Page 22 of Goodbye To Tomorrow

And then, finally, he looked directly at me and my heart stopped. Those eyes; they were still the same golde-colored eyes with a tinge of a spark of green in them…those brilliant globes of azure magic just like I had seen in television commercials and in magazines. I was not wrong, he was definitely Jiraiya Sampson. The thing that captivated me the most was that he was even more handsome in real life than in any magazine. More handsome than he looked in commercials and online tabloids with his model girlfriend, Gracen Lafleur. They were the perfect couple, according to the news.

Out of the blue, I heard the crashing sound of cups as they hit the floor and dang! It broke the sequence of my reverie. I had been so entranced in my own thoughts that I had collided and bumped against the cup stand and sent it all crashing down.

"What the hell, Karine?" Savannah had a disgruntled look on her face as she turned to see the mess I had created.

"I am so sorry.”

"Well, be quick with the cleanup or we will have a long line of angry customers waiting" she said angrily "By the way, I hope you know that’s coming out of your paycheck.

I nodded and cleaned up, as quickly as I could, the mess I had made.

As I cleaned, I took furtive glances at Jiraiya. He just sat there on one of the bar stools in front of the counter, looking straight into empty nothingness. His caramel-colored hair was wavy and thick with a bit of curl in between. His strong angular jaw line was perfectly accentuated by his thin lips and slightly pointed nose. He had the look of a powerful businessman who took what he wanted out of life. At least he had that look in the business magazines. Today, something was different. Although he was still handsome as all get out, his hair was a little rumpled and there was the grim way he pressed his lips together that caused me to wonder what was bothering him.

“Hurry up, Karine!” I heard Savannah’s voice, once again, bringing me back from my silent musings.

Finally, I was done, and I continued working with jittery hands. Each time I bore the coffee-laden tray, I tread with cautious steps for fear that I would spill it all on the floor. Or worse; I might spill it on a customer and that would be a disaster. All the while and despite the tumult around me, my eye kept sliding to Jiraiya. He just sat there; sipping his coffee—a latte with cream and sugar.

I peered at him out of the corner of my eyes as he lifted the cup of coffee to his lips and sipped the contents...slowly. I watched his Adam's apple move as he gulped at the cup's contents, before returning his hands to the counter. I watched him turn around as he took in his surroundings. My eyes followed his every move. Where his eyes traveled so did mine I wondered what he was thinking as he looked at the beautiful colored pattern of the walls of The Coffee Shop. Mustard and blue, laced with stripes of brown were the colors that gave this small coffee shop its natural appearance. The name of the shop was written in colorful bold letters across the front expanse of the picture window.

Jiraiya seemed to be waiting for someone as he kept on checking his watch, but the person didn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. He stood up and paid for his coffee. As he approached me, my well-trained eyes noticed that he looked like he was in some kind of pain. He tried to hide it, masking his pain behind a huge smile that seemed to have been missing from his face for some time. Oh, that smile. A smile that could make any woman weak in the knees.

All those months of staying beside Father, his life ebbing away. Yet he wore a huge smile. That, coupled with years of working at the hospital had taught me that people could hide the biggest pain behind the broadest smile. Jiraiya had seemed happy in all those pictures in the magazines and online tabloids; I could not help wondering what troubled him. I did not say a word to him; I could not.

What would I have told him: Mr. Jiraiya, my name is Karine and I have been secretly watching you since you entered this coffee shop. Your secret is safe with me. May I know what troubles your mind, my prince? I definitely could not do that, so I just prayed with all my heart that it was nothing serious.

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