Chapter Text
"I'm Sebastian."
The voice is slow and just a hint raspy.
Chris looks up. Blue eyes meet his.
A shy smile appears on the stranger's face.
"I never meant to come off rude."
His smile turns apologetic.
Chris isn't sure but his jaw might have dropped just now.
These wonderful eyes peering from above those sharp cheekbones make him almost dizzy now that they finally meet his.
He stares a little too long at Sebastian whose smile becomes unsteady and turns into something between curious and insecure now that there is no reaction to his words.
"Oh," Chris finally notices his staring and shifts his body forward a little "I'm Chris."
Sebastian's lips curl up just a hint and Chris wouldn't have noticed the change on his face if he had not memorized so much of it by now.
"Yeah, I know."
"What?"
"Your name. You told me the other day."
Apparently Chris looks even more confused because Sebastian adds a shy smile and looks at his hands.
"Shortly before you ran off and disappeared for weeks."
He smiles and looks at Chris, his eyes glistening like the stormy sea from under his long lashes.
Chris feels a kick in his gut.
"Oh." Is all he can say.
Neither of them says a word for two stops.
Chris looks out of the window and at the people on the train without seeing them. All he can see is Sebastian doing the same when his eyes wander over Sebastian's face.
Two or three times their eyes meet but both look away immediately, shy smiles dragging at the corners of their mouths.
Chris hears Hayley in his head.
"You're sitting right in front of him and he's been bloody adorable, you idiot."
He tries to ignore her, or himself, but her voice just grows more and more amused and the British accent even thicker.
All of a sudden he feels his facial muscles sting. He focuses again and finds himself grinning in the general direction of Sebastian's face who is grinning back.
"So..." Chris begins but before he can continue he has forgotten how words work. The man sitting opposite of his has eyes too distracting to keep his mind working properly.
Sebastian leans in, just a little, "so?" he asks.
'Oh dammit!' Chris thinks 'there's not much to lose'.
"So" Chris begins again "what are you doing around lunchtime today?"
Sebastian's mouth quirks up only on one end, he leans even closer. His forearms rest on his knees and he smiles at Chris.
"Whose lunchtime?"
Chris wants to die immediately. He imagines the floor to give in and consume him whole but nothing happens.
"Oh, right" is all he can manage to reply before being silent a few moments.
Sebastian is watching him the half-smile remaining on his face.
"I didn't think. I'm sorry." Chris apologises but Sebastian leans back in his seat and smiles even more.
"Nah, it's alright man. I'm working but you're welcome to come by. Judy misses you."
The ground still fails to open up and swallow him whole.
Chris has been nervous since he left the train and parted ways with Sebastian. By the time he arrives at the coffee shop, he is shaking properly.
When Reena sees him, she looks rather concerned but doesn’t say anything.
Chris hurries to get started hoping he will distract his minds from what happened. Sure enough, he doesn’t succeed. His mind keeps replaying the most embarrassing parts. He feels like he is the punchline of a bad comedy when his lack of attention earns him hot spilled milk on his apron. Emily, his co-worker who started the first week of December looks at him with amusement in her eyes but hands him a cloth anyway.
She is nice but at first Chris had a feeling she might be crushing on him. Until she realized her shy smile and somewhat awkward social behavior wasn’t targeted exclusively at him.
Lunchtime comes what feels like a millennium after his shift began and Chris takes his time finishing up before leaving.
He feels like back when he was 13 and he had his first date that wasn’t even a date because he did not have a crush on this girl who was super sweet but simply a good friend. He was so nervous back then, he almost threw up when his mom picked her up and drove them to the mall. They remained good friends even after graduation when she moved to the other end of the country although they haven’t seen each other in a year or two.
Of course Judy’s looks the same as it did last time he ate there; Except for the Christmas lights on the walls and glistening snowflakes hanging from the ceiling.
Chris feels a home immediately and the warmth of the place and in the smile on Judy’s face when she sees him embrace him and melt the cold in his hands.
“Chris, my boy” Judy approaches him with open arms and hugs him tight.
There is no trace of a grudge or anything like that in her voice, yet Chris feels bad for abandoning her like that. In fact it wouldn’t have crossed his mind in a thousand years that Judy might miss him as he is convinced she is like that to every regular customer.
“Hello, Judy. I’ve missed you.” Chris squeezes her before letting go.
“I missed you, too.” She takes a step back and looks at him. Chris feels his skin burn under her look. He doesn’t like that attention.
Judy seems to notice because she lowers her voice which is too loud per usual.
She grabs his arm instead and walks him to the counter from where Sebastian has been surveying the two of them with a smile on his lips.
