Destiny

It wasn’t her normal time to get up; Daniela always had been an afternoon or evening person. She went to her college classes in the afternoon, got home late, and spent her midnights watching movies or reading a good book. After she finished the spring semester, she was ready to start her final year. Graduation was right around the corn with a degree in psychology. Her meticulous nature made her life seem so perfect but for her, it was a fault she had since as far back as she could remember. Everything had a place and her life had a routine that must be followed.

When she entered psychology as her major, she thought it would be good if she could understand her own need for order then she could help people through there’s. So far, it hadn’t helped her and she had a year left.

Her best friend Kate, who she met during their first year in high school, told her that changing her routine more often might help her overcome some of the anal tendencies that she had grown to hate yet, they were the part of her being she couldn’t control.

She took Kate’s advice. She went to bed earlier and woke up at odd times. On her calendar, she planned the new adventures to do each day. And each day, she tried something new. And she did but everything remained planned. Spontaneity scared the crap out of her. With her calendar planned, set out on her newest adventure. The calendar read: Try a new coffee shop.

To plan for the day, Daniela asked a few of her college friends if they had any recommendations. She took all of the suggestions then searched them on the Internet. She always loved research.

She noticed the parking lot of the new café was full when she pulled in. While it was early for her, apparently it was rush hour for everyone else in the world that wanted coffee from the local café.

She quickly scanned the parking lot because the line of cars coming into the lot wrapped around the street corner. She eyes an open spot ahead. She turned her car into the spot, only to find that a motorcycle took up space. A cuss word she rarely used came out of her mouth as she braked so she didn’t hit it. Once in reverse, she saw someone leaving behind her. Sticking her blue Mini Cooper in reverse, she backed into the empty spot before anyone else.

Inside, the café was just as busy as the parking lot. She stood in line longer than it took for them to make her favorite sweetened iced espresso with half and half. But it was the summer of being wild, so when she arrived at the counter, she ordered a French vanilla iced latte and a cranberry scone; not a big change but it was a change.

There were no places to sit when she had her drink and breakfast in hand. Nowhere to enjoy her morning. As she paced the room, she began to dread her decision to change her routine. It reminded her of the college campus coffee shop; full, people sitting on the floor and in corners just to have a cool place to relax and read indoors.

Around her, single people took up booths while groups of people huddled around small two-top tables. People had their noses in books or behind a laptop or tablet. The groups of three to five people laughed without a care of who heard them. The atmosphere in the café was free and liberating, almost bohemian. Nothing had order which made Daniela uneasy.

She glanced over at the empty corner on the floor; the idea of huddling on the floor did not sound like fun. She also did not want to dirty herself just for a place to sit. She stood in the middle of the room, waiting for someone, anyone in a table or booth to get up. When they did, she would race for that table.

As she waited patiently and scanned the room, she heard a voice next to her. “It might be a while; you can use my other side.”

Daniela glanced in the direction of the voice and saw a young man sitting in the booth. He pointed at the empty seat on the other side of him. A small smile curled the corner of her mouth. “Thanks but I’ll wait for someone to leave.”

Just as she said that someone across the room got up from a table. She rushed through the standing-room-only crowd. Not quick enough, someone stole her long-awaited table. Rethinking the offer, she looked back at the empty seat across from the naturally tanned stranger with a sincere smile. “Sure you don’t mind?”

He replied, “No, not at all. This place is pretty busy. Gotta take a spot when you can get it.”

She smiled as she sat down across from him. She placed her plate with her cranberry scone on the table and scooted into the booth. He watched as she got situated then returned his light green eyes back to the book in his hand.

His back sat against the wall with his legs extending out over his bench; his feet hung off and his eyes were down focusing on his book. Daniela sat very straight with perfect posture. In between daintily picking at her scone taking small bites, her eyes danced between him and her food. While to made her look timid, she was far from it. Daniela had lots of friends and had an outgoing personality. She talked to anyone and everyone when she felt comfortable.

At that moment, she felt alone and out of her comfort zone. She reached in her book bag to find that she left her current read on the side table next to her bed. Her attempt at differing from her routine discombobulated her that morning and she didn’t grab it. She always grabbed a book before she headed out in the mornings for coffee; now she felt awkward.

Without a book or anything to occupy her time, she felt naked. The awkwardness and nervousness showed which caused her booth companion to glance up at her every now and then to see what she was doing. He watched as she turned her cup’s label to face her then as she straightened out the napkin so that it lined up with the lines on the table. He smiled when she rearranged the sugars and sweeteners on the table. When she finished eating, he watched her neatly clean up any crumbs that escaped the napkin and dirtied the table. She folded the napkin up into a small square instead of crumbling it into a ball as he would do. Her neatness fascinated him and he found himself more focused on the little things she did more than his book.

