Excerpt: Whatever Celia Wants

He gave another dramatic sigh and pouted, smushing his cheeks with his hands and taking another brain-freezing sip of slushie. He'd already been sitting in the cafe for a full twenty minutes and absolutely no one he knew had showed up. He'd eaten a cheeseburger and sat for a while. Then he went back and got some fries. After the fries, he sat around trying to get himself interested in an older issue of Vogue that was lying around—which really should have worked—to no avail. There had been a grand total of eight other customers since he'd arrived. There had been an eighty-year-old couple that mooned at each other from across a table for two and shared a chocolate malt. Then there had been the thirty-something couple with three noisy children and an unhealthy marriage. Several others of no note had come along. None of them seemed interested in striking up a conversation, and Jacob didn't gravitate to any of them, either. Please God, he said, I know I never go to church, because it's too boring, but can you send someone to come talk to me so I don't tear my hair out by the roots? I just got it cut, and it's finally falling the way I like it to. Amen.
Jacob sighed and sucked the rest of the slushie from the bottom of his cup. He stood and started for the trash can, forcing himself to leave the small cafe and head back to his lonely, boring house alone. Before he could leave, however, the bell to the little shop tinkled and an angel walked in. Jacob was almost beside himself with joy. At the sight of one of his peers. Fortunately, he managed to catch himself before he did something really stupid. He casually threw away his cup and watched as the girl made her way to the counter, staring at the menu with unfocused eyes.
“Uh,” she said when she arrived at the counter, still staring at the menu. After a moment she blinked and looked at the cashier.
“Sorry,” she said. Her voice sounded pleasant—just barely husky and at a nice pitch for a girl. Of course, her hair was dreadful, but Jacob could get over that.