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Isak didn’t exactly hate working at the coffee shop, but he didn’t enjoy it much either. Especially during the Christmas season, when everyone was coming in for warm drinks while out on shopping trips. It was absolute chaos and two 1999ers could not be expected to manage it by themselves. There were no other evening workers since Julian quit after the Pumpkin Spice Latte rush, so it was just Isak and Vilde every single night. It was stressful at times but at least Isak didn’t have to ask his dad for rent money anymore.
One snowy Monday evening, Vilde walked in and she was wearing a fucking flower crown. It was -15 degrees Celsius and the girl had opted for a flower crown rather than a hat.
“I don’t think that this is the standard uniform, Vilde,” Isak remarked as she took off her jacket and threw on an apron.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s called style, Isak. Plus, have you seen our manager since you were hired. I know for a fact that the answer is no because he only gives himself the good shifts.”
Isak nodded. “That’s fair enough, I guess. How’s Lacy doing?”
“She’s doing pretty good. It’s hard to get her to take her medication, but, I mean, what cat wants a pill up their-”
The cafe’s bell rang and they both turned to look at the door as a man and a woman walked inside. Vilde’s face immediately lit up. “Hi Eva!” she exclaimed.
Eva gave a little wave back before she sat down at a table. The guy that had walked in with her walked up to the counter. Vilde must have realized that he was ordering for her and, therefore, they were probably on a date, because she walked to the back room, muttering something about getting more milk.
“Hi,” the guy greeted in a deep voice. He was pretty attractive, if Isak was going to be quite honest. The guy was tall and slim, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
“Hello. Welcome to Kaffebrenneriet. What can I get for you today?” Isak recited, just as he did to every customer.
“Eva said that she wants her usual and that you guys know what that means,” he replied.
Isak nodded. “And anything for you?”
He smiled. “I’d like a small peppermint mocha please.”
Isak nodded in response. “Good choice. Honestly, peppermint mochas are my favorite seasonal drink.”
“Right?!” he exclaimed. “A lot of people don’t really like it and I just don’t understand. Chocolate and mint just go together. It’s like drinking two treats at once. And with coffee on top of that? It’s perfect.”
“Huh, I didn’t realize that there were a lot of people that didn’t like it. I’m glad that we’re on the same page, though,” Isak replied with a wink, even though he had no business flirting with Eva’s new man. “Your total comes out to be 76.12 kroner.”
The guy handed him some money and Isak quickly returned his change. “Can I get a name for the order?” he asked, even though he could have just put Eva’s name.
The boy smiled. “It’s Even.”
Vilde ended up making their coffee and bringing it to them because more customers showed up that he had to serve.
For some reason, Isak wasn’t able to get Even out of his head for days.
Both of them came back together the following Thursday and, once again, Vilde seemed jealous about her friend’s new boyfriend. Isak couldn’t blame her. He was a bit jealous himself.
Again. Even was the one to order the coffee. It made sense. After all, he was the one paying for it. He ordered the same thing as the time before and then sat down across from Eva.
This time, Isak was the one to bring them their coffee, as Vilde was helping another customer.
“Hi, guys. For Eva, I have a medium chai latte, as usual. And for Even I have a small peppermint mocha.” He set down their drinks in front of them.
“Thank you,” Even replied with a smile.
“Oh, Isak. Do you have a minute?” Eva asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, it isn’t that busy right now. Just make it quick.”
“Well, I was just telling Even about how you’re looking at going into engineering but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what type you wanted to study,” she explained.
He had no idea why they were talking about him but he still answered. “I’m probably going to study electrical engineering.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Even said with a nod.
Eva glared at him for some reason before turning back to Isak and smiling. She was weird sometimes, but she was also one of his best friends. “I hear that the University of Oslo has a pretty good electrical engineering program. Did you know that Even goes there?”
He looked over at Even. “You go to UiO?” Isak had assumed that he was a third year, just like him and Eva were.
The other boy nodded. “Yeah, I’m studying film there.”
“Huh,” Isak replied. “Recently I’ve been looking at going to NTNU, but maybe I’ll look into UiO as well.”
“Well, let me know if you’d ever like a tour,” Even offered as he picked up a pen and wrote something down on a napkin. He pushed it toward Isak. It was his phone number.
Isak picked it up with a smile. “I’ll let you know.”
Even came in nearly every evening and every single time, he ordered a peppermint mocha. On top of that, they had been texting a lot. Isak thought it was cool that Eva’s boyfriend was making an effort to socialize with her friends, but he may have started building up a small crush on the taller boy.
He was content with keeping it to himself, but Vilde rudely called him out on it one Sunday evening.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked. They were sitting together on her couch watching Parks & Rec on Netflix. Her orange tabby cat, Lacy, sat on her lap.
Isak crinkled his eyebrows. “Vilde, if I had a boyfriend, you would be the first person to know. Not because I’d tell you first, but because you’re that nosey.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, but then who have you been texting nonstop all week? I feel like I catch you grinning at your phone every five minutes.”
“I don’t do that!” Isak lied, knowing full well that she was right.
Vilde crossed her arms gave him the I-see-through-your-bullshit glare.
“I’ve been texting Even,” Isak admitted. “So there’s no need to worry about it. He has Eva.”
Vilde looked down at the cat on her lap. “Well, you’ll always have me and Lacy.”
Isak set his hand on her shoulder. “One day, Vilde. One day you’ll meet a girl and she’ll be the love of your life and, suddenly, Eva won’t matter anymore.”
