Chapter 1

"I don't know what to do? Should I just wait or leave?" Kinley was impatient as her friend still hadn't showed up and she was getting late for her shift at Starbucks. After waiting sometime, she finally left and rushed towards her workplace. Luckily she was just on time and that meant that she wasn't getting fired. She was quietly taking orders from the customers with a smile on her face. She was in the middle of an order when a rude customer yelled at her for no apparent reason and kept on demanding to talk with her manager. It was normal for her as she would meet Karens like her almost everyday so she would try to calm them down by letting them have their way. But this specific Karen was extremely rude and kept on commenting on her asian race and how she should just go back to her country and eat cockroaches or bats. "Excuse me mam. You're crossing the line and I don't think I can tolerate it anymore. So can you please leave?" "You sure have some nerve to talk back to me. Shall I deport you from this country? Shall I do that?" The Karen was about to throw her hot coffee on Kinley when someone stopped her.

"Mam you're causing a nuisance. Can you stop overreacting and just drink that fucking hot coffee of yours instead of throwing it around." "Who are you to tell me that?" The Karen then fished out her phone and started recording that stranger. "Fuck this bitch." The stranger replied through her clenched teeth and then threw Karen's phone on the floor and smashing it. "Next time learn to behave or else I might report you to the cops for assault." The stranger then started ordering her drink like nothing happened. "Miss what's good here?" The stranger had her face covered with a sunglass and a mask and she had her hair cut in a wolf cut which was half tied in a bun. "I'm not sure. If you could tell me what you have on your mind then I might be able to recommend you something similar to that." The stranger stared at her for a while and then began. "Well I had this urge to ask your number in my mind. Will you give me that or recommend me something similar to that?"

Kinley was surprised and she was even more surprised when Karen tried to spill her drink on the stranger but she quickly dodged it. The stranger then called the cops and provided them with all the evidence of her being a bully. Karen was taken into custody and the stranger was asked to follow the cops to the station so she followed them without any hesitation but before she left she quickly wrote something in a piece of paper and passed it to Kinley. Kinley checked the paper to see that the stranger had written her number in it with a winky face. "What the?" Kinley said to herself while she watched the stranger leave.

It was break time for her when she got a call from her friend. "What's up?" Kinley nonchalantly began. "Hey! How could you ditch me?" "If I hadn't ditched you then my boss would've ditched me you idiot. What's wrong with you? If you were going to make me wait then you could have give me a heads up but instead you kept on saying that I'm almost there. Where? You were almost at the doors of hell had you showed up." "Girl did something happen? Why are you so sour?" "Karens. Like who made that kind of species. I swear they are literally the most annoying creatures on this planet. I would prefer to live with rats than spend even a second with them." "Girl give me the details." "Okay. So I almost got late due to someone." "I know that part so continue." "And then as usual I was taking orders from customers and this Karen comes in saying that the coffee that I gave her is not what she ordered." "What did she order?" "Hot, dark and bitter coffee just like her personality." "Then?" "I asked her what was wrong with it? And do you know what she freaking replied?" "What?" "She said that it was too hot and that was I trying to kill her and mind you that she said she wanted it really hot as she usually drinks it that way. Like I mean pick a side you want it cold, hot or warm! Pick one! It ain't that hard!" "Okay so nothing crazy happened right?" "Honey I haven't even reached the good part. She then keeps on yelling saying that she wanted to see my manager and when I said that he wasn't present at the moment which is sort of a lie because I didn't wanted to lose my job so I kept on denying her. Then she lost her shit and goes on saying racist things like 'You asian freak! Who gave you the right to talk to me that way in my own country! Get out of my country! You don't belong here! Go back to your country and eat cockroaches or bats.' Like I'm not even Chinese, I'm a Bhutanese for christs sake. I mean what's up with generalizing all asian races. She even slanted her eyes to match mine which to be honest was unnecessary because I have big eyes. I couldn't take it anymore so I asked her to leave and she almost threw her boiling coffee at me, had a customer not stopped her." "OMG! Then what happened?" "The customer threw Karen's phone and Karen got angry, then she tried attacking the customer but she was fast so she dodged it and now the two of them are at the station trying to solve it." "Woah! Thank God your okay. You should thank that customer. Do you have her number?" "Oddly enough yes." "What do you mean by oddly enough?" "I don't know. I felt like she was flirting with me and she even left her number with a winky face for me." "Girl this is straight out of a movie." "Anyways gotta go my breaks over." "Okay see ya!" "Do you really wish to see me around nowadays?" "No I think. Bye!"

Kinley was returning back to her shift when she noticed that the stranger was back again. "Hey!" The stranger began sweetly. "Hi?" "So where were we?" "You were ordering something." "Really? I thought we were talking about your number." "What would you like?" "Playing hard to get? I like that." "What can I get you?" "What do you like?" "Excuse me?" "Can you make me your favorite beverage?" "Hot or cold?" "I'm in the mood for something hot like you." "Your total for Vanilla Crème is $3.35." "Here. So you single, not available or straight?" "What's your name?" "Hun." "Please wait for your drink and we'll call you when it's ready." "Thank you doll."