Showing up when she least expects him…
Kara Klein comes to the café to work. She loves the place, appreciates the other regulars, could live on Nina’s excellent coffee. With her earbuds in and her papers spread out before her, Kara settles in to get things done whenever she visits the café. No time for conversation. No time for nonsense.
Certainly no time for the attractive man with almost hazel eyes who sits across from her and earnestly leaves her alone.
With things in her career taking priority, Kara doesn’t have time for a crush. Or getting her heart broken.
Too bad her heart has other priorities.
KARA AND EDDIE AT THE CAFE is available to read for free until the 1st of June, when another story will be posted. For readers who would prefer to read on a device of preference, or who would like their own personal eBook of this story, you can find it here.
***
Kara and Eddie at the Café
A Café Story
A hand poked under her face, between her and her book, then quickly disappeared. Kara looked up, frowning, and took her earbud out of her ear. The man standing at her table in the café was smiling earnestly at her, but also looked a little terrified.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said. “May I sit here?” He gestured to the empty seat at her table.
Still frowning, she looked around the café. Yeah, it was pretty crowded. There were people at every single table, with few spare chairs. All the couches and cushioned seats around the edges of the café were occupied. Nina, the owner, and her assistant Akira were busy working the espresso machine, serving customers. More than one person glanced around at the busy tables, shrugged, and walked out the main door, or through the arch into the attached bookstore.
She spotted a free seat at a table not far from her and gestured to it. “That woman has a free seat. Why didn’t you ask her?”
The man looked back at the woman, Agnes Waters, a regular at the café. She was currently sipping from her tea mug, her attention on the book she held up in front of her.
When the man glanced back, he winced. “I would. But the last time I sat at a table with Agnes, she forced me to read a short story. It was erotica. And there were teeth in a body part that doesn’t normally have teeth.” He shivered.
Kara rolled her lips into her mouth to keep from laughing. She nodded to the chair across from her, letting the man know he could sit. His shoulders slumped in relief as he settled in.
“You know you can say the word vagina, right?” she said.
“Oh. Thank you. But we’ve only just met.”
Said with such sincerity, seriousness, and earnestness, she did laugh this time. The chuckle startled her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed spontaneously.
“I take it Agnes forced you to read the teeth erotica, too?” the man said with a grin.
“Not yet. You know Agnes? You here regularly?” Kara was, but at odd times, so she didn’t know all the regulars. Agnes, however, seemed to be here all the time. She might even live here. So it was rare Kara was here when Agnes wasn’t.
“I suppose I am becoming one,” he said, smiling a little to himself. “It’s a nice place.”
Kara couldn’t agree more. The café was a favorite way to escape work while also getting a little work done. She was never bothered here. In fact, someone asking to share her table almost never happened. Especially a strange man. Here anyway. She’d had to deal with this kind of thing at other coffee shops. She’d thought this one was immune to the usual crap.
Guess not.
“Thanks again for letting me sit,” the man said, settling his mug of hot coffee—a latte from the foamy milky top—and his book on the table, careful to keep everything close to him so he wasn’t encroaching on her space.
That was nice. And rare.
“I’d have had to leave if I couldn’t find a seat,” he said. “And I wasn’t ready to leave yet.”
“The café? The bookstore? The city? This plane of existence?”
He grinned. Kara leaned back a little. He had a really pleasant grin. Nice. Natural. Highlighted his eyes. Which were brown. But a light brown. Not quite hazel. Well, maybe hazel in the right light. Friendly eyes.
“The café,” he clarified. “If I leave, I’ll have to go back to work, and I’m not ready for that yet.”
Well that was a comment that begged follow up questions. She was curious enough to ask, but also, she had to finish the paper she was reading and she hadn’t come in here for conversation. Thus the earbuds and the ambient beach sounds turned up loud enough to drown out the sounds of conversation around her.
But she was curious so she settled her arms on the table and said, “Okay. Tell me. Why don’t you want to go back to work?”