“You know,” Judy leans in and whispers to Chris who has to lower his head to hear what she is saying “for some reason, my chef has been all squirrely all day. You’ve met him, right?”
Chris chuckles at that. They reach the counter and Sebastian grins at them.
Chris breath gets caught in his throat. He never thought a person could actually look good wearing a hairnet and an apron but Sebastian sure does.
Judy looks at Chris, then at Sebastian, then back at Chris.
“I see” she says and pats Chris right arm.
Then she turns around and greets a group of people who just entered.
Sebastian looks at Chris and Chris looks back, both look shocked for a second before cracking up.
Chris orders a pumpkin soup with cardamom and cinnamon among the spices, he is a little skeptical at first but Sebastian go the mix just right.
He drags a chair to the side of the counter near the stove where Sebastian is cooking and preparing food, while Chris is eating.
They talk about the weather getting colder and the air being crispy. It’s both their favorite weather; being all wrapped in clothes and warm and cozy but the tip of the nose being just a little too cold.
They talk about Christmas approaching and their plans for it. Sebastian is going to spend it with his mother and Chris remembers that his plans are rather hectic this year.
Before Chris knows what is happening – he is talking casually to the person he’s been rushing on for months now - his break is over and he has to excuse himself.
“If you come by during your break you will get a coffee on the house” he says as he is returning the chair to its table.
“That is a compelling offer, indeed” Sebastian says.
“Bye,” Chris awkwardly waves goodbye and heads for the door.
Chris is back in time for his shift to continue but the place is packed.
He hurries to get started while Emily is rotating.
The two cashiers, Daniel and Linda, look sweaty and worn out although their shift had just started when Chris had left for lunch.
“I still don’t get the system that dictates when how many people are scheduled to work here.” Emily says when Chris appears next to her.
Her long dark blonde hair looks messed up and red marks paint her neck.
Chris turns around to the coffee machine and prepares a new order while Emily announces the latest order finished.
“One… Soy Latte. Pumpkin Spice. With whipped cream!?” Chris hears a booming voice.
“Who the hells orders soymilk and still takes whipped cream!? Don’t you know that there is lactose in the cream?” Mackie looks at the cup in his hands “Oh, it’s Timmy. Goddammit, Timmy!”
A skinny, tall dude with fake-glasses and messy hair appears taking the cup from Mackie’s hands who looks at him in wonder.
“I’m half-vegan.” The dude announces, his voice lowered though.
Chris turns around and looks at Mackie who is looking at Emily who is looking at Chris. They crack up.
“Nah you’re just a pretentious dumbass.” Mackie says so that only Chris and Emily can hear him.
Timmy has already left. A group of friends nearby are giggling while looking past him.
“Mackie! Don’t upset our customer, don’t you have to work somewhere?” Chris chuckles.
Mackie just shrugs.
Chris prepares orders with soy milk and almond milk and Emily and Mackie announce them. They belong to the still giggling group of friends.
The next order is with cow milk.
Mackie announces it as “Whole milk latte. Cinnamon. No whipped cream. Who is the traitor?” he looks at the cup. “Sina? Seriously Daniel, you need to work on your handwriting!”
A girl from the group comes forward grinning at Mackie.
“At least you got the cinnamon right.” He winks at her; she raises one eyebrow, takes the cup from him and returns to her friends. The group leaves.
It takes half an hour and the place is still packed but now with people enjoying their coffee and only three people queueing up to place an order.
Emily leaves for her break and Mackie sits on the tiny wall that holds the tiny door to the counter barista area.
“Soooo…” Mackie stresses the ‘o’ “You gonna tell me why you’re smiling like an idiot, or do I have to find out myself?” he asks.
Chris had not even noticed he was smiling that hard, but now that Mackie mentioned it his facial muscles stat to hurt.
He turns to Mackie to answer when someone shouts “Mackattack!” from behind Chris.
Chris turns around.
“Sexy Seabas!” Mackie is shouting back before Chris’ mind has time to sort the voice to a face and the face to a person.
Sebastian walks up to them and hugs Mackie in greeting.
“Hey Chris,” Sebastian greets Chris and sits next to Mackie on the tiny wall. Not before pushing him to the side to make room for him, though.
Chris takes a second to recover and bring his jaw back up to where it belongs.
“Hi.” He says while looking from Mackie at Sebastian, at Mackie and back at Sebastian.
“You know each other?”
“Yeah, Mackie helped me out when I moved here and we’ve been best friends ever since. Ain’t that right, Chococcino?”
“Damn right, Vanilla Ice.” Mackie replies and shoves Sebastian to the side.
Meanwhile Chris has gone back to serving an order.
“When did you move here?” he asks. “Iced Coffee, whole milk, extra ice!?” He announces.
