#1: Obvious – 821 words – 07/21/2013

-/-

"Bathroom, be back in a minute!" Markus nodded from his position at the counter and I made my way to the break room. I patted a nervous Lenny on the shoulder. She was finishing up a caramel Frappuccino for a regular. "You're doing great, Hun, keep at it!"

She smiled and it brightened up her round face. I nearly tripped over the mat in my slip-resistant shoes. She was too cute.

In the bathroom, I pulled two paper towels and dabbed at the sweat collecting on my face. Noon had come and gone with the lunch time rush and now we were winding down for the moment. I grabbed the purple scrunchie from the sink and twisted my hair into a quick bun. At least until dinnertime.

The front door of our little café chimed, announcing a customer. I pulled my dark green hat over my head and turned on the water. The soap and warm water mixed and formed bubbles over my hands as I mentally sang the last few letters of the alphabet.

"El!" Markus' said. My heart stopped. Why me?

"Markus!" Elliot laughed and the sound of palms slapping each other marked their manly hello. "How are you, man?"

I dried my hands and walked my way to the register, meeting eyes with the smiling red-haired man. His abnormally white teeth would not faze me. ...and neither would his dimple.

"My dear Cali, how are you?" His smile never waned.

I bared my teeth until it hurt, "Amazing, and yourself?"

His blond eyelashes had the nerve to look embarrassed as they shielded his brown eyes for a moment before he looked up at me. Which wasn't too difficult since he was barely an inch taller than me. "About last night…"

"What can I get for you today, sir?" I said. His smile faltered and I pressed the buttons for the vanilla laté with two pumps of hazelnut.

Pink colored his adorably freckled cheeks. I pressed the option for extra whipped cream. "A large-"

"A large vanilla laté with three pumps of hazelnut and extra whipped cream? That'll be 4.78, sir." I grabbed his five without touching him and ignored his frown. I picked up two dimes and two pennies from my cash box.

"I didn't know you were coming over last night," he said. My ears burned and my heart beat a quickening pace at the memory rising to the surface. "I fell asleep in the shower after Kendo practice and missed your call-"

"It's never gonna happen again." I was so glad for my dark complexion. I cleared my throat and shot him a glare, "And now is not a time to be discussing such personal matters."

He grasped my hand. The familiar calluses he accumulated from wielding the bamboo sword for his Japanese fencing practices chased shivers up my spine. Damn him. "Cali, I—"

"Don't!" I said, looking around at the polite customers minding their own business. Markus wiped down the coffee machine for the third time, focusing on the apparently very dirty nozzle. Lenny pumped a few extra hazelnut syrup, seeming to forget which number she was on. "What good do you think it'll do coming to my work place and apologizing again?"

"But I didn't know you were waiting in lingerie at the front gate for an hour!"

"Elliot." Sometime in my past life I had done something horrible and now karma had come back to bite me in the ass. I leaned in towards him. His eyes widened and he leaned in as well. "One more word and I kill you, do you hear me? Keel."

Elliot leaned back and let go of my hand, running a hand through his short mane. He sighed. Good, he finally got it. He walked over to a shy Lenny who pretended she hadn't heard anything and grabbed his drink from the counter. He flashed her one of his smiles at half effort and she blushed beet red. His dimple peeked out from his left cheek and he reached for his wallet. Stupid good-looking man who knew he was good-looking.

"Thanks sugar," he said, placing two folded dollar bills on the counter.

"You're welcome," she said. She slid the bills into her apron pocket and loosened and retied her apron string.

Elliot waved at Markus and made his way out the door. The denim stretched tight over his ass, bunching and unbunching… reminding me about another time when his ass did that…

I sighed, wishing I could fan myself. Markus raised an eyebrow at me and I just shrugged, turning towards the register and greeting the next customer in line. Gotta focus, you're at work Cali. Remember that. No more thoughts about Elliot or asses, especially his when he was being such a stupid, but very toned and nice looking one.

"Hello, what can I get for you today?"

-/-

Author's Explanation for Randomness:

My boyfriend and I will be doing a writing challenge where we choose a word from a list of 30 and write a little something about it. This is my first entry. Not sure if the next one will be continuing it or something else entirely, we shall see what the muse comes up with. :] I hope you enjoyed it.