Muffin Strangers

She's been having a bad day and he's been spending too much time at the Cheese. On the day her admission letter came, they happened to meet over a cup of coffee and a chocolate muffin.

DATE STARTED: MARCH 3, 2015
DATE FINISHED: MARCH 15,2015
DATE EDITED: MARCH 21, 2015
WORD COUNT: 4,238

"Uhh… Miss, what did you want to order?" I blinked thrice before my brain snapped out of the daydream I was having.

"One slice of your blueberry cheesecake and a tall glass of iced tea." I replied as I shook my head and took out my wallet.

"Did you want lemon or red iced tea?" I responded with lemon as I pushed the paper bills from my wallet, closer to the waiter.

He nodded as he took the money and wrote down my order. I stared at his back as he walked away, his apron looking like it was about to fall off.

I shook my head and planted it on top of the table, my chin supporting the weight of my entire head.

'He broke up with me.' I thought bitterly.

Smiling grimly at the empty seat in front of me, I pushed away the memories that this booth had. If it were up to me, I wouldn't even be sitting here. But all the other tables were full, and I had no choice.

Gerard Warren Zhang was the resident Asian hottie of the school, and now, my ex-boyfriend. It wasn't as if I was ugly or anything! It was just that his parents didn't want him dating someone that didn't speak Chinese had blue eyes. Stupid demanding parents! Even going as far as introducing some chick named Jamie Cheng to me as his girlfriend! And let's not forget that Jamie Cheng also took part in his parent's games, and kissed him in front of me!

But the thing that really pissed me off was that Gerard's parents told him they weren't going to pay for the college he wanted if we were still together. So unless he broke up with me, he wasn't going to Yale, he was going to UC Berkeley.

They're basically the same thing! But no! Yale just had that extra mph, apparently! When he told me, I tore up my own letter of admission to Yale and told him to eat it for lunch. I put the torn letter in his open backpack and walked away and ended up at the place where Lily and Seth set the both of us up and started this entire mess!

It's not like I even wanted to go to Yale anyway!

"Excuse me, uhh, your cheesecake." I looked up and saw the waiter carrying a tray with my food on it and hurriedly moved my head so he could place my slice of heartbreak on the table.

"It seems like you're having a bad day." I looked him in the eye and gave him my best 'Oh really?' look.

"You were muttering about some dude named Gerard."

"Oh, he's nothing." I assured him, flailing my arms like a Japanese anime character. The waiter shrugged.

"Well, if you want someone to talk to, my shift ends in a few minutes." The waiter said and then left, leaving  by my lonesome again.

True to his word, he came back. Gone were his dirty-white apron and his Cheesecake shirt. In its place was a baby blue v-neck and a backpack. Damn. Gerard had the same backpack.

My fingers absently twirled the straw of my iced tea as I waited for him to make his way over to my table. He strutted over with a cup of what smelled like black coffee, and a chocolate muffin.

"Hey." He greeted, parking himself on the seat in front of me.

"Hi." I greeted back, slumping over the table. We stared at each other for a couple of minutes before he 

introduced himself. "I'm Adam." He said as he took a sip of his coffee.

His mug seemed to look old and personal, like he had his own mug to use every time he wanted a cuppa.

I hadn't realized I was staring at his mug until he spoke again. "I'm lactose Intolerant so I'm not really allowed to eat or drink anything with milk in it. Well, actually, I can handle a certain amount of dairy before I have to run to the little boys room." The confession made me laugh. By the broadness of his shoulders, I doubted he was 'little'.

"So, because you aren't talking about your problem, I guess I'll tell you about mine." I looked at him, confused. What was he trying to say?

When he opened his mouth again it felt like he was a waterfall and his words just kept coming out. "This is my Dad's place. When he and my Mom divorced, I got sent to military school. After that I went to Berkeley, and judging by your reaction just now, I'm guessing that's where your problem starts." I rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink.

