Coffee Wars - Excerpt # 8
Coffee Wars - Chapter Three, Part Three
Café Pizza sold pizza by the slice along with fountain drinks, but it was also a typical coffee shop. After Lea left, Christina bought a pastry and an iced chai latte and pulled out her Chemistry book to study. She was deep into chapter five when someone walked up to her table.
“Hey.”
Christina looked up, and her shoulders drooped. It was definitely not someone she was happy to see. “Adam. Hey.”
“How’s it going?”
“Fine. Did Buddy send you to check up on me?”
Adam scrunched up his brow. “No. Why would you think that?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve just never seen you here before.”
Without asking, he sat across from her, which kickstarted the nerves in her stomach. She really didn’t want to be around someone who might pressure her into smoking marijuana, especially when she wasn’t at work.
“I come here whenever I visit my older brother,” Adam said. “He lives across the street.”
“Oh. Small world. I live across the street, too.” Why did she tell him that? They were NOT friends.
“Yeah, small world. I guess we never noticed each other before. I usually don’t stay long enough to notice anyone.”
Christina lifted the edge of her Chemistry book. “And I usually have my nose in a book.”
“Why don’t you work here since it’s so close to home?”
“Because I like to hang out here, and I don’t want to work where I hang out. It would ruin the hanging out part for me.”
Adam laughed. “I guess that means you don’t like May’s much.”
Christina gave him a crooked grin. “Your guess would be right.”
He leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingertips on the tabletop. Then he pushed his chair out and stood. “Have fun hanging out then. I’ve got to get to my brother’s. I’m babysitting his kid. But I’ll see you at work?”
“Sure.”
Adam glanced around and then said, “Maybe I’ll start hanging out here more. It seems like a cool place.”
Christina’s eyes widened, and a blush heated her face. Adam turned to look at her again and smiled. Then he walked up to the counter to place his order.
Christina couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder at him. She had to admit he was cute, and she got a little thrill out of thinking he might be interested in her. Maybe she’d misjudged him. Maybe he had only smoked weed with Buddy to make Buddy happy. Maybe he wasn’t a pothead after all. When she turned back to her Chemistry book, she knew she had a stupid grin on her face, but she didn’t care.
A few minutes later, Adam passed by her table again, this time holding two pieces of pizza. “Yeah, I definitely think I’ll be hanging out here more often,” he said. “See you around, Christina.”
As he walked off, Christina picked her jaw up off the floor and managed, “See you, Adam.”
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