Cafe Date

It’s been three days since I went to the high school reunion. Aside from having an unexpected encounter with Rachel, there wasn’t any real change in my daily life; I was still working at home as always.

While I was tapping away at my keyboard, my phone dinged. I glanced at it before I turned my gaze to the clock to see that I’d spend long enough on my work; it was time for my small break.

I picked up my phone and leaned into my chair, curious about what kind of video Kayle sent me this time, but to my surprise, it was a message from Rachel!

I blinked a couple of times and clicked on the message.

“Why haven’t you reached out to me yet? Did you forget about me already?” The message read, and she attached a sticker of a cartoon dog crying.

I knew she was joking, but it was amusing to imagine her being needy. Quite an unexpected side for her character.

“Sorry, I was working,” I replied with a partial truth.

The truth was, I never had the courage to reach out to her even after getting her number. I didn’t know what we could talk about and I didn’t want things to go awkward, so I never sent her any messages.

“Oh, am I interrupting your work?”

“No, I’m on my break right now.”

“Oh, lucky me! Caught you at a good time,” She replied, followed by a sticker of a happy cat.

“Do you still live in Lestington?”

“Yeah. I haven’t moved anywhere.”

“Awesome! There’s this new cafe that opened nearby, and thought the place looked pretty nice. Will you go there with me?”

Then she sent me a social media page for the said cafe. The photos of the atmosphere and the food were quite lovely. It wasn’t far from my home either, only around twenty minutes walk so there shouldn’t be any trouble returning to my home for work.

“Sure. I can go with you.”

“Nice! When should we meet?”

Looking at the time now, it was about to be a lunch break, so I might as well clock out early for today.

“How about 13 o’clock?”

“You mean like today?”

Oops... I’d assumed that she would be free to come and go anywhere during lunch break, but I forgot that celebrities' schedules didn’t work like that.

I hurriedly typed out a response, but Rachel’s message came first.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

My lips curled into a smile. I deleted the message and retyped it before sending it to her.

“Okay, see you there.”

***

The cafe looked just as good as the photos on the social media page. It was a brick building, two stories high in height, with the wooden door and windows painted white with minimal wear, giving it a cozy, vintage vibe. Walking inside, I was greeted by the staff, around three in number. I peered deeper inside the building and saw Rachel already waiting at the deeper seat of the room.

As I stepped closer, Rachel spotted me, and she greeted me with a wave.

“Hey, Lena.”

I returned her greeting and briefly scanned her clothes.

She was wearing a low-cut cream-colored sweater over the white turtle neck and skirt combo. Casual yet stylish clothing for the coming autumn.

Compared to me, wearing a gray jumper and white track pants… I should’ve dressed up before coming here, or at the very least, combed my hair a little.

Rachel truly looked great in any clothes. It didn’t matter what she wore; the sight of her would turn everyone’s eyes, especially mine. Turn everyone’s eyes...

“Wait, don’t you need to wear some kind of disguise?”

“People around this part of town knew me already. So I didn’t bother because they mostly left me alone. Why?”

“Nothing, I just thought that celebrities have to wear a disguise when they’re out.”

“They only do that when they don’t want to be recognized, silly. It’s not like there’s a rule that says I have to wear one outside!” She chuckled.

“I see...”

I sat down as I beat myself up mentally for saying such a stupid thing.

“By the way, do you think I look great?” Rachel asked suddenly, now that I was in my seat.

“Yes, you look cute,” I answered tersely with a bit of delay because of how sudden her question was. A smile appeared on her face when she heard my answer.

“You look cute as well.”

“M-Me?! Cute? Not at all…”

Her comment bounced inside my mind. Obviously, she said that out of pity; there was no way I looked cute right now, but that didn’t matter. Hearing her call me cute made my heart beat fast, so even if it was a lie, I was willing to believe it because it made me so happy.

“So, have you had anything to eat before coming here?”

“...I already ate.”

“Oh, I thought I would be sharing lunch while we talked…”

When she invited me, I thought she was inviting me to an afternoon tea since she wanted to go to the cafe, so I had already eaten some of my leftovers for lunch…

“...I could get a dessert. There’s dessert here… right?”

“Sure. Here’s the menu.”

I flipped the menu to the dessert pages, scanning the numerous items on the menu. There were quite a lot, and all of them looked appealing, so I was stuck on the decision for a while…

“...Hmm. I’ll go with a blueberry pie and a Darjeeling tea.”

“Okay, let’s go order together.”

We went to order our food at the entrance and went back to our seats.

