CEREAL DATER (The Way To A Man's Heart)

I serve up my latest customer with a giant bowl of these fancy Froot Loop-esque things that I found in a Turkish food supply store across the county, and I smile at her until she is down in her booth with her friends. I am glad that this place has provided a spot for people like me, who were never that into the bar scene, to hang out. I just wish they would have taken a little more time to find it, you know? Give me a chance to handle the learning curve of dealing with huge lines of customers all at once...

"Hey."

I look up to see my next customer, and as soon as I do, I feel a little flutter in the pit of my stomach. It’s a guy. And a gorgeous one at that. I see plenty of well-groomed hipster types in here, but not many who have the aura that he does. He’s wearing just a tee and some jeans, but he looks like he could have walked off the front page of a modelling campaign. Muscular, strong, cropped hair to show off his handsome, sharp features. He smiles at me, and I manage to smile back.

"Hi," I greet him, trying to keep my voice perky. "What can I do for you?"

"I think I’d like a coffee," he replies, and he settles down onto one of the seats at the counter. The rest of the customers have already been dealt with, so I don’t mind him keeping me company. Honestly, the way that he is looking at me, it’s as though he wants more than just the drip coffee that I am about to give him.

"You run this place?" he asks me as I push the coffee over the counter towards him. I nod. I still can’t quite believe I can say that and mean it. I really run this place. It went from just an idea at the back of my mind to a full-blown business in a matter of months, and now, it’s all mine.

"Is it really just cereal and coffee?" he wonders aloud, and I nod again.

"That’s all we do," I reply, smiling at him. He laughs – for a moment, I think that he is laughing at me, but I see the warmth in his eyes and know he likes the idea as much as I do.

"Why?” he asks, still chuckling.

"Because this is somewhere I wanted to hang out, but it didn’t exist yet," I reply, with a shrug. "So I decided I would make sure that it did."

"How long have you been running it?”

"Three months," I reply. He whistles through his teeth.

"Doing pretty well for just being open for three months," he remarks, and I nod proudly. This place has taken off – and given everything that it represents for me, that matters.

"Yeah, word of mouth spreads quickly around here."

"So I see," he replies, and he takes a sip of his coffee and returns his gaze to me. There is something about the way that he looks at me, the way that his eyes meet mine, that makes it hard for me to think of anything else.

"And you do it all by yourself?"

"Hey, if you’re offering to hop the counter and give me some help, I’ve got a spare apron back here," I joke.

"I don’t think I’d be much good at that," he warns me. "You never get a break? It’s just you running this whole show?”

"A break?” I reply, snorting with laughter at the thought. "Last time I had a break, this place wasn’t even open yet. I haven’t been able to take any time off since then, been too busy making sure that it doesn’t go under."

"Sounds like you could use some time off," he remarks.

"You offering?” I shoot back as I go to dump some bowls into the sink.

"I might be," he replies, and when I look back to him, I can see something written on his face that sure as hell wasn’t there before.

Chapter Three

Landon

This girl – this girl is doing something to me that I didn’t even know was possible. I can’t take my eyes off of her. This is the chemistry that I’ve been looking for, in all the dates that I have been on up till now. Everything that I have been waiting for, it’s come down to this moment, and I don’t want to give up on it now that it’s right here in front of me.

With curly dark hair to match that curvy little body of hers, there’s no doubt that she’s hot. But someone with the nerve and the balls to open up a place like this, and run it themselves till they could get it off the ground? Yeah, that sounds like my kind of woman.

I need to know more about her. Everything about her.