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It had been perfect. Absolutely perfect.

We blinked at teach other and then both started laughing.

“I missed you,” I blurted out. It had literally been a few hours, but I had missed her. Ridiculous.

“I missed you,” she said and I realized I should probably show her to a table and let her sit down.

“Oh, sorry.” I looked around and found that one of the smallest little iron tables was free. The café was a conglomeration of things that didn’t seem to go together but did. I loved the shabby chic and comfy vibe.

I seated her and she picked up a menu.

“I didn’t get a chance to look last time,” she said about the menu.

“Okay, cool. Take your time. As much as you need. No rush.” I was losing it. I could feel my cheeks getting red.

“Okay,” she said, also blushing a little. Secondhand blushing. I dashed back to the bakery without asking if she wanted something to drink.

“You are the absolute cutest, I could die,” Daisy said, resting her chin on her hands.

“Shut up,” I said, willing my cheeks to stop burning. “It’s not like that.”

“It’s likesomething, my dear,” she said with a wink.

It certainly was.

*^*^*

She was still there at the end of my shift. She’d pulled a book out of her purse, a giant non-fiction tome that she seemed to be halfway through. I couldn’t stop sneaking peeks at her while she was reading. I also wanted to borrow the book when she was done.

I finished my side work and made sure that everything was done before I washed my hands, took my apron off, and grabbed my bag. She was still engrossed in her book, so I had to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention.

“Were you waiting for me?” I asked, since to assume would be a little presumptuous.

“Yeah. I just decided to take a day off from . .. everything and read. I don’t do that enough.” I wasn’t sure what she did with her time when she was home. Her parents worked during the day, so I assumed it was very lonely, and her sister was ten years older, so she was off living her own life. Trista had gone as far away from home as she could and married a man from Belize, which her parents weren’t thrilled about. I was thrilledforher.

“You should relax, especially when it’s summer. I think I should help you with your relaxing,” I said. “We can make a list! Or a spreadsheet!” I loved both lists and spreadsheets and electronic documents. I loved tracking everything from my homework to my life goals. It made me feel like I had a handle on things when mostly I didn’t. My goals might be more abstract, like “get an internship” and “buy a house”, but they did have deadlines that I planned on sticking to.

Fi rolled her eyes.

“Okay, okay. I’ll let you make me a list. But no scheduling. That gives me anxiety.” I sat down with her and she pulled out a notebook from her bag, turning to a fresh page.

“I want to read twenty books this summer,” she said, patting the enormous tome. I raised my eyebrows.

“Books that thick?” I asked.

“Well, not all this thick. I’ve got some shorter ones in ebook.” That sounded more do-able. I motioned with my hand for her to write it down.

“You have a much better chance of doing it if you write it down.” She thought and then a slow smile took over her face. She wrote deliberately slowly and then crossed the item out before turning the notebook so I could read it.

Kiss a cute girl.

Well. That was adorable and made my heart flutter.

“You dork,” I said.

“Hey, it’s something I did.” I laughed and then told her to get on with it. She added going to the beach and swimming at least ten times, eating as much ice cream as she could, spending an entire day in bed, going on a road trip, catching up on all the shows she was behind on, and going out in public without underwear.

The last thing was more of a joke, but she wrote it down when I said it, so it was on the list. And I was blushing my face off.