I sigh dramatically, preparing a coffee for one of the orders. Gabo laughs beside me.
“Oh,” he teases. “You seem a little upset.”
“Of course not,” I practically snort in response. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“I have been dethroned,” he says in a dramatic tone, putting his hand on his heart. “Before, I was the king of this Dream Burgers.”
I burst out laughing and tap him on the shoulder.
“Idiot.”
“Oh look.” Gabo points behind me to the group of girls still ordering. “Today they were brave enough to give him their numbers.” We watch the girls give Ares scraps of paper between giggles. Ares takes them kindly, but he doesn’t smile. His expression remains disinterested.
Sorry, but they have a lot of work to do to get to where I am now.
“I don’t know why they keep coming,” Gabo says. He puts some fries in a to-go bag, completing an order. “He doesn’t even smile at them. Can you imagine if he smiled at them? We’d have a fucking ovary explosion in here.”
“Or a flood,” Apolo chimes in, walking out of the kitchen. He looks cute with the transparent beanie over his hair.
“You’re not helping,” I say as I prepare orders for the drive-thru. Apolo gives me that innocent smile he has.
“Calm down, your break is coming up.”
It hasn’t been easy to ignore all the attention Ares receives, but I’ve tried to manage it as best I can. Even though we don’t earn much working half shifts at Dream Burgers after school, it’s something. Apolo decided to work to support his brother as well. Ares and I have both applied for several scholarships and are waiting for the responses.
I wait until Ares has finished attending to the group of girls and they leave before I pass behind him and whisper slyly: “I’m watching you.”
Ares turns, with that crooked smile I love so much forming on his lips, and I feel like the queen of the world because he smiles for me so easily.
“Watching me has always been your hobby, hasn’t it?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I reply, but of course, I know exactly what he’s referring to—my stalker days.
“No? Wasn’t AresAndMeForever your Wi-Fi password?”
“You’re not the only Ares in the world,” I tell him.
“I am the only Ares in your world,” he counters. I raise an eyebrow.
“Why so sure?”
Apolo appears beside us.
“Stop flirting, we have customers.” He points to two girls waiting for Ares to take their order. “My God, where do all these girls come from?”
I let out a sigh of annoyance and stand in front of the register.
“Welcome, may I take your order?” I ask. The girls don’t hide their disappointment.
“Hey.” They share a look between them before the bolder of the two responds. “We don’t know what we want yet, so we’ll think about it.” They take a few steps back and start to walk away. Really? Ares puts his hand on my waist, pushing me slightly away from the register.
“Trust me, Witch.” As soon as Ares takes charge, the two girls return, smiling like there’s no tomorrow.
Breathe, Raquel.
“It’s time for your fifteen-minute break. Go,” my boss tells me, and I don’t hesitate to get out of there. The fresh spring air hits me as I leave. I sit on the sidewalk beside the store, relaxing my legs. I need to get away from girls chasing my boyfriend for a while.
I hear the door open, and a twenty-something girl who always orders a Dream Burgers coffee and sits down to write at one of the tables comes out, carrying her backpack. She’s a regular customer, but I still don’t understand why she’s always here. There’s nothing special about this place. We make eye contact, and she smiles kindly at me.
“Are you all right?” she asks.
“Yeah, I think so,” I reply.
She seems to hesitate for a second, before sitting down next to me.
“I don’t want to sound weird, but I’ve seen it all.”
“What do you mean?” I frown at her.
“Is the new guy your boyfriend?”
“How do you know?” I ask.
She laughs, and her blue eyes light up.
“I’m very observant, the advantages of being a writer, and, besides, I’ve been there.” I give her a look of disbelief, and she looks away. “Oh, believe me, being the hot guy’s girlfriend is not as great as it sounds. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself wondering if I was enough for him, or what the heck he saw in me when he had so many other options.”