She tapped her lip with her pinky as she looked this scruffy hero over. His hair was an ashy shade of faded blonde; it was trimmed neatly, but sat disheveled on his head, like he shook his hand in there and left it. He had about a week's growth of unshaved hair on his chin and over his lip. His skin had a healthy tan to it, and he looked almost like he walked everywhere he went. His eyes were a dark, deep blue and when he glanced up at her she caught a glimpse of all the things he had seen. He wore just a simple, faded maroon t-shirt and a torn up pair of jeans – like most everyone else – but his shoes looked like they came from somewhere very far outside of this country. She'd never seen him in here before.
After thinking for a moment, she stood up straight, stretched her arms out in front of her, then pulled open a a drawer and took out the official Ten Second Fiesta Cafe stationary and a pen. She bumped the drawer shut with her hip and walked out from behind the counter. She took a seat across from him at his table and cleared her throat. He put his book down and smiled.
“Would you mind if I asked your name?” she asked.
“I don't mind at all,” he said playfully.
“Okay, then what's your name?” she asked.
“Dakota Rae,” he said. “Rae with an 'e' instead of a 'y'.”
She thought about wording for a moment, and how she might be able to sneak her phone number on the page. Finally, she put pen to paper and wrote down these words:
As of Wednesday afternoon, March 23, 2011, in thanks of his heroic act, which has saved our cafe quite a bit of money in damages, Mr. Dakota Rae is hereby entitled to one free specialty beverage or food item of his choice every day and unlimited coffee for life from this day onward until the untimely and unlikely event of the closing of this establishment, The Ten Second Fiesta cafe. If any issues are raised in regards to the authenticity of this voucher or the identity of its carrier, please call me, Jasey McMahon at 972-###-####.
Authorized by:
Jasey McMahon
Then she realized a problem and tapped the end of her pen to her lower lip. She stood silently and went to the kitchen door. She paused for a moment, looking at the door in thought, then knocked.
“What's up?” Jude hollered from within the kitchen.
“I need you to sign this,” Jasey said.
He came out to the front of the cafe and took the voucher. He read over it.
“Very nice,” he smiled quietly as he signed beneath her name. “Good number sneak. What happened to Mr. Hoity-Toity structural engineer? The guy your mom tried so subtly to set you up with?”
“Turns out I was wrong and he's exactly how you described,” she explained. “He took me to an art museum a couple of weeks ago. Each comment I made about a piece, about the emotion in the image and what I took from it, personal, he tried to refute with terms from art history books and claimed I had no idea what I was talking about, but it wasn't my fault because I don't have a college education.”
“What a douche,” Jude said low enough so the man at the table couldn't hear. “Well, this Dakota guy seems decent. I approve.”
“Well, I'm glad you said that because my relationships are entirely contingent upon your approval,” she laughed taking the letter from him and crouching down to open a cabinet, which hid the scanner/printer.
She placed the voucher face down in the scanner and pushed a button to copy it. The scanner made a slow dragging noise as it shined its light on her hand writing. The copy came out shortly, with a slight shadow of her hand behind the text. She taped the copy to the back of the cash wrap, then took the original and ambled back to the gentleman at the table.
She sat down across from the man and, handing him the paper, said, “For your heroism.”
“Heroism, huh,” he shrugged his shoulders and read over the paper. “Thank you. Here I thought I was just doing what anyone would.”
She listened closely as he spoke, but couldn't quite derive his origins.
“You're not from around here, are you?” she asked. “I can't figure out where you're from. I'm usually good at picking that up, from accents, you know, but I can't even hear one.”
“I am, actually,” Dakota said. “Born and raised, but I spent the past ten years abroad, so my accents probably faded and blended.”
“Ten years,” she gasped. “That's a really long time to be away from home. What's it like?”
“Miss,” a middle-aged woman, decked out in Coach, with expensive hi-lights and a Solar manicure demanded. “I would like to order my beverage now.”
“Yes ma'am,” Jasey sighed and went to the counter.
The woman made an enormous order. Jasey had to go to work grinding beans and mixing flavors. The gentleman stood up from his table and approached the counter.
“Jasey, right? Is that how you pronounce it?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Can I call you sometime?” he asked, pointing at the voucher. “I mean, sometime excluding any event in which my right to free coffee is denied.”
“I would like that,” she smiled.
“Okay, well, I'll talk to you soon then,” he said and tapped on the counter then turned to leave the cafe.
Jasey smiled to herself and went back to work.
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a penny for your thoughts?