Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop

A Story by Michael Knight

My first short story. My first true whim of inspiration.

I wrote this because the title is a song by Landon Pigg, which inspired me to write this, hope you guys like it.

Jake walks in to his favorite coffee shop. He always gets the same thing, small cup of cuppacinno and sits by the window where he can look across at the person he has been falling in love with. She works at a similar coffee shop across the street. He's been fantasizing about her for as long as he can remember. He has put his life on hold for this woman, as he goes there everyday to see if she is working just to see her, and just admire her from afar.

Then, one day on a raining night Jake makes it to the coffee shop to get his cuppacinno and sit in his regular chair by the window, he has become a regular in the sense that everyone who works there know what he wants already, a very simple and quick process. Jake sits and sees her, working, and again just wonders what would it be like to talk to her, if such a thing such as magic or love did exist, he asked himself. So he finishes his cup and goes outside. While looking for his keys, he gets distracted once again by the sight of her. he looks up and says to himself looking at the moon.

"Is there enough magic in the moonlight to give me a chance with this woman?"

He wasn't expecting something, but something did unexpectedly happen. Thunder, lightning and rain started up again. It began to pour so bad that he couldn't see anything in front for about 50 ft. so he just ran to the nearest light he saw, rushed in the door all damp and wet.Turns out he is in the coffee shop, but not his regular one. he was at the one across the street, and as he laid eyes on who was behind the counter. everyone of his nerves on his body froze.

"Can i help you sir?" says the woman, in a very kind voice

Jake, shocked, and frozen couldn't say anything. Just as she said that he turned around and bolted out the door, running franticly to find his car and leave. This goes on for about a month. Jake again just tries to find a way to say something to her, and is so choked up about the thought of going over there again, he begins to stay late at the coffee shop to think of something, while the woman works across the street.

As time passes, Jake begins to notice that the woman has not been at the coffee shop across the street. he takes the hint. she quit or found a boyfriend. Jake stays late there to contemplate his mistake for not going back, for bolting, for not just saying something. He became depressed. His life was just primarily about going to his coffee shop and just staring at times from afar in his usual seat. Now he has to find something else to do.

Another 2 months pass, and Jake decides to get his life on track. He gets a job as a mover. before he used to work at home, but home was starting to feel very lonely for him. Now as a mover, he becomes happy as he works with his hands and has something to occupy him for the rest of the day. He gets a call for a move, its some single girl who didn't have much, but has no transportation at the moment, he gets assigned the job. as he begins approaching the house, its starts to pour. Jake trying hard to find the house he finally does. Knocks on the door and the woman answers. He is wet and damp from the rain, looks at the woman and realizes it was the woman from the coffee shop. Immediately he bolted to his truck and stayed there. Shocked and trembling from the cold freezing water, he couldn't believe it. He breathes for a little and thinks about whats going on.

Jake now sees he has an opportunity to talk to her, so without second thought runs out of the truck and back to the house. he walks in to her house and hears the woman talking to someone, she comes over to where he is, as Jake gets ready, he sees her but on the phone. She makes a motion while talking, with her hands to take all of these boxes.

Jake takes all the boxes, as soon as it stopped raining, but what Jake couldn't believe was that she through out the whole loading, and ride she was on the phone. Jake was just waiting for that moment she hung up, before someone or if anyone would call back to strike up something. Something surprised Jake, the address, where the woman was going to live. It was next to door to him. he knows because he saw a sign for rent on the yard from what was now his former neighbors.

As he unloaded the last box, he heard her stop speaking. Without second thought Jake shouts aloud in the woman's new house,

"Nice House!"

It was the first thing that popped in his head, he was hoping and waiting for a positive feedback of some sort.

The woman replies as she comes into the hall with Jake

"Thanks, How much do i owe you?"

Jake replies,

"Its on the house, Listen you know, funny thing...uhhh i....hehe... live next door, if you want i can sh..."

the woman interjects and cuts himoff

"Look my now ex-boyfriend cheated on me, he got married with some tramp that was a good friend of mine, and to top it off i got fired from a coffee shop because they thought i was stealing their coffee!"

"I'm sorry" Jake responds very sympathetically

"Yeah me too, look im sorry i shouldn't take it out on you, I just want to be alone" the woman said.

"Well, if you need anything, i am just a few steps away...By the way, My name's Jake."
He extends his arm, and the woman smiles for his generosity as she extends hers

"Sarah"

Jake leaves, and feels happy and excited, he starts to sing and shout, he couldn't believe his luck, now the woman, who is Sarah, lives next to him. Jake couldn't believe she got fired from that coffee shop, nevertheless he couldn't help to think about now, if there was away for him to help. Now he realizes all those phone calls were for jobs, because he began to notice she repeated random information, but didn't want eavesdrop so he didn't pay attention.