He opened his mouth, looked at her, frowned, and shook his head. “You’ve got your earbuds in, you’re reading something. You’re obviously not here for conversation, and I didn’t sit here to hijack your time.” He gestured at the book and the cellphone he’d set next to it. “I can keep myself entertained.” He grinned again. “I don’t want to disturb you.”
She narrowed her eyes, studying him. He was a pleasant enough looking man. Not head turning handsome, but attractive in a quiet way. Short dark brown hair, the curls cut neat and tight to his head along the sides, a little longer on the top, those pretty almost hazel eyes, light brown complexion, a strong jaw. Nice mouth. He was dressed in a button down, long sleeve business shirt and dark gray slacks. No jacket or tie. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, which was a good look for him because he had nice forearms. When he’d been standing, he’d seemed an average height. Maybe not quite six foot tall. But close. And he was slim, but not overly muscled or anything. No piercings or tattoos that were obvious. That was a shame.
“Do you have sisters?” she asked.
He blinked and leaned back a little. “Three. All older. How’d you guess?”
“You knew better than to take up a woman’s time when she hadn’t asked.”
“Oh. Yeah. My sisters would each kick my ass individually, and then as a group, if I didn’t mind my manners.” He half glanced behind him, where Agnes was sitting. Shivered a little. “I doubt Agnes would let me get away with creeping through the café anyway.”
“There’s a reason she made you read an erotic story about a vagina with teeth,” Kara said.
He laughed and winced at the same time. Then, “I really did just want to stall before going back to work and not disturb you. You can put your earbuds back in. I’ll occupy myself with my book.”
When he proceeded to do just that, she gave a little shrug and did put her earbud back in, returning to the paper she was reading.
She only realized the man hadn’t tried to ask her name, and she hadn’t bothered to ask his, after he’d thanked her for the seat and left.
She considered the empty seat after he’d gone. Huh. That had been more comfortable and pleasant than she would have expected sitting with a strange man. Especially one with such nice eyes.
***
The café was half empty the next time someone stuck their hand between Kara’s face and the journal she was reading. Different hand this time. And he didn’t snatch it back the instant he’d stuck it between her and her reading. She looked up slowly, frowning. She didn’t remove her earbuds immediately because the guy was smirking at her and gesturing to her earbuds to get her to remove them.
She glanced around. Plenty of tables available. Only a few scattered regulars were in this afternoon. Agnes at her usual table. The scary, beautiful woman who read hunting magazines near the arch leading into the bookstore. Nina was working alone today and her cat Boo, a pale gray Maine Coon, was sitting on a stool that was too small for him, licking one of his front feet. Nina was taking an order, but her gaze jumped to where Kara was sitting briefly.
Kara glanced back up at the man. He gave her a grin and gestured at her earbuds again.
She did not return the grin, but did remove a single earbud. “Yes?”
“Can I share your table?”
Kara looked around again at all the empty seats. Looked back at the man and said, “No.” Then she replaced her earbud and returned to her journal.
The man put a hand on her journal, covering the text. She looked up again, scowling this time as she removed an earbud.
“Hey, I’m just trying to be friendly here. Saw a pretty girl and thought we might have a nice conversation.”
“And I said no. Which is a complete sentence.” She usually defaulted to false politeness to get out of these situations. But she knew Nina was watching and that she was safe inside the café. So she didn’t bother pretending to be polite when she was feeling the opposite.
“I’m just trying to compliment you.”
“No. You aren’t. And I’m not interested.”
“Not even in a little conversation? Waste you sitting here reading all alone.”
She was on the verge of getting more aggressive, saw Agnes set her book down, her full attention on the man pestering Kara. The look on Agnes’s face was neutral enough, but Kara thought the man standing over her might consider the danger he was in from that older woman’s stare.
Kara craned her neck to look up at him because he was standing too close and looming over her. “I’m busy. There are other seats. I already said no.”
