Chapter 3 3

"Are you blind?" The voice roars in anger and that is when Ana turns to get a hold of herself realizing how lost she has been but it is already too late; she has spilled hot coffee on a customer and all over the table and floor too.

"Shit!" she immediately mutters against her breath as she turns to realize who it is she has spilled the coffee on.

Oh God, no! She worries in her head.

She is going to be dead meat if Mr. Green dares come out at this time.

What was she thinking letting herself so loose to spill hot coffee on a customer? This has never happened to her before, why now? Ana lowers her eyes in shame as she apologizes to the man.

"I'm so sorry sir. Please, I'm sorry" she begs him as she begins wiping off the coffee spills on his shirt with a napkin from her apron pocket. She's trying so hard alongside to avoid his still gaze. A gaze that is making her heart sink into her stomach.

This won't have happened if she wasn't busy thinking about lost memories that will never get back frantically. Of a lost mother that she didn't plan to see again. This shouldn't have happened-the fact that Ana was thinking of her mother.

"It's fine," the man with brown hair says. He holds her hand to stop her from cleaning his shirt "I said it's fine" he adds with a grin, his voice cold as ice as he looks up at her.

Ana stares at the man wondering if he's upset or actually fine-apart from his grin earlier, there is no other emotion on his face. His face looks anything far from being upset and nothing close to happiness.

The way he is holding her hand, it feels right and she feels safe to let him hold her as long as he wants. His hand is smooth and big and his hold is not tight or intimidating. This makes Ana feel at peace for the first time in a man's grip. This is because Ana has always felt shaky and scared of men-either holding her or coming very close to her. Most times, they tried to assault her, other times, they wanted to steal from her.

Except this time, she wants a man to hold her.

His brown eyes stare into her soul and it's like everything is suddenly on pause. She is lost in them as she stares right back. His mild lined beard lie smoothly on his jaw. His sharp jaw is very pronounced and right now she's wondering how cute he is-like a tamed tiger. Ana loves animals of every kind and the one in front of her, reminds her of all the cute alpha animals in the cat family that she loves looking at like tiger, pussy cat, Lion...

"Hey," he suddenly calls out to her after a minute of being lost again. That's when Ana blinks her eyes .

"I...I...I...I'm sorry" She stammers, slowly taking her hand away from his hold.

"It's fine, don't worry," he answers nonchalantly, attempting a smile. And even when it isn't a real smile, it's still the kind of smile that melts your soul and makes her heart jump a little. She lowers her eyes and diverts it away from him.

God this man!!!

"Try to concentrate while working," the other man with black hair chirps in and she nods her head.

Ana bends low and gradually starts picking up the broken pieces of the ceramics. Mr. Green will take this off her pay if he sees the broken cups and she knows that so she packs it up very quickly.

When she is done picking the broken ceramics, she stands up to face the man

"Let me get you another coffee, I won't charge you for it" she tells him without even meaning her words, and somehow wishing he'd decline the offer. But if he says yes, then she will have to take the money off her pay. Though that will cost a fortune compared to what she is earning.

The man is gazing at her like he wants to feed on her and suck out all her blood.

"It's fine, you are probably stressed. Take some rest" he says to her. He is a gentleman; definitely her type of man-a man who knows when a woman is stressed and should take some rest.

Mr. Green can use some lessons from this man.

"Thank you..." she finds her words to speak as she stammers, not sure why she's thanking him. Her eyes meet his as she stretches out the napkin in her hand to him so he can finish cleaning his shirt. It obviously doesn't smell as good as he does, but the napkin doesn't smell bad either.

"You can use this, it's clean enough" she tells him but he declines by pushing the napkin away from him.

The other man with black hair suddenly clears his throat and stands up first and waits for his friend. She has ruined their day and Ana feels really sorry about that.

"Trust me, this coffee will make more sense than the former. I'll personally make it without a machine." She tries her luck.

"You don't have to." the man with brown hair tells her, standing up next.

Oh boy! He's so well built.

She glances up at him as he towers over her, her cheeks are becoming red too. His shoulder is broad and sleek. Almost as if she can jump on top and maybe dance around it. She watches pull off his now stained white suit jacket exposing a black check shirt that looks very pretty just like him. He throws the jacket over his arm.

"Let's go, Daryl," the black-haired man calls out.

Daryl. Her inner voice screams the man's name like it's the best news she's ever heard.

"Here," the man said. Taking her hand, Daryl puts some money inside her palm for their bill.

"sir, you don't have to pay" she tries to decline judging from the fact that they didn't drink the coffee they ordered.

"Don't worry" he tells her, his eyes sparkling.

"Sorry I ruined your cloth" she tries to apologize again. But he doesn't reply or speak, he just nods curtly then turns around and walks away with his friend.

