For the nth time, Wisteria yawned.

 

It's an hour past midnight and there she was in the store, wiping the coffee counter down. As to why she was there, it was all thanks to her third shift who, at last minute, called her on her phone when she was happily picking yellow ruellia flowers in the land of dreams.

 

Her third shift, Mary, was a senior student in college and she was busy doing her thesis paper. Mary's thesis adviser had told her to redo her related literature. The deadline was approaching and she had no choice but to skip work for it.

 

Wisteria had a headache while trying to encourage and console her emotional employee on the phone. In the end, Wisteria decided to cover for her. She couldn't ask Rony to do so since he worked third shift the day before.

 

Seeing that the coffee counter was sparkly clean without any coffee or creamer stains, she was satisfied. She brewed herself a large cup of Rainforest coffee to help her get through the night. She only slept for three hours after all.

 

The store was a few blocks away from the hospital and call center buildings so around 11, it was a little busy. The customers were mostly call center agents, nurses, and patient visitors.

 

Around 1:15, a group of loud nurses came in and she had to wait on them at the register. After they left, Wisteria went to the office. She brought her laptop and Bluetooth speakers with her when she left her apartment. She opened her playlist, Slow Nights, and set it in shuffle. The first song was Midnight Blue by Elo. It felt so magical all of a sudden.

 

She happily left the office and glided through the snack section to front face everything on the shelves.

 

Ed often criticized her taste in music. If her playlist was not metal and full of "screams from hell", it would be "so-depressing-I-want-to-die", or "I-was-not-even-born-songs" one. Right now, her playlist was definitely "I-was-not-even-born-songs". It's a playlist that ranged from Unchained Melody by Andy Williams to Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship. Of course, the songs must be slow or mellow - befitting the quiet night.

 

There was a time she was playing her Japanese playlist for an entire week, and it made all her employees beg her to stop. When she innocently asked them, they said they couldn't stand the weird look the customers gave them when they heard it. After hearing that, she could only bitterly give up.

 

After a few songs, she was done front facing the chips, so she glided to the candy shelf next. She couldn't help but sing along with Audrey Hepburn's version of Moon River.

 

"Moon river wider than a mile, I'm crossing you in style someday. Oh, dream maker, you heartbreaker, wherever you're going, I'm going your way..."

 

Her soft, low voice blended harmoniously with the singer's, filling the air with serenity. Her eyes glistened and a  smile was on her lips as she sang every word with feelings. It was as if she was telling the world that someday, she'd get there too.

 

"Two drifters, off to see the world... There's such a lot of worlds to see... We're after the same rainbow's end, waitin' 'round the bend, my huckleberry friend, moon river, and me..."

 

Her voice gradually faded. She felt her eyes slowly turning warm. Tears slowly welled up and were threatening to fall. She raised her head high to stop them from spilling. She sniffed loudly. With both hands on both sides of her waist, she scolded herself for crying. How could she be on the verge of tears after singing a song?! So childish, ah.

 

"Excuse me..."

 

A rather confused voice of a man interrupted her thoughts.

 

Wisteria flinched automatically when she heard him. She composed herself and made her expression warm and cheery before turning around. The moment she did so, the enthusiasm and friendliness in her eyes cooled.

 

Well, if it wasn't that rude customer from a few days ago! However at that very moment, as if the universe conspired to troll her, her playlist shuffled and played the next song. That teasingly sweet piano opening she knew so well was heard throughout the store, Close to You by The Carpenters. It was followed by Karen's cool, low voice and the ridiculously catchy and cheesy, romantic lyrics.

 

Why do birds suddenly appear

 

Every time you are near?

 

It was as if time stood still between them and the only thing missing was people in slow motion, and raindrops hanging in the air as if by a thread.

 

Wasn't this like a scene from those overly cheesy chick flicks? Wisteria didn't know about him, but she felt extremely awkward because of the timing. What kind of situation was this?

 

She recovered quickly after confronting his indifferent face. Right. It was just a song. No need to be awkward, she told herself. She flattened her lips (her official smile for her least favorite people).

 

"Hi", she coolly greeted him as she walked back to her register. After entering her passcode, she looked up to him and asked if he wanted a cup of coffee.

 

He didn't answer. He just stared at her with an unreadable expression on his face. A few seconds passed and he finally reacted. He muttered a yes. Wisteria told him the cost and he took a bill from his wallet and handed it to her. She focused her gaze on the screen of her register as she recited the amount of change she owed him. He was too tall. Her neck's going to hurt if she looked at him for longer than five seconds. She only glanced at him as she handed him his change.

 

"Have a good night", she added.

 

Please, don't come again!

