When Lisa dealt with the last customer in line, she let out a sigh of relief. Working at a New York Starbucks wasn’t fun, but it was better than her old Georgia home. At least nobody yelled racial slurs at her these days. She could tolerate the “coffee colored skin” jokes from her college friends.
She slumped forward while sitting on her stool and peeked out the window. The Starbucks across the street didn’t look terribly busy either. There was always a slump in customers between breakfast and lunch, and today was no exception.
Her coworker Amy was handling the two drinks in the queue, so Lisa had nothing to do while she waited for more customers. She was about to pull out her phone when a customer walked inside.
This tall, suave businessman was six feet tall, same as Lisa, and it only took seconds for her to notice his watch. He was wearing a real Breitling Navitimer 01 Limited, a brilliant black, gold, and silver watch that cost about as much as two years of tuition.
He finally made it to the counter.
“Howdy! Can I get one of those large pumpkin spices?”
This introduction threw Lisa off. He looked like an old money millionaire, but his demeanor was completely different. He didn’t even have a southern accent, and he still went with a ‘Howdy’. Strange.
“Sure thing!” Lisa replied. “By the way, nice watch.”
“Thanks. Got it during a trip to Germany. It’s a real Breitling.”
“Let me guess, the model is a… Navitimer 01 Limited?”
“Yep, that’s the model. How’d you figure that out?”
“I’m a big watch nerd. 46 millimeters, sapphire crystal, 26k price tag on a few websites, that’s quite the specimen.”
The customer raised an eyebrow. “A watch nerd indeed. Anyway, the best part about this watch is that when I first got it, it was set to Berlin time, but I haven’t changed it since. I think it’s funnier to keep it like that.”
Lisa glanced down as he held up his wrist. It was six hours ahead.
The customer smiled. “I’m Henry, by the way.”
He reached out his hand, and she shook it. “The name’s Lisa.”
“I didn’t know many watch enthusiasts worked at Starbucks.”
Lisa giggled. “I mostly just look them up online. The nicest watch I own is a plastic Spongebob watch I got as a kid.”
“Oh. Well, there’s nothing shameful about that. Even though you can find almost anything in a watch store, they don’t sell those, so that Spongebob watch still has an air of exclusivity to it.”
The more she heard him talk, the more fond she was starting to grow towards him. Although she saw too many customers to pay attention to all of their appearances, Henry was an exception. Clean shave, perfect black haircut, solid physique, cologne that smelled vaguely like cotton candy…
“I guess that’s true,” Lisa replied.
Henry peeked behind him. There weren’t any more customers. “Slow morning,” he said.
“It’s usually slow right around now. My lunch break’s in a few minutes.”
“Nice. I don’t have anywhere to be until a meeting in about…” He checked his watch. “An hour or so. I might hang around for a while. We can have a seat together and talk about watches together.”
Lisa blushed. “Oh! I’ll… I’ll think about it,” she said.
Amy finished making the latte. “Pumpkin spice?” she asked as she handed it to Henry.
“Thanks,” Henry said to her. As he walked to a booth in the corner of the store, he waved to Lisa. “I’ll be over here if you’re interested.”
As soon as Henry sat down, the nervousness started to kick in. Although he never said the words “lunch date,” this was definitely one. He seemed nice, but she didn’t know for sure what he was like.
Two more customers came in, and Lisa took their orders. But whenever she wasn’t talking to someone, she was looking at Henry. He was sitting in his booth, angled away from Lisa so he couldn’t see her, but she could see him.
After one last customer, her break arrived. She took off her hat and went into the back room to grab her lunch. A thought hit her. She never committed to the date, so she could just walk away. Did she really want to sit with him? She knew almost nothing about him other than his name and the fact he owned a watch.
The back rooms were empty, since the manager was out on her own break, so Lisa had plenty of time to pace around. Eventually, she decided that she could just bail if things went poorly, he looked nice enough, and this was a pretty safe place to have a date at, so there was no harm in going.
Lisa re-emerged into the main storefront a few seconds later. As soon as she saw Henry’s beautiful face again, she started to relax.
“Howdy!” Lisa said as she sat down.
Henry smiled. “I actually just use the ‘Howdy’ to sound more friendly. It really works, you know.”
“It worked on me.” Lisa gave him a flirty chuckle.
“So,” Henry said, “You seem to be really into watches, but don’t have that many. Any particular reason?”
