sure you'll figure it out soon," Ashton nodded with a confident smile. His words of encouragement made her feel confident that she will figure it out, and wouldn't have to take a simple major just to graduate.
"Okay, enough about me, what would you like to order?" she asked, waving him away.
Ashton told her his order and she went over to the glass display to grab his food.
She walked back over and handed him the food. "Thanks... Sophia?" Evelyn paused her movements and looked down at her uniform, she still had the wrong name tag on. The same one Luke so graciously pointed out.
"Why does it say Sophia?" Ashton asked.
"Uhm... I didn't have mine but need a name tag, so I stole a co-worker's," she explained quickly, a blush rising to her cheeks as she remembered that day the blonde came into the shop.
"Mhm..." Ashton agreed skeptically.
"What," her voice squeaked as she looked at the look he was giving her. She was embarrassing herself more by the minute. "What's with the red cheeks," he mused as he leaned more over the counter, as if to inspect her face to find the answer.
"Well uh... You see, I kind of lost it a couple weeks ago and someone came in and pointed it out,"
Ashton scoffed, "And that's why you're blushing so hard right now?"
She huffed as she looked up, "Well no—first of all your embarrassing me right now," she mumbled, "Second it was the person who pointed it out," she looked at her nails that were tapping against the counter.
He soon realized she was done talking when she kept her eyes on her hands, "Okay well spill! You can't tell me someone can make you blush that hard just by thinking of them and not tell me who it is!"
She sighed, even after not knowing Ashton for more than a few weeks, she could tell he was really stubborn and she didn't have the willpower to try and get him to drop it. "Okay fine. It was Lu—"
"Hey Flores!"
The girl sighed happily, glad she interrupted and didn't have to finish her confession, though she was fairly certain he put the clues together by the satisfied smirk on his face when she glanced at him. "Hi Finley," Evelyn cleared her throat as she spoke.
"Flores?" Ashton asked, slowly biting a mouthful of his breakfast, thankfully not continuing their previous topic of discussion.
"It's my last name," she smiled. "Hey Michael," she looked up at the still-red head of hair standing next to the other girl.
As Ashton's chewing came to a halt, the girl behind the counter realized this would become awkward very quickly. She knew now there definitely was some bad blood between Michael and the other three Australians and here two of them were here, in the same room.
"Hey Evelyn," Michael said hesitantly. His eyes kept flashing to his right, right on Ashton. Becoming painfully aware of the uncomfortable tension in the air, Evelyn began speaking.
"What can I get you guys?"
Both of the new customers told Evelyn their orders and she walked over to the display to grab their food, hoping to escape the tension on the other side of the register. While she was preparing the tea Finley had asked for, she could hear the girl talking to Ashton. She peaked over her shoulder and could see the annoyed face Michael was making and the almost unbothered look on the other guy's. She wondered how Finley was ignoring the atmosphere in the bakery so easily, although she was pretty good at reading situations and distracting people.
Evelyn watched the coffee filling Michael's cup—she started keeping a very close eye on the coffees she made ever since a few weeks ago. She looked up as Ashton approached the coffee machines, "I'm gonna go head back now."
Evelyn nodded her head, "Yeah. Sorry about th—" Ashton cut her off.
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault," Ashton sent her a convincing, dimpled smiles as he backed away. "Bye Ashton!" she shouted as she grabbed both drinks to bring to the others waiting. He turned and waved, before walking out into the streets.
"Since when have you guys known Ashton?"
Michael looked at the two girls, Evelyn looked down at her nails again, the light purple painted on them seemed a lot more interesting than usual today.
Finely answered for the both of them, "We met him at a party her friend Calum brought us to a few weeks ago,"
Michael nodded, "Oh,"
Evelyn could definitely tell he wasn't happy to hear that. Finley gave her a look, one that she could tell was 'you've got some shit to tell' and Evelyn was not looking forward to that conversation. The girl led Michael over to a table right next to the counter, the one Finley moved there herself when the girl got the job, so she could sit by Evelyn when she's working.
Evelyn was in her own world, she zoned out after the two started talking about Finley's photography skills and how she was ridiculously good at capturing a moment on camera. She had won quite a few photography competitions back home and earned over $1000 from them.
Her daydreams of some of the fun the girls had preparing for the competitions was cut short by the hand that appeared in her face, "Earth to Evie."
"Sorry what,"
"I'm gonna get to class," Michael said as he stood up and threw his trash away, "I'll talk to you guys later,"
Both girls said their goodbyes and watched him walk out the door and back into the busy city.