Vilde smiled half-heartedly. “But she matters now.”
Isak’s manager did not seem really happy that he had requested Jonas’ birthday off, as it was during peak shopping season, but he ended up agreeing to it because Isak was a hard worker who rarely took off.
So, Isak enjoyed spending his Wednesday off with his best friend on the planet on the day that he was brought into the world, even if the only things that they did that afternoon were eat kebab and play FIFA. It was a nice change of scenery and he was able to get his mind off of Even, as he was unable to see him at the coffee shop that day.
When he did go back into work the next day, feeling refreshed, Vilde immediately sprinted up to him. “Oh my god, Isak. Something super weird happened while you were gone yesterday.”
Isak, still slightly hungover, muttered “What happened?” as he put his apron on.
“Even came in.”
“He comes in everyday, Vilde<” Isak pointed out.
“You didn’t let me finish,” she replied crossing her arms. “He came in and he ordered a large americano with sugar and no cream.”
“And? Maybe he’s getting sick of drinking the same thing everyday. Plus, maybe he just needed something with a higher caffeine content,” he reasoned,
She shook her head. “It can’t be a coincidence that you’re gone for one day and he orders something different. Maybe you make him nervous and he ends up ordering the same thing.”
Isak snorted. “Even is not the type of guy that gets nervous. Plus, he’s dating Eva anyway.”
Vilde raised her eyebrows. “Even and Eva aren’t dating, Isak. Turns out they never were. He’s good friends with Sana’s brother, so he’s been tutoring Eva in Norwegian. I thought you knew.”
“How did you find that out?” he asked, feeling astonished. But, then again, the girl was pretty nosey.
` “I made out with Eva again last Saturday,” she said nonchalantly, like it wasn’t something that she should share with her coworker that is also one of her closest friends.
“And?” he asked, desperate for more information. “Please elaborate. This is gay-lesbian solidarity and you cannot deprive me of this knowledge.”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” Vilde replied.
“You already told me about the kiss,” Isak pointed out.
“We may have headed back to her place,” she explained with a blush.
Isak’s jaw dropped. He smacked her with a towel. “You dirty little-”
He was interrupted by the jingling of the door. Even walked in. Alone this time. He supposed that Eva had already gotten what she wanted.
“Hi,” Isak said leaning over the counter. God, he looked desperate. But, now, there wasn’t anything to hold him back.
“Hey, I missed you yesterday. I cried into my mocha,” Even replied.
He tapped his chin. “That’s really interesting then because Vilde told me that you ordered something else.”
“Fuck,” Even said, eyes widening.
“Let’s take this outside,” Isak suggested. “Vilde has me covered.”
He threw on his jacket and headed outside with Even and decided to ignore Vilde flipping him off in the cafe.
“I’m sorry,” Even apologized. “I shouldn’t have lied to you.”
Isak laughed. “I don’t actually care that you got something other than your normal drink. I just wanted to talk to you one on one.”
“I just don’t like them. Peppermint mochas that is. I mean, let’s be honest here, I could taste the same flavor by just brushing my teeth. But Eva said they were your favorite and I wanted to have something to talk to you about. Isak, I was so fucking nervous,” he admitted.
“You drank something you hated for weeks just to talk to me?” Isak asked incredulously.
Even shrugged. “I don’t know why I kept doing it, since it obviously didn’t work. I’m sorry that I didn’t back off even when I could tell that things were going nowhere.”
“It didn’t work because I’m an idiot. I thought you were dating Eva,” he explained.
“You thought I was dating Eva?” Even’s eyebrows shot up. “Isn’t Vilde her girlfriend?”
“I don’t really know anymore,” Isak confessed. “They’ve confused me for a long time.”
They stood there silently for a moment, not looking one another in the eyes. Isak wished that he hadn’t been such an idiot and had jumped onto Even sooner.
“It’s kind of romantic,” he admitted. “That you pretended to like drinking peppermint mochas just for me. I haven’t had a guy care about me that much before.”
“That’s a shame, then. You’re an amazing person,” Even replied, placing a hand on Isak’s waist. “I’m surprised that another guy hasn’t snatched you up yet.”
Isak gazed into his bright blue eyes. “Right now the only guy that I care about is you, Even.”
Then, Even pressed his slightly chapped lips onto Isak’s. He opened his mouth to let him in and they stood there, in front of the cafe, making out. It didn’t matter who saw. It didn’t matter that it was snowing. Isak and Even were together now, and that was the only thing that really mattered in Oslo that night.
“Ahem,” a feminine voice said and Isak and Even backed away from one another.
“I appreciate that you finally got your shit together, but you’re on the clock, Isak,” Vilde said with her arms crossed.
“I’ll be inside in like a minute,” Isak scowled. She rolled her eyes and strutted back into the cafe. He turned to Even. “I have to get back to work.”
The taller boy nodded. “I’ll see you soon, though. I think you owe me a drink that isn’t a disgusting mint flavored coffee.”
Isak rolled his eyes. “I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”
Even swung their joined hands back and forth. “But seriously, we should go on a date.”
“I’d love to” he replied.
“I’ll text you,” Even promised.
“You’d better,” Isak said. “After all, you never showed me UiO. I’m very interested to see what the student housing options are. Specifically the bedrooms.”
Even laughed and gave him a small peck on the lips. They didn’t need anymore peppermint mochas. Not when they had each other to keep them warm.