>>39000665I arrived at our meeting spot close to seven in the morning, the sun drowning out the remains of twilight as I stepped inside the shop. The owners of the café were attempting a rustic look with the place, wood stains painted liberally over the walls, table tops, and floors, broken up by the white polished concrete surfaces and massive glass windows that made me feel more exposed than cozy. My nostrils perked up and I inhaled the smoky smell of brewed coffee that hung on the air, marred somewhat by all the chemicals used for cleaning and perfuming.
Quietly seated at a table was my date, an elegant and serene girl with pink baubles in her hair, which was mostly silver with a tinge of blue here and there toward the end of her long, pretty locks. She wore a dark eyeliner that made the ocean blue of her eyes pop. I felt a bit intimidated by her fashionable clothes, a kind of flowery, rural dress that made me think of a fairytale maiden. I just had my collared button down shirt and jeans.
She gave me a quiet, sharp-toothed smile, and her powerful tail, armored with placoid scales, shifted to one side as I sat across from her at the table. I should've mentioned - she's not entirely human.
"I hope you weren't waiting long, Gura," I said sheepishly, although I wasn't exactly late.
"Oh no, you're good, I'm just a morning person," she replied, her eyes studying for a moment before looking at her phone. Like a modern day hand fan, the phone gave her an air of aloofness.
"What would you like?" the barista called out to us and I stumbled to place my order. Gura had waited for me to arrive before ordering anything, so she did likewise, and we soon had our lattes and pastries.
I certainly wasn't a morning person, and I found my mind blanking as I twiddled my thumbs. I tried poking around a bit for a topic, but she wasn't very responsive, nor was she eating her pastry at all.
"You - ah, your dress looks good," I finally settled on simply complimenting her.
Her eyes darted up from her phone and she nearly dropped it. Her expression lit up and she enthusiastically buzzed my ears with all manner of fashion talk. She was telling me something about cottagecore that I didn't have a clue about as I struggled to add sugar to my already sweet latte, managing to feel doubly unrefined.
"Oh, uh - sorry for boring you," she said suddenly, falling silent and looking back down at her phone.
Feeling like I'd made a faux pas on top of everything, I emphatically told her I wasn't bored and tried to ask her a few questions about fashion. I made a note to myself to study this subject in case we ever went out again.
In the end, she got up to leave, mumbling nebulous vagaries about the day ahead of her, which I knew better than to pry into. Barely a nibble was taken from her pastry. I was convinced that the date was a disaster.
"What day is it?" she asked me.
"Thursday," I answered, wondering if her excuses for leaving were legitimate if she didn't know what day it was.
"Thanks! I'll see you..." she paused. "Next time."
I stood up, smiling politely, and she suddenly climbed her chair to give me a kiss on my cheek. "Stinky," she grinned before climbing back down and darting off, her swaying blue shark tail mesmerizing me as she left.
I wondered if I would ever see her again, but I'd grown used to the mystery of our partings, certain that I'd see her again. Fate had a habit of throwing us together ever since we'd met on that sandy beach more than two years ago.
