“Hey, do you want to share my headphones?”

        “What?” I looked up at the girl standing next to me. My eyes met a pair of deep, soft, green eyes; framed by short lashes made up with cheap mascara and black eyeliner. The girl they belonged to had long brown hair falling out from under her hat. It had the logo of the coffee shop they were in embroidered on it, and she wore an apron to match. She was holding a bright blue mug. She had come over to my corner table while I was distracted with the screen in front of me.

        “I’ve noticed you usually wear headphones when you’re sitting here on your computer... you aren’t today.”

        “My little brother broke them this morning. Death by orange juice.” She laughs. She has a great laugh.

        “I like to listen to music and enjoy a drink on my break, so I have my headphones.” She holds up her phone to show the headphones plugged into it. “You can share mine, if you want. I’m trying to check off my random act of kindness for the day.”

        “Oh. Um, sure. Yeah. Here.” I moved my backpack off the seat next to me and moved my half-eaten muffin closer to my laptop. She took the seat and set her own coffee on the table top.

        “My name is Eve, by the way.”

        “I know that.” I laughed at her shocked and slightly creeped out expression. “You’re wearing a name tag.” I pointed to the plastic pinned to her apron.

        “Oh. Right. I forget about this all the time.”

        “I’m Jesse.”

        “Nice to meet you. Y’know, other than taking your coffee order three times a week.”

        “Sorry for not properly introducing myself earlier.”

        “It’s okay, a lot of people that come here on a day-to-day basis don’t think about it.”

        “Still, I’ve been coming here for a while and thinking back on it, the fact that I never introduced myself feels like a dick move.” She blushes a little.

        “No, really, it’s okay. I think usually when you come in we’re busy, so there isn’t much time for small talk anyways.” She glanced down at a simple black watch on her left wrist. “Now, I only have a few minutes left on my break, and a whole mug of coffee to drink. Shall we?” She held one of her earbuds out to me. She was listening to some song I didn’t know. We sat in silence, me typing on my laptop and her sipping her coffee and staring out the window. I zoned out and wasn’t quite paying attention to the song until suddenly some of the lyrics registered with me.

        Lay by me

        Lay by me

        You’re the only one

        And you always will be

        I tried to discreetly take the ear bud out, but she noticed.

        “You don’t like the song? Come on, Lay By Me is one of firekid’s best songs.”

        “That isn’t it, I didn’t even know what the song was. But I just realized it’s a love song.”

        “Yeah. This is my love song playlist. I call it ‘Wishful Thinking’. It’s actually also all my favorite songs.” She laughed again. God, her laugh was great. Too bad about her taste in music.

        “I hate love songs.” She spit some of her coffee out.

        “You what? How do you hate love songs? They’re so beautifully done and it’s practically the only place in the world anymore where everything is nice and people care about each other.”

        “They’re not beautiful. They’re lies.” She stared at me for a second. Then got up and grabbed a pen from behind the counter and a napkin. And put the napkin on my keyboard.

        “My break is just about over, so this is my number. Text me and we’re going to talk about why you hate the best kind of music that exists in the world.”

        “I don’t know about getting the lecture on music, but I’ll still probably text you. As my random act of kindness for the day.” I felt a smirk spread across my face, and saw a smile spread on hers. She gulped down the remaining coffee in her mug, and went back behind the counter to continue working. I packed up my stuff to leave. Making sure to put her number in my phone before the napkin could get lost or damaged. I texted her real quick so she would have my number, too.

        This is Jesse. The one you wanted to yell at about not liking love songs.

        And then I left.