I Was Married to the Sun

Seated in her usual corner with a laptop open in front of her, a caramel latte by her right hand and her ankles crossed on the chair across from her, Hazel was waiting. Any minute now the coffee shop door would open and in would walk the red headed girl in the forest green coat who'd caught her attention exactly a week before.

The coffee shop was Hazel's quiet little niche away from her hectic life as a student in the city. A tiny little out of the way place, it had a cast of regulars that frequented it and very few occasional customers. The intimate, homely atmosphere that made it the perfect place for Hazel to study also meant that any new face never went unnoticed.

The red head had stumbled through the door a week ago to escape a sudden downpour. Hazel had looked up as she approached the counter, relaxing her grip on the journal she'd been clutching to her chest to protect it from the rain. She'd ordered a simple espresso, removed her coat and taken a seat near the counter. She'd then waited out the storm sipping her coffee and sketching in the journal.

That alone had piqued Hazel's curiosity, but when the red head returned the next day at roughly the same time, her curiosity had only increased. There was no reason for Hazel to find her so interesting; she'd merely chanced upon the coffee shop and liked it enough to return, the exact same thing Hazel herself had done two years ago and yet, here she was, pretending to surf the internet while waiting for the red haired girl to come through the door.

Hazel raised the mug of coffee to her lips, her head snapping up as the bell over the door jangled. She watched the girl in the forest green coat wend her way through the tables to the counter where the barista had already grabbed a cup and placed it in the coffee machine.

"Regular espresso?" Donnie asked, prepared to fill the same order he'd filled for her each day so far.

"Thank you," the girl nodded, sliding the required change on the counter.

Realising she was staring, Hazel set her latte aside and returned her gaze to the laptop screen. With a few keystrokes she pulled up a website she knew would distract her from focusing too long on the girl. However, even speculation on the relationship status of her favourite actor couldn't keep Hazel from glancing surreptitiously in the girl's direction every few minutes.

It was in this way that Hazel saw the red head take a permanent marker from the pocket of her jeans, uncap it and carefully write something across the tabletop. That done, the girl pocketed the marker and looked up. Catching Hazel watching, she winked and stood, shrugging into her coat and gathering her journal before she left.

Hazel waited only until the door had shut behind her before crossing the room to see what had been written. She frowned slightly as she read the single sentence inscribed in flowing cursive across the table's surface.

"I was married to the sun on a moonlit winter's day."

It made no more sense when spoken and before Hazel really knew what she was doing, she'd left the aromatic warmth of the coffee shop behind in search of the girl.