"You don't even know the half of it." And then I proceeded to telling him about Gerard and Jamie as he looked on and sipped his disgusting coffee.

When I was finished, my mouth went dry, and I realized that with all that happened, I hadn't even eaten lunch yet, and it was nearly three in the afternoon.

"Seems like you really got a lot on your plate." I nodded and laughed.

"A lot on my plate, and nothing in my stomach, actually." I replied, grabbing my fork and cutting a piece of cheesecake.

"I would offer part to you buuttt… yeah." He laughed at my poor attempt at a joke, and tore a part of his muffin and popped it into his mouth.

"Nah, I'm good." I put the piece of cheesecake in my mouth and savored its taste.

Conversation went off without a hitch after that and soon we were sharing stories from our childhood. Like when he found out that he needed to get braces and he thought it meant replacing all of his teeth with fake ones so he bit the dentist and growled like a tiger at the nurses.

"So did you get them in the end?" I inquired.

I had forgotten all about Gerard and Yale. All I focused on was Adam and his story and his carefree smile. And his cute dimples. And his gruff voice. And his twinkling eyes and "

"Oh yeah, totally. Luckily, another kid was getting his braces adjusted and Doc let me watch. I wouldn't have perfectly straight teeth right now if it weren't for that fat kid." My tongue involuntarily licked my braces to check if there were any bits of cheesecake stuck in between the brackets.

I looked at my new friend. Adam Vibrante. Twenty-five years old, currently taking a break from work. An accountancy graduate and an excellent baker judging by the taste of the cheesecake I ate and the muffin he offered me.

Absolutely nothing like Gerard who was eighteen, currently an a*****e, planning to take up Chemistry, an excellent speaker of Chinese, English, and Butt kissing and someone I would love to punch right now.

I compared the two and how different they were. I remembered everything I did with Gerard and it felt fake. As if all of those dates and long walks at night were all a lie.

There were only a crumbs left on Adam's plate and half of a cheesecake on mine when Adam excused himself to go pee and gave me time to think. An hour and a half had passed since Adam and I had started talking. That meant that it's been two hours since my fight with Gerard, which meant that his piano class was almost over.

Right on schedule, my phone beeped to life. It was Gerard calling.

"What do you want?" I asked him. Trying to keep my voice at a normal volume so as not to attract a crowd of staring people.

"I want to talk." He replied.

I kept silent, waiting for him to continue. It was quiet in the background so quiet that I heard a distinct squeak that resembled a mouse.

"I'm sorry okay? You and I, with everything that's happened we would never work. I'm just glad we almost made it to one year." I could feel him smiling sadly on the other side. He may be a smart Asian, but he sure was bad with dates.

"Happy first anniversary, babe." I said the last word with so much venom, that I could have been the deadliest spider in the world.

Ending the call, I dropped my phone and hid my face in my hands. My shoulders shook and my lungs felt as though they were asphyxiated but it took a while for the tears to come. The anger was gone from me. All that was left was sadness and longing.

Not only did he forget what would have been our anniversary, he was also spending it with Jamie Cheng. Nobody squeaks like a mouse like Jamie so unless Gerard was at a rat convention, he was with Jamie.

I felt a hand gently caress my shoulder and a leg touch my own, I put down my hands and faced the person beside me.

"It's okay. Gerard may sound like an a*****e and you have every right to hate the existence of men but I'm here for you..." I looked at him through my glazed eyes while my lips quivered as I tried to speak.

His eyes showed genuine concern.

"My name is Aria." I told him.

"Like the songbird." He replied.

"I once read a book about a girl named Aria. She was a girl that linked two worlds together. She almost died in the beginning, but she pulled through." He told me.

I've never heard of a story like that before.

"So cheer up Songbird, this might only be the start of a wonderful journey." I smiled slightly at how cheesy his words were. "Sounds like the prologue to Twilight." I remarked. His laughter was like the tinkling sounds of wind chimes. Peaceful.

