"So are you coming this Friday?" Ashley asked as she handed the last customer his drink with a smile.

I sighed.

I had run out of excuses as to why I have been turning down offers to hang out with Ash and the others. Apparently on Friday nights they'd all hang out together for lack of anything better to do.

"Come on it'd be fun...and honestly we both know you could use a break from coursework and your laptop screen." She looked way smug as she said this, because we both knew it was the truth.

"Fine...but I will not be doing anything illegal and that includes drugs, drinking..." I was cut off by Ash's squeal as she launched herself at me and enveloped me in a hug.

I had to pause midway through listing out on my fingers to catch her or we'd both topple over.

She started to talk rapidly about the things we'd have to do, hair, makeup... I was honestly getting overwhelmed and thankfully the door chimed in that moment saving me from the dizzying excitement Ash was emanating.

She glanced up at the door briefly pausing to give me a smug look before sauntering off to her station, fiddling with the things around her in a move I recognized as 'faux busy' that thing you do when your boss steps in randomly and you have nothing to do so you shuffle around papers in an attempt to look busy.

I gave her a puzzled look before facing front, and as I slipped on my customer service smile and glanced up at the person in line I was faced with the reason behind Ashley's suspicious behavior.

I hadn't seen him since that night in his apartment.

I had almost successfully stopped replaying the events of that night on repeat in my head.

I had just stopped walking around being anxious about how to act around him.

We didn't do anything really, there were no bases or boundaries crossed. By all means we were still just neighbors, and basically strangers. And I understand that sharing a blunt with someone doesn't mean anything out in the real world.

But you have to understand that I grew up virtually alone, I have never been in any situation like that before. I was never around boys alone, I didn't get any attention from the opposite sex on high school and even if I did I was too focused on my academics to even realize it.

In a lot of ways, Rakim was my first real life interaction...in a somewhat intimate way with the opposite sex.

"Did you get that?"

I snapped back to reality just in time to see his smirk slip onto his lips. He obviously knew I wasn't paying attention, and I'm guessing he knew where my mind was at...if his cocky Look was anything to go by.

I cleared my throat.

"I'm sorry about that, could you repeat that please."

I pulled out a cup and focused on the carton, pen poised to write down the order. Honestly I was trying to hide the blush that was creeping up my cheeks.

I felt lightheaded and flustered, my palms were sweating and I was aware of Ashley's gaze biting into my head as she scrutinized every detail of our interaction. I know I was gonna be drilled about it later.

I was already embarrassed as it is.

"Okay, that will be $8.95" I rang up the order and accepted the $10 he gave me avoiding eye and skin contact as I tried desperately to keep my shit together. I was being so obvious but I couldn't help it, every fiber in my body was telling me to run in the opposite direction from the man.

And at the same time, he exuded a danger that appealed to me.

"Here's your change, enjoy your order." I finally allowed myself to look up at him, my eyes found his immediately and I could see them dancing with amusement. He obviously was being entertained by this.

Honestly, If the earth could just open up and swallow me whole that'd be awesome right now.

Still holding eye contact he accepted the change, his fingers brushing against mine briefly before I heard the clinking of coins as he dropped it in my tip jar.

I broke eye contact briefly to glance down at his spontaneous action. When I looked up, he had already started moving towards the other counter towards Ashley who was trying to hide a smirk of her own.

She obviously enjoyed the show.

At this point I was pretty sure my life was a cliche coffeeshop Teen Fiction novel. Where everyone was having a good time except me.

I mumbled a thank you and attended to the other customer in line, trying to take my mind off the fact that every nerve in my body was yelling at me to just glance up at his table to see what he was doing.

I mean, in my mind's eye I already knew he had his book out and his coffee was going cold. I could already picture it, but still I wanted to glance at him just to see.

It might also be because he hadn't been in here in over two weeks, I haven't seen him since that night two weeks ago. And it's not because of my less than stellar avoidance skills, if anything he was the one avoiding me. Thinking about the possibility of that being the cause resurrected the anxiety that had plagued me before.

I was stuck believing he regretted everything that happened so much that he physically felt repulsed by the thought of my presence and avoided me for two weeks or something along that line.

It was dramatic and very much just me jumping to conclusions in the irrational way females did when left alone with their own thoughts but...

It still made me feel anxious about the first time I'd see him again.

I just wanted to confirm that nothing has changed.

Mentally I started to compare what he did today to what he did every other day he was in here...
He had come in, ordered, made me flustered, smirked and taken his seat at his usual table...

All of it seemed like things had gone back to normal to me.

I gave in to the urge to glance at his table and did so briefly... just to realize he was already looking at me, his black book abandoned.

I glanced away quickly.

Things seemed to be back to normal...business as usual as they say. Only I wasn't sure how I felt about that just yet.

A huge part of me wanted to pretend like nothing happened, but I also wanted to keep the little progress we'd made. That night he had opened up to me about some things. And ignoring that night meant going back to stage one... strangers only now we had a night of history between us.

Like I said...to regular people this probably didn't seem like a big deal. And as I smiled at the next customer in line it came to mind that I was probably overreacting and overthinking about the whole ordeal.

So I pushed every thought of the man I could feel staring at me out of my mind.

And tried to focus on getting through the day without further embarrassing myself.

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A/N
I know it's short and shitty. Cause it's a filler if there's such a thing. I just felt like putting out something. The book is still on hold but...idk I appreciate all the support it's been getting and I wanted to update for you guys.
Hope you enjoyed.
Again..updates won't be going back to normal just yet.
But fingers crossed I get inspired again.
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