 

Contrary to her expectations, after he made his coffee, he looked around for a while and sat at the farthest area of the store. Wisteria pouted. She just couldn't drive him out, could she? Well, as long as he kept to himself, she would just pretend he's just a decoration. Besides, it's not like she hated him. She was just holding a grudge. In her defense, his actions were just too rude and unreasonable.

 

She continued in front facing the remaining shelves. When she checked the time on her phone, it was 2:45 AM.

 

The man, whose back was facing hers, had his eyes locked on his laptop screen. She wasn't clear what he was doing, but it's best she gave him privacy.

 

She decided to clean the restrooms. Although they were clean, she made it a point to keep it odor-free and well-stocked with paper towels, toilet papers, and handsoap. The guy didn't look like a thief and there were no cars or even a single soul outside. It was okay to leave the sales floor for at least ten minutes. Besides, the door would ring if a customer entered. 

 

The men's restroom was sparkly clean. All she had to do was spray air freshener in it. After spraying a few times, someone knocked.

 

"Just a moment~" she said in a sing-song voice. She sprayed it few more times until she was satisfied.

 

With spray at hand, she opened the door.

 

"No rush".

 

When she heard that voice coming from the top of her head, she almost had a heart attack. Without giving him a single glance, she stiffly stepped out of the way so the man could get in.

 

"Sorry for that," she apologized.

 

"I said no rush."

 

"Thanks." Of course, it was lukewarm.

 

She led her feet to the women's restroom to wash her hands. Honestly, she could never get used to this embarrassment whenever she was cleaning restrooms and customers walked in to use them. She felt...ashamed. Ashamed that she was cleaning toilets. Ashamed she had to do janitorial stuff. She knew there was nothing to be ashamed of but it was something deep-rooted and she couldn't shake it off easily. To make it worse, it had to be him, that type of person who looked down on others.

 

He reminded her of one of those incidents in the gas station when a customer glared and yelled at her for holding his can of beer to scan. She just came back from cleaning the bathrooms then. She always wore gloves when cleaning and she washed her hands carefully before she went back to the register. But maybe that customer thought her hands were still dirty that's why she got yelled at. He even told her to get her dirty hands off his beer. In front of so many people, he yelled at her, told her her hands were dirty. He scolded her like a man scolding a homeless person for entering his property. 

 

At that time, her face burned as if slapped. She wished the ground would swallow her whole or she could just disappear. She felt utterly humiliated. All she could do was apologize and she stuttered as she explained that she washed her hands and even rub them with hand sanitizer. He just ignored her and even scowled her in return. Her co-workers turned a deaf ear on her. She couldn't remember what happened after that. She guessed it's better that way.

 

While she was lost in thoughts, someone placed a pack of cold choco milk drink and some two small bags of chips on her counter. She looked up and was greeted by a pair of upturned brown eyes. The owner of those eyes was him. She withdrew her gaze and pumped a few drops of sanitizer onto her palm. She hurriedly rubbed it on her hands. She didn't want him to think she's gross.

 

"Hand sanitizer makes your skin dry."

 

She paused. Did he just talk to her? What did he say? She raised her head and looked at him confusedly. Ah. Her neck's going to hurt.

 

Reading her expression as a sign of doubt, he explained curtly.

 

"I use that a lot, too, so I know."

 

He noticed her dry, rough hands earlier when he handed her his bill. He could tell that this woman used hand sanitizer a lot. The skin of her hands was flaking. The cuticles around her nails were in bad shape as well.

 

"Oh. Ok." She blinked.

 

"How much?"

 

"Ah?" Wisteria was confused for a whole one second before realizing it. She scanned his items as fast as she could. When the transaction was finalized, she glanced at him before politely greeting him good morning. It's technically morning, right? Instead of leaving, the man just stood there and looked at her. The way he looked at her, how would she describe it?

 

He looked desperate like he needed to go to the toilet badly and was holding it up for far too long and now, he had reached the breaking point. She looked at him with a raised brow. Whaddya wanna do, Bro?

 

"Anything else for you?"

 

She looked at him with a raised brow. 

 

His handsome face looked so distorted as if he couldn't take it anymore. Did he need to use the bathroom? It was clean, ah. The toiletries were well-stocked and it smelled like lavender, ah. As long as it wasn't anything explosive to the point she had to consider it bodily fluid pathogens and had to use such expensive biohazard kit, it's fine. He could spend his precious time there all he wanted.

 

"Have I offended you anyhow?"

 

He finally spoke to break the silence.

 

Wisteria's expression was blank. Whaddya mean? 

 

People said she was always a beat slower in reacting and processing things and this situation proved it true. Her blank expression was rather priceless.