I go into my local independent coffee shop every day. A creature of habit, I always order the same thing. The place is near my house, the staff is friendly, and they always start my drink while I'm in line. It's a nice way to start the day.
Ellie is one of the baristas with an early shift. She's always nice to me, and I enjoy when we share a few words each morning. When she's the one who makes my drink, she'll put a little heart in black marker on my cup. Even though I know being nice to the customers is part of her job, I've always wondered if she'd go out with me.
Not wanting to create an awkward situation in a place I go every day, I decided long ago to ignore that impulse and enjoy it for what it was.
As work from home became a thing, I started going in late afternoons for a second drink. Since Ellie worked the morning shift it was less fun, but the coffee was a great way to re-energize to finish the day strong.
One Tuesday afternoon, to my surprise, I found Ellie sitting on the customer side of the shop having a coffee as I walked in. She noticed me right away and called for my attention. We ended up spending a half hour talking. Instead of her usual perky small talk, I got to know a bit about the real her. She was in a master's program at the local university and hoped to be a psychologist when she finished school.
The age difference between us never crossed my mind, but doing the math, I figured she was in her mid to late 20's. As I'm in my early 40's, I was feeling better about my decision not to ever ask her out. Now I knew I was too old anyway.
Fast forward to Thursday morning. Normal routine. I walk in, she smiles and says "I gotcha" and went to work. I paid and stood waiting at the delivery counter. When my drink arrived, I hurried out the door and put my brain towards work.
At home as I set up to start my day, I noticed that there was no heart on my drink cup, but rather an arrow that pointed down and ended at the top of the cup sleeve. Obviously curious, I pushed the sleeve down to find that Ellie had written her number on the cup, with a heart before and after the digits.
Wow. Not only unexpected, but exciting. Ellie was young, beautiful, and smart. She was about 5'6'' with long brown hair. Until a few days before I never really knew what her body looked like, as she always wore an apron with the shop logo on it. Her look outside of work was casual, but attractive. She wasn't an athlete but was curvy in all the right ways.