The days are beginning to become monotonous, the same grind day after day. Finishing that project for Z-Project has paid the bills for the months to come, but I cannot just sit here. My solution? Find a job, play some games, and maybe ask out my local barista, I thought. That is how I found myself standing in the overcrowded Starbuck’s line, with businesspeople late to work, stay-at-home parents with their little ones screaming too loud for eight in the morning, and those fellow unemployed individuals.

            I was busying myself as I waited in line by scrolling through the news updates on my phone. I kept seeing headlines such as “Rinc to go bankrupt?” and “Will Rinc bring the next generation in gaming,” and other contradictory headlines. Another headline that seemed rather prominent today was the recorded livestream of the mother of Jeremiah Stone pleading for the police to find her lost son. Jeremiah had gone missing last month or so ago if I could remember the headlines.  However, as a fellow game tester and appreciator of Riverlight’s games, I was more ecstatic to see the news about what had been taking them, the largest gaming giant in the world, all of these years. The rumor was that this –

            “Hey, hey there Zephaniah, you alright?” my favorite barista asked me with a look of concern etched on her face.

            “Sorry Iris, getting stuck in my head again, it would seem.”

            “No worries, what will you be having today?”

            “Umm, let’s do the usual today, but now that I think about it maybe we could—”

            “Come on, man, I’m going to be late for work,” the gentleman behind me gently stated while placing himself next to me.

            While I am no stranger to the stresses of the modern-day man, or woman, I was a little taken back and took a step back from the gentleman. I turned to Iris, but she was still pointedly looking at only my face and paying the other man no attention.

            “Ya, just the usual today, Iris, thank you very much,” I said while pulling out my phone to pay for the coffee.

            “Of course, if you want to wait around for another half an hour I’ll be on break,” she said while taking my phone and taping it on her tablet’s screen. “We can talk then if you would like?”

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            I began to blush at that, but quickly sputtered out, “Ya, umm, yaya, that sou…sounds great, see you soon.” With that amazing verbal performance, I stepped away and let the pushy gentleman up to order his coffee, and walked over to the end of the coffee bar to wait for my coffee.

            “I am glad you waited for me,” Iris said as she took out the seat next to me and sat down. “What was it that you wanted to say to me?”

            I closed my laptop lid to give Iris my full attention. “So, I was thinking that, since we both like gaming, we could maybe try out that gaming convention downtown?” Damn, my hands were all of a sudden so sweaty I couldn’t pick up my ceramic coffee mug.

            “You mean… like a date?” Iris asked while giving me that side smirk and bringing her cup of coffee to her lips.

            “I mean like we can just go as barista and customer if you’d prefer?”

            “I can confirm that I would prefer the possibility of a date with you, Zephaniah.”

            “Why is it that you call me Zephaniah, but write Z on all of my orders? Is it because you can’t spell my name?”

            “Busted,” Iris confirmed while hiding that smile behind her cup.

            “That alright,” I said while mimicking that hidden smile and reaching into my bag for my phone. “If you can just put your number in here, we can schedule our rendezvous location for later?”

            “Sounds good,” she confirmed while reaching across the table for my phone. “You know that the best time to go would be tonight before the larger gaming companies are gone.”

            “So tonight?”

            “Sounds perfect, want to meet there at 7?

            “I can’t wait, but now I should get going before I say something that would make you regret agreeing to go anywhere with yours truly,” I stated while pulling myself out of the comfortable, broken-in chairs and collecting my belongings off the table.

            “See you soon, Zephaniah!”

            I returned the wave I saw coming from Iris, and realized I was completely smitten by her red hair. Did I mention, Iris was a living red-haired goddess, or at least that was the opinion of myself and several other individuals in the crowd. This was based on the side glances I was catching from some of the other people in the small Starbucks café towards Iris’ direction. None of that mattered because all I knew was that I was riding high on cloud nine.