It was a slow Wednesday night at the cafe, of the kind of dreary ones that made a person feel like there was no magic in the world. Only one table had a customer, a girl who had stopped ordering things some two hours ago and who kept only drinking water now. I was annoyed that I had to keep topping off her glass, but my coworker Poonam gave me some words of wisdom.

"Listen, she's a customer. We have to treat them well so they come back again."

That logic translated well to me. I thought back to the gulf club my father despised so much, but they had excellent service and that was the reason why people rich enough to get brunch in the Bahamas on a weekday kept returning.

"You're right," I said with a look around at our laptops and books on the counter. "Besides, we're doing the same damn thing."

It was almost midnight and the library had closed a while ago. I could relate with the customer, because often it was harder to concentrate on studies at home than somewhere else. With that in mind I headed over and after topping off her water offered her some coffee. She slumped but agreed that was probably a good idea.

After I returned behind the counter, Poonam gave me a sly smile. "You're finally learning the ropes, rich girl."

Yeah, lure them in with honey. I should've probably learned this lesson after months dealing with hungry or decaffeinated customers, but I struggled on the patience department.

"Excuse you, former-rich-now-definitely-poor-girl to you," I said as I bent down to grab a clean mug. The front door dinged with the sound of new customers and I straightened up to say a greeting along with my colleague. The greeting lodged in my stomach and I dropped low behind the counter as though I'd been pulled by strings.

Poonam murmured, "What the..."

I batted my hands at her. "Take their table, go."

She shrugged and headed over to where three guys had made themselves comfortable. I peeked over the counter and groaned. All of them had books and laptops and clearly the same idea as the lone girl.

Shit. They were planning on staying a while.

That was not the big issue, that being that Miguel was among them.

Was he following me or something? No, I was being ridiculous. He probably didn't even know that I worked here. I reminded myself I was supposed to play it cool, because I had to serve a cup of coffee to the other customer and there was no way he was going to miss me. I was a 6'2" redhead, for goodness's sake. He'd have to be drunk off his rockers to not notice it was me. Resigned to the inevitable, I finished preparing the coffee and took it to the girl. She was definitely awake now, eyes trained on the guys' table. I turned to see what kept her in such thrall and rolled my eyes, because they were all hotties. Which followed the universal rule that good looking people surrounded themselves with other good looking people.

Uh-oh, he saw me.

"Addy! Hi." Miguel's entire face lit up like it was Christmas, eyes trained on my t-shirt and apron. "I didn't know you worked here."

I probably had one of those smiles that looked half happy and half reluctant. Poonam glanced back and forth between the boy and I and I could just read her mind.

Be professional, you drooling puppy.

"Yep, since a few months ago." I cleared my throat. "Anyway, welcome to the Magic Cafe. My coworker Poonam here will take great care of you all."

He laughed. "Very professional."

My face hurt from the strained smile. "That's me."

"Why don't I introduce you to the guys?" he said, immediately turning to them and not giving me a chance to run away. Right. He pointed to a blond boy who looked straight out of a tooth paste commercial. "This is Bryce and Malik, my roommates."

I liked Malik better, there was something kind about his eyes.

"Nice to meet you." I waved.

Miguel then said, "This is Addy, my friend from high school."

Friend from high school.

It felt so weird to hear that, like maybe the fact that we were just acquaintances with friends in common had been a concept I came up with in my head.

"And we're in a class together now," he finished.

"Ohh, so you go to business school too," Malik said.

"No." At their looks of confusion I added, "I go to fashion school but recently decided to minor in business. Sorry but I gotta, um, help out in the kitchen."

I whirled around and went to do just that. Except that Juan, the cook for tonight, was dead asleep in his chair. There were a couple of dirty dishes and utensils by the sink, so I put on gloves and set out to do some washing. We had big dishwashers for that purpose, but recently I'd found that cleaning helped me decompress. This would've been useful to discover years ago, but I guessed I didn't have much of a sense of accountability back then.

Poonam stormed in and nearly gave Juan a heart attack.

"Damn it, Poonam!" he screeched, voice a few octaves higher than his norm.

"Oops," she said with a laugh. "Shouldn't have been asleep on the job, then."

I was very lucky that I'd found this place. Or that it had found me. I knew that despite having shitty parents, I had the privilege of an education and certain means enough that I didn't struggle to find opportunities like this. Not everybody was so fortunate.

I loved almost everybody I worked with and these two were among my faves, aside from Ayrton. Matt was touch and go and I was glad he wasn't here tonight to see me act like a fool.

She confirmed it in her next breath. "Girl, what the hell was that? You were out there acting like a damn fool."

I cringed. "Was it that bad?"

"Uh, awkward turtle is putting it mildly."

Juan rubbed the sleep off his face and asked, "What's going on?"

Poonam tore the sheet of paper off her pad and passed it to him. "Two regular burgers with fries and one club sandwich with fries."