“Come on,” the man cajoled. “No need to be that way. I just want to talk to you for a bit. Maybe get you a coffee? Take you out to dinner.”
Kara set her hands to the table and was about to skewer the man verbally, though she was so irritated she wasn’t even sure what she was going to say. Before she could open her mouth, though, before Nina could come around the edge of the counter or Agnes could stand, a voice from behind the man said, “Hi! Sorry I’m late. Didn’t mean to keep you waiting.”
The man with the nice almost hazel eyes stepped around the man looming over her, sort of elbowing him aside without actually looking at him. He set one of Nina’s chocolate chip cookies that was the size of a small plate in front of her, and said, “To make up for my delay. Got caught at work. You know how it goes.”
She nodded, smiled. “Thanks.” Then she looked up at the man who’d been looming over her and said, “Bye.”
The man looked between Kara and the newcomer pretending to be her friend, or maybe boyfriend, but definitely putting a damper on the other man’s attempt to keep hitting on her. He huffed and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “bitch,” under his breath, then turned and headed toward the gorgeous woman reading a hunting magazine.
He’d barely gotten half way to her table when he tripped on something and went crashing to the ground, his coffee mug shattering as it hit the hardwood floor. The sudden noise drew everyone’s attention… Except the woman reading the hunting magazine. She flipped a page and never even glanced up.
The writer at the back of the café, who’d been typing so furiously Kara thought he might hurt himself, paused to blink at the man sprawled on the ground as Nina came around the counter to help him up and wave away the mess. Kara noted the man who’d fallen didn’t actually apologize for the mess and didn’t offer to help clean it up. The writer’s gaze turned inward, and then he dove back into typing on his laptop.
Kara very much wanted to read the book with the scene that had just been inspired by the looming man’s crash and burn.
Nina offered the fallen man a fresh cup of coffee, but he snapped a sharp, “No,” at her, tugged down the sleeves of his suit jacket, and headed out the café door. He did not go near the woman with the hunting magazine on the way out.
Kara’s gaze skimmed past Agnes to see her smirking into her own book.
When all the hubbub settled down, Kara said to her new friend, “Thanks. He was being a pest.”
“Exactly the kind of approach my sisters warned me about,” he said with a soft smile. “You okay now?”
“Fine. I’m fine. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He stood with his latte and said, “I’ll let you get back to your reading.” He started to walk to another table, but she stopped him with a wave. “You’re forgetting your cookie.”
“Do you like chocolate chip cookies?” he asked.
“I do, yeah.” She loved them actually. But she usually only got them when she felt she deserved a little treat because she’d gotten all her reading done.
He smiled. “You keep it, then. Little sweet to alleviate the sour of that last encounter.”
She chuckled and thanked him. And was about to say he could sit with her, she wouldn’t mind. When she realized she didn’t have time for a conversation, much as she wanted to have one with him.
He settled at a table in the back, not far from the writer, opened his book, and started reading. His lips moved as he read.
She grinned, replaced her earbud, and went back to the journal. She slowly ate the cookie as she read. The delicious flavor of chocolate and butter and brown sugar, the interior soft with just a little crunch on the outer edges…a perfect chocolate chip cookie. Kara smiled softly with every bite.
When she finished, she turned to see if the man was still around so she could thank him, but he’d already left.
***
Kara didn’t see the man the next two times she was in the café and tried to ignore the little pang of disappointment she felt when she stood to leave both times. She didn’t even know his name. The spring semester was about to start, which meant she had to go back to some teaching, she had a thesis to finish, and her data analysis had turned up something unexpected that she was trying to work out.
She was busy. And not getting enough sleep because she was worried about meeting a deadline for a paper she was co-authoring with one of her professors. Professor Schwarz was a stickler for deadlines, and this publishing credit, if the paper was accepted, would really help Kara’s currently thin CV.
This was the worst possible time to start developing a crush on a complete stranger just because he wasn’t the usual asshole and he’d gotten her a cookie. Was she really so easily wooed?
