☽Ⓛ❈Ⓒ☾

Wednesday is uneventful working in the café.

It's busy as hell and I'm on my feet most of the time, but nothing exciting to report. The author, Zane Torres, comes in and sits at his usual table. He is served by Pippa again because I'm restocking the cake display.

We make eye contact for all of three seconds. It's not a long stretch of time by any means, but it does something to me. I feel irrationally excited by it. My body is thrumming with energy afterwards and Pippa asks why I'm hyper.

Very strange.

I choose to wear casual dress for the bowling date. I want the freedom to move around with the bowling balls and kick Caven's ass. Something tells me that he is a sore loser.

Exactly on six o'clock, there's a knock on my front door. I open it to find Caven on the door step. In his hand is a bouquet of red roses.

'Hey,' he says warmly. 'You look nice. These are for you.'

He hands me the flowers and I accept them with a smile.

'They're lovely, thank you. Do you want to come in? I'll put these in water.'

He steps into my house and I take the flowers through to the kitchen. I take off the plastic, trying to ignore the 'only £3' sticker on it. He really could have taken that off. Isn't that in flower-buying 101?

I don't particularly like roses. The scent? Definitely. But as flowers go, they're a bit cliché. I'm more of a dahlia or gerbera girl myself.

But, I should stop being so ungrateful and be impressed that he made the effort.

I put the flowers in a vase and set them on the kitchen table. When I come back through to the hallway, Caven is on the phone.

'No, man. I won't be able to make it till later,' he says to the person on the phone.

He sees me and steps out of the house, letting me lock up. We both walk out on the street, with him still on the phone call.

'Ten? Yeah, that should be fine. Sound. See you later.'

He hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket.

'Bowling alley is about a ten minute walk, that alright?'

'Yes, that's fine.'

'I thought we could get some food there, too. They've got the best chips in town.'

'Sounds good to me.'

The bowling alley is surprisingly busy for a Wednesday night. We're lucky that Caven booked us a lane, because we would have needed to wait a while for a free one.

Once we're all geared up with the world's sexiest and slippiest shoes, we get to our line. We play a couple of rounds, tying it fairly even.

I was right, Caven is a bit of a sore loser. He's all encouraging when I don't get as many points, but if I get a strike or a spare, he suddenly goes quiet and gets his game-face on.

He wins the first round by a few points and offers to pay for food. He buys me chips and a burger. It's not the height of dining, but I wouldn't want that.

I enjoy the food in our little area, listening to him tell me about his friends and his bartending gig. He has some seriously funny stories about being a bartender, a couple of horror ones, too.

After eating, we return for round two. I smash him this time and Caven tries his best to be congratulatory. It looks like it physically pains him to congratulate me, which only makes me laugh and that pisses him off more.

He demands a third round, but we've only paid for two and there is a family waiting for our line. Caven tries to flash his cash to get another one, but the server is having none of it.

Irritated, he takes my hand and leads me out of the bowling alley.

'You do not take losing well, do you?' I tease him, unable to stop my laughter.

He narrows his eyes at me. 'No, Lily, I don't. Anyway, it's not even eight o'clock yet, do you want to get some ice cream?'

At his suggestion, we walk to the high street and Caven introduces me to the best ice cream parlour in town. There are three others, so I guess that's saying something.

We sit on a bench outside and eat our ice creams. Caven throws his wafer cone away, but I sit and eat every inch of mine.

Waste not, want not.

After we've done, we walk along the beach. It's nice at night, there's no one around and we have the sand to ourselves. It's dark out on the water but the sea somehow still looks inviting.

'Wanna go skinny dipping?' Caven jokes.

I roll my eyes. 'I bet you've done that before, haven't you?'

He smirks and shoves his hands in his front pockets. 'Once or twice.'

He walks me back to my house and waits for me to unlock the door. I open it but don't step inside. When I turn back to face him, his eyes drop to my lips.

Caven leans in but I don't pull away. My eyes fall closed and our lips meet. It's a sweet kiss, on my door step. His lips move confidently over mine, coaxing a response.

