Writing Prompt: One Touch

Howdy!

I’m back with another post, hopefully this one will be on the lighter side of things compared to last week’s story! I found the prompt on Pinterest again, but what drew me to it was it reminded me of a song that I really love, and it’s called “Touch” by Natasha Bedingfield. I am obsessed with this song and when I saw this prompt, I was like “yes!” Apparently I have wanted to do this for a while and didn’t even know about it until now.

Since the prompt has two people, I think I’m going to try to write two people’s point of view on this post. I’ve never done this before, so please don’t judge me for my mistakes. Now here is the prompt for today, I hope you all enjoy it!

Coffee and papers flew into a mess as the two strangers collided on their hurried paths, unaware their destinies were now intertwined.

---

Jack

I cannot believe I am so late. I’m never late getting to work. Jack thought to himself while he stood in line at the coffee spot, just two blocks away from his apartment. He looked ragged, his face was a mess and his suit was wrinkled since he forgot to iron them after removing them from the dryer this morning. He knew his chance of impressing his bosses was lost now, but yet let out a big sigh while seven others stood in front of him waiting to order their coffee and breakfast pastries.

He had only been in the city for about three months, and was surprised by how fast he was able to find a job for himself in such short amount of time. He tried to send his resume everywhere he could think of, but it was a big city and figured it would very difficult to find a job when everyone else was looking for work as much as he was, so when he came home from job hunting to find an opening for a position at a place he applied was the shock of a lifetime. However, he hadn’t been there for a week, and he’s managed to fuck it all up.

After waiting in line for close to seven long minutes, it was finally Jack’s turn to order and as let out another big sign and started talking to the cashier in front of him, the door rang somewhat quietly as a person came into the place, but Jack wouldn’t hear it, he was such in a rush that he managed to block out any outside noises around him. He was just there to get a strong cup of joe and figure out a story to explain why he was late to his bosses. Coffee sat on the counter, steaming out of the lid as Jack got out his money to pay for it. The girl tore off his receipt and attempted to give him back his change, but he quickly turned away from her and headed for the door.

Stacy

Stacy was a free spirit, ray of sunshine kind of girl. She’s always been this way, but lately life hasn’t been treating her very nicely. When she first moved to the city, she thought it would bring her closer to her boyfriend Travis, since he was always working and couldn’t come home to her as much as they both seemed to wanted, but then one day after coming home from doing her errands she caught her boyfriend in bed with another girl. She was shattered. She was in denial with her family and friends when they tried to tell her how much of a player he was, but like most girls, she thought he cared enough about her that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. She risked everything for him and here he was, screwing away her hopes and dreams.

For the past two months she’s been trying to rebuild her life as a single woman. She tried her best to push her feelings back, but if you ever got up to her face-to-face, you’d be able to see the many layers of blush over her cheeks as she desperately tried to mask the steady stream of tears that fell from her eyes every night. She hoped and prayed that her fake smile will divert people’s worrisome thoughts about her love life, but unfortunately, it didn’t.

All wasn’t lost for Stacy though, as she had a great circle of friends to try to lend a hand or a shoulder to cry on; one of those friends recently got her a job at a coffee shop uptown. She knew how much Stacy loved meeting people, she has the perfectly personality to handle various attitudes. Stacy felt grateful for the opportunity, because she definitely needed a job since her ex-boyfriend was the source of her income. Today, she was about to start to learn the ins and outs of what it takes to make coffee and bake breakfast pastries, so she dressed in her favorite outfit: white T-shirt with a matching tulle-like skirt, she also wore a denim jacket on top in case she needed to cover up her upper arms and a pair of white flip-flops. She wasn’t known to wear anything practical, so until she was given a uniform she wasn’t going to change her dressing habits.