To be fair, it had been a very good cookie.
Still. She didn’t have time for crushes.
And if she was going to the café a little more often because a part of her she refused to acknowledge thought the nice man might actually be there again? Well. She was getting a lot of work done at the café. Outside of that one guy—who she never saw again—no one pestered her and the coffee was really excellent.
So her showing up on that third day, three days in one week, wasn’t that strange. After all, Agnes seemed to be there every day. Kara wasn’t quite that much of a regular. But being a regular meant showing up. Regularly. Which was all she was doing.
And her stomach didn’t do a little flip when she saw him walk in from the bookstore from the corner of her eye, while she was trying to focus on the papers she was reading, the notes she was taking. That giddy sensation was probably just because she thought she might have found some papers to backup her data analysis for her thesis. That was the better explanation. Not that she was delighted to see the man with the almost hazel eyes.
She certainly wasn’t busy trying to figure out how to say hello to him without coming off as clingy or desperate.
Geez, she really was wooed easily.
She flipped the page of the printed out paper she was reading, twirling her highlighter in her fingers. She was aware of Agnes glancing up at her, but she ignored it. The woman who read hunting magazines was in that day, too, but she never seemed to notice anyone or anything around her. The writer wasn’t there, but there was a young man near the front playing his guitar and the Maine Coon, Boo, who usually sat by the register, was sitting on the guitar player’s chair armrest, and seemed to be bobbing his head to the guitarist’s music.
Only Nina was behind the counter today, since it was mid-week. The café was moderately busy, but not so crowded there weren’t any free tables. No real excuse for her to offer the seat across from her to the man whose name she really wanted to learn today. She also wanted to thank him again for the last time—help with that asshole, and the cookie.
She glanced up as he started in her direction, and she smiled a greeting, giving him a nod.
He grinned back, answered her greeting with a friendly, “Hey, how’s the reading going?”
“Good so far. Think I might be on to something.”
“Excellent.” He walked past her to a table near the back, sat with his latte and his book, and started to read.
She glanced at him over her shoulder, debating if she’d go speak to him. Looked down at the scattered papers on the table in front of her. She really did need to focus here. She rolled her neck and tried to focus on her work.
Earbuds in, but not even beach sounds playing, Kara was extremely aware of her surroundings, even as she tried to ignore everything. Probably she should turn on the beach sounds to give her some background noise. That way she wasn’t so acutely aware of the guitar strumming and the pages flipping, the occasional throat clearing or soft cough.
She glanced over her shoulder again, trying and failing to be subtle. Felt a little silly to be this interested in someone when she didn’t even know his name. When the sum total of their interactions had been nothing but polite and friendly. He hadn’t even flirted with her. Unless giving her a cookie counted. Or that joke about them just meeting so he couldn’t use the word vagina. Which, was funnier in the moment than it seemed when she thought about it clinically.
Okay. Enough. She was being silly. He was a nice man. But that was it. He might not even be interested in women. Though, most of the gay men she knew who were that nice went out of their way to let women know they were gay and therefore safe. That very first day when he sat down, if he’d been gay, he probably would have said so outright to put her at ease given how bristly she was about letting him join her.
She gave her head a little shake. She needed to get back to work. Focus. That’s what she needed. Focus. On her work. On the paper. On figuring out what her data was telling her—or at least how to explain the results with a supportive theory and previous precedent maybe.
Her focus lasted about twenty minutes, before she found herself glancing over her shoulder at him again. He was still reading, though his mug was pushed to one side of his small table. And his lips were moving as he read. He was also scowling down at the book, as if something he was reading bothered him. She turned away just as he looked up from the page, and winced that she’d been caught staring at him. Wow. That was embarrassing.
She straightened in her seat and refocused on the paper she was reading. There was good theoretical work in here, and though the math was a little tough to work through, she thought this might be something. She’d have to check it was saying what she thought it was saying with her supervisor, but this paper seemed to be the answer she was looking for.