"Okay what the fuck was all of that?" Finley practically yelled as she flung herself over the counter to sit in front of the girl. Evelyn sighed over exaggeratedly and leaned against the wall opposite the girl.
"Come on, get to explaining," she waved her hands in the air, encouraging the girl to speak.
"What do you want me to say?" she asked, acting as if she didn't know what Finely was asking about .
"Don't play coy with me, they were acting weird as hell and I have a feeling you know exactly why,"
"Ashton and Michael don't get along I guess," she shrugged, "I'm not sure why but I know they were friends at one point but not anymore,"
Finley nodded and continued to pester her. She knew there were some things Evelyn wasn't telling her—the best friend's intuition they claimed to have was kicking in, "And how do you know all of this?"
"I went out to lunch with Calum and Ashton and Luke ended up showing up,"
"What the hell! You went to lunch with Calum and Luke and didn't tell me?" Finley yelled. Evelyn was glad they were the only two in the building at the moment. "You should give me his number,"
"Mhm..," she dragged out the sound, "And why would I do that," Evelyn asked with an innocent smile.
"Cause he's hot," Finley said, eyes wide as she realized she said that out loud.
"Brutally honest today. I like it," Evelyn nodded her head as she smiled at her friend.
"Stop trying to change the topic," Finley said as she glared at the girl. She rolled her eyes playfully, she wasn't even the one who got them off track.
"I'll give you his number," Evelyn agreed, "But anyways, Calum and I are partners for a project and we were supposed to talk about it over lunch but the other two crashed the planning. I brought up Michael in conversation and they all got really tense and then Luke just got up and left, so I know now none of them seem that fond of Michael, which would explain how awkward that was,"
Finley looked at the ceiling in thought, now intrigued with the story behind the four guys, "Okay but why didn't you answer Michael when he asked how we knew Ashton? You looked at your hands and we both know you only do that when you're lying or hiding something," she squinted her eyes at Evelyn.
The girl sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, "Well you met Ashton at the party... I didn't" she mumbled the last part.
"So... when the hell did you meet Ashton?" Finley looked completely lost, she didn't know Evelyn knew of Ashton or Luke before the party.
Evelyn sighed, she realized Finley was pretty drunk at the party because she definitely remembers Ashton telling Calum they met at a match because she was surprised her friend didn't freak out and ask questions like she is now. "Ashton told you, we met at the ring,"
Finley's eyes widened at the confession, "I honestly thought I dreamt that," Evelyn scoffed playfully at her. "Okay give me all the details right now!" she shouted once again.
So Evelyn explained what she recalled from the times she met Ashton and Luke at the boxing matches. At some point in her storytelling, the black haired girl started smirking at her while she talked. Evelyn explained that the 'coffee fiasco', as they branded it, was with Luke.
She was startled by the loud, booming laugh that erupted from Finley. The girl was almost in hysterics, she found it hilarious that out of all people it was him who she made a complete fool out of herself in front of. It was even more hilarious because the girl was just that clumsy.
"Stop laughing, it's not funny," Evelyn huffed. She was annoyed that her face heated up, the embarrassment of that day would probably haunt her forever.
"Sorry, sorry," she sighed as she wiped her tears and tried to catch her breath. "Okay, okay, I'm good,"
Evelyn rolled her eyes as she hoped up on the counter next to her friend. "Last question, then I've got to go to class," Finley said and looked over at her. She nodded for her to continue.
"Do you think Luke's attractive?"
Evelyn immediately slapped her cold hands over her cheeks and hopped off the counter, "Nope, bye. I hate you," she was asked about the blonde way too many times in the past hour.
Finley started laughing again, she didn't need anything else from Evelyn. From the—unbeknownst to her—blush on her cheeks and the way she started at the floor while she talked about her few encounters with the guy, it was obvious to Finley she thought he was at least a little bit attractive. She didn't blame her, all of the Australians they knew were unfairly gorgeous.
Evelyn was too busy trying to use her cold hands to cool her face to notice Finley's devilish smile. She thought the girl could use another visit to see the boxer, and she thought of just the way to convince her to go. She flung herself around and off the counter,
"Love you Evie!" She yelled as she started towards the door, a large smirk on her face, "See back at the house,"
"Love you, see you then," the other girl sighed, still concealing her red cheeks behind her hands. She was sick of how easy it was to make her blush, she wished she was immune to embarrassment.
She moved her hands away from her face and went back to work, counting down the minutes until her shift was over.
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hey guys, hope you're all doing well and stay safe <3
-olivia