“I just thought it was a better idea to pay for college tuition before blowing a huge pile of cash on a watch.”
“That’s fair. Reminds me of my own college days. Though I do know a few places where you can find reasonably priced watchmaking tools if you’re interested in that.”
“Really?”
“I started out in the watch hobby while I was just a pharmacy technician at the CVS over on Fulton street. Back then, a two-hundred dollar watch kit was all I could afford. Now that I’m the CFO in this good-sized pharmaceutical firm, I can blow twenty grand on something every now and then. I still use a lot of my old tools, since they aged well. Holding down a little watch disc and working on it for hours on end… yeah, that’s a good way to relax.”
Lisa was excited. He didn’t just own a watch; he was a fellow enthusiast. And she felt like getting a bit deeper into the field.
“You know,” she said, “Starbucks doesn’t pay well, but it’s not *that* terrible. I think I’ll look into those watch kits.”
Just before Henry was about to speak again, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and his eyes widened.
“Shit,” he said. He went from calm to panicked in seconds, startling Lisa. “I’m really sorry, but I need to take care of this right now.” He fumbled through his pocket and pulled out a business card, then handed it to Lisa.
“Huh?”
“It’s my business card,” Henry said as he got out of the booth. “Call me later and we can talk more.” With that, Henry brought the phone to his ear while darting out the door. Lisa stared in astonishment. Just as she was starting to warm up to him, he was gone. He didn’t even take his latte with him. And he hadn’t even taken a sip yet.
With nothing else to do, Lisa finished her lunch and went back to work, waiting to see if he would return to grab his drink. But, he never came. Since Lisa wasn’t a fan of pumpkin spice, the abandoned latte went to Amy, who chugged the whole boiling mixture down in under a minute.
While working, she occasionally glanced at the business card. Henry’s last name was Atkins, he was the CFO for Cyan Pharmaceuticals, and the tiny portrait of him in the upper right corner was stunning. For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, she was plagued by thoughts of that handsome businessman…
~~~~~ ~~~~~
At the end of her shift, Lisa walked sixteen blocks West to her apartment. The mile-long walk wasn’t too bad, though she was glad to be indoors when she finally made it to her building. She quickly rode the elevator up to the eighth floor and entered her two-room suite.
She plopped down on her bed, happy to be home. But, she didn’t relax for long. Lisa took out her phone and dialed the number on Henry’s business card.
The phone rang three times, then he picked up. “Hello?” Henry said.
“Hey there! It’s me, Lisa. From Starbucks.”
“Eyyy! Lisa! Listen, I’m really sorry about bailing during lunch. I should have just put off the call.”
He was even more casual than when they first met; his voice didn’t scream ‘rich person’. Lisa took it as another sign that he wasn’t one of those out of touch millionaires. “Don’t worry about it. So, you said you wanted to talk more?”
“Yes, I was going to chat more about watches, get a little flirty, and if everything worked out, invite you over to my place to show you my workshop. Then that call arrived and spoiled my plans. Again, I’m sorry.”
“Honestly, I have nothing to do tonight. How about I come over?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Lisa regretted it. Was she coming onto him too strongly?
“Excellent!” Henry said, instantly melting Lisa’s regret and fear. “I had some quite nasty business to handle earlier today, but now I’m free all night. How does seven sound? I can show you around my penthouse, talk watches, have dinner, and see where things lead.”
Lisa wondered what he meant by ‘nasty business’, but didn’t think about it too hard. “Seven works. I think I’ll show up in something nice. How does that sound?”
“Oooh! Exciting.”
They concluded their chat, shared addresses, arranged for him to pick her up, and ended the call. Lisa leaned back in bed and set an alarm for six. She had about an hour to kill. Even though she had only spent twenty minutes with him, Lisa was already feeling confident that their relationship was going to be a good one. Mutual respect, shared passions, and nothing weird that couldn’t be excused by him being one of the heads of a large pharmaceutical company. Perfect.
When the time came, she put on her best red dress, made sure her makeup was perfect, and did her best to look presentable. One minute before seven, Lisa got a text. Henry’s limo was outside. As she took the elevator downstairs, she couldn’t help but fantasize about her upcoming night…
[**Read Chapter 2**](https://stories.luna.so/coffee-crime-chapter-2/)
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/ikyxnf/coffee_crime_chapter_1_female_pov_fm