Must Have Been the Wind

   As time passed and Ash continued to work at the front of the counter, exhausting his cheeks in an attempt to smile at every new customer that came in, the cafe became less and less busy. By the time that four in the afternoon rolled around, there were a mere number of three customers, which resulted in Ash daydreaming for another twenty minutes - until closing time.    As he stood there, behind the cash register and glaring holes into the wall in front of him with his piercing gaze and chin perched on his hand, his mind drifted to the events of the morning: Him running down and into the reception, where he was greeted by - an always hardworking - Ms Vento, who handed him a letter from his mother.   His mother. Ash's mother was a wonderful woman to be around. A pleasure to chat away the hours to. Her brown eyes always shimmered brightly once a topic that interested her was brought up and her shy gesture of tucking her shoulder-len

   Ash groaned as he shifted in his bed angrily. That night was the only night that entire week where he felt calm and was able to fall asleep instantly after lying down on his bed but the people above his apartment just had to ruin it for him. He cracked open an eye and turned to look over at the clock, groaning loudly after he noticed it was four in the morning. He placed his arm over his eyes before grumbling some curse words under his breath and, eventually, sitting up and pushing the covers off him.     He swung his legs off the side of the bed and stretched with a silent yawn and stood up. He quickly pulled on a pair of sweatpants and left his bedroom, slipping his shoes on and heading over to the stairwell. He might not be good with people as a whole but once it came to someone ruining his, carefully outlined, sleeping schedule, he would give them a piece of his mind.     He stomped up the stairs and made his way over to

   The woman glanced up at the question and fixed her eyes into the young man's as if questioning his intentions before he flashed a toothed smile and tilted his head to the side. The woman cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks, where a few stray tears fell. "I'm Amaya." She quietly answered. Ash nodded at the name as he held out his hand for a handshake.    "I'm Ash." He grinned. Amaya took his hand slowly and shook it gently before quickly letting go and looking back down to her lap. Ash looked at the woman, his smile faltering until it fell completely and he groaned under his breath, looking down at the mattress before speaking up again. "What do you wanna do?" He asked. The woman in question raised her head and quirked an eyebrow up in amusement. She brought her eyebrows back into a frown quickly, hoping the man next to her didn't notice her slip-up. "I have a few movies we could watch. Come on!" Ash suddenly exclaimed as he jumped off the foot

   The next day, Ash woke up at around five in the morning to the sound of a loud knocking at his front door. At first, he decided to ignore it after he checked the time and simply shifted to the other side of his bed before closing his eyes and attempting to sleep for at least five minutes more. However, luck was never on his side as he was forced to get up at the crack of dawn due to the persistent knocking. With a loud groan, he rolled out of bed, ruffling his hair and walking into the front hall. Not bothering to glance through the peephole, he swung the door open angrily.    His eyes softened ever so slightly once his eyes landed on Ms Vento. She had a sheepish smile on her face paired with a set of apologetic eyes. "I'm so sorry to wake you up this early, but..." She trailed off quietly, looking around before pointing behind Ash, questioning whether she could come in. Ash nodded with a low shrug of his shoulders before opening the door wider an

   With a loud sigh, the young man walked into the cafe and looked around for a second before noting the twenty, or so, customers sitting and chatting away or working on laptops. He walked over to an isolated booth and slid in, looking around briefly before looking over at the staff and smiling at one of the male servers, quietly signalling that he just came in and wanted to get a menu. The server nodded at Ash and quickly walked over, handing him a menu, after exchanging greetings, and resumed his cleaning of the free tables.   Ash flicked through the menu, his eyes unfocused and spaced out, He was staring at the entrance just as the door opened, revealing Mr Carreiro. Not wanting any unnecessary social interactions, the young man sunk down in his seat and hung his head. At first, his tactic seemed to have worked. However, not for very long as the older man was soon seated in front of Ash with a soft smile plastered on his face.