“So, you’ve been busy with your work, huh?” Rachel opened after sitting down. “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a backend dev for Letter Craft. You know, the publishing company.”

“Oh, so you like… write a website for them?”

“Yes, something like that.”

A brief silence filled the air... I guess it was my turn to continue the conversation.

“W-Well, what about you? What’s your work?”

It was only when the last word left my mouth that I realized I'd made a mistake. Everyone knew that Rachel was an actress, especially for someone who went to school with her, let alone graduated the same year as her. So asking her that would sound like an insult to a famous person like her.

“Well, I’m an actress. I’ve just finished filming Rune Hunters, so I didn’t have anything in my schedule yet.”

Contrary to my expectation, Rachel answered my question without a hint of irritation in her face or even a snarky reminder that I was ignorant about her profession at all. I breathed a light sigh of relief that she wasn’t mad about my question.

“Rune Hunters? I’m kinda looking forward to it. I read the novel before, so I want to see what it’s like as a T.V. series.”

“Oh, then I hope I won’t disappoint the fans.” Rachel laughed.

Then the waiter served our food. Rachel ordered a shrimp rose pasta with a lemon soda, while I ordered a blueberry pie and a Darjeeling tea.

I took a bite of the pie, savoring the sweet and fruity flavor and washed it down with the light and refreshing tea. The pie and the tea tasted as great as they looked on the menu. Perhaps I should come here more often, especially since it was so close to my home.

As I chewed on the blueberry pie, Rachel caught me staring at her. She gulped down her pasta and asked:

“Wanna try some?”

I almost choked on the pie when our eyes met but I didn’t miss the chance to give her a reply, so I nodded as I hit my chest and swallowed my dessert.

Rachel twirled the noodle with the fork before she lifted it and pushed it towards me.

“Here, have a bite.”

My eyes shifted between the pinkish-orange noodles and her amber-brown eyes as if I was making sure that she intended to feed me in this manner. And because she didn’t back down, I leaned in and chomped down on spaghetti noodles.

The sauce’s sweet and tangy flavor was nice, however, what was nicer was the fact that she fed that to me.

“How is it?”

“It’s good.”

“Really? I think it’s too sweet for my liking…–”

I listened to Rachel talking about how she wanted her shrimp rose to taste like, all while I gave out generic replies like “Yeah” or “Uh huh” to keep the conversation going.

“You love staring at me, huh?”

“Wha–?”

A sudden shift in the topic knocked me off my usual tactic of keeping the conversation flowing.

“I-I’m not staring…”

“Really? Then why are you stirring your tea with your fork?”

Hearing her remark, I looked down to see that I’d been stirring my ice Darjeeling tea using my fork instead of my straw. I hurriedly pulled the fork out and sucked the tea out of the fork’s surface.

“It’s okay to take your eyes off of me, you know? It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

I lowered my eyes as I watched her laugh, knowing that it wasn’t true. After all, she had gone so far away before…

“Sorry… It’s just… force of habit…” I mumbled, as I fiddled with the straw.

“Hey,” Rachel called out to me. “Wanna take a picture together?”

This request came out of nowhere, so I tilted my head in slight confusion and answered:

“Sure…?”

Hearing my confirmation, Rachel pulled out her phone and turned around, pointing the camera towards herself and me.

“Smile~”

I hurriedly made a peace sign and smiled before the camera went off.

Rachel looked at the photo and chuckled to herself as she fiddled with her phone before my phone dinged.

I pulled out my phone to see that it was Rachel sending me the photo she’d just taken. The lighting and the composition came out great; the only flaw in that photo was my smile. Seeing that I understood why she laughed.

“There. Just in case you want to see me when I’m not around.”

It felt unfair that she got to be the only one who looked good in the photo, but looking at it made my cheeks grow warm.

“If you want a better picture, you have to go out with me again,” Rachel said as if she knew I wasn’t satisfied with how I looked in the photo.

The implication of what she’d said made my chest feel fuzzy, happy that she wanted to spend more time with me in the future.

“Sure. Next time then…”

As I saved the photo to my phone, I was starting to wonder about Rachel’s intention.

Why me?

It was a question that has been on my mind ever since we met at the secondary school reunion. Why did she want my number? Why did she say what she said back then? And why did she want to meet up with me again? Rachel was famous, so obviously she wouldn’t have trouble finding someone to hang out with, so why did she choose me specifically?

Perhaps I didn’t need an answer to that question. Because whatever it was, I was happy that Rachel chose to be with me, even if it was only for a short time. I left the cafe knowing that I got to meet her again, and that was enough.