Chapter 5: See You At Eight

Why was Bryce so interested in someone he had never held a proper conversation with? He didn't know anything about Tessa.

Well…that wasn't entirely true. He knew she had a glorious laugh, was good at basketball, and liked Banana-Rama smoothies. That wasn't much to go off of though. Especially since most of that had been discovered secondhand.

Most days when he went to Juice Jubilee there weren't any other customers so the workers were either goofing off or talking. Sometimes he wondered if the manager had any idea what they got up to. Or if there even was a manager on this shift since he had never seen anyone else.

From overhearing a few things, he learned that the dark girl who preferred to be called Del was still in high school, Josh went to the same college as Tessa because they carpooled here sometimes after class, and that she was majoring in some sort of biological science.

Bryce was slightly relieved to discover she was a college student because that meant she probably wasn't too young for him. Which was stupid because he shouldn't be interested in someone he didn't really know like that.

It was too late for him though. He definitely liked Tessa and he didn't even know her last name.

What little he had seen showed that she was a bright and lively person. Goodness knows he could use some of that to spice up his boring existence. But he was probably so boring she wouldn't be interested in him even if he did work up the nerve to ask her out.

Besides…wouldn't it be creepy to have a frequent customer ask you out? She would totally know he had been coming here for her rather than for his nonexistent love of smoothies.

Bryce was at a stalemate. He loved coming here to get brief glimpses of her light. If he was really lucky, she was laughing about something when he came in and he got to enjoy a minute of that gloriousness before she tried (and often failed) to be all business again.

He couldn't keep coming here forever though. He had already wasted more money on smoothies than he thought he ever would and he was sick of them. He had reached a point where he had started giving them away to the homeless man that liked hanging out by the nearest freeway exist because he couldn't stomach them anymore.

He was wasting money simply to see someone without seeming like a total stalker. He had never felt so pathetic in his life. He needed to stop doing this…but he didn't want to lose all contact with Tessa.

At least she knew his name by now because of how many times he had ordered the same thing. When he came in she would smile at him and say, "Hey, Bryce! You want the usual?"

Bryce would get flustered by the smile that seemed a bit less customer-service-like than before and barely manage to nod and pay. He was such an idiot. He was twenty-five years old! Why couldn't he act like it?

Knowing he would see Tessa at the end of the workday helped him get through it, especially when his boss was on a rampage. Her general lightheartedness always managed to cheer him up. So on the day he went to get his smoothie and saw she had puffy eyes as if she had been crying, he was alarmed.

"Are you alright?" he asked hesitantly.

Most people didn't like being called out on things like that but he couldn't ignore her when she was in distress. His heart twisted seeing her like that because she was normally so cheerful. It felt wrong.

Tessa shot him a weak smile and lied. "I'm fine. Thanks for asking though. You want the usual?"

"…yeah," Bryce said lamely.

He couldn't push it since they hardly knew each other. If they were friends, he might have been able to pull that off but they weren't. He was her customer and nothing more.

But the sight of her puffy eyes and dimmed countenance haunted him for the rest of the night. She might think he was a total creep but he wanted to try and cheer her up. On his way into work the next morning he bought a bouquet of assorted colorful flowers in a glass vase and sincerely hoped it wouldn't backfire on him.

Some of his coworkers gave him a hard time about it too since it had to sit on his desk all day. He hadn't realized flowers could cause so much fuss.

"Ooh, what did you do wrong? Looks pretty serious to me," his desk neighbor David said with a wink as he elbowed Bryce.

"I didn't even know you had a girlfriend," Frank, his desk neighbor on the other side, commented. "Is it your anniversary or something? Those are some pretty fancy flowers."

Were they? Were they too much? Was Tessa going to think he was crazy? Bryce was suddenly seized with panic. This may have been a horrible mistake but he couldn't back down now since he already bought them.

He worried about it on and off all day and steeled himself for the worst when he headed to Juice Jubilee. Tessa looked even more worn down that she had yesterday and his nerves increased. If she didn't like his rather forward gesture, he might make things worse for her when she was already down.

She was the only one behind the counter today too so she was probably overworked in addition to whatever was already bothering her. This was a bad idea. He should leave before she saw him.

"Hey, Bryce. You want your usual?" Tessa asked in a somewhat more subdued tone than normal.

That clinched it for him. If he screwed up, he would simply never show his face here again. He tried not to look like an idiot and held the bouquet out in front of him. "I got these for you because you seemed like you had a bad day yesterday. Sorry if that's too weird."

Her eyes widened and Bryce wasn't sure if she hated it or not. Her expression was surprised but didn't indicate whether it was the good or bad kind. He stood there awkwardly holding the flowers out for what seemed like the longest minute of his life before she took them and her most dazzling smile lit her face.

"It's a little weird but I'm not going to say no. Thank you! No one has ever given me flowers to cheer me up before but I think it actually worked," Tessa said with a light laugh.

He nearly wilted in relief. "Oh good. Well, that's actually all I was here for so I should go."

"Hang on a minute. You came all the way here to give me flowers and now you're leaving without saying anything else?"

Bryce was confused. Was he supposed to say anything else? He didn't have any ulterior motives here; he truly didn't like seeing her upset. This wasn't a prelude to ask her out since he was too chicken for that. He barely had the nerve to do this.

"Um…do you want me to say something else?"

"Well, I kind of thought you would ask me out since you bothered to give me a traditionally romantic gift out of the blue," Tessa said with a shrug. "Was I wrong?"

Wait, did that mean she WANTED him to ask her out? Why would she want that? He hardly spoke two words to her! He liked her because of her personality but he hadn't ever shown her his so he was at a loss.

"I can do that if you want me to," Bryce said, trying to play it cool without showing how confused he was.

Tessa smiled at him. "Excellent! What are you doing at eight?"

"Tonight?!"

"Why not? I don't have any other plans. Do you? I could go for a drink. Do you know any good bars around here?"

Actually, there was a karaoke bar he liked going to even though he never had the guts to get up there and sing. He went there almost every Friday in a desperate attempt to make his life less boring but it hadn't worked yet.

"Sure, if you don't mind karaoke," Bryce told her.

"I love karaoke. Write down the address for me and I'll meet you there," Tessa said as she put the vase under the counter so customers wouldn't see since it wasn't the most professional thing to have at work.

He did so and she tucked the note into the pocket of her apron before smiling brightly at him again. "I'll see you at eight."

"Yeah, see you," Bruce replied in a bit of a daze.

He was having a hard time comprehending what just happened. He was pretty sure he got a date with the girl he liked but he may have imagined the whole thing because it was rather out of the blue.

He wasn't about to let her down though! Especially since it seemed like she really needed cheering up. He needed to get home, eat something, and make sure he was wearing cool clothes that didn't make him look stuffy the way his suit and tie did.

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