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If Thomas was being honest, he'd never noticed the small coffee shop until the day he was running late for a lecture. As any other day, he stopped by Starbucks to get a cup of coffee before making his way to campus, but that morning he didn't have time to brave the long line. Still looking to get his daily caffeine fix, he turned to Google and found a place just a block away. The web page looked ancient, just a single ivy green page with the address, opening hours and the name The Coffee Glade. To be frank, Thomas wouldn't have been surprised if the place had closed down years ago, and this was just an old relic left to be forgotten. But since it was either this or going without a cup, he figured it was worth a shot.
The walk didn't take more than five minutes, but it was still surprisingly difficult to even spot the shop. Only after having passed by the entrance twice did Thomas realize that the narrow door was the correct one, and that was only because he finally saw a small printed sign in the window declaring that it was indeed The Coffee Glade.
A bell above the door dinged when he stepped into the dimly lit room. It really was small, just three tables and the counter in one corner. It was also completely empty, not even a barista was present.
"Hello?" Thomas called.
"One moment!" A voice replied from an adjacent room behind the counter and a few seconds later a blond man emerged. He smiled, but it didn't quite reach the eyes that just kept looking exhausted. "What'cha want?"
"Uh, a vanilla latte to go?" It came out as a question, because Thomas had no idea if they even served that here. But surely it was a common choice?
The man nodded once. "Coming right up."
Thomas headed to pull out a chair and sat while he waited, and observed the barista while he worked. The guy seemed efficient, and maneuvered around the making of the drink with the familiar ease of one who had done so for years. It was fascinating, in a way, because despite his tired look there seemed to be a genuine enjoyment in what he did as he poured the different components and swirled some design on top. It was almost like some sort of dance.
Soon though the performance ended and a paper mug was placed on the table in front of Thomas. He looked up from the drink and met the barista's brown eyes.
"Thanks.", He said, and reached for the mug. Taking a careful sip so not to burn his tongue, he tried it out. It was... exquisite. The coffee had a pleasant rounded flavor, and the vanilla was a top note that, together with something else that Thomas couldn't quite identify, gave a complex twist to a classic drink.
"This is amazing!" He said, looking over at the man who once again was behind the counter. "You really know your coffee."
The barista looked up, and this time his smile was a real one. "Thank you. I use a bit of maple syrup, and my own vanilla extract made of Madagascar vanilla. It gives it a more unique flavor, I think." He stopped, and suddenly looked a bit sheepish. "Uh, sorry, I can get a bit carried away with this sometimes."
Thomas shook his head. "No, not at all, it's cool. That you do your own thing, y'know?" He was about to ask something further, but a buzzing from his phone reminded him that he was now even later to class than before. "Shit! Gotta leave, running late!" And with that, he was out the door.
¤¤¤
He wasn't late this time, but the next morning Thomas still decided to get his coffee from The Coffee Glade. The walk there was short and well worth it for the taste of their vanilla latte. An older woman was on her way out just as Thomas entered, and the barista was out wiping off a table, but other than that the shop was completely devoid of people. The barista looked up at Thomas.
"Oh, hi, it's you again", He said, greeting Thomas with a nod. Again a smile played on his lips, but today Thomas was granted a genuine one right away, warm and welcoming. "Another latte? Vanilla, right?"
"Hi. Uh, yeah. A latte. Vanilla. A vanilla latte." Somehow Thomas felt awkward. Maybe it was because of that smile. And because of the low chuckle he got after stumbling over his words.
After paying, he sat down to wait. Once again he watched the barista prepare his drink. It was fascinating, the simple movements made graceful. All too soon the coffee was done and the mug was placed in front of him.
"Here you go, your latte-vanilla-vanilla-latte," The barista said with a smirk.
Thomas could feel his face heat up. "Yeah, uh, that, I mean... thanks." Never before had he wished so much to sink through the ground. His continued fumbling earned him a laugh though, so maybe it wasn't all bad. Seeing the hazel brown eyes light up with humor instead of the fatigue they'd held the previous day was nice. Thomas almost said something else stupid just to get him to laugh more, but decided against it. No use in deliberately humiliating himself.
"Are you always this eloquent, or am I just special?"
Thomas returned the smile, trying to find his footing in the conversation again. "Well, I'm usually better than this," He said in a joking tone. "Let me start over. Hi. I'm Thomas."
"Thomas." The barista said it slowly, as if he was trying it out. "I'm Newt. Nice to meet you."
Newt. An unusual name. Thomas wondered if that was his real name or if it was a nickname. It did suit him though. "Likewise."
"So, you go to school here? Are you new in town?" Newt asked.
Thomas shrugged. "Sorta new. I've been here a year. I study hotel management. But I live off-campus, so I usually stop by Starbucks on my way to lectures, but then I was late yesterday and there was a line and-" Damn, he was rambling again. "-and I found this place." He finished.
"And you chose to come back here instead of going to Starbucks. I'm flattered. Or was there a line again?" Newt said it in a joking manner, but Thomas could still hear that there was a slightly sour note when Starbucks was mentioned.