Ana quickly turns around to check if her boss is looking in her direction but thank God he isn't anywhere close to see the mess she has caused or she might lose her job.

Who are those men? She keeps questioning herself as she goes back to the counter. When she's at the counter, she carefully and quickly disposes of the broken pieces of ceramics. After tha, Ana opens her palm and counts the money that Daryl gave her. She realizes that he paid more than their actual bill. There is an extra two grand on top of the fifty dollars he was supposed to pay for the coffee. No wonder it felt full when he put the money in her hand.

What? Ana gasps with her jaw falling open. This is more than she has ever been tipped since she started working here. This is more than anyone has given her since she got here. Aside from what Sloane and God has done for her which may be equal to that amount, no other person has ever given her that much before-and without any work. Not even her own mother.

She stares at her hand in disbelief.

Noticing she's outside, she quickly closes her dropped jaw and swallows dryly. Then she takes out the extra and hides it in her back pocket as fast as she can before someone come out and see.

"Daryl..." Ana whispers to herself and giggles.

"Hey, A for Ana" Samuel, her co-worker, calls from behind her. He has a coy smile on his face as he approaches her.

"What?" she swirls around to face him.

"You look startled, honey. Did I interrupt something?" He asks stretching his neck forward to peeep.

"Nothing, and yes you startled me," she replies "What do you want, Samuel?"

"Nothing, I'm just surprised to still see you here by this time. Don't you want to go home? Your shift is over." he tells her.

"Well, I'd love it if you mind your business. Thank you" Ana retorts.

"I bring no trouble girl, I just want to be cool with you" he says.

Samuel is gay and he was the first person she met at work on her first day. He was very rude to her and she hated him afterwards. But as time went by, he has been trying to change the situation of the relationship between them even when Ana seems not to be interested and not making it easy for him.

"Just focus on working, Samuel '' she says to him as she sticks out her tongue at him. Then, she walks away after that.

************†*††††

"Sorry about that, man" Ben apologizes to Daryl the minute they are out of the coffee shop.

Daryl nods his head and side smiles at his reflection in the mirror. He doesn't feel any kind of way about the spilled coffee at all. It's just that there was something about the young lady that suddenly made him not to feel anger. It's not like him to be that polite and calm around commoners. On a normal day, he would have scolded the person and requested to see the manager.

Her innocent face, her cute round lips. Her slim waist that held her round buttocks so firmly. That bouncy movement it made when she walked past them. Daryl wonders if the ass is real or fake but a girl like that can't possibly have the finance to get an ass lift or whatever it is they call it these days.

The kind of man Daryl is is not the type to see women's beauty outside the bedroom. For him, that's the only time he sees their beauty. Except this time, it's different. Daryl saw beyond the covers of that jean she was wearing without having to take them off.

He wonders what it would be like feeling that chocolate skin of hers. What it would be like to have her small frame pinned under him in bed, what it would be like with her cute mouth round his manhood. But again at the same time, there was something about her that made him imagine making love to her instead of fucking her, tucking her weaves behind her ear and kissing her so passionately.

Shit. Daryl shakes his head from that thought. He doesn't make love. He's not the type to make love to women.

"I see that you are not angry. And why that smug smile on your face?" Ben inquires firing Daryl this questioning look.

He had better keep it to himself; the desires that lay in his head. He wonders if he will see her again or if he should just see her again.

"Let's just go," Daryl says to Ben. And smiles again to himself.

Shit. Why is he suddenly feeling this way? He shakes his head and tries to get the smile off his face.

"Are you going to tell me why you are smiling?" Ben asks on their way out of the boutique-one of Daryl's where he came to change his ruined suit.

"I like that coffee shop" he says "their coffee is amazing"

"You haven't even tasted it" Ben reminds him "you've only been there today if all the times I've been trying to take you"

Daryl tilts his head to the side "Oh. Then I can't wait to try it. I'm sure it will be excellent. Perfect"

The lady's face flashes across Daryl's mind. He thinks of her eyes, they were pretty, possibly the prettiest he has seen. Those sea green eyes, reminding him of the deep sea and how deep he'll love to drown in them.

"I can't believe you, man" Ben scoffs raking a long look at his friend "are you thinking about that young woman? Don't tell me you'll stop that low" .

"Chill man, I'm not fucking her yet. I can't stoop that low. You know how I like my women" Daryl responds with a grin.

"That girl is possibly innocent," Ben says. "Her face looks innocent"

"That's the reason I may love to have her so badly, but she is over there working at the coffee shop instead of being with me and warming my bed. Besides, there's only one way to find out if she is indeed innocent" Daryl smirks.

"You are just unbelievable" Ben scolds and adjusts his tie.

"Don't worry about that, chill" Daryl says convincingly, touching Ben's chest.