“A year ago, but I worked as a substitute teacher until September.” Sebastian says and grabs the Ice Coffee.
Chris makes a mental note.
He notices Mackie’s eyes on him. He looks at his friend and raises an eyebrow in a silent question.
Mackie smiles, his lips pointed and the left corner of his mouth pursed. He raises his left eyebrow.
It’s the face he makes when he picked up on something and is amused about it.
Sebastian is completely oblivious to the silent interaction between the other two and sips his iced coffee.
Chris rolls his eyes and looks at Sebastian.
“I assume you’ll be at Mackie’s Christmas party, then?”
Sebastian looks up as if he had completely forgotten about his company.
“Yeah,” he smiles and his whole face lights up.
Mackie leans back a little and deepens his expression even more.
Chris ignores him, Sebastian either does too or doesn’t notice him. He grins at Chris, his blue eyes sparkling.
A new order comes in and Chris goes back to work.
“So, you’ll go to your mom’s place afterwards?” he carries on the conversation while heating milk.
“Yeah, the 24th will be busy, but when isn’t it.” Sebastian is still beaming in Chris’ direction. Mackie is typing on his phone.
The phone in Chris’ back pocket vibrates.
Chris announces the finished order and while it’s being picked up he checks his phone. Sure enough there is a textmessage from Mackie.
“There’s something you’re not telling me?” it reads.
Chris pockets his phone and shakes his head with a shy smile on his face.
“Your girlfriend?” Sebastian asks. His voice flat.
Chris eyes widen, that question caught him off-guard.
“No. No, no. no.” he says and shakes his head. “I don’t have a girlfriend, no.”
Sebastian smiles at him while Mackie cracks up behind him.
“One ‘no’ would have sufficed, you know?” he chuckles.
Chris blushes.
Mackie wheezes.
He smacks Sebastian’s shoulder.
“I have a feeling that Chris doesn’t have a girlfriend, what do you think, Seb?”
“I hate you,” Chris whispers under his breath and turns back to the coffee machine.
“Yeah, I don’t know why but I don’t think he has a girlfriend, either.” Sebastian chuckles back.
“Haha,” Chris laughs his driest laugh.
He announces a beverage.
“So, Sebastian, you said you worked as a substitute teacher before you started at Judy’s?”
“I did.”
“He did.” Mackie says.
“Thanks Mackie.” Chris points his tongue at his friend who flips him off.
“What did you teach?”
“Oh, you know,” Sebastian stretches his back “Drama.”
“Drama?”
“Yeah, the original teacher broke their leg when they fell from the stage during rehearsals. Then they went to rehab.”
“They went to rehab? Was the leg hurt that badly?” Mackie asks.
“Not really,” Sebastian chuckles. “But they fell because they were pissed like the Irish on St. Paddys Day.”
Mackie’s booming laugh fills the room.
-
Twenty minutes later, Sebastian has to leave for work leaving Mackie and Chris to themselves.
Chris, preparing an almond-milk latte with caramel syrup, no whipped cream, pretends not to notice Mackie looking at him with a silent smirk on his face.
“How come you’re unusually silent all of a sudden ‘Mackattack’?”
Mackie chuckles.
“Oh, I should have known.”
“Should have known what?” Chris decides to play it down.
“Oh come on! Cut the shit!” Mackie is back to his loud self.
Chris shrugs and puts on his most innocent oblivious face.
“You stopped spending your breaks at Judy’s all of a sudden, which I noticed because you spent a lot time at my place.” Yes, Mackie refers to his theatre as ‘his place’.
Chris, preparing a chai latte, ignores him.
“You know, Sebastian is single.” Mackie says.
“Happily, I hope.” Chris replies.
“Oh, that you will have to ask himself.” Mackie says and jumps from the wall. “See you later, bro.” And out he is.
Chris sighs.
“What was that about?”
Chris jerks around. Emily is standing behind him. Of course her break is over by now.
“Oh,” Chris rubs the back of his neck. “Mackie, has been dropping hints. I don’t know about what, though.”
Lie.
Emily raises an eyebrow.
“Did he just say that Sebastian guy is single?”
“Um, yeah, why?”
“Isn’t that the cook at Judy’s?”
“Yeah.” Chris says and hopes she doesn’t notice his blush.
“He’s cute.” She says. Just a statement no emotion applied.
“Yeah.”
He looks at Emily in terror. That just slipped.
Emily smiles.
“I knew it.” She grabs the disposable cup Daniel hands her.
“Oh, you know something, Mackie knows something. How come I don’t know what you know?” Chris feels annoyance awake inside of him.
“Oh,” Emily winks at him. “Everybody you know, knows.”