The sound of the bell jingling above the door as it shut gently behind yet another customer of the evening was quickly followed by a soft sigh from the barista leaning against the espresso machine. Her face relaxing out of the fake, customer service, smile she put on every time another person made their way through the antique door. Roxy pushed her magenta hair behind one ear and began wiping down the machine. Tonight had been busier than normal, a steady stream of young college students traversing from the neighboring college town to fuel up on caffeine before finding a quiet place to study for midterms, which means that Roxy has to begin grading the papers her English 100 and 200 students have just turned in. The work just never stopped, but it is better to remain busy and content than give herself time to dwell on her loneliness. 

The bell tolled once again and her happy barista facade fell back into place as a tall man pushed the door open with a backpack slung over his shoulder. 

"Hello!" Roxy's voice rang out over the soft music playing and filling the space around them. 

The man returned her greeting with a gentle smile and studied the menu behind her. 

"Could I please have large flat white for here?" His deep voice finally said breaking the comfortable silence between them. 

Roxy smiled and told him the total and that she would bring it over to him. He smiled back and made his way to her favorite seat in the entire coffee shop that was near the large windows overlooking the main street of the town. 

Roxy pulled down her favorite mug and started making his drink, she finished it with a heart and took it over to him. 

"Here you go! Let me know if I can get you anything else" Roxy said quietly as she set the mug down near the piles of papers with scribbled writing that now covered the table in front of the man. 

"Thank you, I will" He replied softly as he looked at the coffee like it was a life giving staple. 

Roxy made her way back behind the bar to her own stack of papers sitting near the stool she perched on in-between customers. One of the perks to being the owners daughter is the free pass for sitting down on the job and working on schoolwork. With soft music playing in the background, Roxy and her customer sat in silence both engrossed in work. The shop's steady stream of customers had finally slowed down to a crawl as the night wore on. 

A soft throat clearing pulled Roxy's attention from her student's essay to the customer who she had been working in silence with. 

"Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering what time you closed" The man said with a smile looking down at her stack of papers. 

"No I'm sorry I didn't notice you when you walked up! We close at 7!" Roxy responded jovially. 

"What is that you are reading" The man said noticing the title of the paper which read South Park Taking Aim at School Shootings. 

"Oh just a student essay I'm grading" She responded meeting his eyes. One of his eyebrows shot up at her Response looking at her in full for the first time since entering. 

"Do you teach English?" He asked with a new interest in her. 

"Yeah! I teach a few classes at the University in the next town as an adjunct for the English department" 

"That is such a coincidence, I also teach there. I'm in the music department" He said smiling at her. "What are you doing working here?" He asked politely. 

"It's my mother's coffee shop, so it's kind of like an unspoken duty that I have to work here" Roxy said with a chuckle. 

"Well it doesn't sound like a bad duty to have; being surrounded by coffee" He said with a deep chuckle. "I'm Namjoon" He said extending his hand to her. 

"Roxy!" She said putting her soft hand in his calloused grip. 

"It's a pleasure meeting you, I'm sure I'll be seeing you more often" He said looking into her eyes as if he could see her soul. 

Roxy's cheeks flushed lightly at his look and smiled back trying to keep her cool, just now noticing how attractive this man truly was. "It is a pleasure meeting you as well Namjoon" she replied with a smile. 

"Well I'll let you get back to grading Roxy, but you should know it is 7 now so I'll get going. Thank you for the delicious latte, I'd be interesting in hearing about your students paper that has such an interesting title the next time I see you" Namjoon dropped her hand after a rather unnecessarily long handshake. He smiled at her again and looked her over before heading back to his table and gathering up his papers and heading for the door. 

He stopped and turned to a still sitting Roxy who had yet to register that it was indeed 7pm and she had to close the shop, "Have a great rest of your night Roxy" Namjoon said meeting her eyes with another smile before opening the door and disappearing down the street. 

Roxy released a breath she had no idea that she had been holding and looked down at the paper she had been grading, completely forgetting what it was about. She had no idea why meeting Namjoon had left her heart beating a little faster than normal.