A week passes since Jake moved in Sarah. Nothing really turned up from this. Jake still is occupied with his job and Sarah presumably with her job search. Jake has the day off on Saturday, so he decides to go into town to get some misc. things for his house. As he is leaving and getting into the car, the memory of the coffee shop he used to go too everyday entered his mind. He decided to go just for kicks, as he was parking, Thunder cracked across the sky, and it began to rain again. he runs so that he wont get wet, but too late, he enters his coffee shop all damp and wet. Luckily he stopped here at his coffee shop, because it was another heavy shower outside. so as he approaches the bar, he awaits for the person to take his order.

To his surprise he sees Sarah, on the other side of the bar and she looks at him with a shocked look as well,

"Your that guy that came in one day all wet and just ran away?!"

Jake was surprised she didnt remember his name, but rather that
embarrassing moment he had with her a few months ago.

"Can i get just a cupacinno?" Jake says, with a shocked looked

Sarah replies with a smirk "Sure"

Jake gets his cuppacinno, and sits at his regular chair where he usually sat, a few moments later, Sarah out of nowhere sits with her cuppacinno and says to Jake " So it was you Jake huh?"

Jake was just too scared to answer, he decided to just smile and chuckle, and change the subject.

"What brings you over here, Sarah?"

"I am on break plus, i like sitting here now" Sarah replies

"Why here though?" Jake asks

"Well...promise you wont laugh, but you see that coffee shop across the street"

(Sarah points to where she used to work)

"well directly across from this table and window, i used to sit there against the window looking over here, and well to make a long story short, I used to admire looking here"

"What was so admiring about over here though if you worked over there?" Jake asked

"Well, don't laugh but someone used to come here everyday and sit in that exact chair you are at now. I used to admire that man who sat here, i guess you can say i fell in love with him...after my ex. but he came everyday, and everyday i worked he would be there all day, right where you are at. though i couldn't get a good look sometimes because he would look over here sometimes so i would hide, and while i was working, i would just glance at times, making sure he didn't see me, but i can recognize him by the back of his one of his jackets he wore frequently, i know the color, the design, and shape of his back. That Jacket image will be burned in my head, hehe"

Jake, just smiled and said "Wow, someone who has a secret admirer"

After that Jake and Sarah started to have a good conversation, her boss came and told her she can go home, but had to come in early and work all day till closing. Sarah didn't mind, but kept on talking till the coffee shop closed. Jake offered her a ride home and the two went home together, laughing and talking and getting to know one another. it stopped raining right when he dropped off Sarah, Jake was just left in a state of joy and optimistic of the future. He had a wonderful day, and hoped that Sarah did too tomorrow.

The next day Sarah was having a bad day, lots of customers were coming in asking all kinda of drinks and sizes all day and all night, she thought it wasnt going to stop, and to fuel her bad day even more, she was denied a break because they let her leave early yesterday, she was so furious. and just couldnt wait till closing time.

Closing time came, and as she locked the door, she looked across the street, and saw her former job, now it was open 24 hours by the signs and the few people still inside, so just for kicks, she looks over to where she used to sit, and sees someone seating in her seat, and she couldn't believe what she saw.

She saw The Jacket, the Jacket from that man she used to admire from a distance, she saw that exact color, and design, and before she can even think about what to do, it begins to pour, as lightning flashes the sky followed by thunder, she quickly tries to find her keys but as she grabs them, they slip out of her hand, and fall into to sewer drainage, this was not her day, she runs across the street, to the coffee shop where she used to work to find shelter in the mean time. she runs in, all wet and dripping water. she looks over to where the man is, and confirms everything, yes that was man she was admired, with his back to her, now was her chance to find out who he was.

Sarah didn't know what to say, but she came up something. She got a small cuppacinno, and just planned to sit across from him. she walked over nervously, and saw he was having the same thing, small cuppacinno. she quickly turns, sits down and looks at him. she is shocked and just freezes as her spine fills with chills

both of them say each others names at the same time

"Sarah?!"

"Jake?!"

they both say simultaneously

"What are you doing here?"

again they say simultaneously

they both start to laugh, Jake looks over the window, seeing the rain, and remembers that the seat where he is at is where Sarah told him she sat all time the night before, Jake smilies and chuckles a little bit

Sarah says " Jake , your going to think im crazy, but i have something to tell you" she says smiling to him

Jake replies " Dont worry, i have a better story to tell you"

Jake reaches for Sarah's hands, and holds them tight as Jake begins his story of how he fell in love at a coffee shop