06

Part 6

Chucking the letter in the dustbin, I eyed the candy basket with suspicion. Was it possible that Severon had poisoned the candy? If he did, he was beyond cruel. I mean, who poisoned candy, not a decent man that was for sure. I caressed the basket sadly.

I wish I could eat you. I thought to the candy. But the truth was, after the scary note, I couldn’t not be suspicious. I mean, this was Severon I was dealing with, a criminal. So regretfully, I picked up the basket and placed it on my kitchen counter, maybe I might eat the candy later—once I knew it wasn’t poisonous.

Walking back to the couch, I flopped down and picked up my notepad again. I began chewing the end of the pencil as I willed my brain to give me solutions on how to save my sister. But my stupid brain kept showing me the pictures of colorful candy; candy that was now sitting far away from me.

After a few minutes of no solutions, I hurled my notepad at the wall in frustration. Cursing Severon for sending me colorful—possible poisonous—candy, I stood up and grabbed the newspaper instead, which was not a smart idea as the whole damn thing was in Italian.

Opening up Google Translate on my phone, I begun translating the Italian into English. The reason I was bothering to read the newspaper was because I needed to find a job, and the newspaper was a good start. Now that Maril wasn’t here, I had to earn money, the bills weren’t going to pay themselves.

An hour passed and I still hadn’t found a single job; I mean, I found plenty of jobs, but none of them were for me. I was not interested in being a stock broker or a maid, or even a babysitter—I hated kids. Sadly, there was no job at the candy store nor the toy store, so I was stuck with boring options.

Another thirty minutes flew away until I finally found a job that was remotely interesting, or maybe I just had a screwed up perception of the word ‘interesting’. It was a job at a cafe. They wanted to hire someone to make coffee. Circling the job with a pink glitter pen, I entered the address in the GPS app on my phone. Quickly brushing my hair and putting on a headband with fruits on it, I laced up my sneakers and set off to find a job.

I had just pressed the call button for the elevator when a thin stream of fear trickled down my core. What if Severon was there, waiting for me. What would I do then? It would be impossible for me to escape from him a third time. Maybe I should wait a couple of days before I go out. Maybe Severon wouldn’t bother waiting so much for me.

Don’t be a coward, you idiot. You are brave and strong, you shouldn’t be scared of a dememted criminal who has no sense of colors. Be brave and go out, don’t let that monochromatic idiot keep you in the house. Go find a job, do not let your teddy bears down!

Steeling my resolve, I entered the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. Exiting the elevator after a minute, I was greeted by a golden sun and cold breeze. Maril enjoyed the stormy weather, but I hated the storm; I loved the sun and soft breeze. Checking my phone for the direction to the cafe, I set off the streets of Florence.

There weren’t many people around, possibly already at work. I arrived at the cafe after twenty minutes. I stared at the sign in red that said, Finestra Blu. I frowned at the odd name, Blue Window? And the sign was in red, strange, and the perfect place for me. I loved strange, quirky places.

With a shaking hand, I pushed open the door and entered. The inside of the cafe was warm and welcoming. At the front counter was a woman dressed in what I assumed was a uniform, taking orders from a man with dark hair, wearing a suit. There were eight tables on the left and eight on the right. Stopping myself from turning around and bolting out the door, I forced myself forward until I was standing in front of the woman who was working behind the counter.

“Ciao, buon giorno, cosa posso ottenere?” She said with a cheerful smile on her pretty face. Her curly, dark hair were tied in a neat ponytail and she had green, cat-like eyes. (Hi, good morning, what can I get you?)

“Do you speak English?” I prayed to God she knew English, otherwise there was no way I was getting this job.

“Sì, what can I get you?” She asked. I loved when Italians talked in English, it was so cute with their Italian accents.

“I saw an ad in the newspaper, you guys need someone to make coffee?”

“Sì, sì.” The woman nodded. I glanced at the name tag pinned on her shirt and read the name Bibiana.

“Well, I would like to apply for a job,” I said.

“Have you ever worked before?” She asked me.

“Yes, I worked in a cafe back home.” I told her.

“Oh good, so you know how to make coffee?”