She took another drink from her coffee to wash down the last of her scone, glanced around, and decided that she would leave the odd feeling of being away from the security of old habits. She looked across the table and smiled at the generous guy behind Atlas Shrugged, a book that she wouldn’t have thought anyone would read for fun. She knew that he didn’t see her smile but kind of hoped that her charm worked her way through the thick hard covered book.

A strange feeling of being watched came over Sergio as he read. It felt more like a judgment; he lowered the book and look over it to see the red-headed girl across from him. She had a small welcoming smile that slightly curled the corners of her lips. He smiled back.

“Thank you for the seat.” She said as she edged her way out of the booth with a pleased look on her face.

He replied, “Any time.”

When the alarm went off the next morning, Daniela reached over and smacked it a little too hard. The clock fell off the side of the white side table next to her queen size bed though it didn’t hit the floor. The cord stopped it from reaching its new destination on the floor. She turned to look at the time, forgetting what time she had set it for. The new routine threw her off and the clock was on the table any longer. She sat up and saw it hanging off the front of the table. “Dammit.”

Daniela sat up, adjusting the clock to point it at the exact spot where she could see it from bed or from anywhere in the room. Her head hit the pillow again as she glanced at the clock to see the time like originally planned. Its placement was just a tad off so she adjusted it a few degrees toward her until it was back in its correct position.

Get up and get on with your new day. In her mind, she wished it was easier to get up and get moving. She had sunk into a depression over the last month trying to be spontaneous. She struggled with everything, including the mundane task of getting out of bed. If she didn’t do it then, she would stay in bed all day and sulk. With a mental push, she got out of bed and shuffled her way to the bathroom to start another abnormal day.

She already hated new coffee shop week; she dreaded the full parking lot and the jammed pack sitting area. To her amazement, there were spots available for her in the lot. She pulled into a spot next to the same motorcycle she saw the day before, or at least she thought it was the same.

Inside, that was a different story. Again, there were no empty tables. Not a busy as the day before. There was room on the floor, which she still refused to use. She ordered her French vanilla latte and cranberry scone at the counter and stood around waiting for a table to become unoccupied. She thought the small café concept was for the bird. With her big coffee chain store, people ran in and out or even used the drive-thru. It had big comfy chairs that no one sat in and empty tables for studying. She had a week in this new place then she could go back to her comfort zone. As she walked around the larger cafe, she wanted to cry.

A familiar voice welcomed her as she passed one of the booths. “You have to get here earlier if you want a table of our own.”

She smiled with a chuckle at the pleasant guy who had offered her a table the day before. “Apparently.”

“Sit. I swear I don’t need this much room.”

Without hesitation, she gracefully moved into the booth across from him. With her coffee neatly placed to the left of her with the logo of the cup facing her and her scone perfectly in front of her, she said. “Thanks. It’s nice of you to let a stranger share your table.”

Sergio, with his back on the wall and his legs stretched out along the bench of the booth, lowered his book. “I don’t consider you a stranger since I have seen you twice now.”

She smiled as she picked a piece of scone and placed it in her mouth.

“I’m Sergio, by the way.”

“Daniela. Nice to meet you.”

“Same. I haven’t seen you around before. I mean, before yesterday. You new to the area?” Sergio asked.

Thinking it was odd that he recognized her as new, she replied with her own question. “Are you here all the time to know I’m new?”

He couldn’t tell if her question came from curiosity or not but her tone appeared to be irritated. “More like observant and a regular. A lot of the same people come in at the same time, habits.” He pointed to the girl on the floor in the corner. “That’s Amy. She comes in about eight in the morning, sits in the same spot reading her iPad.”

He looked over to another area of the café where two guys were looking at books on a small two-top table. He pointed them out to her. “Those guys are Mitch and Kevin. They go to college nearby and come before class to study.”

Daniela smiled at him when he glanced back at her with his light green eyes. “What?” He questioned.

She didn’t say anything at first. She studied all the features of his face, the curves of his cheeks, the slight stubble of a beard that didn’t get shaved. “Just find it interesting you know everyone’s story.”

“Everyone is a book, with lots of history. They all have a reason to be here and a story of how they got here. That’s what I enjoy about people.”

“So, what’s your story?” Daniela asked with a hint of flirtation.

He laughed, “It’s a long one. Probably, too long for you to waste on me.”