I’m almost to the register now, and I can just make out the cute cashier standing behind the counter. He’s got dark skin and the deepest brown eyes I’ve ever seen, and this pair of hipster glasses lying comfortably on his face. I wish I could do more for my hair, but it’s fine. I’ve got this.

I step up to the register, and the cashier says, “Morning. What can I get for you?” His name tag says Ben. Cute, clean, simple. I like it.

“Hi,” I say with a smile, “can I get a medium vanilla latte with no whipped cream?”

“Absolutely. I aim to please.”

I grin.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Um, yes? You could totally be my boyfriend. But I just say, “That’ll be it. Thanks, Ben.”

He smiles, and I feel my heart speed up. This is the part where he asks me how I knew his name, and I make some joke about being able to read his name tag, and then we’re laughing, holding up the line, and he slips me his phone number on the edge of my cup.

He says, “Can I have a name for the order?”

“Noah,” I say.

He scrawls it out on a little paper cup before sliding it down the line. “That’ll be four twenty-five.”

I pass him my credit card—well, the credit card my parents sent me off with—and watch as he swipes the plastic without another word.

Finally, he looks up at me, a soft expression on his face, and I realize this is the moment when he tells me I remind him of someone from his childhood. We’ll talk a little about our hopes and dreams, and before I know it, he’ll be asking me to meet him out back after his shift because he can’t bear to part ways.

He says, “Your card got declined.”

“I—it what?”

“Do you have another payment method?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Can you try it again?”

He whistles, swiping the card one more time before shaking his beautiful head and passing it back to me. “Sorry, no go. Do you have another card?”

And like, no, I don’t. I only got this one a couple weeks ago because my parents felt bad sending me off into the wilderness with no money to my name. But then I see the opportunity Fate has presented me. I can tell Ben I don’t have any money, that I’m alone in the world with no way to pay, and he’ll grin and say, It’s on the house. I can’t turn down a smile like yours.

“I don’t have anything else,” I say.

Ben winces. “Sorry, man. I’m gonna have to take the next customer.”