Chapter 1

"Next!"

The next customer slid up to the register, a girl about Faith's age.

She was dressed in black from head to toe, the only splash of colour was her pale face. Even her lips were painted black. She had tattoos running up her arm and several rings adorned her ears and nose.

Faith smiled brightly and cocked her head to the side just like she'd been taught at the Moon Cafe employee training. "Welcome to the Moon Cafe. What can I get you today?"

The girl gave Faith a dour look. Obviously, she didn't appreciate the chirpiness.

After working here for a month, Faith had come to learn that several customers were actually annoyed by it, but try telling that to her manager. Already, her cheek muscles were starting to hurt from straining to stay in that position.

"Iced Americano."

The answer was short, quiet and sharp. Faith would have missed it if she wasn't listening intently.

She could imagine the hell that would break loose if she had to ask this customer to repeat herself. She sighed internally.

"Name, please?"

"Rachel."

Faith's eyebrows shot up before she could control herself. She looked the customer up and down. This customer looked absolutely nothing like a 'Rachel'.

The girl caught Rachel's surprised look and glowered at her.

Rachel looked away quickly.

"One Iced Americano coming up for Rachel." She rushed through the order, keeping her head firmly down and rung it in. "Next!"

Thankfully, Rachel walked away and another customer stepped up to the counter. Faith watched this surreptitious with her head still down as she typed non-existent orders into her computer.

Once her feet had disappeared from view, Faith looked up. The next customer was one she'd seen before.

He'd been a regular since she started here a month ago. He came in about the same time every day, ordered the exact same drink and sat at the exact same booth.

Sometimes Faith would feel his gaze on her. She had a feeling that he was actually coming because of her and she would be creeped out by that if he wasn't so cute.

Not that Faith was looking for anything right now, but she supposed she wasn't completely against it either.

Before she could say anything, the customer spoke. "Hi."

"Hello sir, Welcome to the Moon Cafe. Would you be having an Expresso again today?"

He beamed at her. He was obviously happy that she remembered his preferred drink. It wasn't that much of an impressive feat.

Try serving the exact same drink to someone (a cute someone) three days a week for a month and not remember what the drink was. Still, she returned his smile.

Faith waited a few seconds for his confirmation. When he just continued to stand there, smiling at her, Faith cleared get throat. "An Expresso today, sir?"

"Oh, yes, an Expresso is fine."

"Name sir?" She asked even though she already knew his name was Ernie. He gave her the name.

"Alright! One Expresso coming up for Ernie. Next!"

"Wait!" The word came out so sharply that even the next customer who was about to step up to the counter paused. Ernie looked back at the customer muttered sorry and turned back to Faith.

Ahh, so he was finally going to say something to her instead of staring at her awkwardly across the cafe.

"I was wondering if maybe we could go out for lunch--dinner sometime. Erm... or maybe I could just get your number and call you then you could decide if you want to go to dinner--or not."

He was rambling. The next customer, also a guy, shook his head and rolled his eyes. Faith thought it was cute that he was so nervous. Plus what could she expect from someone who'd been working up his courage to ask her out for a month now?

She decided to put the man out of his misery. She looked around to make sure that her manager was nowhere in sight, grabbed a pen and piece of paper and scrawled her number on it.

She handed it to him. "Give me a call sometime." Ernie's face positively glowed. He nodded and hurried away to his designated booth.

The next customer stepped up. He started talking immediately. "Now it's guys like that who give us a bad rep. A man shouldn't ramble on like a girl, shaking like a leaf in the rain."

He launched into a monologue about strong men that seemed heavily inspired by Mandrew Ace, whom he even quoted a couple of times.

Faith tuned him out and just nodded her head at appropriate times. She finally managed to get a word in and got his order, sending him to his seat in relief.

As she attended to the next customer, her mind wandered. She didn't particularly like this job. She didn't hate it, but she didn't like it either.

But she acknowledged that it was as good a job as any, and as long as it helped pay her bills, she couldn't complain. Of her three jobs, this one was still her second favourite.

It helped that all her jobs were here on campus too. It was a lot safer, and a lot easier to get around to them.

There had been times in the past month when she regretted coming to Barbell University at all. She could very easily have gotten into a cheaper University elsewhere.

In fact, she'd been offered full scholarships to some good schools but she couldn't bring herself to pass on the opportunity to attend the most elite school in the country.

The fact that she still had to shell out $30,000 to cover the rest of her tuition hadn't seemed as daunting at the time.

Now that she was in the thick of it, working three jobs while struggling to keep up with her schoolwork, she was starting to think she made a mistake.

Perhaps that was her hubris...the need to rub shoulders with the rich and mighty of the world, just like in all those stories she wrote in her journal when she was a kid.

Stories of a Prince Charming coming to whisk her away from her parent's house to his castle.

The story always ended with him feeding her. She spent a lot of nights visualizing the table full of food in her imaginary castle as hunger tightened her little stomach.

There was no help coming for her. Her parents could barely afford to keep her siblings in school. She was on her own.

If anything, Faith felt the urge to send them some money to help out back at home.

At this rate, she was stretching herself too thin. Soon, her schoolwork would begin to suffer.

If that happened, she risked losing her half-scholarship. She needed to maintain a perfect GPA to keep the scholarship.

"Next!"

The next customer stepped up. Weighed down by her thoughts, Faith didn't bother looking up...didn't bother doing the perfect smile and head tilt she'd been taught.

"Welcome to the Moon Cafe. What can I get you today?"

"You."

Faith's eyes shot up in shock at the sound of the deep, rich baritone.

"I'm sorry?" she said.