"I try, Songbird, I try." I stuck my tongue out at him. The bell from the entrance door rang, signifying more customers had come.

Adam called one of the waiters over and clapped his back. "Hey Chuck, whip up two cups of choc with a sprinkle of pep and confec touch?"

Chuck nodded and hurried away. I looked around us. People were in their own little bubbles, chatting away or sipping on their drinks. Blissfully ignoring the other bubbles around them. Ignorance was something that I needed.

I was about to ask him if he had just asked Chuck to make us something but his words came before mine, leaving my question unanswered.

"Hey, I just realized I haven't told you about my problem yet and you've already spilled yours! That's not fair!" Adam complained.

His eyebrows were preposterously perfect. And when he told me his problem, he turned even more perfect.

"So, here I am, 'currently taking a break from work' when in fact, I got fired for sleeping on the job because my girlfriend kept me up every night for an entire week because I wasn't paying any attention to her. But the thing is, I couldn't spend that much time with her because I was busy doing her paperwork for her. She's an accountant, too, by the way." Adam ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

His motions made me think that he was glad he could tell someone all of this. Like he finally shared the burden with someone who didn't ask questions. I guessed that that was what he wanted in that moment. A polite mouth that didn't ask questions but nodded mutely and didn't do anything to help because there was nothing to do to help with the situation.

"She stayed home the day I was fired, complaining about cramps because it was her time. I thought it was a little odd because I knew it was too early for it to be the time of the month and when I got back to the apartment we shared, I saw her smoking through a green glass bong with the next-door amateur rock band idiots."

Oh s**t. That must really suck.

"And it wasn't like I hadn't tried smoking some Maryjane but she was flat out stoned and was sitting on the floor eating brownies and the other guys were stoned too. When she saw me she sat there and yelled at me to come over and when I didn't she just kept munching on brownies and complaining. I glared at her and told her to come home with me. Then, she screeched at me and all of a sudden she started talking about how she'd cheated on me a couple of times back in college with my roommate whenever she came over and I wasn't there."

He grinned at me and I had no idea how to react so I kept my face blank but inside I was bubbling. That b***h! How dare she do that to Adam!

"She also told me the reason why we broke up before. She'd just found out she was pregnant with my roommate's baby and knew she couldn't blame it on me because I'd never had sex with her before and, just so you know, still haven't to this day. I don't know about you but I believe in sex being a sacred thing that only married people do. Anyway, she said she'd realized that my roommate wasn't going to help her raise the child so she got an abortion. We were broken up a month before she came back and begged me to take her back."

With every word that came out of Adam's mouth, I felt myself spiraling down into his world with him. Every shift of his tone and every syllable made me feel drawn even more to this interesting accountant.

"Anyway, after that one, I couldn't bear hearing more of her deep, dark secrets. So I left the apartment, went to my own, packed my bags, packed Vegas the Poodle's bags, left her a letter and drove back home to my dad. Two days later, she called me up and apologized to me and said she couldn't recall anything from before. I didn't want to listen to her crap anymore so by then I was done with her and ended the call mid-sentence, bought a new phone, copied the phone numbers of important people into the new one and threw the old one into a river and I haven't heard from Justine ever since." He winked at me as though I was his old pal who had met Justine.

I tilted my head and smirked, "Good riddance, Adam! Good f*****g riddance, old pal. But that's a story. Where's the problem?"

He stuck his tongue at me and opened his mouth again and spilled the rest of the story. "I was about to get there, kid. Relax! So anyway, I hadn't heard from Justine until about four days ago when she showed up here, sitting on one of the bean bags over there, sipping her coffee and asking for me. Chuck, the poor guy, had to be the one to talk to her and say that she wasn't allowed to see me. A brave man, if you ask me. But Justine saw me staring at them and rushed to me, spilling the drinks Chuck was carrying. A complete waste of hot chocolate if you ask me."

His eyes twinkled sadly. I imagined the scene in my head and felt sorry for poor Chuck. The hot chocolate probably burned through his shirt and left a red mark on his chest.

