Coffee Secrets was closed temporarily as Manager Tanner was convicted of an attempted molestation case. The café owner, Tracy Tanner was devastated when she heard what a heinous monster her husband was.
The cops wanted to call Zane for interrogation as well because he assaulted Rylan, no matter what the cause was. However, Cedric handled all of that with his influence due to his guilt for leaving Winter there that day. He and Lucy also went to see Winter the day after. Being the kind person Winter was, she didn't hold it against them and assured them that it wasn't their fault.
It had been four days since that incident. Winter was sitting near her window with nothing to do as her school and workplace were unavailable. She was bored to death, just filled with negative thoughts. The only moment she felt that she was oozing off positivity was when she was with Zane.
Zane visited her every day, considering he was no less bored like her. They talked for hours over the phone and chatted till late at night.
As soon as the calling bell rang, she rushed downstairs. She opened the door, expecting to see Zane's handsome face, but a bucket of disappointment was splashed at her as she was greeted with Tracy's beautiful face.
"Hey, Tracy." Winter opened the door wider for her.
"Were you expecting someone else?" Tracy asked while taking off her heels. As Winter nodded, she teased, "Zane?"
"Yeah—that's none of your business." Winter puffed her cheeks, making Tracy chuckle. She led Tracy to the living room and went to bring two cups of coffee.
Once they were seated, Tracy started, "I know I'm a bit late for an apology. I also know that an apology won't cut it. Still, sorry is all I can say."
Winter crossed her legs and hugged a cushion. She was grateful that David and Carla weren't home during the daytime, so she had the house all to herself. Also, after Zane lectured her so-called father that day, he didn't nag her as usual for every little thing, which gave her a little more freedom.
"I had no idea Rylan was like that. No, scratch that. I did have some idea. I often felt suspicious of him, but I didn't want to be a nagging wife. I wanted to stay ignorant—" she was interrupted by Winter.
"And your ignorance traumatized so many people."
Tracy lowered her head in shame. After some more digging, it was found that Rylan Tanner had a few more pending molestation cases. He always got out with the help of his friends, but this time he failed as Cedric closed all his escape routes.
"I can only apologize for that. But I promise to make it up to you. I promise you a better working environment. I will discard the previous uniform—"
"Why did you never do that before? I had to hear that I was a slut from my dad because of that damn uniform," Winter let out furiously, remembering the scornful words of her dad. She pushed back the tears that threatened to fall.
"Rylan told me it would attract more customers, and I had promised him that I would leave the café in his hands," Tracy tried to explain.
"Let me cut to the chase, Tracy. Why are you here today? You want me to take back the case?" Winter arched an eyebrow.
"No, he won't learn his lesson unless he spends his days in the jail," Tracy said.
"That's a relief. Otherwise, I would have lost my remaining respect for you." Winter relaxed now that she was sure that Tracy was genuine with her apology.
The two of them talked for a while longer before Tracy left. Winter was climbing the stairs to her room in the evening when she received a call from Zane. Before she could open her mouth, he rasped out, "I'm sorry I can't come today."
"What happened, Zane?" Winter asked in concern.
"I am in the café. It's suffocating here." She could hear him breathing heavily over the phone.
"Don't worry, I'm coming there right away." With that, Winter threw in a pastel jacket over her lacy white top and black tights. She hurriedly put on her shoes and made her way out, unaware of the scheme that awaited her.
Meanwhile, Zane was pacing back and forth in the kitchen of Coffee Secrets, waiting for the cookies to be ready. He was biting his lips when his phone started ringing. It was a group call from Leon, Lucy, and Cedric.
"Is everything prepared?" Leon asked.
"Yeah," Zane replied, nervously glancing at the mirror to check his appearance.
"Don't you think you're over-prepared? I mean, you even have a plan E," Cedric commented.
"Babe, if you knew how much of a bad luck Zane has, you would say he should prepare plan Z," Lucy responded.
Zane put on a poker face at his friends' conversation. "You guys are of no help."
"How do the cookies taste?" Leon asked, and Zane's eyes snapped at the microwave which was going off.
"Holy shit!" Zane put his phone down and put on the gloves to take out the tray. "Oh, lucky me!" he cursed, looking at the burnt heart-shaped cookies with sad eyes. He put the phone on the loud speaker and murmured, "Guys, I think I'm going to cry."
"Plan B out then," Cedric let out.
"It can still work. They aren't meant for eating, anyway. Are the letters visible?" Leon inquired.
Zane squinted his eyes at cookies and readout, "D-A-T-E-? Visible enough."
"I think you should check the lightings—" Lucy was interrupted as there was a shuffling sound coming from the staff room.
"Shit, I think Winter is here. Wish me luck, guys," Zane said and started arranging the cookies in a hurry.
"Good luck. On second thought, our good luck won't be enough to compromise for your bad luck, bro—" Zane hung up the call on Leon before he could jinx him.
Winter rushed into the kitchen and breathed out, "Are you okay?" She cupped his cheek, looking for any injuries. "Can you breathe alright?" she inquired.
"Yes, I'm fine." Zane took her hands in his and told her with a smile, "I just wanted you to come here."
"Why?" She raised an eyebrow while eyeing him from head to toe. He was wearing a black denim jacket over a grey hoodie and black jeans. He looked like he had spent hours on that outfit, even though he always looked good in whatever he wore. "You should have told me you were okay. I was so worried," she asserted.
