I found out about the coffee shop on a Wednesday morning as I was scrolling through his V-gram page .
Ethan had posted a picture on his V-Gram the previous Saturday. Nothing significant. A flat lay of his sketchbook, a pencil and the edge of a coffee cup on a wooden table. A quiet Saturday morning captured without intention.
Most people would have liked it and scrolled past.
I zoomed in on the background.
The window behind the table caught a reflection of the street outside and in that reflection, faint but readable if you looked properly, was a logo. A clean minimal mark, a coffee cup worked into the negative space of a rising sun.
I ran it through a reverse image search.
Morning Dew Cafe. Crestline Avenue.
I sat back and looked at the ceiling for a moment....
"Crestline Avenue..... "
Then I picked up the phone and called my manager.
"The Valentine's Couture shoot," I said when he picked up.
"What about it."
"They have a branch office near Crestline Avenue don't they."
I heard him typing. "Their East Side studio is on Vantage Street. Three blocks from Crestline. Why?"
"Tell them I'll do the shoot. But only at that location."
A pause. "Raina. Valentine's Couture is a small online label. They have no significant presence in the apparel space. This is not the kind of partnership that moves the needle for you."
"Just do it," I said.
A breath. "Understood."
He knew better than to push. He always arrived at that conclusion eventually.
I put the phone down and opened Ethan's V-Gram again. I looked at the timestamp on the Saturday post. 10:23 AM. I scrolled slowly back through his page. It was sparse, the account of someone who posted when something caught his attention rather than on any schedule. But the Friday and Saturday posts had a consistency to them. Not every week but enough to suggest a habit rather than a coincidence.
Friday and Saturday....
I scheduled the shoot across two days starting Friday, which gave me Saturday as the second day.
He would not know I was coming.
That was fine. That was the point.
I was not naive about what I was doing. I knew how it looked written plainly. But stalking was the wrong word for it and the wrong frame entirely. I wanted to know him. Not the work version of him . The real version. What he ordered without looking at the menu, how he sat when nobody was watching, whether he talked to strangers or kept his earbuds in.
There was no clean way to get that information by just asking for it. They had known each other for less than two weeks. He was her designer. She could not walk up to him and say sit with me, tell me everything. He would think she was a weirdo and keep his distance .
So instead of leaving it all up to fate , she would simply take actions instead .
That was all.
The Valentine's Couture studio was on the fourth floor of a converted building on Vantage Street. Clean space, good light, a setup that worked harder than its budget suggested.
Desiree Vance met me at the elevator.
"Miss Takahashi." She extended her hand with warm precision. "I'm so glad you accepted our offer. I'm Desiree Vance, Managing Director of this branch. It is such a pleasure to have you here."
"Likewise," I said and shook her hand.
She introduced me to her team with the quiet pride of someone who had built something small and believed in it entirely. Cameron handled digital marketing, a focused man who had clearly already planned every post from today's shoot before I had even arrived. Lois was their lead stylist, efficient and unflappable, already moving between the rack and the shooting area without being asked. Manelo ran production, calm and precise, you can tell he's very reliable. Cherry was their social media coordinator, young and bright eyed and trying very hard not to visibly combust in my presence.
I made a point of using each name immediately.
Desiree walked me through the concept while Lois arranged the first look. Valentine's Couture wanted to do something different. Instead of traditional campaign photography they wanted to integrate Lumi♡Live directly into the shoot. My avatar would appear in a split screen format alongside each clothing piece, reacting in real time the way she would on stream. Genuine expressions. Unscripted commentary. A digital personality meeting a physical product.
For a small label it was a genuinely smart idea. Novel enough to generate attention without requiring a budget they did not have.
"We're launching the Soft Hours line," Lois explained. "Loungewear and transitional pieces. Quiet luxury. Comfortable but considered. Lumi's warmth matches the tone perfectly."
"Let's get started," I said.
We worked through the morning.
Each look came to me and I sat at the streaming setup they had built in the corner of the studio and reacted the way Lumi would. Warm. Present. The right energy without overselling. Cherry watched from behind her laptop and I could see her already planning her posts. Manelo ran tight time checks. Cameron adjusted lighting between setups with the focused silence of someone who took this seriously.
I gave them everything they needed.
And underneath all of it I was counting.
Fifteen minutes, I thought between setups. If the pattern held he would be at the coffee shop in fifteen minutes.
Lois brought out the next look.
Twelve.
I laughed at something Cherry said at exactly the right moment.
Ten.
By the time Desiree called the afternoon break I had been running the countdown in my head for two hours. My shoulders were already heavy with the tension.
I turned to my manager. "I need coffee."
"I can have someone run out," he said.
"No! " I adjusted my voice immediately . "I need air. I've been in this room for hours and I'm starting to feel it."
He looked around briefly. I watched him think.
"There's actually a cafe about two blocks away," he said. "Morning Dew on Crestline. Supposed to be good."
I let a beat pass. Long enough for it to land like a new idea.
"That sounds perfect," I said....
The first day Ethan did not come.
I sat at the window table with my coffee and watched the door for forty minutes. People came in and left and none of them were him. I finished my cup slowly and ordered a second one I did not want and sat with it until it went lukewarm.
Nothing.
I walked back to the studio with my hands in my coat pockets.
Fine. The shoot was two days. Saturday was still available and Saturday was the day the photograph had been posted. I had simply miscalculated which Saturday habit was stronger, the morning or the afternoon.
Tomorrow I would sit down earlier.
That night I checked his V-Gram. No new posts. His streaming platform profile had been active around midnight the way it usually was.
I set my alarm and went to sleep.
The second day moved faster.
Lois had fewer looks, Manelo ran a tighter ship and by mid afternoon we were ahead of Desiree's original schedule. Cherry kept saying the word incredible every time a clip played back on her screen and Desiree had the particular glow of someone whose gamble was paying off.
I was counting again.
Fifteen minutes.
I smiled through a wardrobe change.
Ten.
When Manelo called the final break I turned to my manager before he could speak.
"Coffee," I said.
"Morning Dew?" he said.
"Morning Dew."
I pushed the door open and the bell rang above me.
Warm inside. The smell of fresh grounds and something baked underneath it all. I went to the counter, ordered and found the window table. His table, based on the angle of the photograph. I sat down and wrapped both hands around my cup.
I did not watch the door.
Watching the door looked like waiting and this was not waiting. This was a person having coffee after a long two day shoot in a cafe her manager had recommended and that was the full extent of it.
Seven minutes passed.
The bell above the door rang.
I heard him order at the counter. His voice easy and familiar with Sol the way people get with places they have been coming to for a long time .
Then his footsteps stopped behind me.
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't know anyone was sitting here."
I looked up.
Something settled in my chest. Quiet and specific.
Mission accomplished, I thought.
And then I smiled at the corner of my lips .
"Ethan," I said....