"She told me she was sorry and asked what it was that she said that made me leave her all of a sudden. I didn't answer her and calmly told her to leave but she promised she would be back every day until I take her back. So the thing is, she'll be here in a couple of minutes."

I blinked and processed this in my head for a few seconds before I realized what he meant.

I grinned at him and winked. "So you're saying that we kill two birds with one stone?"

He raised an eyebrow at me and thought about what I had said and then grinned back at me. "You are one goddamn devil, Aria. I take it back. You're not the songbird that I read about. You're the devious peregrine she fell in love with. You go do what you have to. I'll set the mood."

Adam stood up from his seat and went behind the counter and disappeared behind the kitchen door while I texted Sarah, a girl who gossiped and liked to bring broken up couples back together and told her not to tell Gerard I was at Cheese and then put down my phone and switched with Adam's backpack so I could see the front door open and close.

The bell rang and the door opened to reveal a lady with wildly red hair and a pretty face that didn't need the makeup that was on it. She wore a short dress that had triangular cuts on either side that revealed her waist plus the six-inch pale pink and gold heels that I had been dying to get.

In the same moment, a grinning Adam walked out of the of the kitchen with two mason jars with hot chocolate and cream and two spoons and sashayed over to our table with his hips swaying and a spring in his step. It took a lot of effort not to laugh at him. He acted like a ten year-old boy who just got a new game for his DSi.

Justine was too concentrated on Adam to have heard the music that was playing. Abigail Breslin was singing her heart out with You Suck while Adam sauntered to me. It was too much and I managed to turn my laughter into a snort before anyone could notice.

Adam you sneaky little monster, you.

I observed the lady in the dress as her eyes followed Adam. She must be Justine. And then it made sense that she'd have stoner friends and cheated on her boyfriend. She looked the part of a cheater and acted like it. I had seen the girls Seth used to date before he met Lily and they looked a lot like Justine. Adam looked as though he had no idea Justine was there and was grinning at me like we shared a secret. I grinned back at him because we did share a secret.

When he got to the table, he stepped up his game and kissed me on the cheek, placed the jars on the table and grabbed his backpack to pull out a notebook and a pen from his bag and then sat beside me and wrote something down.

It's working. Keep it up. I'm going to flip to the next page and do a little accounting and you're going to pretend you like it. Okay?

I smiled at his note and kissed his cheek to say yes. He turned to the next page and worked for a bit. I leaned in and suddenly got interested in what he was doing and did not notice the shapely figure that approached us.

"Adam." A voice said.

We both looked up to see Justine in front of us.

"Yeah?" He asked her, his eyebrow twitching.

I did not know that was possible until today. I thought it just happened in anime. Apparently not.

"Who the hell is this!?" She loudly whispered, careful not to make a scene.

He smiled warmly at her and put an arm around me and made me blush. I looked at her shyly and pretended to be confused.

"Ellie, meet my ex-girlfriend, the one who got stoned and laughed when she told me she slept with my roommate multiple times on my bed." He introduced Justine in a way that made me giggle.

So that was what I exactly did. I f*****g giggled at Justine and mockingly smiled at her.

"Hi there. I'm sorry you lost your hunk of meat here," I gestured to Adam and ran a hand across his chest, 

"Actually, I'm not. Thank you for being an absolute idiot and letting this one go." I told her.

She screamed and brought the attention of the other customers to our table.

Right on cue, Chuck diverted everyone's attention to his co-waiter who was spinning a plate on a long, thin pole and then walked over and asked what was wrong. Adam pointed to Justine and put on a cheeky face. 

"She's what's wrong, Chuck. Poor girl can't get over what she did and disrupted the peace."

Chuck groaned and then sighed, taking Justine's arm and pulling her away. "I'm sorry miss but it's been five days of this and I am tired of throwing you out. You can't just come in here and throw a fit. You have to buy a drink to be allowed to disturb the peace! Either way, please just put it in your head that Adam isn't going to come back to you and just go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."