If she could just focus on the damned thing.
Instead, she found herself glancing behind her more than once. Sneaking looks at a man so caught up in his book, she was sure she was making a fool of herself. And she felt like an idiot.
After another ten minutes of trying to concentrate, she gave up, took her earbuds out, and stood.
The man blinked up at her when her shadow fell across his book.
“Sorry to bother you,” she said, “but I wanted to thank you again for that cookie. And to ask your name. Feels weird that we’re both regulars here and I don’t know your name.” There were plenty of regulars whose name she didn’t know. But it sounded like a good excuse.
She realized she might have been a little abrupt because the man blinked up at her for a solid thirty seconds without answering.
“If you don’t want to share your name, that’s fine,” she said quickly. “I don’t want to disturb you.”
She started to turn away, but he said, “Wait!”
When she turned back, he thrust his hand out. “I’m Edmund. Edmund Rogers. But everyone calls me Eddie.”
“Kara Klein.”
“Good name.”
She nearly said, “thanks. I like it too, that’s why I picked it.” But she wasn’t anywhere near ready for that conversation yet. So instead she said, “My mother likes alliteration.” Which was technically true. Her dead name had been a K name too.
Eddie smiled. “I was almost Raymond Rogers. But my mothers decided the alliteration was a little too much.”
She chuckled. Then stood there awkwardly because she wasn’t sure what to say next. She’d done what she’d come over to do. She now knew his name was Eddie—not Raymond, which was good because she had an ex named Ray who’d sort of soured her on that name—and she’d thanked him again for the cookie. There was really nothing else to say.
“Well. Okay. Nice to meet you, Eddie.” She waved her hand in a gesture even she wasn’t sure carried much meaning, and returned to her seat.
The giddy tingles in her stomach didn’t die down much. But she was able to get back to her reading.
***
The next three times Kara saw Eddie at the café, they paused long enough to chat briefly. Either he’d stand at her table and say hello and comment on the coffee, or she’d do that with him. But they never sat together. Kara wasn’t sure what prevented her from asking him to sit, other than the fact that she had work to do.
But after the third one of these brief, friendly interactions, she decided the next time she came into the café, she’d take a break from work if Eddie was there. Long enough to have a conversation with him that involved more than complimenting Nina’s coffee.
Except the next two times she was in the café, Eddie didn’t show up. It was starting to feel like the universe was telling her something—not to get stuck on this guy, whoever he really was, and just carry on with the friendly acquaintance thing they had going. There really wasn’t any need to deepen things. She didn’t have to satisfy her curiosity and find out what he was reading, what he did for a living, what his favorite color was, what it was like growing up with three sisters and two moms, what he did on his last vacation, what his favorite food was, what he did in his spare time besides sit in the café and read…
She didn’t know any of those things about Agnes, and Agnes had recommended an erotic short story anthology to Kara early on in their acquaintance. So it wasn’t like Kara had to have a lengthy chat with Eddie.
She just wanted to.
On the third café visit when she brought some work with her but not a lot just in case, she hit the jackpot. So to speak. Because while Eddie was already at the café and sitting alone at his table, now she had to be brave enough to ask if she could join him. And honestly, she was nervous about doing that. So she first went to the counter to order her usual.
Nina was humming as she got Kara’s coffee with milk, and Boo was sleeping on his stool. That none of his huge gray fuzzy body was falling off the stool was an impressive defiance of physics. She could probably write a paper about it. The café was busy but not too crowded. There were tables scattered around the place. Even a few of the couches and cushioned chairs at the edge of the seating area were empty. Had she wanted to sit alone, there was plenty of space for her to.