"No," Thomas emphatically shook his head. "But I like your coffee better."
Newt looked startled for a second before he evaded his eyes, but Thomas still saw the slight smile and the pink tint to his cheeks. It was as if he rarely received compliments for his work. "Thank you," Newt said, one hand going up to tug at a strand of his hair. "I, um, I should probably get back to work. Enjoy your latte." Then he moved behind the counter and disappeared into the back room.
¤¤¤
Thomas had been visiting The Coffee Glade for two weeks when he finally asked Newt about the lack of other customers.
Newt gave Thomas his coffee - a mocha this time, on Newt's recommendation, with a rich chocolate flavor that mixed perfectly with the medium roast coffee. "Well, if that isn't the heart of the matter," He sighed and pulled out the chair opposite Thomas. "Things aren't going too well on that end, as you can tell."
"What happened?" Thomas asked. He had gotten better at talking to Newt like a normal person, but he had also started noticing more and more things about Newt that enticed him. Small gestures that added to his charm, like the way he rubbed at the side of his neck now, or how he couldn't seem to help picking at the frayed hole in his apron, constantly making it bigger until Thomas was sure he'd have to get a new one altogether. And there were the smiles he always greeted Thomas with, and that he each day had taken more time off his work to chat, increasing their conversations from short awkward ones to a decent length.
Newt sighed again. "You sure you wanna hear the whole thing? It's not anything special, and it's kind of a drab one at that."
"It's obviously something that's troubling you, so I doubt it's as unimportant as you make it sound." Thomas reasoned. "I want to hear it. If you want to talk about it, of course."
Newt shrugged. "It really isn't that interesting. But okay, I don't mind telling ya." He said. "See, this coffee shop used to belong to my uncle. I loved being here when I was a kid, I loved the place and the atmosphere. And I loved the coffee. The making, not the taste, back then. I learned that when I got older.
"I bought this place from him three years ago. My uncle was quite old, and his health had gotten poor so he couldn't really handle the work any more. He sold it to me for way less than it was worth, he would have given it to me if I had asked, but I knew he needed the money, so I had worked and saved up to afford it. It took longer than expected, and meanwhile the shop was left alone to dust.
"When it was mine I had a decent start, some of the old customers were willing to give me a chance, but it never really got the crowd I had hoped for. And when Starbucks opened up just around the corner, people opted to go there instead." Newt rolled his eyes. "Can't say I blame them. My passion is coffee, I don't know the first thing about the business side of things, making people notice this place and wanna come here and the like."
Thomas took a moment to think over what Newt had said. "That's... that is really too bad. I think your coffee is worth coming here."
Newt smiled a little. "Thanks. I'm happy at least you think that. Unfortunately it isn't enough to keep this place running. I have bills that need to be paid, and if I can't, well..."
"You'll have to close up?" Thomas guessed. "For how much longer can you keep it going?"
There was silence for a moment before Newt replied. "A month, maybe two."
"And what if you could get people to come here again?"
"Tommy, I can't just magic up some customers that'll miraculously save my business," Newt scoffed.
But Thomas' mind was already formulating an idea, and while Newt might have already accepted the end of his shop as inevitable, Thomas wasn't yet willing to give up on his new friend.
¤¤¤
"Where are we going, Tom?" Teresa asked as Thomas led her and Minho through the streets towards The Coffee Glade. Teresa was one of his oldest friends, his sister almost, who had ended up going to the same college as him. There they had met Minho, who had introduced them both to his group of friends.
"Come on, T, I'll even buy your coffee for you. Trust me, it's great!"
"I don't know about that..." Teresa sounded doubtful as she saw the dingy shop they were heading towards.
"Pleeease," Thomas pleaded.
Minho looked up from his phone. "Oh, no, not the puppy eyes. Teresa, don't fall for that trick again!"
But Teresa had already given in, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "Yeah, okay, but I still don't get why we couldn't just grab our coffees at the cafeteria as usual."
Thomas let out a "Yesss!" and Minho groaned that "This better be amazing." as they pushed open the door to the shop.
Newt looked up at the newcomers, smiling as he saw Thomas. "Tommy! You're usually not here this time of day, what... oh!" He said as he saw the company that Thomas brought with him. "Uh, what do you guys want?"
Thomas did end up buying all three drinks, two mocha and one black, and waited expectantly while his friends tried it out.
"This... is actually pretty good," Minho admitted.
Teresa agreed. "It is great!" She said. "How did you find out about this place?"
"Eh, Google, but hey-" Thomas waved to Newt to come over. "This is Newt, he owns the place. Newt, this is Teresa and Minho." After they had greeted each other, Thomas steamrolled on. "So, T, look at this." He shoved his phone towards her, opened on the barebones website for The Coffee Glade.
"What do you want me to see?" Teresa looked confused. "It's an old website. For... this place?"
Thomas nodded. "Exactly. You see, if this place can't get a steady stream of customers, Newt will have to close up. So I had this idea to help prevent that."
