Saving face after embarrassment

Her smile had faded quickly after hearing this due to him having reminded her of why she'd come here in the first place, she recalled the sad memory of her sorry attempt at cooking and the result that it brought to her.

Emma's face turned somewhat bitter and she took a sip of her steamy americano, she recalled the memory of Mr Thomas throwing all of her hard work away with little thought. A word crossed her mind briefly before she could grasp at the thought it had already disappeared and she quickly stopped thinking about it. The word was "heartless".

She then chugged the rest of the drink into the glass and downed it in one big gulp. After a moment the man, who was staring at her intently, broke his silence by letting out a suppressed laugh.

"You know, we're a cafe and not a bar… I mean you do, right?" He asked her with a smile gracing his handsome face.

"Well yeah…" She raised one of her eyebrows and continued on speaking, "What about it?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if you thought you were downing beers, or if you actually just normally enjoy chugging burning liquids." He fiddled with the glass in front of him, a smile still on his face, "I'm not one to judge, so if you're into things like that, good on you I guess."

Emma looked down at the empty glass that was just filled to the brim with a pipping hot americano, seeing that it was indeed as he said, completely empty, her eye twitched but other than that she kept a straight face.

"I… just felt like it." She replied hesitantly, a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead.

After saying that she lifted her gaze to look into his eyes, his gaze was piercing and his eyes were so beautiful Emma felt as though she could drown in them.

"Is that right… interesting." His words came out quietly but they were loud enough for Emma to catch them.

"Yeah. Maybe you should try it, isn't it better to be more free-spirited than to always follow the status quo?" Her eyebrows quirked up whilst saying this.

Emma didn't entirely believe what she was saying, in actuality she was saying whatever she could think of that came to mind, she wanted to finish this conversation as quickly as possible to go somewhere or do something to stop her mouth from burning.

The intense heat was causing pain that was almost unbearable, she felt as though her tongue had stopped working as she could no longer feel anything with it.

"Think so do you? Well…" he glanced back down at the drink that he was currently fiddling with in his hands, "As it's you who enjoys it, I think I might just leave it to you. After all, people tend to prefer following the herd. Isn't that why some humans tend to call themselves and others sheeple?"

"I think you're just a coward." She said as she stuck out her tongue with one eye closed.

"Hey that looks red, sure you're okay? Don't you want to get it checked out?" He asked her, his voice was soothing and carried undertones of worry and anxiousness.

She scoffed and replied, "I can just drink some iced water, it's no biggie… why make such a big deal out of nothing."

"Oh, by the way," he pointed at her throat with his index finger, "it's better if you drink warm temperature water, rather than cold or iced water."

She lowered her gaze to glance at the finger which was pointing at her and then looked back up at the man's face which was smirking. She, in turn, looked rather unimpressed and raised her own hand too, she then gently pushed his finger back so he was no longer pointing at her, then pushed his hand down to the table.

"Yeah, and why's that?" She asked with a slight smile gracing her features. She then let go of his hand and brought her own back to her side of the table and crossed her arms.

"Actually I'm not entirely sure. But anyway, it's just a tip, no need to thank me" his smirk widened, the hand she'd just pushed down was then raised once again, but this time he used it to lean his chin on.

Her smile then faded and she narrowed her eyes as she looked at the man sitting opposite her. Emma tilted her head slightly and didn't say a word. Daniel kept smiling at her despite feeling as though a blood vessel would pop out of his forehead.

He stood up, left his drink on the table, and walked away from Emma, he seemed to have been heading back to the counter. However, when he reached Chris he went back into the staff room instead of going behind the counter to continue his shift.

Emma was wondering what he was up to as she sat at the table all alone with an empty glass and an untouched piece of strawberry cheesecake. She then focused on her cheesecake and had intended to take a bite when she realised she hadn't picked up a fork on her way over to the table.

She stood up hurriedly, her fingers pressed on the tabletop and she then pushed the chair back with the backs of her legs. When she had stood up she looked up from the table and saw that Daniel had just come out of the staff room and was walking back slowly and steadily with something in his hands.

She stood still, standing there, not moving an inch, she moved so little it was hard to tell whether or not she was breathing. When he'd gotten closer she could tell that what he was holding was a medium-sized cup. When he'd finally reached the table at which they had both been sitting, he stopped and extended his arm to offer her the cup. She noticed she'd been slightly bent over this entire time, this was as if she had been trying to stand, but the chair was still somewhat in the way so she was unable to straighten completely.

She immediately shoved the chair backwards with her legs, this caused the chair to scrape against the tiles and make an almost deafening sound, she felt somewhat embarrassed after feeling the gazes of everyone on her. Emma then straightened up and coughed into her fist lightly with her eyes shut tight, she then relaxed and opened her hand and then took the cup from his hand with slight hesitation.