Agnes was sitting in her usual seat, her face in a book, which from the clinch cover, looked like a classic Romance. The writer was sitting at a table near the back, typing in fits and starts on his laptop, frequently stopping to stare into space, before typing a little bit more. The woman who read hunting magazines wasn’t in. But the man Nina was seeing—something that had taken Kara a few visits before she noticed—was sitting at the front of the café near the window, in one of the cushioned couch and chair arrangements. He mostly stared out the window, but occasionally, Kara noticed him looking over at Nina.
Ah. That was sweet. His presence probably explained why Nina was humming.
Kara took her coffee, girded her loins as her grandma would say, and headed toward Eddie’s table. That, in and of itself, wasn’t unusual. Their habit of saying hello and stopping to talk briefly was well established. Or at least they’d done it more than once so that counted as well established.
He smiled up at her when she stopped next to him. “Kara! Nice to see you.”
“Hey, Eddie.” She was so close to fidgeting, she had to grip her backpack strap tight while trying not to hold her coffee mug so tight she spilled her drink. She glanced at the empty seat. Then asked, “Are you busy? Or can I join you?”
“Ah. I’m sorry. I was actually just finishing up. I have to get back to work.”
“No problem at all!” She spoke too brightly, too enthusiastically. But she felt an overriding need to ensure he knew she was okay with his refusal. “No. Good. Have a great afternoon!” She tried to ignore the heat in her cheeks, which only hit after she’d turned her back to him and headed to an empty table. She very purposefully didn’t look up at Agnes as she started pulling out the stack of stapled pages of the various papers she’d copied at the library to read.
When Eddie headed out a few minutes later, he paused to say bye to her and that he’d see her again soon, hopefully. All very nice, friendly. No sign of embarrassment on his part. No awkwardness.
The relief that she hadn’t made things weird between them was stronger than she’d expected. Okay. Still friendly acquaintances. That was good.
She turned to her reading while studiously ignoring Agnes, though she still caught the older woman’s smile from the corner of her eye.
***
Kara didn’t see Eddie again for another week. A week during which she’d talked herself into believing the worst. That she’d somehow made him uncomfortable, even if he hadn’t seemed so when she’d last seen him, and that he’d never return to the café and it was somehow her fault. Some of the catastrophizing was probably down to the fact that she was worried about the paper she was working on and her brain was hunting for other things to worry about. Worrying about a man she barely knew but was interested in was a lot easier than worrying that she might be collapsing her entire future career with one paper. Both reactions were ridiculous, she knew. But worrying about Eddie was easier.
The day she did see him again, she’d determined to go into the café and just have a coffee and play video games on her phone and not actually work. She needed some down time. Her brain wasn’t working right. Or at least she was having trouble seeing things clearly. She needed a break. And she decided she’d take that break at the café. On a Saturday. When the place was absolutely packed.
She ended up sitting at a table with Agnes, which was funny for reasons she couldn’t quite pinpoint. But after a few pleasantries, they both turned to their own thing—Agnes reading a monster romance novel, Kara playing a puzzle game on her phone—and Kara felt remarkably comfortable sitting in silence with Agnes.
In fact, she was so comfortable and her brain was finally starting to relax, that she forgot Eddie might show up that day. So when a shadow fell over her and she looked up, she was startled to see him. Startled anew by just how handsome he was.
She was so weirdly surprised to see him that she just blinked up at him for several moments before remembering she needed to say hello.
“Edmund,” Agnes greeted. “What I coincidence. I was just leaving. Would you like my seat?” She glanced at Kara. “If Kara doesn’t mind, that is?”
“No. That would be great. Great.” Kara winced inwardly. Way to be eager.
As Agnes collected her things and stood, she said, “Those recent cookies are the best yet. Things must have improved at work.”
Eddie grinned. “Definitely. The new manager is much better.”
“Good.” Agnes patted his shoulder. Then to Kara, “You have a pleasant afternoon.”
Agnes waved to Nina on the way out, stopped long enough to give Boo a scratch, then disappeared into the spring afternoon. A cool breeze pushed in through the open door, making the little bell over the doorjamb ring more.
Eddie nodded at the seat Agnes had abandoned. “You really don’t mind?”