When they got to the door, we watched Chuck let go of her arm and open the door for her as she stomped away in her heels.

Chuck walked back to our table and took away the used plates. "You owe me for that, man." He told Adam.

Adam winked in reply, "Free drinks on me next week?"

Chuck seemed satisfied with what Adam said and walked away.

Throughout their exchange, Adam hadn't noticed that his arm was still around my shoulder. When I shifted a bit to the left and cleared my throat, his arm moved away and I used that time to assess the hot chocolate.

There was a little cat at the top that was made from cream and it looked so good I almost didn't want to drink it. But then I looked over at Adam who was already chugging down the drink.

Suddenly, the little bell rang again and I spotted a familiar smattering of black hair. I took Adam's hand and he looked at me while he drank his hot chocolate and nodded, setting the mason jar on the table and entangling our fingers together.

There was a bit of cream on his face and while I stared at it, I felt a pair of eyes on me. So I mustered all the courage I had and kissed Adam's lips chastely, hoping to transfer some of the whipped cream from his lips to mine. When I moved away, he held onto my hand tighter and laughed at my creamy upper lip and I laughed at his.

Our entwined fingers somehow ended on my lap and I inwardly thanked the gods above that I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. We were so close to each other that it seemed like I was about to sit on Adam's lap and our faces were still close together when we laughed. I heard the distinct bell sound again as I glanced at the door to catch a glimpse of Gerard leaving Cheese.

I tried to free my fingers from Adam but they stayed glued to his. Adam wasn't letting go of my hand.

"He's gone." I told him, thinking that he thought Gerard was still at the café.

Adam let go of my hand and settled back into his seat although I did notice that neither of us put any distance in between our bodies and I blushed at the thought.

We spent the next hour nursing our own hot chocolates and making awkward conversations about the random things before Adam suggested we take a walk.

The sun was setting and we were passing a couple of front lawns and there was no conversation between us. Just silence that stretched throughout the space comfortably.

He broke the silence with a prophetic picking of a random flower from one of the front lawns we passed, "Aria, such a beautiful name," He said, pulling up the flower closer so he could examine it.

I looked up at him questioningly.

"I spent an entire afternoon with a girl whose name is similar to the name of the fictional girl that I fell in love with during my time of sadness. A girl who was nothing like the Aria I loved and longed for except for in beauty and voice." He twirled the flower around as I was entranced by his words.

"Aria, will you go on a proper date with me sometime soon?"

I felt the world disappear in the background as his mouth closed slightly after he ended his speech. I was perplexed. I had just broken up with a boyfriend who was no good and spent an entire afternoon with a man who was seven years older than I was. I considered the entire afternoon, how gentle he was, how funny his jokes were, how delicious his cooking was and how he made me forget about all of my problems and focus on what was happening in front of me.

Him.

I shrugged and grinned, "Why not?"

Adam smiled and enveloped me into a hug.

When we separated, I winked at him and made a request. "But only if you do the cooking."

He laughed and gave me a noogie and then continued on his way with me following behind him.

Author's Note

Okay, there. I wrote a new story. I wrote the first four pages (1,800+ words) at school on paper during my NAT Intensive reviews (March 3 and 4) and had my boyfriend type them out and then continued the rest on March 15th.

I only have one more day of High School left and I'm scared. Also, Gerard and Aria argued over colleges. It's a reflection of my college admission troubles. (Solved it already)

Also, I just did my last presentation for my pre-YITC workshop for the PRCY and my most consistent comment was about my speaking skills and how fluent I was in English. Like, at the start of my presentation, everyone assumed I couldn't speak the native dialect and then all of a sudden I answered one of the questions in Hiligaynon and they all laughed because wow, I was apparently that good at speaking the language. XD Twas amusing to see them make literal signs to each other that signified a bleeding nose.

Anyway, idk, comment or review. Whatever works for you. Kbye.