LET'S HAVE COFFEE (A Short Story - Fiction)

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‘Ugh! It’s always raining in Seattle!’, Lisa said her thoughts aloud. Lisa Michaels works as a nurse at St. Grace Hospital in Seattle. She just finished a 12-hour shift and had to go to the mall to pick up groceries for the weekend. She didn’t pick up an umbrella as she got out of her car, as there was no warning of a rainy day on the weather forecast for that day. She was annoyed that she had to get into the rain to get back into her car after shopping for groceries. Her new Prada boots might get ruined. ‘Ugh!’, she said aloud again as she stepped into the rain, holding her bag above her head while holding her grocery bag with her left hand. Her car was parked 600 meters from the mall’s entrance. She had just walked a few paces when she thought that the rain had stopped. ‘Stopped?’, she thought as she looked ahead to scan her surroundings to see that the rain was still falling. She then looked above her to see an umbrella, and then she turned around to find the most handsome man holding up the umbrella for her.

‘Hey miss. I don’t think you should get yourself drenched from the rain’, this man said, smiling down at her.

Lisa took it all in. With her petite five-foot-five frame, she could see how he towered over her with his 6-foot frame. He had a firm build and broad shoulders. His complexion was brown, just like her favorite chocolate – Godiva. His perfect smile showed an even set of pearly white teeth framed by soft-looking pale pink lips. She let her eyes linger a bit longer on those lips and wondered what it’d be like to kiss them. ‘Ugh! You don’t even know this man’, she thought.

‘Thank you, Mr -?’, she queried.

‘Miles. The name is Jason Miles. You can call me Miles’, he said. ‘May I walk you to your car?’, he asked.

Lisa found herself saying yes before she could think better of it.

They started to walk to her car in silence, and he stayed with her, holding up the umbrella for her until she put her groceries in the car and turned back to face him.

‘Thank you, Miles. You really saved my babies’, she said.

‘Babies? What babies? Are you married?’, he asked.

Laughing out loud, Lisa said, ‘No. I was referring to my shoes. They’re limited edition’.

‘Oh. I can see that. So, you love shoes, yeah?’, Miles inquired.

‘Absolutely!’, Lisa said, smiling.

Miles could only stare at her. ‘God, she is beautiful’, Miles thought. He wanted to spend more time with her and get to know her. But before he could ask for her number, he heard, ‘See you around, Miles’. She was already getting into her car, and all he could say was, ‘Goodnight, - ‘. Damn! He didn’t even ask for her name. ‘What an idiot’, he chided himself as he watched her drive off. He noted that she had two stickers that she placed on the rear windshield of her red Toyota Matrix, one of which said ‘Nurse for Life' and the other said ‘St. Grace Hospital’. ‘Is she a nurse? Did she work at St. Grace?’, he wondered about these things as he walked into his own car to drive home. He couldn’t sleep all night and kept thinking about the petite black woman in a pair of 6-inch-tall Prada boots. He has a thing for good shoes and appreciates women who do as well, and that was the very reason he took an umbrella to her. He just had to see her again.

The next day, he went to St. Grace Hospital at lunch hour to inquire about her, but no one was willing to give him any information until he produced her name and that of the department she works in. He rubbed his head in frustration, and he was leaving through the hospital doors when he saw Lisa walking in with her scrubs on. ‘My God, she looks so hot’, he thought.

‘Hey, lady in Prada boots’, he said as he approached her, smiling again.

Lisa almost dropped her car keys at the shock of seeing him at her workplace. ‘It is the chocolate God, right here in my workplace’, she thought. ‘Hey Miles’, she said coolly, trying not to show her excitement. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Oh. Yeah. I am not sick or anything. I just had to find you’, he answered.

Puzzled, Lisa asked why he wanted to see her. ‘Well, I wanted to take you out on a date and also get to know your name, which I didn’t get to ask last night’.

Lisa was surprised because she kept seeing this man in her dreams last night and was hoping she could see him again. ‘Here he is’, her mind whispered at her. ‘My name is Lisa. Lisa Michaels. I have about twenty minutes left before I clock in. Let’s have some coffee?’

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Miles agreed and followed her to a nearby coffee shop, where they both ordered lattes. They got to know one another a little bit better over coffee. They also exchanged numbers. It was the best twenty minutes of his life.

Lisa went back to work, and all she could think about was him. She got to know that he works as a Chef at his own restaurant and was at the mall the previous night looking to get some rare chili peppers. She was looking forward to their date night, which they agreed would be in three days at his own restaurant. How could she resist a man who reminded her of Godiva, her favorite chocolate?