“No. No, of course not. Please sit.”
The minute he settled a bunch of questions piled up that she wanted to ask, but the first thing that popped out was, “Cookies?”
“Oh. Yeah, that. I work at the bakery that supplies the pastries for this place. The cookies and chocolate muffins are my specialty, though I can make a decent layer cake if pushed.” He grinned.
And Kara was struck again by how pretty his eyes were. The color against his light brown skin was so striking. Hard to look away. Especially when his eyes seemed to sparkle in the café’s light.
“That’s the job you didn’t want to go back to that first time we met?” She only baked occasionally, because it was something she’d done with her grandmother, but she thought of professional baker as the sort of job someone would want to go to all the time. Based on their first meeting, she’d assumed Eddie did something like office work, because that was the kind of job she could see someone not wanting to return to.
“For a while there, we had a manager who was…” He shrugged and frowned. “She wasn’t used to running a busy commercial bakery. She’d come from a smaller restaurant, and the pace of our business did not suit her temperament. She got angry and stressed a lot and took it out on all the staff. Just made the atmosphere of the place horrible.” He leaned on the table, cupping his coffee mug. Another latte. “She quit two weeks ago and we got a new manager in. She is used to the type of business we have and handles it all much better. Significantly improved the morale.”
“Glad to hear that. So…that cookie you left with me? That was one you’d made?”
He nodded. “Well, one among a lot of others, but yeah. They let me tweak the recipe to get it just right, so I guess you could say it’s my cookie.”
“It was perfect.”
“Thanks.” His smile made something flutter in her stomach.
And when she leaned on the table, he leaned in, too.
“So what do you do?” he asked. “All the reading is part of your work?”
“I’m a doctoral student at the university. Physics.”
His eyes widen. “Really? What’s your thesis on?”
“Spectral analysis of galactic nebulae. I know it sounds dry, but…”
“No! No. That sounds fascinating.” He leaned down and pulled a book out of the backpack he’d set against the table leg when he sat. “I’ve been reading this…” He turned it to show her the title. It was a popular science book written by one of her favorite authors about the Higgs boson. “I love physics and especially cosmology. Like, as a laymen. I don’t think I could have studied it. But I like reading about it. Can’t quite get my head around field theory, though. Can’t picture it, you know? And I think in pictures.”
“You do?” She found herself leaning farther onto the table, surprised anew. Not by the thinking in pictures, but that he actually read cosmology books for fun when a lot of the undergrads she taught would barely read this stuff for actual classes.
They fell into a conversation about her thesis and the data results she’d been getting, her fear of the paper she was writing being dismissed. The looming deadline to get her thesis done. They talked about the last few books he’d read. And then they talked about his job, and what it was like working in a commercial bakery compared to a smaller store front bakery—where he’d worked before his new job. Somehow that segued into a conversation about family and she learned more about his sisters and mothers.
The conversation was so easy, so relaxed that Kara almost forgot that they hadn’t known each other for ages. Almost forgot that he didn’t know…
And well, she should probably tell him. Because they were both leaning in closely as they talked. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought the attraction she was feeling might be mutual. Not just friendly. Not just a nice acquaintance or even friendship. The more she talked with him, the more those tingles in her stomach danced and the more time she wanted to spend with him.
But she had one truth she needed him to know before she got her hopes up. Now. While things were just beginning. When they were friends still and could keep things friendly without anyone getting hurt. She’d be disappointed, maybe a little sad, but not hurt, if he decided right now that a friendship was all that was possible between them.
So after a lull in conversation—one of the rare ones—she decided she should just say what she needed to say. And then they could see where they stood.
Still. This part was always hard. Reactions varied. Because she passed. Sometimes people understood. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they didn’t care. Sometimes they did. A part of her was actually not sure what kind of reaction she wanted from Eddie. Because she didn’t have time for a relationship. Barely had time for the flirting. So if he reacted badly, well, that would put an end to this distraction and she could get back to work.
