Monday at 7 a.m. is not the time to strike up a friendly conversation with me. I think she could tell, but she did it anyway. Goddamn her.
"You're a little under-dressed for this building. And too young to be a lawyer."
The nosy barista studied me from behind the counter. Any other girl, I might have laid on the snark and ended the conversation. But something about her brought me up short.
I met her gaze, and I couldn't help but smile. She was disarmingly beautiful.
Brown hair in a messy bun. Slim jawline, cute nose. And sparkling, pretty blue eyes behind a pair of smart tortoise shell glasses.
"I'm guessing ..." She pursed her lips. "IT contractor."
She interrupted herself. "No, wait. Elevator inspector." She paused for a beat. "Yoga instructor?"
I laughed as I reached for my wallet.
She tugged at the lapel of her Oxford shirt. "I brought my workout bag, just tell me where your class is, and I'll be there."
She added with a wink, "I've already got my sports bra on and everything."
I was in jeans and a blazer, the very picture of a yoga instructor.
"Come on now..." I squinted at her nametag. "βAmanda." I tried very hard not to imagine her in a sports bra. "I'm not dressed that casually, am I?"
She just gave me a sly grin. "What can I get you then, Mr. Elevator Inspector?"
"It's Jeff. And... I'll just have a matcha latte."
"You sure? It's Cute 30-Something Awareness Day, I can get you a discount on a sandwich."
I looked behind me. No one in line. I glanced back at her and feigned surprise, gesturing questioningly at myself.
Then I grinned and shot back, "You should definitely cash in on that discount yourself."
Her mouth dropped open in mock indignation.
"How old do you think I am?" She winked and turned to grab a cup. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were hitting on me."
She pulled out a fine-point Sharpie and began writing on the cup.
"OK then, Jeff. One matcha latte, and..." She punched something into the computer. "A breakfast sandwich on the house."
An older man with a briefcase had, by that point, walked up and gotten in line behind me, spoiling our moment of fun. I paid for the drink and took a seat while I waited for my order.
I kept glancing up from my phone to watch her. She had poise and spunk, and she knew what she wanted, I thought.
She glanced my way once, and caught me staring. She just smiled and, with eyebrows raised, turned tail and walked away from me to the rear counter, shimmying her butt as she bent to grab a gallon of milk from the fridge below the counter.
And what a butt. Petite like the rest of her, but full, her tight round cheeks creasing her slacks in snug crescents against her thighs.
I was getting carried away. Try not to stare, I told myself. I pulled up my email inbox and made a valiant attempt to distract myself.
A minute later, Amanda produced my order at the pickup counter.
"Matcha latte and a sandwich for Mr. Jeff!" she said with a brilliant toothy smile. I could have sworn she was blushing just a little.
I said thanks and turned to head to my office. As I walked, I glanced down at my cup.
On it was written not my name, but hers, followed by an X and an O. And a phone number.
Mondays weren't so bad after all.
--
"So, do you always flirt with random guys at the coffee counter?" I texted.
I'd been thinking about her for hours, sitting in meeting after meeting, drafting proposals with colleagues, eating lunch with a client, fielding an urgent request from a senior partner. And the whole time, all I'd wanted to do was talk to the cute barista.
A minute passed before she wrote back.
"No, I only flirt with the ones who can get me a discount on a gym membership," she said.
I smiled.
"I don't think you'd be interested in my gym," I shot back.
"Why," she said. "Too much competition?" She added an emoji of two dancing girls in black leotards.
"No," I wrote. "My gym is just two dumbbells and a dog who believes pushup time is playtime."
"Well, as it happens," she wrote, "I also believe that."
Then she added, "You can always do your pushups on me."
I stared at her texts. My heart slammed against my ribs like a caged animal.
"I wonder how many reps I'd get in," I wrote back.
"Just keep going until I tell you to stop," she said.
"I think you'd better get your cute butt upstairs Amanda. Before I'm forced to work out alone."
"Don't you dare," she wrote. "I'm coming."
"Um, you will be," I wrote.
She texted back a heart-eyes emoji and one word: "Ugh."
--
Fifteen minutes later, her knock sounded at my office door. She had just gotten off work, and she still had on the white Oxford and black slacks, and a sensible pair of black ballet flats on her feet.
"Sorry I'm late," she said. "I went to the intern bullpen first, thinking I'd find you there, but no, you've got yourself some serious digs of your own!
She said it half in jest, but her eyes were wide as she glanced around my office.
"OK, so forget the lawyer joke I made earlier," she said.
Her head swiveled back and forth at the well-appointed space. "You've clearly done OK for yourself, haven't you?"
I could tell she was suddenly getting a little self-conscious. After all, we weren't that far apart in age, and here she was, a lowly barista standing in the office of a corporate lawyer.
I was still a rookie, but you wouldn't have known it from the sprawling office and floor-to-ceiling city view. My firm had been in this building, its new home, for just four months, and I knew it was only a matter of time before a new partner claimed my office. But I was definitely enjoying it while it lasted.
I walked to shut the door behind Amanda.
"I'm no big shot just yet," I said, trying to put her at ease. I sunk into one of two low-lying leather chairs on either side of a small glass coffee table. She sunk into the other one, glancing up at me through those cute glasses.
"Aw man, and here I was thinking I'd hit the jackpot," she mused. "Don't tell me you're the cleaning crew and we're about to get kicked out of here."