Chapter Text
The problem with best friends is that they can convince you to do things you don’t want to or things you never thought about. They think they have good ideas and think they know what is best for you and sometimes is true, sometimes we do need a little push from our friends to do the things we are too afraid of.
Which is exactly what happened...
“Come on Yuri you can do this!” Mila said while taking a sip of her red wine.
They have been spending time in his room, it was their tradition, Friday night was wine night for them. Having two jobs was exhausting, so he looked forward to wine night with his best friend.
“ I don't know Mila, the guy doesn't even know who I am” He said while looking at the phone number in his phone.
He had been pining over this boy who came every Wednesday to the cafeteria where they work. Every Wednesday he orders a chai latte, every Wednesday he enters the coffee shop wearing sport clothing, usually those Nike dry fit clothes that fit perfectly to his broad muscles and every Wednesday he smiles at him while saying “ A chai latte please” and he can only stare and take the order, prepare the drink and mentally slaps himself for being an idiot. And every Wednesday he tries to say something else, he wants to talk to him, ask him what kind of sport he does, or if he goes to the gym, ask him about his hobbies, fuck !! or at least ask him about the weather but every Wednesday he fails miserably and he turns fucking mute and nothing else happens.
“ Of course he knows who you are the guy has been at our store for the past few months, you always wear your nametag so at least he knows your name!” She says very matter of factly. As if all customers took the time to actually look at nametags. Most of them only want their morning coffee fix, order, pay and leave, not casual talk no time for small talk, most of their morning customers are usually in a rush heading somewhere.
“ Ok lets for a moment believe that he knows who I am..what am I going to say to him?”
“Hi I’m Yuri, the loser who always takes your order at the coffee shop on Wednesdays, I know we are not friends but I got your number and I would like to go out with you” He sighed and fell down to the floor still looking at the number on his phone.
Mila turned to him from the sofa where she was still sitting and chuckle “ Don't be so dramatic and I wouldn’t use those words you might scare the poor guy” she said while taking a sip of her wine.
“Of course I will scare him!! What kind of creepy person gets your number and calls you when you have never actually cross a word with them!”
Mila turned to look at him only to roll her eyes at him. Yuri could be so dramatic when nervous.
“ He is definitely going to think I am a stalker” Yuri finished while dropping the phone to his side.
And then a thought occur to him and he quickly stood up to look at Mila.
Kneeling in front of her and with murdering eyes he said.
“You never told me how on earth you got Wednesday’s guy number”
It wasn’t a question it was intended to be more of a fact than a question, Mila had just push a piece of paper to him with a phone number while saying. “You owe me, you owe me BIG time” and that was all, he knew the phone number belonged to him. He did not lost time and entered the number to his phone afraid that if left on the piece of paper he might lose it.
At that Mila smiled a full little evil smile “ That’s my dirty little secret Yuri”
Yuri hated when Mila acted like this because he was sure she was not going to say anything else the girl was a tomb when she wanted. He started worrying about the methods she might have used to get his number..flirting? He started panicking, of course Mila was gorgeous, with her red hair, slender body, knocking boobs he was well aware of the looks she got on a daily basis. But Mila wouldn't flirt with the guy only to get a number for him? Would she?
Taking pity on him and because he was sure that his eyes were reflecting panic, true and honest panic.
“Don’t even go there my little Yuri, I did not flirt with the guy he is not my type but I won't deny that he IS handsome”
“Handsome?? The guy is a fucking greek god! He is perfection incarnate” He said and he was being completely honest, the guy was perfection clad in sports wear with golden skin and perfect hair. Brown eyes that could reveal your soul if you stare at them for a long time.
Ok maybe he was a little dramatic but truth is Wednesday guy was gorgeous!.
“Are you sure you did not flirt with him? What if he only gave you his number because he likes YOU!”
Anxiety now taking full control over him, he could totally see Wednesday guy giving his number thinking Mila wanted it, and he will be expecting a call from her, a call from the red haired beauty not from the guy who drooled every time he opened the door of the coffee shop wearing his expensive looking sunglasses, not a call from the guy that wanted to reach out and touch his hair, run his fingers through his undercut just to feel if his hair was as silky as it looks. He covered his face with both hands elbows resting in the sofa.
“ I can’t do it” he finally said.
At this Mila put her hand in his head and started playing with the loose locks of Yuri’s hair. “I thought you liked him” then she gave him a slap in the head “but I guess you are just a coward” .