"Technically, I didn't lie," he muttered, scratching the back of his neck. When he was on the call with her earlier, he forgot how to breathe due to nervousness. "Anyways, the reason I called you here is," he said, guiding her towards the main seating area, "I wanted you to try out the special coffee and cookies I made for you."
Winter furrowed her brows in confusion as Zane pulled out a chair for her to sit. "What's the occasion?" she asked.
"Um, you will know," he said and went back to the kitchen to bring the tray filled with his special coffee and cookies.
Does he want to cheer me up by doing all this? she wondered, staring at the people outside the wall-sized window walking by.
"Here is your special cappuccino, ma'am." Zane placed a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies in front of her.
Winter took a glance at the cup of coffee, without reading the context on top of it. "Thanks. I was craving some sugar." With that, she dumped two cubes in the cup, which was kept in a small bowl nearby.
"Why did you do that?" Zane asked with his mouth hanging open. He spent a whole hour designing that special coffee for her, writing 'I like you' inside the heart.
"You know, I can't drink coffee without the extra sugar," Winter let out and stirred the coffee with the small spoon, mixing the three words into oblivion.
"I know that. I already added extra sugar for you," he admitted.
"Oops." She flashed him a sheepish grin and took a sip of it. "It's still good. Too much sugary, but it's okay. I like it."
Zane banged the tray in his hand on his forehead and cried invisible tears, mumbling, "Plan A failed." He cleared his throat and said, "Try the cookies." Winter glanced at the burnt cookies and averted her eyes to not burst out laughing. "Hey!"
"Sorry, sorry." She tried to control her laughter and dipped a cookie from the middle into the cup.
"Don't!" Zane cried out, and Winter looked at him innocently. He knew that she liked dipping her biscuits and cookies, even if it was water. Little did he expect she would dip it without even reading the letters on it. Sucking up his pain, he flashed her a tight-lipped smile and urged, "Go ahead. Dip all of them in the coffee."
Winter felt weird but dipped the cookies one by one, nonetheless. "They aren't that bad. Crunchier, I guess," she tried to compliment.
"Don't try too hard. I know I will never be a cook as good as you." He chuckled.
She hummed and was about to bite on the last piece of cookie when she noticed a question mark on it. "What's this question mark for?"
Zane groaned internally and replied in a dying tone, "It's a confused cookie." Out of all the alphabets she could have noticed, she noticed the most useless one.
"Oh, okay." Just as she took a bite of the cookie, she felt ticklish in her nose. She grabbed the beautiful knitted handkerchief placed beside the plate.
Zane smiled painfully, knowing what would happen, and said to himself, "Here goes my Plan C."
Winter sneezed on the 'Will you go out with me?' words of the handkerchief without even noticing it.
"Bless you," he let out and went to the storage room where he kept a few balloons filled with helium gas. He smiled looking at the two balloons, which had 'Be Mine' imprinted on them.
He was untying the strings when Winter hollered, "Zane? Where did you go?" He got startled and let go of the balloon strings, which hit the ceiling.
He just stared at the balloons that were out of his hands' reach with a blank look and stated, "Fuck me."
Meanwhile, Winter was still sitting at the table, wondering what Zane was up to. He was being weird today as if he was PMSing. She was dawdling when the lights went out. It was dark outside, so she couldn't see anything.
Winter stood up and looked around for Zane because he was scared of closed-up dark places. "Zane?" she called out in a breathy voice as she remembered that night she was about to be raped. She was walking through the dusk when something lit up on the wall. Before she could glance at it, someone placed a hand on her shoulder. She was about to scream but hearing his familiar soothing voice she calmed down.
"Winter."
She turned around and let out, "Oh, Zane, found you. Are you okay?" She looked into his eyes, which were now visible due to the source of light behind her. For some reason, she could feel her heartbeat increasing.
Zane exasperated a sigh. "Don't look at me. Look at that." He turned her around, making her face the glamorous wall with fairy lights.
Winter's eyes went wide as she figured out the words that were written.
'Will you be my ___friend?'
"Will I be your what friend? Best friend?" Winter questioned.
"What best friend? It clearly says g—" Zane cut himself as he noticed that the word 'girl' didn't lit up like the other ones. Therefore, Winter did the honor of filling up the gap by herself. Why? Just why?
"Thank goodness you were only asking me to be your best friend. I was so worried, thinking you were planning to ask me out. Ridiculous, right?" She laughed at her own ramble. "And of course, I would love to be your best—" she was shushed by a finger on her lips.
"Can I talk now?" he uttered slowly.
Winter shuddered but nodded nonetheless. However, she averted her gaze downwards because his eyes seemed to be speaking so much that she was afraid to read them. More than anything, she was confused as to what he wanted to tell her.
Zane closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling a few times. He gulped down the lump in his dry throat to push down his nervousness. He looked up so many romantic things for her just so he would have some back up when asking her out. Despite his meticulous planning, they all managed to fail miserably. Now, he had to say everything with his own mouth. The final plan.
"Look at me, Winter," he let out, making her chin rise up to meet her beautiful green eyes. He could see that she was confused, nervous, and afraid, but he had to say it; he couldn't hide his feelings forever.
Winter didn't understand why she was feeling so anxious and why her heart was beating so fast. She just waited for him to speak, and when he did, she was left dumbstruck.
"Will you be my girlfriend, Winter Candace?"