But if he reacted badly…
Yeah. She’d also be disappointed.
“So,” she said slowly, “I need to tell you something, just, you know. So you know.”
“Sure.” He smiled. “You’re married, right? Engaged? In a long-term relationship with someone you’ve been in love with since you were seventeen?”
She blinked at all that. “I… No. That’s not what I was going to… Have you thought about that a lot?”
He shrugged. “Might have crossed my mind that someone like you was taken already. Yes.”
For some reason that made her heart thump harder. She tried to force the giddiness down. No falling yet. She had to be sensible. “I’m not in a relationship,” she said. “Mostly, I’m quite busy so it can be hard.”
“I get that. My hours are really weird. I’m up at like three-thirty in the morning most days to get to work.”
“That is…absurdly early.”
“Life of a baker.” He spun his mostly empty mug between his hands, his gaze dropping to the table.
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, “I… Okay, I’m just going to say this. I like you. I like you a lot.”
He looked up, his eyebrows rising, but he didn’t look offended. So far so good. In fact, he looked… Well, she wanted to say hopeful, but that might just be her projecting her own hope onto him.
“I’d like to get to know you better,” she said. When he started to smile, she waved a hand a little, to forestall any comments. “But, before… You should know I’m transgender. A transwoman.”
His eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. She prepared for the worst, steeling herself inside for whatever followed.
She was not expecting him to say, “My middle sister is transgender!”
“She…she is?”
“Yeah. She knew from the time she was little that she was a girl. By the time I was…five, I guess, she had socially transitioned fully, and I couldn’t even remember her before she was Ella.”
“Your sister’s name is Ella. And you’re Edmund.”
He chuckled. “I know. She likes E names. We have a dog named Enrique and another one named Eros thanks to Ella. In hindsight, it seems pretty obvious she’d pick an E name for herself. My mother won’t admit it, but I think Ella was the one who suggested Edmund when my mother rejected Raymond.”
“She and my mother would get along well.”
Eddie’s grin, and the way he leaned toward her again, made that little tingle of hope she’d been trying to control blossom. A slowly opening flower of hope and possibilities. The last thing she’d expected was for him to have an actual transgender family member, but it made thing so much easier. So much she didn’t have to explain because he’d already understand.
Which meant they didn’t have to have all those conversations. At least not right at the very start of getting to know each other. They could just…carry on as they had started.
And maybe that hope and possibility could grow into more.
“I know you’re really busy and everything,” he said, “but since you’re not married or otherwise in a relationship…” He paused and raised his brows at her.
“Not in a relationship,” she confirmed, leaning her forearms on the table so she could be closer to him.
“I was hoping you might have time for…dinner sometimes. Have to be an early dinner. I go to bed at seven.”
“That is…very early.”
“Yeah.” His expression was just shy of a wince. “Too early?”
“No. Not too anything. I’d love to have dinner with you. Even early.”
“Great. Great. How about… Now?”
She grinned. He smiled back. Yeah. Dinner sounded good. Spending more time with Eddie sounded good.
Maybe after dinner, they could come back to the café, since this was where they’d met, and share one of the chocolate chip cookies he made.
She had a feeling she was going to be treating herself to a lot of chocolate chip cookies in the future.
And happily sharing her table with the man sitting across from her now.
***
Thanks for reading KARA AND EDDIE AT THE CAFE. I hope you enjoyed it! If you’d like your own personal eBook copy of this story, you can find it for sale here. You can also peruse the previous Café stories that are individually available for sale here.
If you'd like to try another of my contemporary romances, check out DESIGNED FOR YOU, a perfect beach read for the coming summer (or to remind you of summer if you're entering winter in the southern hemisphere!)
Don’t forget to check back on June 1st for the next Free story from The Café!
KARA AND EDDIE AT THE CAFE Copyright © 2026 Kat Simons
All Rights Reserved. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This story is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.