#v something new
Following his gaze, she looked down at her reddened hand. She probably should run that under cold water for a while – she had enough experience with burns and scalds to know what to do. And really, she should take the tip and at least clean her hands. The chocolate and sugar in her hot beverage would at least make her hands sticky until she cleaned them off.
But making this (very kind) man buy her coffee when she hadn’t been focusing? That wasn’t on.
“No, honestly, you don’t have to buy me a new one. It was just a mocha, but it wasn’t expensive or anything.” At the back of her mind, she could hear a little voice whining about the fiver currently spilled all over the man’s shirt, her hand, and the floor.
“Really, I should be paying you back for ruining your shirt. Have I ruined it? Oh God, you don’t even have a spare on you, do you?”
Craig looked back down at the coffee-covered shirt. It was nothing special, just a plain grey top, but the stain would definitely need a few washes to get out. He shrugged dismissively.
“I’m sure it’ll come out, it’s only a t-shirt,” he said calmly, “and I think I do actually have a spare in my car, so it’s all good.” He smiled, internally cheering his decision to keep his gym clothes in the car, as he was intending to drop in for an hour or so before his afternoon shift - after a good coffee first, of course.
“I’m getting myself something anyway, it’s really no problem.”
If anyone asked her, Allie would’ve told them she was looking forward to that mocha. After all, it was her first proper coffee of the day, and she was pretty sure the kids had been trying hard to drive her nuts that morning. She needed that coffee if she was going to make it to the end of the day.
“No, no, it’s my fault,” Allie apologised quickly, shaking the hot coffee off her hands. That was probably going to leave a burn. The coffee had been freshly made, and very hot. “I should’ve been looking where I was going. Ah, gosh…”
She quickly looked around, before grabbing a couple of clean paper napkins and instinctively trying to wipe the coffee off his front. “Gosh, I got fresh coffee all over you, I’m so sorry. Does that need dry cleaning? I’ll pay for the dry cleaning if you need. Just, ah…”
Craig pinched the front of his shirt, pulling the heat-drenched fabric away from his chest before it could burn him. “Really, don’t worry about it. It happens to everyone, and I wasn’t exactly paying attention myself! Are you okay? That must’ve hurt.”
He looked down at her hands, noticing the slight scalding, and frowned. “Seriously, what did you order? I can get you a new one while you rinse your hands off if you like? It’s the least I can do, and you don’t want to let a burn settle.”