She finally made it to the shop, fairly early then she was expected to be there, as she wasn’t supposed to show up until noon to train under the manager, but she wanted to make sure to appear to be a responsible worker. When she entered the front door, it dinged from above and everybody on the other side of the counter looked at her with delight, she gave them a light smile as she let the door close behind her. A part of her felt weird to be standing in the corner of the doorway, but she wasn’t a customer nor a real employer yet so she stood next to the coat hangers, by a table of an elderly couple who smiled and nodded at her. The line to order was dwindling down after the morning rush and she vowed after the male in the half-washed suit left the counter that she’d make her move to the cashier about starting shadowing the manager. Since she knew she had some time to kill, she grabbed herself the local paper and started reading it, but as soon as she began reading the first big story, the man twisted on his toes in a hurry without taking his money, and didn’t see Stacy coming right at him and suddenly she regretted to wear all white on her first day.

What do you think happened to these two characters? All theories are welcomed!

Hot Coffee Is Worse Than Iced Tea

So I’ve decided to do a writing prompt for today. This is from one of the prompts I found on a website. The prompt I’m using is, “write about a coffee spill that caused trouble.” I got my inspiration by Natasha Bedingfield’s song “Touch” as both verses talk about a similar situation that involves coffee and a little bit of trouble. Enjoy!

My whole morning has been a total disaster. That’s what Emma’s mind kept saying throughout her Wednesday morning. It was mid-week and she was anxious about spending this week off with her friends and hopefully getting the rest of her ex-boyfriend’s things out of her apartment. Emma and Cody had been in a relationship for three years and even though they had only been in a relationship for such a short period of time, they decided to not only move away from their families so they could get better jobs but also decided to move in together. At the time, it sounded like a good idea because then paying the rent would be easier with two people working instead of one. Well, the day before they moved Emma caught her boyfriend flirting with one of her sister’s friends. That should have been her warning right there, but nope! She still stayed with him, but kept her guard up just in case. For good reasoning too, because once they got settled into their new home. Emma got a good steady job and Cody, well he stayed at home playing video games and never went out to find a job. When she found him screwing around with one of their neighbors, Emma had enough for his boyish lifestyle and kicked him to the curb.

Emma had a big speech to make at the meeting this morning. She felt ready for it, but everything that had been happening in the last few weeks was taking a toll on herself. She hadn’t got to enjoy the city’s riches and she had been living there for three months. She was so consumed with her job that traveling around her new home wasn’t an option. She kind of envied Cody for getting that chance since she kicked him out without at least giving him a chance to find another place. He would be sleeping by a curb like any dog, but Emma would have enough discreetly to rescue the dog and not him. Emma sat on the chair outside the room where the meeting was to be held. She was nervous, her palms were sweating, and her mind was swirling around back and forth. When the door opened and people who were in there before came out between the five or six people who came out all at once. She quickly sat up from her uncomfortable chair and ran right into one of the slow walkers who was still talking to her boss. John Watson, CEO of another enterprise a state away, was the poor bastard who just happened to run right into Emma and got his Starbucks coffee spilled all over his gray suit. Emma gasped at her actions but was quickly relieved that it wasn’t her boss she ran into, he would have fired her instantly.

“Oh my gosh! I’ am so sorry! Are you okay?” Emma regained her strength but lost of her nervous feelings in the process. “Yeah, I’m all right.” John said with a chuckle. “It was my fault. I was walking and talking at the same time.” John said back as he tried to wipe off the excess off of his ruined suit. “I am so terribly sorry, I thought everybody was out of there.” Emma said with her hands on her face. Now her face was warm and red, not by the embarrassment but by the hot coffee that not only spilled on him but got her as well. “Oh great, now I got coffee on me too. This morning just keeps getting worse for me.” Emma said as twirled around in the hallway as her colleagues walked right past her and into the room where her important was to be held. John thought he had gotten as much coffee off of his clothes before noticing Emma spinning around looking for her stains. He chuckled again. “What’s so funny?” Emma said as she gradually started picking up her things off the floor, they were soaking wet too! “Nothing, you have nothing to worry about, you look good.” John said back to her with a half-smile. Emma was shocked to get hit on by a guy that she ran into and spilled his damn coffee all over him, but she didn’t say she didn’t like the attention. She starting smiling, but their moment was ruined when her boss came up to shut the door and found the two of them, together.

