Talia pulled up to her work and sat in her car for a few minutes before going in. She did this every morning upon arriving to work, she was still feeling hurt about her breakup with her boyfriend of three years. It may have been a month since it happened but it still bothered her.

She unlocked the door and headed in, her close friend and coworker had gotten there before her, she had already turned on the machines and was in the middle of getting everything ready to start the day. Andrea noticed her moping as she walked past her to get to the to the back room. Talia placed her purse in her locker and grabbed her apron and name tag, she then jumped when she felt a hand touch her shoulder "Talia, it's been a month already you need to get over him." Andrea said to her as she stood behind her.

Talia sighed heavily and walked away from her without saying a word. She knew Andrea was right and that she needed to get over him, but she still didn't understand why he did what he did and said what he said. Andrea watched her walk away and knew she needed to try and get her to get over the guy that had hurt her badly.

"Let's go out tonight, let our hair down and live life to the fullest." Andrea said with a smile as she walked over to unlock the door and let the crowd in that had been outside lined up waiting to come in. "What do you say?" She asked again as her head was turned looking at her while holding her hand on the lock.

"I guess." Talia said quietly as she stood behind the register.

"Perfect." Andrea grinned as she unlocked the door.

Talia took the customer's orders while Andrea made their drinks and food. The morning was busier than usual, it kept Talia's mind away from her breakup and was actually finally able to smile after a customer had joked around with her.

"You should smile more often, it's a good look on you." The regular said to her.

Talia nodded her head and turned around to grab his coffee "Thanks." She said while handing him his coffee. As he grabbed his coffee he purposely placed his hand over her hand and smiled. The way he touched her hand gave her a warm feeling inside. "I actually have more drinks to order this morning."

"Oh?"

"I was elected to bring everyone coffee, let's see if I can remember everyone's order." He chuckled. "I need four regular coffees no cream, a mocha caffè with an extra shot of espresso and extra whip cream, a hot caramel macchiato with extra caramel, a vanilla iced coffee with some cream, and an espresso with two shots." He looked up counting all the drinks in his head "Hopefully I got them all."

"That's a big order, that's eight drinks plus yours, sound right?" She says repeating his entire order.

"That's it." He smiled pulling money out of his wallet and paid for the drinks. "Keep smiling, you're too beautiful to have a frown on that face." He says as he placed a twenty dollar bill in the tip jar.

As he stood there waiting for his drinks he couldn't help but keep his eyes glued over to Talia, he watched her and everytime she would make eye contact with him he would give her a wink that would cause her to blush.

Andrea happened to notice the sexy dark haired green eyed man looking at Talia and smiled as she was placing his drinks in the carriers. "She's single you know." Andrea said quietly to the man as she handed him his two carriers, she then leaned forward and whispered something to him.

"Thanks for the info."

He grabbed his order and started to walk out taking another look at the brown hair brown eyed beauty standing behind the register. "Have a good day." He smiled raising the drink carrier in his hand.

As he got to work he handed out the drinks and couldn't help thinking about the girl at the coffee shop, he always assumed that she was taken and loved hearing that she was single.

"You're in a awfully good mood this morning." Marcus his coworker said as he took a sip of his hot coffee. "You must have gotten laid last night."

"No, no." He assured him shaking his head no.

"You sure?"

"Even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't be telling you." He chuckled. "Actually I found out this girl that I've had my eye on for a while now is single, I always thought that she was taken."

"What are you waiting for then?"

He sighed a little "Well... I don't know, she's pretty quiet and shy, she's always blushing when I say hi to her and she always looks so sad... I actually got her to smile this morning, and man... it's a nice smile." He gleamed.

"Well with your charm, I'm sure you'll have her talking to you in no time." Marcus grinned and started to walk away, he stopped at the door and turned around "Ryker?"

"Yes Marcus.." He says leaning back in his chair folding his hands together.

"If you finally get her to go out with you, make sure you don't fill her in on your job description like you did the last one."

"Yea I know.." he sighed thinking back to his last girlfriend and how he found out that she was involved in a case that he was investigating, once he told her who he was, she ended up destroying all kinds of evidence which caused him to lose their case. "Hey.. would you like to go out tonight?"

"Sure, what's up for you to be going out on a weeknight?"

"Just feeling like having a drink is all." Ryker smiled "So how about it?"

"I'm game.. I'll catch up with ya later and get the details, I have a meeting to attend to in about five minutes."

