The early morning rush was finally starting to slow down, but that didn’t stop me from repeating drink orders under my breath. I had to make sure I got everything right. I didn’t notice the look Alice gave me as I mumbled a few orders under my breath.

“What?” I smiled in amusement, “I was just being careful.”

“That’s good. Being careful at work,” she laughed.

I paused and looked around, wondering what I had missed. I was dumbfounded. I turned back to look at her again as her laughter finally started to die down. She still had an amused look on her face. That was when the sound of the little bell on the front door sent me straight to the register with a smile on my face.

“I wasn’t talking about work,” Alice said as I scurried past her.

I was too busy working on the newest order to pay attention to her. I held up a finger to hush her as I repeated the order again under my breath. There was always a moment at the end of an order where I had to reassure myself I didn’t waste my time, and especially not the customer’s, by messing it up. That would be embarrassing on so many levels.

Alice laughed again when I placed the cup on the counter and called out the customer’s name. I turned to her with yet another confused look.

She smiled, “I had to make sure I didn’t do anything to disturb your train of thought. Couldn’t risk breaking your focus, right?”

I rolled my eyes and turned around. I knew I had a tendency of being overly cautious. But I wanted to be as professional as I could; even if it was only a simple coffee shop job.

I straightened out the coffee cup sleeves behind the counter and leaned over to make sure everything was clean and stocked. I was making a point of ignoring Alice’s lighthearted jabs. I wiped down a few drops of water on one of the machines and hung the towel. Every few seconds, I turned to look at the register in case someone wanted another order or if I had missed the sound of the bell. The last thing I wanted was for a customer to be waiting on me.

Alice sighed, “I really hope you learn to relax once you’ve worked here longer… For both of our sakes.”

I didn’t bother saying anything to her. It was senseless. I didn’t understand why she was making such a fuss about me being focused. I was taking work seriously. That was what someone was supposed to do. It didn’t matter if the job was making coffee or doing heart surgery, a strong work ethic was important.

“Online order,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“There’s an online order waiting,” I told her before getting to work on it straight away.

I finished completing the order when Alice nudged me in the arm so hard I spilled some of the quad cappuccino I had perfectly crafted. Luckily, it missed searing my hand off, but I still had to bite my lip to keep from cursing. My cheeks burned. I set the cup down on the counter and spun around. I was ready to bite her head off, but I was stopped from the look on my co-worker’s face.  Her eyes were wider than I had ever seen. She nodded toward the register and did a poor job trying to do it discreetly.

“What on Earth is wrong with your face?” I asked, oblivious to her nearly panicked state.

“Hunter’s here…”

“Hunter,” I grimaced before loudly asking, “Who is Hunter?”

“That’d be me,” came a deep voice from across the register.

I immediately whipped around to see who was talking. The first thing I noticed was the line of 3 people waiting to be helped, which gave me a tiny panic attack. Then I noticed the tall young man standing right beside the counter, one of his eyebrows raised and his eyes trained on me. I cleared my throat and pressed my lips into a thin line.

“Oh my,” Alice said in a muffled voice, pressing her hands to her cheeks, “Oh no. This is… You couldn’t keep your mouth shut!”

I turned just in time to see her rush to the back, clearly mortified. I still didn’t understand what the big deal was. All I knew now was that there was a line and my co-worker decided to hide instead of help. I walked straight up to the counter and greeted the so-called ‘Hunter’, a tall young man with sharp features and a near constant smirk on his face.

“Well,” he said rather smugly as he leaned forward a bit, “For starters, I’d rather you ladies talk to me, rather than about me.”

I opened my mouth before promptly shutting it. He had it all wrong. I drew in a deep breath, “I apologize for giving the wrong impression, sir. I can assure you we weren’t having a conversation about-”

“How old do you think I am?” He interrupted. My voice went silent for a moment and my mouth was stuck in the open position. I was in a bit of shock that he would just interrupt me like that.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re calling me sir.”

I stared at him blankly for a moment, "I didn’t think-”

He laughed and leaned in further, “It’s okay, Miss.” He put plenty of mocking emphasis on the word ‘Miss,’ before continuing, “it’s cute. You went from giggling gossip with your friend to overkill professionalism in less than a second. That’s impressive.”

I pointedly ignored his jokes and his comment about it being ‘cute’. I was at work. He acted like he didn’t have a care in the world, but I had other customers to get to. I had orders to fill, things to clean, and a job to do. I had a life of my own to build. There was no time for a guy like him. He was clearly nothing but trouble.

I forced a smile and repeated myself, “What can I get for you today?”

He chuckled and stared at me for a moment. I could practically see the gears turning in his head as he decided whether to continue messing with me or not. “Medium White Mocha Americano.”