I kiss him back, enjoying his soft lips. When he pulls back, he smiles down at me.

'Want to do this again on Friday night?' He asks. 'Something different than the bowling alley, but hopefully another kiss.'

'Sure, that sounds good.'

'Okay, I'll text you the details,' he replies and turns on his heel.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts texting as he walks away.

'Thank you for tonight!' I call out after him.

He waves his hand in my direction but doesn't look up from his phone. I wait for him to disappear around the corner before I go inside.

He was better tonight, we had fun. He's not my dream guy by any stretch of the imagination, but a few harmless dates won't hurt. I don't have to worry about him getting hurt, he isn't falling in love with me or anything.

Frankly, I can't really imagine Caven in love. I don't regret saying yes to a third date, but I know that he isn't my future husband. He's not Mr. Right, but he's Mr. Right Now.

I text the girls and give them an update on my date and Friday night.

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Thursday morning, I arrive at 8AM exactly for my shift. I tie my apron around my waist and meet Pippa out front.

The first customers start trailing through. Pippa takes their orders and handles the payments whilst I make their coffees.

We power through the first hour. At nine, Pippa pops into the back to bring out more Victoria Sponge cake. Apparently, everyone has a craving for it this morning. We've sold six slices already.

'Excuse me?'

A raspy male voice makes me jump. I put down the rag I was using to clean the coffee machine and spin around.

Zane Torres, the author, is stood at the counter. He's wearing those huge glasses, a beanie and a giant hoodie again. It's different to the black one I've seen him in before. This one is grey and has some brand written across the front.

I smile and step up to the cash register.

'Morning, what can I get you?'

I make the mistake of looking into his eyes.

Holy mother of God, those eyes.

Like two pools of deep, forest green. Not quite army green, but definitely dark. There is a thick ring of brown around the edge of his irises.

His skin is a golden tan colour, his thick eyebrows set behind his glasses and his cheekbones, although slightly hidden by the frames, look to die for. His jawline is cut sharp and clean-shaven, it looks like it could cut your finger if you ran your fingertip over it...

His full, pink lips move and my brain manages to catch up and process his words.

'I'd like a cappuccino please, and a butter-'

'Croissant. Of course. That will be £4, please.'

He pulls his wallet out of his pocket and removes a £5 note. I take it from him and the tiniest part of my finger touches his. His skin is warm and sends a fuzzy feeling through me.

I swap the note for a pound coin and hand it to him.

'Do you want to take a seat? I'll bring your order over.'

He gives me a small smile, lighting up his gorgeous face. I can't believe I didn't see how handsome he was from all the way by the window.

Why does he hide behind baggy clothes, hats and glasses? I want to see more of him.

Probably to stop perverts like you ogling him.

Stop sexualising him, Lily.

'Thank you...'

'Lily.'

His smile widens. 'Thank you, Lily.'

I watch him take a seat by the window. Zane Torres interests me greatly.

Pippa comes out with more cake just as I've finished making Zane's order. I set it out on a tray and get ready to take it over.

Pippa swoops in and grabs the tray.

'I'll take this to Zane, you get the next customer,' she says. 'Something tells me they're here for you.'

She winks and struts off. Frowning, I turn back to the counter. Caven is leaning across it, smirking widely.

'Good morning, Lils.' he greets me. 'How about a coffee?'

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Obviously guys like Caven would never be the main love interest, but I wanted to explore the love life of the female lead.

In real life, you rarely meet your person straight away.

You have to date a few frogs before you find your Prince(ss) 🤷‍♀️

An actual transcript from mine and my boyfriend's convo yesterday:

My boyf: 'Why are you grinning at your phone?'

'One of my angels left a lovely comment.'

'Still don't get why you call them that.'

'Cause they're my angels, they keep me going and support me.'

'But they're strangers? You have no idea who they are. They're all over the world.'

'How many times do I have to tell you? They're not strangers. They're my friends.'

'Friends? You're weird.'

'You love me. What does that say about you?'