What a horrible day. 

Everything annoying had stacked up today, huh? From lectures, to bills I gotta pay, annoying customers at my first job, intruding ones at my next, and now, behind the bar counter where I worked at, cleaning glasses and serving alcoholic drinks, I couldn’t help but yawn every now and then, and to worsen it all …

There were tears in my eyes! Stupid, annoying tears I tried my hardest to suppress, but the more I did so, the more my eyes burned, and I knew it only made it worse, and worse. How red were my eyes, I wondered, how swollen would they get if this kept up? 

Honestly, the fact that I even cried about this made me angry, and so, not only my eyes were red, but also my entire face! I just couldn’t handle it anymore! 

The reason for my tears, and my fury? My stupid, annoying, ridiculous … boyfriend!

Hell no! Not even my boyfriend, he was my friend with benefits! We were acquaintances from college, even; could I even call us friends, just because we occasionally hooked up? The problem was, even though he made me so unbelievably furious, that I was hopelessly, stupidly crushing on him! 

I was totally, totally in love with that piece of shit, and it was totally on brand for me. Falling for the assholes that never looked at me twice, falling for the guys who pretended I didn’t exist, and only came when they needed their own comfort … that’s the kind of guy Vincent was, and yet, whenever he called, I came running like a lonely puppy. Whenever he did pay attention to me, my heart thumped harder and louder, and I couldn’t believe it. 

That handsome face he had, brown doe-eyes that were super cute when he tried, and manly features all around, it totally got to me! Like stupid, stupid poison! 

And now, I cried over that very asshole, because I hadn’t heard from him in a week.

A whole week had gone by, and all my messages were left on read, and he cared little about letting me know what the hell he was up to! 

So, I kept checking my phone whenever I had a free minute at work, and every time I realized there was not a single wind from him, tears kept squelching out of my eyes endlessly, and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. 

When I called, and his voice mail picked up in his stead, I hung up all the quicker.

But I did text him. Not too much, though, because I didn’t want to seem desperate. Even though I totally was. 

22:12: Felix: hi, vince! Just wondering what you’re up to. Are we meeting this saturday?

I couldn’t wait for a response, because I had to get back to work. My coworker and good friend, Lisa, reprimanded me when I sat there, hunched over behind the corner, anxiously picking at my lower lip.

“There are some new guests. Can you serve them?” she wondered in a soft smile, and I was quick to nod and snap up onto my feet. I rubbed the tears off my eyes, sniffled and nodded, and quickly rushed over.

The table I was ought to serve was a pair of well-dressed men in hand-tailored full-set suits that looked a little too good on them. It was the whole package, seriously, from vest, to jacket, to ties, and fancy cuff links, and shiny oxford shoes so glossy, they must have someone cleaning them every single damn day! 

Holy shit! These suits are worth my entire life, I bet! 

Luxurious watches decorated their wrists, one silver, one gold. One of the men was handsomely blond, his hair combed and curling at the ends, and a wedding band glittered on his ring finger. The other man had pitch-black hair, eyes darker than the shadows, and overall carried a rather cold glow over himself. Even though they appeared the same age, there was no ring on his finger. 

Why am I even checking that? Seriously … Both of them were illegally handsome. How could they be real? They were tall, and beautiful, and straight out of some TV-show, where the rich guy came saving the broke girl and made her his princess! Both of them were dream-like princes! One scary, and the other a nice, bright smile! 

I flinched away when the dark-haired turned towards me and as soon as his eyes met mine, I had a million short circuits frying my brain. “H-Hello,” I stuttered. “What could I get you two gentlemen … ?”

“Old fashioned, please.” For a moment, I stood there frozen. Staring, overwhelmed, at how deep this man’s voice was. It rumbled right through my heart, a bass so deep, I had no idea how to react. And yet, it was pleasing to my ears, and honestly, made me all giddy and blush. What a stupid reaction to have when I’d just cried about my ridiculous situation with Vince. 

His blond companion ordered the same thing, both of them wanting an old fashioned whiskey with lots of ice and an orange slice inside of it. 

When I returned to serve their drinks, their conversation paused immediately, and I didn’t get to hear anything they talked about. Not that I wanted to hear anything, but maybe I had wanted to enjoy that man’s voice some more. And I did, I totally did, when I placed his glass carefully onto the round table they sat at, and I clearly felt his gaze stuck on me.

Well, I wasn’t sure whether he watched me or I was simply in the way of him talking to his friend, but either way … his eyes were totally glued to me.

“Thank you.” Almost demanding, that crisp voice was. Almost authoritarian, in the way he thanked me, as if he was telling me to leave immediately after. There was nothing soft about his tone nor the sound, nor did he even try to sound nice at all. It was a monotone voice with a slight gravelly undertone that made me more giddy than I would have liked to admit. 

I quickly rushed off to leave the two men be, but Lisa and I were totally squeaking over these new, handsome guests we had, when they totally looked like rich movie stars or whatever, with Lisa totally blushing over the blond guy, whereas I completely lost it whenever I thought about the dark-haired one. 

It was honestly a nice distraction, thinking about men so unreachable, it were simply dreams and fantasies. They had come here to enjoy a good drink after a long day at work, it seemed, the both of them sure to be successful business men, and that was that. 

And so, the happy high quickly wore off, and my phone remained silent, and everything was just horrible again. There were only a few guests at the counter, and none of them were interested in any conversation, most of them either on dates or on their own phones. 

It didn’t take long for tears to shot back into my eyes.

Fuck you, Vince … why are you like this?

Why did I have to fall for a guy like that? 

Did my day get worse, or so, so, so much sweeter? Just before midnight, my day took a complete U-turn, and I was completely dumbfounded by it. The two handsome guests paid their drinks with a fancy black-and-gold credit card, and when I took their receipt and took a peek inside, my heart almost stopped. 

“H-Huh?”

They had long left, so I couldn’t even ask them whether it was a mistake. “L-Lisa!” 

I rushed over to show her the sheer impossibility of what was written on this little receipt. For two old fashioned whiskeys they had drank in less than thirty minutes, each costing 20$, they had tipped me … 100.

“T-T-That’s crazy, right? It’s supposed to be a 10, right? 10 Dollars, and no more. 100 … that’d be crazy, right?” I’d never, ever, ever received a tip like that, and even Lisa was so pale in the face, she almost couldn’t believe it. 

“Wait, Felix, look … the back.” 

Huh? HUH? 

There was a little message written on the back of the receipt! No way, no way, no way, no way! Was this really happening? I didn’t even know which one of them had paid, the blond or the dark-haired one?

And this message? My heart fluttered, and at the same time, I was completely embarrassed and ashamed by it. “T-This can’t be real … Pinch me, Lisa, because this has to be a dream!” 

At the risk of overstepping … Whoever made you cry is quite the fool. Your smile is breathtaking.

“Kyaaa!” Lisa completely lost it next to me. “100 Dollars for you to smile! I’m so jealous!”

Since the blond one was married, this could only have been the dark-haired with the handsome voice, with that confident gaze and gait inside that perfect suit! A guy like that, who was sure to be busy, leaving me a message like that?! 

Crazy. So, so, so, so crazy!!!! It was that obvious I had cried? And now, this … 

My head burned up in shame at the impossible situation I found myself in.