A Chance Meeting-Short Story

“Ugh, I can’t believe I’m back.” she thinks as she opens the door to the café.

“Why? Why am I even up this early?” she continues to think.

She walks through the door and looks around. The cafe is full of people. If she were to guess it would be the standard work-day crowd. People quickly rushing in, barking orders at the person behind the register. The energy feels rushed and uncomfortable.

“If I didn’t have this new job…”, she continues to think, “I would be back in bed.”

She hangs her head as she slowly waits in line.

She looks up and stares at nothing in particular. She zones out as she follows the line like all the other pre-coffee zombies. All of them hungry for the one thing that will bring them back to life. The line slowly progresses, the number of people before her dwindling to a few… then a couple.

“Finally, the next in line.” she thinks with a sigh.

As she looks over to realize that she can move forward. As she starts to walk to the cashier, a guy runs into her, hard. Hard enough that it knocks her back.

“What the fuck?!?”, she shouts as she rubs her arm.

“Uh…”, the guy starts, “I’m sorry…”
He looks down and holds his arm.

“Watch where the fuck you’re going!” she says, her eyes shooting daggers at him.

“L-look… I’m sorry… I guess I didn’t see you there.” he says meekly.

She takes a deep breath.

“What the hell is your problem?” she asks, her voice still angry-sounding.

“I…” he starts.

He stops for a moment and thinks. He scratches his head as he thinks. How does he explain that he’s running away from someone, from the guy he was sitting with.

“I w-was…” he stops.

“You were what?” she asks with hostility.

“I just needed to leave.” he says.

“And that gives you the right to fucking run into me?” she asks, still quite angry.

He shakes his head as he looks down. He rubs his arm.

“Look, I’m sorry…”, he says imploring, “But I need to get away…”

His voice trails off as he clears his throat.

“L-let me buy you some coffee.” he offers.

“That’s a start.” she says, finally sounding less angry.

She walks to the cashier and orders her drink. He shoves his hand into his pocket and fishes out enough money to pay for the coffee.

“Thank you.” she says with a sigh.

He simply nods. This isn’t how he wanted things to go. He just wants to leave.

“Look,” she says, “I have to get to work. Are you going to be free in 4 hours?”

The guy quietly nods his head.

“You look like you need someone to talk to. Meet me just down the block and we’ll have lunch. Maybe we can talk about what it is that you’re trying to run away from.” she says resigned.

He nods.

“I’ll meet you there.” he says quietly.

She gives him a smile before bolting to the door, coffee in hand.

“Damn.”, she thinks,”Why am I getting involved in this?”