"Tommy, you really don't have to-"
"AND!" Thomas interrupted, "One of the first things I think could improve is this. You could do a proper logo, right, T? And make the webpage look like it's actually from this decade?"
Teresa sighed. "Tom, I do design, not web design. I mean, the logo wouldn't be a problem, but the site? Well, I suppose I could ask Rachel for that since she has her own site for her web series..." She trailed off. Just like Thomas, once she had been presented with a problem her mind raced ahead thinking of any way to fix it.
Thomas grinned. "Yeah! See? I knew you could figure it out!"
"But," Teresa turned to Newt, who had sat quiet trying to understand what Thomas was trying to accomplish. "I'll do it only if it's okay with Newt to meddle with his business."
Newt shrugged. "Go ahead. I don't understand the first thing about web pages, and whatever you do with it and whatever Tommy here has planned can't possibly make things any worse."
"Awesome!" Thomas rubbed his hands together. "So, what I think, is that you will need to appeal to the college students. Trust me, if they find a place to their taste that is not a corporate business, they will flock here."
"And I suppose you have just the idea of how I do that?" Newt said, lifting one eyebrow. He did have a humorous glint in his eyes though, seemingly willing to go along with any crazy scheme Thomas had cooked up.
"An event!" Thomas said. "We fix the logo, plan an event, print flyers to put up around campus."
Minho put down his now empty cup. "And what role do you expect me to play in all of this?"
Thomas had thought of that too. "You, Ben and Gally would play. We could move around the tables here, and set you guys up in that corner." He pointed out the place.
"It's kinda cramped though," Minho pointed out.
"It'll work! We could maybe even try to find smaller tables and stools and maybe even beanbags to replace these big ones, make more room that way."
Newt cut in. "I doubt I have the budget to replace all of my furniture, Tommy."
Thomas considered that for just a moment. "Okay, we can look second-hand, or move these seats against the walls. Point is, it can be fixed."
"Alright," Minho said, "even if we could get the space, do you really think I could get the guys to agree to play in just any old unknown shack? No offence-" He said directed to Newt. "We usually play, you know, in places with an actual crowd?"
"There will be a crowd!" Thomas insisted. "Pleeease, Min! I'll owe you a favor. Anything you want!"
Minho groaned, leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his temples with his thumb and index finger. Finally, he sighed. "Fine." He said. "I'll talk to them."
¤¤¤
The next two weeks went by in a stressed blur. Teresa had redesigned the logo, and even gone so far as to turn it into a sign to hang above the door. She had recruited Rachel to fix up the website, which now had a fresh design where one could click around to show the shop's history, menu and read about the upcoming event where Minho's band WICKED would play. Flyers were spread around the college, and Thomas had heard a few conversations about it in passing, which kept him motivated.
Thomas had been busy helping Newt prepare everything in the coffee shop. The old tables had been moved outside, after receiving permission that they were actually allowed to have outdoor seating. Thomas had gone to great lengths to track down an assortment of smaller tables, stools, and yes, beanbags, for low costs and insisted to Newt that it was an investment. He had even helped by buying some himself, without telling Newt first, and then insisted Newt take them. The final impression was a mismatched cozy space that could seat maybe 20-25 people.
Newt had asked Thomas more than once why he did this, they hadn't known each other long and Thomas had no obligation to help him. But Thomas insisted he wanted to. He hadn't thought much about the why, but he knew he liked Newt, and seeing him struggle when Thomas knew he could at least try to help didn't sit right with him.
Minho had managed to convince Ben and Gally to play at the coffee shop, with a promise from Newt of free cupcakes and as much coffee as they wanted afterwards. The cupcakes had been Newt's idea to make the event more appealing, and he'd gotten his cousin Brenda to help him out in making them. There were red velvet cupcakes, nutella, strawberry lemonade and even a vegan with coconut cream.
And then, finally, the day was there. WICKED had been there setting up their instruments for an hour, testing everything out, and Thomas had been there most of the day. Now, there were waiting. It was still half an hour to go, and Newt was getting anxious.
"What if no one shows up?" He asked Thomas, biting his lower lip. Thomas wanted to reach out to pull the lip free, but he didn't. He thought Newt would have let him, though. "What if all of this was for nothing?"
"They'll come," Thomas reassured. "Don't worry, people will come."
Newt turned towards Thomas. "Thank you Tommy," He smiled, but this smile was new. It was unsure, almost shy. "For everything. For doing this, for trusting me." He laughed a little, "For choosing me over Starbucks."
Thomas laughed too, the warmth in Newt's eyes causing a tingling sensation in his stomach. "It was nothing."
"It was." Newt said. He reached out and took Thomas' hand in his. His skin was warm, and Thomas felt his face heat up. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Thomas wanted to say something more, asking Newt what it all meant and, maybe, asking him if he wanted to go do something afterwards, or if he could lean closer... But then he decided that this, the smile and the handholding, was good enough. For now. He smiled back. There would be time to ask those things later.
A movement outside the window caught Thomas' attention, and he looked up to see Teresa and Rachel enter, arm in arm. And then, a few minutes later, someone else came in.
And then another person.
And another.
And more.