I admit that I hadn’t realized time was still moving after I checked the time. I knew that the week had been strange, and despite him being the catalyst for most of it — he was also hard wired into my routine. Him standing there, blue eyes staring at me, just settled me further into the normalcy of my life.

My thoughts ran away, and before I knew it his mouth was moving.

“Samantha…?” He raised an eyebrow, looking at my face intently.

Shaking my head, I checked the clock again. Two entire minutes I had stood there, spacing out as I looked at him. It was embarrassing, to say the least.

“Yeah!” I responded, hoping to pull some of my dignity back.

A short chuckle flowed out of Lawrence as his face relaxed. “The coffee brewed yet?” he asked.

“Ahh.” I held a finger up before turning away from him. “The coffee is always brewing. Number one imperative.” I grabbed a large cup from the top of the stack, and let muscle memory continue to take me along the morning's tasks.

A knuckle pushed in the lever and the hot liquid splashed against the bottom of the stiff paper. The smell hit my nostrils, and if I didn’t know any better I would say I heard him breathe as it hit his.

I knew it was my imagination- who could hear a small breath over the sound of the machines in front of me?

In a flash, the coffee was an inch from the top, and my hands were clipping the plastic lid on top. I blinked and my hands were holding the cup out, watching as he grabbed the cup from me, and scoffed.

“I was gonna sit.”

I blinked again, trying to reconnect my thoughts and my actions. “If you can find a seat.”

Lawrence turned his head and scanned the empty shop and let out a laugh. “Yeah, We’ll see.”

A moment later he had walked away and sat down in his corner. It was almost an everyday moment.

With my nostrils full of coffee beans, I turned on my heels. The rest of the morning tasks still needed to be done. If I was going to keep running the place, I had to do the work.

The daylight waned and somehow came again the next day. The weekend came, and the next week rolled through without incident. I did exactly what everyone around me expected me to do, and after a while, I thought to myself that the entire thing must have been a dream.

I took Sunday off and sat on my couch, stuck with boring ownership tasks. Balancing books and keeping vendors in line. It was tedious, and by the time I opened the bottle of Moscato that night, I remembered why I had been dreaming of retirement.

An entire month went by the same way. The same routine with my same regular customers. It was nice- in a way. Until one Wednesday morning, Clarissa walked through the doors.

With half a dozen customers that had come in shortly after I opened, I almost didn't spare the thought. The sound of the bell hit my ears as I was pouring a pot of cooled coffee into the pitcher. The leftovers of yesterdays ice coffee were about to run out. I raised an eyebrow, and after a beat, I decided to look up.

My eyes saw the woman and looked away to empty my hands. When they looked up again it hit, and I felt my breath catch in my throat for one long second. A groan left my throat, and with nothing else to do, before she hit the counter, I straightened the apron around my waist.

Clarissa, in her short black dress, stopped a few steps past the door. Her head moved as she scanned the cafe. Briefly scanning the faces of the customers that had chosen to sit among the tables, and stopping when she had made it all the way around to the back corner.

There was no need to guess who she was looking for. At 10 til 7, Lawrence was still sitting in the lounge chair that seemed to be a temporary home while he drank his coffee. A staple in that corner of the shop, her head stopped and I couldn’t see her full expression but by her frozen shoulders and clenched fist- I had my guesses.

I had seen her laugh. A joyous contagious laugh that made you want to smile even if she was laughing at your expense. I had seen her appear out of nowhere and leave in the blink of an eye. I imagine that somewhere in my nightmares I had also seen her look of anger and disapproval.

She cleared her throat. Despite the ambient noise, it was loud enough to make her target look up from his paperback book and notice her. The second he did she turned and finally made her way up to the counter.

I don’t think I could have moved in that moment had I tried. My shoes were superglued to the wooden floor. Common exchanges led me to think that I wasn’t a very timid person. I handled angry customers, raging drivers, and all the loud people that walked the streets in the big city. But as her heels tapped against the floor on the way to me, I felt my face get warm. The blood pounded in my ears, and the only thing I could do was take another breath.

“Look-” Clarissa said when she had made her way up to me. She placed the fingertips of one hand on the top of the counter, her pearl-white fingernails contrasting the dark cherry wood. “I don’t want to cause a scene in your…”

She paused, looking around as if to try and formulate the proper word.

“Coffee shop?” Lawrence said from behind her.

Clarissa’s eyes widened as if startled before she turned to face him. She stood that way for a moment before adjusting her body so she could see both of us.

I understood her expression more than I would have liked to admit- he had snuck up on both of us, and I had been looking that direction.

“Coffee shop,” she repeated, making a face like the words physically hurt to say. “But you two have been sitting around for weeks now. Drinking coffee,” she raised an eyebrow at Lawrence before continuing her little speech. “Playing house and making faces at each other- or whatever the hell it is you two do here.”

My eyebrows furrowed deep on my face as I felt the indignation rise. “Excuse me?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Clarissa continued with barely a glance in my direction. “The point is that both of you sit here every day and ignore the fact that the rest of us are out there doing what needs to be done. I am getting my ass handed to me, Lawrence.”

He rolled his eyes.

There was something about the gesture that made me chuckle, relaxing the muscles in the rest of my face.

He glanced my way as he set his coffee cup down on the counter and put both hands inside his jean pockets. “Clarissa, you and I both know that's not true. Besides the fact that this is not the place for it. The council will be calling soon. Do your bitching there.”