I breathed a tiny sigh of relief now that he was finally wrapping up his order. “And what name will that be under?”

His smile grew ever wider, but I ignored it with my ‘overkill professional’ attitude.

“Name? Hugh,” he let out a small cough, “Jorgan.”

“Okay, mister Jorgan, I’ll get that to you quickly!”

I wanted him out of my line as quick as possible; so quick that I didn’t even notice him give me a different name. I called the next customer to the front of the line and took her order before going to the back and hissing, “Alice! You need to get back out here and take the rest of the orders because I’ve already got two and I can’t just leave them-”

“All right! All right, Cassie! Just chill,” Alice blurted out as she headed toward the door before pausing, “You took Hunter’s order already?”

“What?”

“Never mind,” she sighed, pushing past me and heading to the cash register.

I wasted no time getting started on the first order, muttering “medium White Mocha Americano,” under my breath the entire time. I was so wrapped up in being perfect that I didn’t pay attention to the name written on the cup. I walked over and placed the coffee on the counter shouting, “White Mocha Americano for Hugh Jorgan.”

I heard snorting laughter from a blond, young man standing beside Hunter. I felt my face burn. It was embarrassing and highly inappropriate. All I could focus on was the humiliation of shouting “huge organ,” to the entire coffeehouse. My cheeks burned with anger the moment I saw Hunter walking toward me with a smirk plastered on his face. I wanted to tell him to shove the coffee up his ass, but that wasn’t the way to speak to a customer, no matter how crude he was.

The lack of amusement I felt got the best of me. “Next time, I'll just pour it out.” I mumbled and looked at him with fierce eyes as I pushed the drink closer to him.

His smirk came down a notch, but didn’t disappear completely. I watched him walk back over to his blond companion, who was nodding at him in approval. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes when I heard Hunter’s friend congratulate him, “Nice one.”

It was clear this wasn’t the first time they did something like this. It seemed like they had some sort of weird game going on. They were immature and exactly the kind of people I wanted to keep away from. I was more than relieved when they left a couple minutes later. My relief didn’t last long. As soon as I finished my last order, Alice walked up to me and immediately commented on how gorgeous Hunter was.

“I want to run my hands through his hair and straddle him.”

“Alice!”

“What? He’s so hot. Ugh and I just know he’d be so down for, well, you know…”

“No, I don’t know, and quite frankly I’d rather not.”

“Oh, please! Don’t be such a prude. You’re really telling me you’d turn him down? Or some other hot guy? Come on, just imagine it… Kissing him and pushing him down on the couch. Climbing on him, gettin’ sweaty when things get all hot and heavy. Mounting-”

“Enough!” I shouted, not bothering to keep my voice down despite being in a quiet coffee shop. I looked around and leaned in to whisper, “That’s enough. I don’t want to have this conversation, much less at work.” I was growing increasingly irritated at the very thought of Hunter and I only just met him. If I wanted this conversation to end, I had to ignore Alice. She went on in a hushed voice, but I pointedly ignored her, focusing instead on the hum of the customers’ chatter. 

“I’d think,” Alice suddenly said a bit louder to get my attention, “Someone who has lived in the backwoods of North Carolina would be much less of a prude…”

“That does not even make sense,” I snapped, “I have no idea what you think most people do outside of Vail, but I’m afraid you’d be sorely disappointed if you knew the truth.”

“You’re telling me everyone’s as dull, snobbish, and prudish as they are here? Doubtful. I’m sure even you are more open than the locals.”

I turned to look at Alice and sighed, “Like I said-”

“I heard what you said, but I just don’t buy it. You’re really tellin’ me you’ve never had a boyfriend? Gotten it on? Had fantasies? Experienced things?”

“Look. I don’t see it. Whatever you think makes Hunter so dreamy is probably the same thing that makes him a person I wouldn’t look twice at. The guy is obviously nothing but trouble. He’s probably a spoiled, rich-boy-slacker who lives off mommy and daddy without a care in the world. I mean, he has nothing better to do than make names up and ridicule people in the most childish ways. I’m the opposite. I came to Vail for one reason and one reason only.”

“And what’s that reason?”

“To build my own life.”

“Aren’t you doing that with mommy and daddy’s money?”

I frowned with a heavy sigh. “Yes, but I’m also working. I’m not wasting time. I’m setting up a life.”

“Fine, but there’s nothing wrong with having some fun, you know.”

I stopped cleaning the counter for a moment. I looked up as I thought about what she said.

“I ski,” I shrugged, “That’s fun.”

Alice let out a small laugh and rolled her eyes, “everybody skis here Cassie.”