Elizabeth wandered off to Hayden's cafe, Brick, that one rainy morning. She tried to get something done that night, but she ended up sitting still until the late hours passed, unable to think of anything except the thought of editing or mostly rewriting the whole thing. She wore a pair of jeans and just a comfy sweatshirt. Her under eyes were especially dark today, but she was too lazy to do her makeup, it's fine, she thought. She brought her laptop and her manuscript, along with pens and highlighters.

        Seeing the rain that morning motivated her the most, but the noise disturbed her writing so a nice enclosed space would be nice. The cafe was great as she decided she would get some work done today.

    The bell rang as she opened the front door. There in front of her stood Hayden in his usual half apron.

        "Welcome back regular costumer, you look well." He said smiling.

        The sarcasm in his tone made her laugh as she responded, "The usual breakfast, please.". She had been coming to the cafe for a while now, it being close to her home and a good place to eat, she didn't bother thinking about her meals.

       After paying, Elizabeth made her way to one of the empty tables in the venue. She could see the usual morning cashier she always saw, replace Hayden as he made his way to the kitchen.

      Elizabeth opened her laptop and started working on jotting down some ideas for the rewriting of her story, editing plots and adding new scenarios to make it as seamless as possible.

        Hayden approached her table with two breakfast sandwiches and two coffees with a plate of creamer and sugar.

       "You look busy today." He says as he placing the food down on the table.

         "You haven't had breakfast yet, it's already 9 A.M."

        "Says the one having it now, and besides I was waiting for you." He smoothly replied.

       "Touché, and I doubt it." Elizabeth says taking a bite of the sandwich, "Mmm, the bacon always tastes so heavenly in the morning."

         Hayden nodded to her as he prepared his coffee, adding two packets of sugar and a dash of the creamer. Elizabeth placed her sandwich down and also added one packet of sugar in her coffee.

        "I don't understand how you can live with just one packet of sugar." Hayden mentioned as he looks over to Elizabeth's coffee while taking a sip of his.

       "There's nothing wrong with it, I like it this way."

       "You know, studies say people who drink bitter coffee turn out to be psychopaths." Hayden casually remarked.

        Elizabeth almost spitted her coffee from laughter as she heard what he said, " Hahahaha, how do you know this kind of stuff?"

      "The internet is all knowing." Hayden smiled.

           "Well, you never know. I might be one, coming here a couple of times a week to plan your murder. "

      An awkward silence filled their surroundings. After a few minutes, Elizabeth laughed at Hayden's reaction, stopping it. Hayden scowled then breathed in deeply, " Don't say that again, looking at your face, I might believe it."

       "Hahahahaha, sorry... sorry. Wait, excuse me, my face doesn't look scary."

       "Hahahaha, beauty is subjective?"

        Elizabeth stood up from her seat to playfully hit Hayden across her. Hayden blocked her off with his hands, " Sorry... sorry, I take it back."

       The two finally calmed down and laughed it all out. They continued eating their breakfast. Elizabeth worked while doing so and Hayden sat silently in his seat, taking bites of his sandwich.

        The sound of Elizabeth's typing filled the air surrounding them. Hayden focused his hearing on these small sounds. He closed his eyes and looked up into the cafe ceiling. The atmosphere was serene between the two. It continued on until Elizabeth dropped her pen on the floor. The fall woke Hayden up. He took notice of the pen and then hurriedly picked it up for her.

      He looked up to hand it over, but just when he did he met her eyes, stopping right by his just when she also bent down. To Hayden, time stopped right there. Her dark brown eyes pulled him in closer by the second he froze there. They weren't bright like he remembered; it was deep. As he saw his reflection in her beautiful eyes, the void in them seemed to entrance him.

        "Ehem." The short cough Elizabeth made broke the scene. Hayden quickly pulled out of his position and sat back awkwardly straight. Hayden remembered the pen in his hand. He speedily hands it over to her. Smiling, she took it and drank another sip of her dark coffee.

      Hayden evidently stared at the serious scene in front of him. His elbows on the tables, his chin on his knuckles, his eyes at her. As always,

She's beautiful.

      "Hayden, stop it."

      "Stop what?" He replied smiling, leaning closer.

      "You're staring."

      "So what?"

      Elizabeth took her eyes off the monitor in front of her and looked at the person across from her, Hayden.

      "You work too much." He casually remarked, smirking.

      "I thought you had a cafe to run." Elizabeth moved her laptop over a bit to the side.

       "My employees are perfectly capable and as you already know, I'm on my breakfast break."

         Elizabeth groaned. Ever since then, she could win no argument against him, no matter how measly it was. He was kind, yet very witty sometimes. It may be annoying, but somehow it was fun, bantering with someone like this.

      She gave him a slight look of contempt, then motioned to continue to work on her manuscript.

      "El." Hayden suddenly called out to her.

      She looked up, "Hm?"

     "Can we be friends again?" He asked seriously.

      The reply was another moment of silence. In the back of his mind, Hayden was on the verge of freaking out and scolding himself for saying such weird words. Then, a sound of laughter came. Elizabeth laughed at Hayden's antics and replied,

     "Idiot."

      "Huh?" Hayden replies, genuinely confused.

      "Why are you asking me that?" She smiled at him, " Aren't we already friends?"

      "Wait -"

      "Of course we are! You slow-witted shit."

      "Woah! Woah. What did you just call me?" Elizabeth's laughter heightened, "You were supposed to be some angel back then, and now you call me shit. People really do change overtime. Calling me a slow-witted shit! Huh? Never knew you had the guts -"

      "Shut up or I'll throw my coffee in your handsome face." Elizabeth's hands moved to grip on the mug's handle. Jokingly, Hayden covered his face with his two hands.

       "No! Please." He said ironically. "Wait, you said something there." He put his hands down and leaned closer to Elizabeth's now shocked face, "You called me handsome. Mwahahahaha, well age blessed me well. Don't worry, baby, you can stare at my handsome face."

      "Ew. Shut up, Hayden."

       Hayden's laughter now sounds loudly, replacing hers as he continued to tease the woman in front of him.

       "Stop it."

       "Admit it, you think I'm handsome, right?"

        "I really don't know what you'll be getting out of this."

       "Just answer me, hm? El?"

         "Okay, okay. You are okay?"

         An amused smile escaped Hayden's face as he heard her answer. Suddenly, he grabbed her unlocked phone beside the pens on the table,

       "Hey, wait, what are you doing with my phone?" Elizabeth tried to reach for it in his hands, but Hayden raised her phone up in the sky as he types something into it. She couldn't reach no matter what she had done.

       "Give it back, idiot."

        "And done." He muttered to himself and hands it back to her, who quickly grabbed it from his hands.

      "What did you do?"

        "Call me." He said.

      Hayden then got up and ran over to the safety of his own kitchen, giggling along the way. Elizabeth sat in disbelief of the childishness of her friend and checked the contact list on her phone.

 /AA Handsome face/

      It said on top of her alphabetically arranged contacts. He sure was confident about it all, she thought. There she turned it off and finished her breakfast. Seeing that she got enough work done for the day, beaming successfully as she already organized a final plan for her edits, she packed up and headed out of the cafe.

      "See you next time, dear costumer!" A loud voice shouted in the cafe, gathering the attention of all the other people dining. Hayden stood at the counter, taking the place of the employee there before, seemingly not embarrassed about what he just yelled.

      Elizabeth looked back. After seeing his annoying face, she quickly exited the door.

He never changed.