The Coffee Date
Romantic Comedy Romance Short Story
Skye was already having a bad day.
First of all, she missed her train because she stopped to pet a stray cat. Second of all, she ran tripped and soaked her white blouse, and now it was terribly see through. Now this. As she went to get her coffee, she bumped into her old friend, Brett, from college.
Her stomach dropped. This wasn’t happening. This was NOT happening.
“Skye?” Brett began, taking a napkin from the counter to dry the coffee she’d freshly spilled like it was a regular occurrence. That just made Skye feel worse.
“Oh, hey, Brett.” She blushed, as she shook the coffee off of her hand, “I am so sorry about this. Today’s just not my day.” He chuckled at her, got his coffee, and gestured her to sit with him. He ran a hand through his dark hair.
“So, what are you up to, these days?” He asked, with a beautiful white smile spread across his face.
“I got fired a couple of days ago.” She was an idiot. Why was that the first thing that popped into her head? She regretted it instantly. She tried to laugh it off. “Apparently, telling old women over the phone that you sold your soul for some doughnuts and regretted it terribly is not something that’s acceptable to tell people as a telemarketer.” Now, she was just spilling her guts. At least her reason for getting fired was entertaining. In theory.
“You actually said that?” Brett laughed, “You have not changed a single bit,” he bit his lip, and Skye became hyper aware of every single move he made.
“You didn’t expect me to, did you?”
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I should have known doughnuts would be on the cards.” She rolled her eyes at him. “How many doughnuts did you get for your soul in the end? I’m considering it myself.”
“About three, maybe four, or seven…”
“That’s a pretty big leap,” he observed.
“What can I say? The devil was generous.” She thought she could catch him staring at her shirt, and she tried to think of a way to cover herself up. There were three napkins on the table. They’d have to do. She quickly picked them up, as he took a sip from his coffee. “What about you?” She asked stupidly, trying to get him to look elsewhere by waving a waitress over to the table.
The woman that came over had amazingly curly blonde hair, and wore a black and white pantsuit. Brett shifted his blue eyes to her, just like Skye had planned. She quickly unfolded the napkins and stuffed them down her shirt. The waitress started to eye Skye with a quizzical look, but before Brett made a move, Skye gestured to the waitress to keep him distracted.
“Ma’am, there is a restroom just behind the counter,” she said instead. Skye didn’t know this woman – this… Melinda, as her nametag read – but she felt so betrayed by her. Whatever happened to the girl code?
“I’m fine,” Brett looked to her, and she quickly folded her arms across her chest like nothing happened.
“Skye, what’s the big idea? What’s going on?” Melinda left the table, and Skye focused her attention back to Brett, feeling the napkins slip all the way down her torso. The napkins were all for nothing.
“Oh, nothing. So, what have you been up to, recently? You seeing anyone?” Skye wanted to kick herself. She couldn’t believe how forward she was being! He looked a little surprised by the question, but not unhappily so.
“I’m not seeing anyone right now, no. I’m a bit busy with my photography. I’m a big shot now, believe it or not.” He puffed up his chest for comedic effect, but all Skye could think about was how much of a dork she looked like, with her cat bra completely visible through her blouse. As if to make matters worse, Melinda came back over.
“Ma’am, I brought you some more napkins for your breasts. You looked pretty panicked just before.” Skye could have throttled Melinda. What was she trying to do? Make her die of embarrassment? She went as red as a tomato at Melinda’s gesture, and took the napkins from her begrudgingly.
"What...?" It was safe to say, Brett was pretty clueless.
"My boob napkins fell down." It wasn't like she had any dignity left anyway. She might as well have just said what happened. "My top is see through, and I didn't want that to draw attention to..." Her words turned into a mutter when she realised how stupid they sounded, and she just buried her head in one of her hands. "I'm sorry... I just."
"Hey, don't be sorry. I didn't even notice they fell down, and anyway, we all have our bad days," he smiled back. "And hey, I bet you're the envy of everyone in this cafe. Not many people would have cats on their underwear." He winked, and she just rolled her eyes.
"I thought you said you didn't notice!" She almost announced that too loudly. "Look, today has just been a disaster. I'm not usually this much of a mess. I can promise you." With her new boob napkins, as they were called, she stuffed them down her shirt in an attempt to make her underwear less visible.
"I know," Brett smiled at her again, "And who knew you were a pro at arranging boob napkins? Not a single cat in sight."
"The doughnuts give me strength," Skye said begrudgingly. Nothing could have made her day any worse. She was already so embarrassed that there was literally nothing else that could faze her.
"Your love of doughnuts is unparalleled, still. It's good to know some things are still constant in this life." He looked off into the distance.
"My, you really are a pretentious photographer."
"What about you? Are you seeing anyone?" Skye shook her head violently. She must have seemed a little too eager, but she was past the point of caring. "No way. Someone like you? You can't be single. You're soulless, and love doughnuts. What's not to like?" She laughed at his sentiment, and when he took another sip of his coffee, Skye narrowed her eyes at Melinda from across the room.
"Hey, uh, Skye? I lied. See, the girl I'm interested in... I'm waiting on an answer from her." Skye's heart sank at that. "She's a great girl, really." He avoided her eyes. "Smart, funny, talented. I just hope she says yes." Skye didn't know what to say. She hadn't really prepared herself for this set of follow-up questions.
"Oh, I'm sure she will."
"Yeah, I hope so. I owe her a coffee. She was having a bad day, and I walked into her and she spilled her coffee all over me." It dawned on her in that moment. "Skye, do you want to do this again sometime?" He smiled, and looked up at her earnestly. Maybe this wasn't such a bad day, after all.
"It's a date," she smiled back at him. "I'll bring the doughnuts, And try to wear a bit more of a modest shirt next time round."
"See you then." With that, he got up, and he left the cafe with a smile on his face.