“Yes, I do.” I couldn’t help doing a happy dance in my head. I knew I would get the job.

“All kinds?” She asked.

“All kinds of what?”

“All kinds of coffee. You know how to make all kinds of coffee, right?”

“Oh of course, yeah. I can make all kinds of coffee,” I replied.

“Good, good. Well since I’m assistant manager, I can hire people. So congratulations, you are hired. Just fill out this form while I get you your uniform.” Bibiana pushed the form and a pen towards me while she went in the back.

Quickly filling up the form with the necessary information, I gave the form to Bibiana once she returned carrying a blue and black uniform. She handed me my new uniform and placed the form in the drawer.

“You can change at the back,” she said.

Nodding my head, I went in the back room, and quickly changed into the blue shirt and black skirt. In my opinion, the blue and black combination was awful. It would’ve been nice if the skirt was white or khaki, but not black. But whatever, I needed money, and if I had to wear a black skirt with a blue shirt in order to do it, so be it.

As soon as I emerged from the back door, Bibiana got me to work. And for the next six hours, I made a variety of coffee and served it to customers. I was exhausted, but when I counted my tips at the end of the day, I had a grin bigger than that of my teddy bears.

~*~*~*~*

It had been two days since Severon had sent me the note and candy, and so far I hadn’t heard a peep from him. And the fear that had taken over me previously was nowhere to be found. Now I knew that Severon was all talk and no action.

I glanced at the clock and smiled knowing after half an hour I would get my break. The cafe was bustling with customers, and I was constantly running around taking and delivering orders. I actually felt bad that I wasn’t giving any attention to Skittles, my bear. I had decided to bring Skittles to work, because having my teddy bears with me always kept me in a good mood. Speaking of teddy bears, Severon owed me a teddy bear, maybe that was why he hadn’t shown his ridiculous pretty face to me, he was afraid I would want my teddy bear.

When Bibiana first saw me bring my teddy bear to work, she gave me a strange look; a look I was used to receiving from people; it meant, that people thought I was crazy. But people wouldn’t understand my relationship with stuffed toys. However, Bibiana didn’t stop me from bringing my bears; she had no problem as long as I did my job properly.

The door opened and a young man entered. He was wearing a pale blue, buttoned down shirt with black slacks. It looked as if he was coming from work. He was tall, about 6’1 with curly dark hair. He stopped in front of the counter and upon closer inspection, I noticed that his skin was fair and he had adorable, dark brown eyes. The man smiled, and his smile made my face heat up. He was so cute.

“Buon giorno, vorrei un espresso,” the cute man said to me. Mainly Bibiana handled the orders and the counter but since she was busy with a customer, I was at the counter.(Good morning, I would like an espresso)

I had no idea how it was possible, but I fell in love with the man. His voice, so deep and rich, made me wish we were alone in a room together. I wouldn’t have minded if my teddy bears were in the same room, I would love their opinion on this guy.

“One espresso coming right up.” In the passed two days, I had learn a smidgen of Italian. I went to the coffee machine and quickly prepared his coffee. Wrapping a napkin around the coffee cup, I placed it in front of the man.

The cute guy took the cup and sipped the coffee slowly. I couldn’t tear my eyes from him, my eyes following his every move, as the coffee went in his mouth and down his throat. I had this weird habit of staring at men whom I had a major crush on, it was like my eyes didn’t want to miss a single second of looking at perfection, and the man standing in front of me was perfection, kinda like Severon, only in a good way.

“You’re American,” he said.

“How’d you know?” I asked breathlessly.

“You speak English,” he replied in a ‘duh’ tone.

“Right, yes I do, and you speak English, too.” God what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I be as smooth as Maril when dealing with cute guys?

The man chuckled, and it did something funny to my insides. “I’m Fabio,” he said.

“And I’m in love.” Realizing what I just said, I clamped at a hand over my hand as embarrassment colored my cheeks. I stared at Fabio with wide eyes as he laughed.

“Sorry, I meant, I’m Kelsey, nice to meet you.” I back tracked.

“Right, Kelsey,” Fabio said after he had stopped laughing. “What are you doing after your shift?” He asked.

