coffee shop

i walked into the coffee shop that I had always ventured on lonely days. I'd seen him before and never really noticed him from behind the barista station. It was dead inside the cafe, silent. The occasional frothing of milk and clinging of dishes. He was keeping up on his prep for the day.

Before I left that day I told myself id meet someone who would interest me. I have been praying to God for him to bring someone into my life that is good and interesting. Keep my mind intriqued and occupied before my classes at the city college started the following week.
I forget how the conversation between us started but I remember being at the magazine stack sifting thru the papers in order to stall myself for sake of the possibility where conversation would ignite. I usually read while I smoke my cigarette outside the cafe while drinking my regular drink. Which he already had prepared before i ordered it. It was obvious he remembered me.

"So its pretty slow then huh?" I said. Looking thru the magazine covers acting half interested.
"Yeah, its always slow. I wish it was more busy but business is generally slow after lunch passes."
He said this accompaning a joke. A funny joke. He has a sense of humor. I dont recall the joke but it did make me laugh out loud. He was outgoing and extroverted naturally. Down to earth though. Not over powering.

I walked over to the bar where emptied stools were set out. We continued to small talk.
He was originally from the bay area. He Grew up there and then moved to maine with his gf. He lived there for 7 years while being the bar manager for varius fine dining restuarants. After his gf and him moved back to san fran where he bartended and managed the bar at the very pretitgous Polotimos Social club in the Polotimos park. He and her lived in a very posh apt, which was mainly supoprted by her rich father back in Maine. she was in marketing and soon he landed her a job at the restuarant as a server and the marketing director. Supposedly he made about 90k a year before taxes.
Soon though he became unhappy in his relationship with his gf and broke it off. Which is when he impulsively moved back to fresno last year, with his family in order to start anew and take a break from his over controlling ex. Once he got here, he vowed to move back to Sna fran first chance he got. Since then he has been the barista at PLanet Java in which i regularrly visit on my leisure days when i have nothing else to entice my time.

The afternoon passed with entertaining talks and jokes. He bummed a cigarette from me and we talked with the occasional regularrs that wondered in and out of the cafe.
I cant recall every topic we explored but I was never bored nor uncomfterable. for some reason I always am confident when speaking with men. I know what to say and how to say it. I knew i was wheeling him in. Im not overly cocky but I do feel somewhat guilty for admitting I have become accustomed to naturally attracting mens interests. Even if I dont ever consider to potentially share the alchemy.
But as I left the cafe about 4 hours after I arrived I felt a certain spark in which I was looking forward to the movie we planned on seeing the following day. He would pay and we would text me with the details and movie times. I walked back home with a sense of astonishment for what i was doing. I-18, he twicec my age. How slutty, or atleast strange. I wouldnt felt this way if he was closer to my age. But the sociology of our culture has of course embedded the notion hanging time with older men in such a way would be gross or uneccaptable. Feeling half guilty and half proud I anxiously awaited for his text. Which came an hour later. He obviously felt the same.