“WOW, you’re good at latte arts,” Janessa commented and smiled at the new barista after watching him made a rosette art in a cappuccino. She looked at his cup closely. “That's very intricate. I’m impressed.”

The young man nodded and shyly smiled at her. “Thank you, Ma’am.”

She was about to check the other employees' works when her phone beeped. She fished it out from her apron’s pocket and saw her dad’s number flashed on the screen. Janessa smiled, her dad was requesting to pay him a visit at their ancestral house. She sighed. It's been years since she decided to live on her own and put up her own coffee shop business that she called Espresso Your Love.

“Why he wants me to come home again?” she asked herself while typing her reply. “Maybe, he missed his princess,” she said and giggled.

After she made sure that the coffee shop’s production was in good order, she went to the nearest mall to buy some sweets. She was about to go to the parking lot when her eyes caught the mannequin wearing a blue polo shirt.

Janessa hurried to the department store without taking her eyes off the polo shirt. “That shirt suits my dad. I’m sure he’ll like it—Ouch!”

*

WITH a knotted forehead, Ardin turned to look at the woman that bumped with him. He almost arched a brow when he saw that the woman was glaring at him.

“Hey! Watch your steps!” She shouted angrily as if it was his fault that she bumped with him.

Ardin’s brows furrowed. What the fuck? “Excuse me, Miss. It wasn’t my fault. I was just standing here talking on the phone when suddenly you came running to me like a car with a mad driver,” he calmly replied. “And, apparently, you’re driving in the wrong lane.”

The woman’s mouth fell open. “Excuse me—”

Before she could start to throw him fireballs, Ardin turned his back and walked away.

“And, the bastard didn’t even bother to apologize? `My goodness!”

Ardin heard the woman shouted from his back, but he didn't care. He put the phone back in his ear.

“Who’s that, son?” his mom asked from the other line.

Someone I thought I knew, Ardin answered in his mind. The woman was familiar to him, but it was impossible that she’s also the girl he knew before.

“Just a woman who’s not watching her steps,” he answered instead. He glanced back at the department store, but the woman wasn’t there anymore.

“Watch your mouth, Ardin.” Her mom chuckled. “So, have you seen the Coffee Shop that your Lola Corazon told you?”

Ardin frustratingly raked his fingers through the tousled hair. “I can’t find it, Mom. I looked everywhere. I even asked the mall’s connoisseur, and they said that there’s no such coffee shop here. Are you sure it’s inside the mall?”

Ardin shook his head when his mother took moments to answer. “Your Lola told me the coffee shop was in Intramuros. So, I thought that maybe it's in the nearest mall. Hey, Ardin, can you search it on the internet instead?”

He heaved a sigh. “Okay, I’ll get back to you later.” As soon as he lowered his cell phone, he typed the coffee shop’s name on the search bar.

Results:

Espresso Your Love coffee shop is located on Victoria Street, Intramuros, Manila.

A 5-minute walk from your location...

*

“I CAN’T let that arrogant guy ruin my day,” Janessa muttered as she walked back to the coffee shop.

She was in the middle of the road to her café when suddenly a black car appeared running towards her. Janessa froze in her feet as the car stopped in front of her and noisily honked its horns. Because of shock, Janessa dropped all the bags that she was carrying.

“Shocks!” She hissed and glared at the car in front of her. “Are you going to kill me?!” she shouted, even she knew that the driver won’t hear her.

A few seconds later, the driver’s door opened, and a familiar man got off the car—also wearing a usual bored expression in his face.

A line appeared between Janessa’s brows when she recognized the man coming out from the car. “Oh, the disheveled-looking guy again,” she whispered and remembered how this guy left her without an apology a while ago.

She blew her bangs and propped one hand on her waist, trying to look as fierce as she can while throwing dagger looks to the scowling man beside an open driver’s door.

“It’s you again?” The man spat the words in a low voice while shaking his head.

Janessa bit her lower lip as she tried her best to hold her temper. This approaching arrogant man was testing her patience. Chill, Jan. Chill… she said in her mind.

And, as he walked closer, Janessa studied his whole appearance. So, he's not that disheveled as I thought he was, she commented in her mind. He looks like a doctor—or a scientist with that slightly formal attire. And, a little attractive with that undisciplined jet-black hair—

“Hey!” he snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Are you just gonna stand there?”

Janessa blinked twice, and the sparkling stars surrounding her disappeared. “You are trying to kill me, aren’t you? Or, maybe you are following me? You’re a stalker!” she said frustratingly. This man was getting in her nerves.

To her surprise, the bastard just frowned and threw her a questioning look. “Are you crazy?”

Janessa caught her head, shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she glared at the man. “What did you say?”

He looked straight in her eyes as if confirming something. “Are you under the influence?”

Her mouth fell opened. She can’t believe that an arrogant and stupid man like him existed. “Bastard,” she snarled. “Maybe it was your intention to hit me!”

“Wait for a second, as far I can remember, it was you who crossed the road without watching your steps again,” he said matter-of-factly.

“And how about you? You’re driving fast in a residential area as if the road is yours!” Janessa was fuming mad while this guy in front of her was staring at her intently. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You don't know me…?” he asked, surprisingly calmed.

Janessa arched a brow. “Why should I know you? Are you a celebrity? A vlogger? An artist with amazing trending masterpieces?” she sarcastically asked.

But the man didn’t buy it. The line between his thick brows and the annoying expression in his face was back. “Can you go out of the way now?”

Janessa shook her head. She was really pissed off. “I can’t believe there are people like you,” she muttered as she picked up all her shopping bags while the man just looked at her.

“Hey, lady…”

She drew her brows together before she turned to him. “What?”

He looked at her for seconds. “Nothing.”

Before Janessa could speak again, the man turned his back, got in his car, and drove away. “What’s with that arrogant man?” she wondered. “And why should I know him?”

***