“I have to feed my bears, they get hungry around 6:00.” I told him, unaware about what I was telling him.

Fabio gave me a strange look. Before he could say anything, I burly man in his mid-twenties came and stood right next to him. The man reminded me of Severon’s goons; he had the same macho built like he swallowed nails for breakfast, with dark spiky hair and dark beady eyes. He was dressed in all black and had a strange tattoo on his face. Now that I had a closer look at him, I had seen him regularly at the cafe, and he sat in his usual spot—at the far end—for hours.

“Solo così si sa, non sono il suo tipo,” the burly man said to Fabio. (Just so you know, you are not her type)

“E qual è il suo tipo?” Fabio said to the man. (And what is her type?)

The beefy man moved closer to Fabio and muttered, “Donne.” (Women)

Fabio was taken aback by whatever the man said to him. He gave me a once over before a smile crept on his face. But unlike before, this was not a flirty smile, no this smile was platonic. My heart sank at Fabio’s sudden change in behavior.

“Thank you for the coffee, bye.” Fabio turned and strode out of the cafe, leaving me bewildered.

What in the peanut butter hell just happened? I thought Fabio was interested in me, but he didn’t even finish asking me out. What had this man told him. Damn it, I was so close to having been asked out on a date. But this guy ruined everything.

Or maybe your ridiculous teddy bear talk scared him off.

The burly man stood staring at me. Even though I was working, and I was supposed to be nice to customers, I couldn’t help but glare at him. I had no clue what he said to Fabio, but whatever it was, it was bad and now Fabio was gone.

“Stay away from strange men,” the burly man stated.

Now I was taken aback. Just who on this boring Earth was he to tell me what to do? He was a stranger, he had no right to tell me to do anything.

“Excuse me?”

“Stay away from strange men, or you will face the consequences,” he threatened.

“Listen you, bag of stale pudding, you don’t know me, and you have no right to me tell me what to do, so get your pathetic ass out of this cafe before I call security.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Listen Miss, my job was to warn you, and if you don’t listen to me, you’ll be bringing the wrath of my boss upon yourself and the strange men,” he said.

“I’m not afraid of you or your stupid boss, whoever he is. So why don’t you mind your own business, and leave me be.” I began swiping the counter with a rag.

“My boss will not be happy once I tell him what you said,” the burly man said. Just who was he talking about? Who was his boss? And why was he so interested in me?

“Tell your boss I don’t give a stuffed toys ass about what he thinks. You can go now.” I didn’t look at him as I said all this.

“You can tell me that yourself, dandelion.” My head shot up as I heard the familiar nickname. Severon stood next to the beefy man, with a strange twinkle in his eyes.

Dread shot through my veins as I stared at Severon. I couldn’t believe it, I thought he would’ve forgotten me by now, yet, here he was standing in front of me. I wanted to run, I wanted to hide, but I knew that I couldn’t show weakness in front of Severon, so I stayed put, trying my best not to let his presence affect me.

“So you’re stalking me now, do you have no shame? How could you look at look at yourself in the mirror after all the horrible things you do?” I really wished Bibiana would show up to take my place, but she was busy with customers.

“How are you, dragonfly?” Severon asked.

“Why are you here?” I enquired.

“Didn’t you get my letter, I told you I’ll be coming for you,” he said.

“I’m sorry, I pay no heed to words that come from mentally unstable people,” I shot back.

Severon ignored my jibe, instead he leaned closer. “You would do well to steer clear of strange men, dandelion,” he muttered.

“In that case, I should stay away from you.”

“I mean it, stay away from strange men,” he commanded, a strange possessive gleam in his golden eyes.

“Mind your own business, Aresco,” I seethed, glaring at him.

Severon didn’t say anything, instead he whispered something to his minion who nodded. Once he finished, he turned his attention back to me.

“I’ll see you soon, sweetie, try not to do anything irrational.” With that Severon turned and left the cafe, leaving me boiling with fury.

Not do anything irrational?! I’ll show him.

Throwing another glare at the beefy man, I turned and marched to the coffee machines. Severon had no right to tell me what to do, and I was going to prove it to him.

Just wait Severon. You messed with the wrong girl.