Mila stood up from the sofa and bent down to pick Yuri’s phone from the floor and started walking to the middle of the room all the time Yuri thinking she was just pouring herself another glass of wine.
“Seriously Yuri I don’t know what would you do without me” she said while typing quickly on the phone.
Yuri finally look up to where she was standing to his surprise still phone in hand. “What are you doing you dumb Mila ?! ” he said panicking.
Eyes opening wide as he continued watching while Mila typed.
Please! Please ! Please ! let her just be checking the time or reading old messages.
“What does it look like I am doing?” she said still typing. “ I am doing YOU my little Yuri a big favor”
That evil smile on her face. He was sure it meant only trouble.
“ Oh my gosh Mila, please tell me you did not send Wednesday guy a text?”
Please, please, please!
“Yuri I will do you another favor, his name is Otabek , O-T-A-B-E-K so you can now start calling him that instead of Wednesday Guy” She said throwing his phone at his direction, Yuri stood up as quickly as he could to catch the damn phone. Iphones were a delicate thing and he did not have the money for his phone to break just because he was in shock by learning his name.
“Otabek?” he said phone in hand.
What kind of name is Otabek?
He is sure is not Russian so he must be a foreigner but his Russian was great. Well not that he knows.. now that he thinks about it he only has crossed very few words to him so he is not even sure he speaks Russian, maybe he just knows the basics to get by and order his latte. Maybe he speaks English ? If he speaks English then it won't be a problem since his English was perfect, even if he doesn’t speak English he could make the effort to communicate with him. If it worked for Victor when he fell in love of his Japanese husband it can work for him..right?.
He was suddenly distracted by a loud chime coming from his phone.
“Oh my god Yuri it must be him” Mila almost shout in excitement.
Yuri took a deep breath, and sat on the sofa, if this was happening he needed to be seated. Feeling nervous he looked at his phone and saw the message notification from “Wednesday Guy” as he had saved it on his phone when Mila shared the phone number. He felt like his hands were burning just by holding the phone. He was too nervous to open the message and he could actually feel his hands sweating.
“What did you send him stupid Baba?”
“Open the message and see for yourself” She said very calmly now sitting right next to Yuri. Handing him a glass of wine. Yuri took this and drank it all in one sip and put the empty glass on the coffee table right in front of them.
With Mila looking over his shoulder he took a deep breath and opened the message.
The first text what was Mila had send him and he was very pleased to read it was nothing embarrassing, well the whole situation was a bit embarrassing but at least the text was decent and nothing to be worried about.
Hi, I’m Yuri from the coffee shop. ;)
Hi Yuri, I was wondering if you would text me anytime soon.
Soon? Ok so now he was confused.
Turning to Mila he said while holding the phone in front of her so she could read “ Ok Baba you need to explain, what does he mean with this?”
Mila smiled. Gosh he was beginning to hate that evil smile.
“Remember the day I covered for you because you had to talk to your teacher? Well it was a Wednesday morning and by the way you still owe me dinner for that!”
Yuri remembered that day, on Wednesdays he has afternoon classes but that particular day he had to go earlier to deliver an assignment and talk to her ballet teacher about an upcoming presentation, Mrs. Lilia had kept him for longer than planned discussing choreography with him and he had to ask Mila to cover for his shift hoping to be in time to see Otabek but of course that by the time he reached the coffee shop it was already noon and Otabek was already gone and he didn’t get the chance to see him that day.
“ He came by and I swear he was looking for you.. You should have seen him he was scanning the shop and like actually trying to see if maybe you were at the back” Mila continued, it was hard for him to believe that Wednesday guy..Otabek.. Was looking for him. He thought the guy did not noticed who took his order.
“ I don’t believe that”
“Let me tell you he actually sat on one of the tables and looked at the door every time it opened so I took pity on the poor guy and went to him and told him: Yuri won't be here until noon”
“You didn’t!” Of course she did!.
Mila was like that.
“Yuri you should have seen his face, the guy was devastated..” now he was sure Mila was being dramatic, Otabek had only two kind of faces. His Serious face and his too serious face. “ maybe not devastated but he was waiting for you” She finished.
He had never seen Otabek drink his coffee at the shop he usually came around 9 am order and go wherever he goes in that outfit. So maybe he was waiting for him..he could only hope, right?. But that did not explain why he was waiting a text from him.
“Somehow I know that is not the end of the story” he said hoping that Mila will finish and explained why Otabek was waiting for his text.