Ryker saluted him as he left, he then looked over a new file that was handed to him. While reading through the case he smiled "Easy one." He said quietly, he liked that it was a workers compensation case where they believed that their client was defrauding the state and faking his injuries. As he looked over the file he wrote down notes, he opened his bottom drawer pulling his equipment out, he stood up and placed his body camera and microphone on concealing it good and headed out to see what he could find out on this guy.

Later that night Andrea stopped over at Talia's apartment and tried talking her into going out again after she had changed her mind. Andrea looked around her apartment and shook her head when she saw pictures of her ex still all over the place. "What is this?" Andrea asked as she grabbed a picture of her ex off the end table. Talia grabbed it out of her hand and pulled it to her chest "Its nothing."

"Seriously Talia? Get over him already, he's a fucking loser that cheated on you, he doesn't deserve you." Andrea was disgusted and yanked the picture out of her hands throwing it on her couch.

Talia hated hearing her say that to her but she knew that it was true. She couldn't help it, with everything that he promised her she still had a hard time thinking that it was all true. "I see that look in your eye, you still won't believe it, even after I caught the guy red handed." Andrea said irritated. "Come on let's go, you'll never know maybe you'll meet someone worth talking to."

"Fine.. lets go. Just don't expect me to be out looking for love."

They headed for a local bar, since they had to work in the morning they figured they would have a couple drinks then head home. Andrea just wanted to get her out and about and get Talia out of her funk that she had been in. As they walked in, the music was loud and a few partygoers were slamming shots over at the bar.

Andrea danced her way up to the bar pulling Talia along with her. "What can I get for you two?" The bartender asked with a smile.

Andrea looked at Talia and back at the bartender "We will have two long island iced teas... please" She smiled. Andrea looked over at Talia when the bartender walked away "So tell me, that guy that comes in every morning, what do you think of him?"

"Which guy?" She asked confused "There's many of them that come in."

"That hot sexy one with the dark hair that can never keep his eyes off of you."

The drinks were placed in front of them, Talia picked hers up placing the straw in her mouth and took a sip. "I have no clue what you're talking about." She placed her drink down and stared at her drink stirring the ice cubes around.

Andrea knew she knew who she was talking about, she could see that she was just being stubborn. "You know exactly who I'm talking about, I saw him make you smile this morning."

"Oh.. him.." She shrugged her shoulders "He's cute, but I'm sure he's married."

"Who's married?"

Talia heard a familiar voice and froze as she looked at Andrea. Andrea leaned over sideways and saw that Ryker had shown up and smiled as she waved at him "So nice to see you here!" Andrea said loudly.

Talia turned to look and was shocked to see the guy she served every morning sitting next to her. "So who's married? He asked again with a smirk.

"No-nobody." She stuttered. "Have you been sitting there long?" Worried that he heard them talking about him.

"Just got here, I noticed you sitting here and figured I would sit next to you. Can I buy you a drink?"

"Buy her twenty of them!" Andrea said loudly, then giggled. "The woman needs to let loose and get that stick out of her ass."

Talia quickly turned to face Andrea and gave her a shove "Thanks a lot!"

"Well, you do.."

Ryker waved the bartender over and ordered himself a scotch on the rocks and bought the two gals a drink. "My name is Ryker and this is my good friend Marcus." He reached out to shake her hand, she slowly shook his hand and smiled "I'm Talia, but I'm sure you knew that already." She said shyly.

Talia felt embarrassed thinking he heard her talking about him and looked back over to Andrea. Andrea urged her to talk to him, she stood up and and asked Marcus if he wanted to help her pick some music out from the jukebox.

Ryker was curious to get to know Talia more, and started talking to her. When a slow song started playing he took her hand "Come with me, let's have a dance."

"But--"

"Come on, I don't bite." He smiled. He held her hand and walked her over to where other people were dancing, they didn't really have a dancefloor, but there was an open area for people to dance.

He held her close to him and looked down at her while they danced. Her heart was racing, she somehow liked the feeling of being in his arms and that it was a different feeling than being in her ex's arms.

It was almost a magical feeling, so warm, so comfortable, and she felt so safe with him. The more she thought about him and being in his arms the warmer she felt inside.

"Thanks for the dance." He said with a smile as he pulled back to look at her when the song finished. He curled his finger under her chin, leaning down to her lips and gave her a short soft kiss that sent electricity throughout their bodies.

"You're welcome." She said in shock from that kiss he just placed on her lips.

Hope the first chapter was OK, I had so many versions that I wrote to start the story off and this I hope will be the best one that will make you continue to read further 😊😊🤞🤞🙏🙏

Remember your comments and votes help me as a writer. 😍😍❤❤😍😍❤❤

I try listening to my readers and see where they want the story to go as well!