“What is going on? Emma Roy, you’re supposed to be in here giving a speech, aren’t you?” Mr. Baxter said in a not so calm and steady voice. “Yes sir, I am.” She said to her boss. “Sorry.” She said to John before grabbing her things and walking past him this time not touching him at all. Once she was in the room and in the only opened seat left, her boss took a couple of steps out of the room to look at what happened to John. “What the hell happened?” Mr. Baxter said as he looked up and down at John. “Hot coffee is worse than iced tea.” John said as he finished fixing himself up. “I take it you’re talking from experience.” Mr. Baxter said before heading back to the meeting. “Yes, actually I am.” John said as he began to walk away from the stained carpet before him. Two hours, Emma’s meeting was finished. She did her speech and her ideas were executed perfectly until her boss and co-workers started to lose interested in her. “What am I doing wrong?” Emma asked herself. “Ms Roy, you have very good ideas for the company, but I think you’re losing your focus on the design and management.” Mr. Baxter said to her in front of EVERYONE! “Oh my god, he’s going to fire me right now!” She thought again. “So I’ve decided that you need a little help in those areas and I’ve hired you a partner to show you the ropes so you can get back to your old self again.” Whoa, this is new! “Okay, that’s awesome to hear. Who am I working with sir?” Emma asked with a smile, hoping it was somebody in the room. “It is the man you just spilled coffee on, his name is John Watson. You said you used to live in Arizona. That’s where he lives and his company is located, I’m sending you there.” Why couldn’t he just fire me instead?

Mr. Baxter let her clean out her desk at the office and she finally had the right excuse to tell her landlord to go screw himself and go back home to her family and go to the nearest Starbucks and repay her new boss with a new cup of hot Java. As much as the excitement of seeing her family was to her, the fact that she’ll be this dude’s assistant in a way, made her stomach curl up. From one moment she had a good job in a city where she wanted her new set of freedom and wanted to explore to making the biggest mistake of her life and even he told her it was his fault in the first place. Two weeks got her back in Arizona, unpacked, and time with her family before she would start her new job at Sunny Side Up Inc. She dressed up in what she wore for her interview, white long-sleeved blouse, navy blue skirt plus the navy blue blazer to match. It was the only nice outfit she had. Before she even made it to the building, she took a beeline to the nearby Starbucks and asked for a black coffee and if they had it, two vodka shots for her! The drive was short but her nervous were still getting to her, plus the flats she brought were basically coming apart and made her walk kind of funny. When she entered the doors, she was surprised of how clean and exotic it looked compared from the outside and of course the company name.

It was nice and cool, everything was made of glass, the doors and handles. The furniture around was back and white to add some simple chic and color to the whole place. She was impressed but knew the decor wasn’t his idea. When she reached the front desk, the girl at the desk told her to go right in because he was expecting her. As she walked down the narrow cream-colored hallway that has door after door on the right side of her and artwork on the left, she was curious and taken back by everything! She clutched her purse and his coffee tightly in her hands, but when a fairly tall man opened the main door in front of her and looked at her, they knew they were in trouble. “Hi.” John said in shock, how could she found him? He wondered. Emma went to shake his head and introduced herself as she’s never met him before, “Hi, I’m Emma Roy and my boss sent me here to be guided by a John Watson.” He was pleased, but sad to be greeted like that, but knew it her talking professionally. “Hi, welcome! I am John Watson. Nice to meet you officially.” He said as took her hand in with a nice grip. They continued to nod their heads, things were getting awkward fast. “You too. Oh, here’s your coffee. I thought I owed you one after two weeks ago.” He smiled with delight and took the coffee out of her hand. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I just got you black because that’s what my dad likes.” Emma rambled on, trying to make conversation. “Smart man. Here, come inside. Let’s discuss business.” John said as he stepped back and let her pass him inside. Once inside, he turned around and shut the door.