“You are right little Yuri” Mila was now tipsy, the damn girl had like 3 glasses of wine and she was enjoying her story a little bit too much.
“So he stayed there for about 15 min more and left BUT he came back that next Friday same time as usual but of course you do not work over on Fridays so again he stood there looking for you”
------
Friday Morning
Mila was cleaning the countertop and rearranging the muffins for that morning. The rush of the morning had already passed, busy hours were usually from 6 to 9 when people needed to head to work or school. So she was enjoying the little slow time she had while being productive. She was placing a fresh batch of croissants on display when she heard a peculiar voice.
“Good Morning”
She looked up from where she was to see Wednesday guy wearing his usual clothes. He was standing in front of the cash register again looking around the shop, looking for someone.
Looking for Yuri.
She stood up and returned the greeting. “Chai latte?” she asked giving him her best service smile, by now she had memorized the way he drank his coffee, from all the Wednesdays she had been next to Yuri. He only nodded and she went ahead to prepare the drink, she was stealing glances to the guy trying not to look too obvious but it was kind of cute how he kept trying to look at the back of the shop and around and behind him every time someone came in.
“Yuri does not work on Fridays..here you go” she said handing him the drink and receiving the money from him.
The guy blushed a little bit.
“Oh! Thanks ..I guess” he said quickly taking his change back and turning to go.
Mila was looking at his back muscles move while he walked towards the door.
Guys can be helpless she thought while she went to him tap him in the shoulder, the guy turn around to face her.
“Maybe I can have your phone number?” she asked
The guy looked confused and that was when it occurred to her that it might seem like she was flirting with him so she tried again. She waved her hand in front of her and added “Oh no darling I didn’t mean it like that”
“Listen, I can´t give you Yuri’s phone number because he would probably kill me but if you want I mean if you are interested I can pass him yours..only if you are interested”
She knew Yuri had been pining over this boy and now that she knew for sure he was interested why not help them a little bit? Right?
Is not like she is giving away her friend’s personal information, she wouldn’t do that to Yuri even if it was to Wednesday guy but if the guy gave her his number then it will be Yuri’s decision to contact him or not.
The guy stood there for a few seconds as if processing what she was offering. Mila then offered her notepad that she used to take orders and a pen. Wednesday guy took the offered items and wrote in a very neat handwriting:
xxx-xxx-982
He handed everything back to her trying to hide his blushing face, and start reaching to the door.
“Hey..” Mila stopped him again “It might be useful to have your name too” she said smiling.
“Otabek” he simply said and left the shop
Mila was left there watching at the phone number and smiling.
Yuri will be happy.
Very happy.
----
“ And that is how I got his number”
She finished her story and Yuri thanked all the gods it was not as bad as he was thinking.
He needed to process the new information. Otabek was interested in him, right? Mila asked if he was interested and he gave her his phone number so he should not worry about that anymore.
The phone chimed again and he jump at the sudden noise..shit!
Several minutes passed since his last text while he was busy listening to Mila that he forgot to answer back.
I’m glad you texted me.
The next text was as if trying to keep the conversation going.
Yeah me too :D
I haven’t seen you in a while
I have been busy with practice, I do ballet and unfortunately I don't work on Fridays.
Yuri texted back. They continued chatting for several more minutes and Yuri found out Otabek was a professional skater and that Wednesdays were his cheat day and he indulge himself with a chai latte and it was the day he had more free time. It surprised Yuri how easy they were able to talk, interest was evident in both of them. He was so into their conversation that he almost missed when Mila said she had to leave.
Alone in his apartment he sat on his sofa, pulled up his legs, phone in his hands and stared at the open chat. He changed the contact name from “Wednesday Guy” to “Otabek” . He couldn’t fight the smile on his face while looking at the contact name.
“Otabek” he said as if rehearsing the name.
So are you working tomorrow?
Yeah, I have the morning shift
Great, can I drop by to see you?
He couldn't help falling into his sofa giggling like an idiot, reading those words from the guy you have been pinning over the last few months was too exciting that he could feel his heart exploding.
Sure, I will see you tomorrow then.
(Audio received.)
He opened the audio and a “Good night Yuri” was heard from the most gorgeous voice in the world. He had heard Otabek speak several times but it always included the same words: A chai latte, please and thank yous.
And now hearing his name from him was divine!!
“Good night Otabek”
He sent back.
That night he fell asleep dreaming of brown eyes and completely happy about having friends like Mila.
He couldn’t wait for tomorrow to arrive.