He groaned and we all felt that deep in our bones.

"Don't people just sleep?" he grumbled as he turned on the stove.

The other girl leaned against the sink and folded her arms. "So, you guys have history or what?"

"What?" I dropped a plate and it splashed us both. "Sorry—what? No. What made you think that?"

Her dark eyes rolled as she grabbed a rag to dry herself. "Only the way you lost your shit the moment that Greek god walked in."

I sighed. "Venezuelan god, and no. I just know him from high school, friend of a friend."

The side eye game was strong on this girl, I had to admit that.

"Besides," it forced me to add. "Do you really think someone like him would have some sort of past with someone like me? Puh-lease."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Juan said from behind us as he flipped a patty. "You saying you're ugly or something?"

I snorted. "For him? Fuck yeah."

"That's just bullshit."

Poonam hummed from her throat. "Well, you do make a point there."

"See?" I asked Juan, laughing.

Without further ado, he left everything and walked out of the kitchen. Three seconds later he pushed the door open and was back inside saying, "I see."

That just made me laugh harder. "Rude!"

But that was the crux of things. Miguel was a good guy, family oriented as far as I knew. Friendly. Fun to be around. Well to do and with prospects of a good future. Hardworking, if I were to go by the thick tomes that he'd surrounded himself with at his table. But he was far too attractive, the kind where people just couldn't look away. Eyes were attracted to him like moths to flame and in the privacy of my mind I could admit that I'd never been immune. I always brought myself down to earth, though, because I knew that only if I were more in his league would I ever had stood a chance of him looking at me with the same interest he awoke in others. It was painful to be around him, because it just served to remind me how lacking I was. Big. Chunky. Awkward like a bull in a china shop. With facial features that weren't delicate or proportionate. Shy when I shouldn't be. Afraid to be in the spotlight. And there would be much spotlight reflected on whomever he brought into his life, that was the curse of the pretty people.

It was that, or letting all the attention get to their heads like it'd happened to my mother.

This was why, despite my unending love for fashion, I sought to be behind the scenes. That was where I was comfortable. Miguel scared me, because even just saying hi to him felt dangerously close to taking the center stage, where my flaws and my feelings would be vulnerable to scrutiny.

"Whatever, you're going to have to get over yourself because I'm taking my break now," Poonam announced.

My jaw dropped. "You can't do this to me."

"If there's no history between you guys like you say, all of this," she said at the same time as she twirled her index into eight figures in the air. "Is just in your head. If he's just a friend of a friend, you wouldn't react like this."

Like a kid, I stomped my foot and whined.

"I had a crush on him, okay?" I admitted for the first time. Aloud, that was.

"Had?" Juan asked.

"It may have come back a bit when I saw him the other day. I'm processing my feelings."

Poonam took off her apron and dropped it on the prep table. "Process them in your spare time. Their orders are ready."

My tantrum received no sympathy from either of them. I picked up the three plates and left the kitchen. Suddenly it felt as though the dining area was a lot larger than normal, like every step was heavier. At least that helped me prepare and by the time I reached their table I had more or less a grip on myself.

"Two regular burgers?" I asked, and both of Miguel's friends lifted their hands. Easy. "Any ketchup, hot sauce, that you'd like?"

The Bryce guy didn't even look at me when he said, "Ketchup, and can you bring me new utensils? These are dirty."

I flushed all the way to my toes. When I took this job I thought that a lifetime of treating servers and clerks with politeness was going to pay off, and that surely I'd be repaid in kind now that I was in the food service.

Hell to the fucking no.

People were like this on the regular, treating us as though we didn't even merit a glance in acknowledgement. I wanted to smack his pretty face with the utensils he claimed were not up to his standard, but I just picked them up and squeezed them. I grabbed a set from a nearby table and probably added too much force as I slammed them next to his plate and said, "Here you go, sir."

Ah, shit. There went the tip.

I sat at my chair behind the counter, rubbing my eyes and wondering why I'd signed up for the night shift. Freaking Ayrton and his date with a guy he'd met at the supermarket, I was never subbing in for him again.

"I'm sorry about that."

The words startled me so much I almost fell. My hand went to my chest, as if it could calm down my heart. "Holy Mother. You scared the crap out of me."

"Double sorry, then." Miguel grimaced. "Listen, that wasn't nice of him and I just told him, but we have this paper we need to hand in tomorrow and tensions are running high."

"I can understand that." Miguel impaired my reasoning abilities, and my mouth ran before I stopped it. "But you know, he should be the one apologizing. The fact that he's not shows that he's an ass."

There was a beat of silence where I felt the heat crawl up my neck again. And the next moment he was laughing so hard I had to give him a glass of water to get him breathing normal again.

"That's a fresh take." His grin reached all the way to his eyes, and just before he returned to the table he said, "I'm glad we'll be seeing each other more often, Addy."

Yep, I was doomed.