As the man exited the room, Cristine turned back to the small table they had sat at, and began gathering the papers strewn across it, along with the discarded napkin and paper plate the parent had left behind. Cristine always got glowing reviews on the cookies she would bring to these meetings, and she found they helped to ease some of the tensions the parents might feel. She never wanted to the parents to feel like she was blaming them, if their child was falling behind or behaving badly in class, she just wanted an open dialogue to help the student as much as she could. A light knock sounded on the door to the classroom, and Cristine began to turn, expecting the parent to be coming back for something. "Did you have another--?" Her sentence stopped midway through, and the paper plate she had been holding fluttered to the ground as she came face to face with someone she never intended to see again. "What are you...doing here?"

“Well...this is a predicament...” Cristine mumbled to herself, glancing around the abandoned, country road. She didn’t know where she was (which was pretty rare for the girl), or the first thing about fixing the smoke that was starting to leak out from under the hood of her car. “Ummmh--” She glanced around, beginning to wring her hands together. Taking a little road trip had seemed like a good idea from the offset, but a couple hours into the drive and she had started to regret her decision. By that point, though, she was already too far into it-- and she didn’t even know if she would be able to go back. She couldn’t think of that now, though. Now, she had to figure out how to get her car to work again and get her to the nearest motel-- and before it started to rain, like it looked like it was threatening to do. She glanced at her phone again, frowning at the ‘No Service’ symbol flashing at the top of her screen. 

“five more minutes, please.” cristine managed softly, an attempt of a smile on her lips. “he’s just running late.” she nodded at the waitress, almost as if she was trying to assure herself, then quickly averted her eyes down to the pristine, white tablecloth. she had to keep telling herself that there was absolutely no way she could be getting stood up right now. surely, he was just stuck in traffic or had gotten caught up on the phone with his mom or-- “who am i kidding?” the blonde mumbled to herself, resting her forehead against her hand. blinking back tears, the girl prepared to stand up from the table, accepting the fact that she had been stood up.

“let’s change our luck!” cristine’s smile was shaky, but it did not falter. “this night is all we’ve got.”

"hold my hand, i don't want to lose track of you."

"i don't know how anybody survives in this life without someone like you."

“you must have a really good memory...because you always seem to know my order before i say it,” cristine giggled lightly as she eyed the barista, her pulse nervously drumming in her throat. he always looked so grumpy...but even still, cristine had been working up the courage to say something to him. now that she had, she nervously waited for his response, hoping she hadn’t just embarrassed herself. she really didn’t want to try and find a new coffee shop to frequent.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night, but that’s alright,” Cristine giggled lightly, her eyes meeting the others’. “It was worth it just to see you move that hair from your eyes. And smile like you do.”