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"I'll have a –"
"Double tall half-caf breve no foam latte."
"—please," Rafe says, grinning as Danny finishes his drink and sets the cup on the counter in front of him. "One of these days –"
"Rafe, you haven't changed your order since the first day you walked in here," Danny points out, taking the money Rafe holds out and dropping the change into the tip jar without any prompting. "And you've been coming here for three years."
"But I could."
"Oh, sure, you could," Danny replies with a grin that shows off twin dimples. "But you won't."
And as Rafe takes his first sip of liquid perfection, he has to admit (even if just to himself) that Danny is right.
*
"Danny, your boyfriend's here," Evelyn calls out as Rafe walks through the door.
"Why do you do that?" Rafe asked, making a production of looking into the pastry case and ignoring the sounds coming from the back room. "I'm not –"
"Maybe if you'd let someone else make your drink," she says, all sass and smiles, and sets a blueberry crumb muffin on a plate and hands it to him.
"I have!"
Evelyn just gives him a look and another smile, this one far too knowing. Rafe takes a big bite of the muffin to keep from saying anything else.
*
Danny is a master behind the espresso machine, and Rafe could spend all day watching him. And there's been more than one visit where Rafe has sat quietly, drinking latte after latte, just watching for hours as Danny makes drink after drink and flirts with all the customers.
And he does flirt with all of them.
Danny, Rafe learned early on, is an equal opportunity flirter. Which makes it that much harder for Rafe to figure out if he's serious when Danny flirts with him or not.
Evelyn's teasing (along with Red's and Betty's and Dori's) doesn't help matters.
Especially not when she looks at Rafe, rolls her eyes towards Danny, and shakes her head. Rafe's still trying to figure out what that means.
But then Danny brushes his hair back (only to have it flop in his eyes again) and Rafe is distracted.
*
Rafe's engrossed in his book and not watching Danny (for once) when a fresh drink is set on the table in front of him. He looks up to find Evelyn flashing him that knowing smile.
"What –"
"Courtesy of the Maestro back there," she says, and Rafe can see Danny watching him from behind the counter. "He's trying something new."
"Yeah, what's that?"
Evelyn shrugs and turns away. "Don't ask me. It's not my drink."
Rafe watches with suspicion as she swipes a towel along the condiment bar before vanishing into the back. He can feel the weight of Danny's eyes on him as he leans forward to peer into the mug.
The new thing that Danny's trying? Foam art. And even though Rafe doesn't particularly care for foam, there's a layer of it on top of his drink. With a perfect heart traced in it.
Huh.
He looks up and sees the widest, brightest smile he's ever seen on Danny's face. Complete with dimples.
Then Danny winks and turns to take another order.
*
"A heart?" Rafe asks, nose still in his book. "Isn't that a little, I don't know, cheesy?"
The chair across from him is spun around and Danny drops into it and sets his drink on the table. It's coffee, black with a hint of almond wafting from it, and Rafe knows there are three shots of espresso in it. "Did it work?"
"Was it supposed to?" Rafe finally looks up from the book to find Danny watching him with a small smile, dark eyes intent, hair a tousled mop falling across his forehead.
"You have plans tomorrow night?"
"Uh, no," Rafe replies, caught off guard by the blunt question.
"Want to do something together?" Danny asks, one dimple flashing a few seconds before the other one appears.
Rafe loses the thread of the conversation for a few seconds and has to scramble to find it again. "Are you asking me on a date?"
"Hey," Danny says with a shrug, pausing just long enough to take a sip of his coffee, "three years is a long time, man. I got tired of waiting for you to ask."
As it turns out, Rafe didn't have plans. Now he does.
*
"Don't," he says, holding up one hand and giving Evelyn a stern look. "Don't say it."
"Wouldn't dream of it," she says as she hands him a white chocolate cranberry scone. "Danny, your boyfriend's here."
Six weeks ago, Rafe would have bristled over that, frantically shushing Evelyn before the words were even out of her mouth. Six weeks and twelve dates (three before Danny actually kissed him), and all he can do is grin like an idiot over her comment.
And when Danny comes out of the back, eyes lighting up as he sees Rafe, Rafe figures Evelyn can tease all she wants.
After all, she's not the one (finally) going home with Danny tonight.