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He was late. Of course, he was late. Dan Reynolds's alarm did not go off this morning, and now he was he was paying for it. He practically ran down the street to the Hatchetfield Action News studio. Dan was walking so fast and was so busy organizing the various scripts and articles he was carrying to notice the person he was about to walk into until he walked into him. All of his papers fell on the corner right in front of the studio. He was so close. It was just his luck to run into someone right as he was about to get to his destination.
“Oh my lord, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to, I apologize,” Dan sputtered out as he began to pick up his papers.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. You’re clearly in a rush, here let me help with that,” the stranger said. Dan continued to get his act together without looking up at the man in front of him trying to hand him the rest of his papers. Dan looked up to the stranger who had just helped him out and felt his face ignite. The humble man was gorgeous. He had dark brown, slicked back hair that had a few strands that fell in his face. He wore a leather jacket that suited him so well. His eyes were kind and welcoming. Dan very quickly stood up after staring up at the man for a few more seconds than were socially acceptable.
“Um, thank you! Goodbye!” Just like that Dan ran to the studio.
“Oh, okay, bye?”
~~~
“Why are you so late?” Donna scolded. Sometimes it felt like she treated Dan like he was her little brother. Despite the many dating allegations, Donna acted more like an older sister than a girlfriend, not that Dan would be interested in having a girlfriend.
“My alarm didn’t go off,” he rubbed his temples as he said it.
“No, that’s not the only reason. Dan, are you blushing right now?” Oh dear god. Was it that obvious?
“Uhhh, funny story, anyway I gotta go to makeup and hair, good bye!” Just like that, he ran away again. Wow, running away from two conversations in one day, and it wasn’t even 10 am.
After Dan had been pampered and powdered by the make up team, he joined Donna at the news desk.
“Don’t think you can escape what we were talking about earlier. I’ll find out, you know that.” She gave him a knowing look. There was a reason Donna was so good at her job. She wasn't just a news anchor, she was a reporter. Reporters always found out.
The lights went up, and the cameras started rolling.
“And we are live in 3, 2, 1, and rolling!” a crew member shouted.
“This is the morning Hatchetfield news with Dan and Donna!”
“Good morning Hatchetfield, I’m Dan Reynolds,”
“And I’m Donna Daggit, breaking news…” Dan’s mind started wandering. Donna had to read the next 2 headlines before he introduced the bit before the commercial break. He couldn’t focus. Everytime Dan tried to think about his next line, his mind kept bringing him back to that sweet stranger from earlier in the morning. What was he like? Was he always that nice to strangers? Was he mad at Dan for running away? Dan was jolted out of these spiralling thoughts by Donna gently nudging him.
“It’s your line,” she mouthed.
He very quickly snapped out of it and cleared his throat, “Oh- yes. Right after the break, we’re gonna interview Barry Swift who climbed the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, but he’s gay- I mean he’s gay- excuse me he’s blind-” he stuttered out. Wow how did he go that off script. The Freudian slip of the century. “So we’ll see that coming up…”
Donna was trying very hard not to cackle with joy at this little mess up. “Alright, can’t wait to see that after the break Dan,” she said, clearly attempting to cover for him, but still tease the anchor a little.
“And cut, we are off!”
“Oh we are definitely talking about this later.” She smirked at him like she knew. Donna always knew what was going on with Dan. She just had a sense. In all fairness, Dan had the same thing. It was like a sibling brain wave, they could just tell when something was up with the other. Dan rubbed his temples as Donna snickered at him.
“Slip of the tongue, common mistake, Donna.”
“Sure, Dan, sure it is.”
The rest of the show went swimmingly. They interviewed Barry Swift, and luckily for them, he was in a hurry to get the experience over with. The second everyone was dismissed from set, Dan went to the local coffee shop that happened to be around the corner. Dan Reynolds was a known Beanies regular. The coffee may not be the best, but it was local, and that’s truly all that mattered.
Dan walked into the small downtown coffee shop with a look of exhaustion in his eyes. It wasn’t even 12 yet, and he already looked like he had been hit by a semi truck.
Emma looked up from the empty tip jar sitting on her counter as she heard the little bell of the door ding and a very tired Dan Reynolds walk inside.
“Welcome to Beanies, what can I get for yo- Oh hey Dan. Wow, you look like shit, so the usual?” Her head perked up as she went to write his name on a coffee cop.
Dan nodded, “6 shots of straight espresso into one cup please.”
“The usual it is.” Emma went to the espresso machine and began preparing Dan’s hard day regular. She coined it as the “Cardiac Arrest in a Cup.” Dan sat down at the sidebar and put his head in his hands. “So are you going to tell me what went wrong, or am I going have to pull up the clip and see for myself?”
“You know how Barry Swift finally climbed Mount Everest, even after his injury that temporarily blinded him?”
“Oh yeah Barry. The guy sucks, but it’s been his lifelong goal to climb that damn mountain.”
“I said he was gay.”
Emma’s jaw dropped. “You what?”
“I said he was gay instead of blind.”
“On air?”
“On air.”
Emma laughed so hard but managed to speak through giggles. “Did you know that he was gay?”
Dan’s face fell, even more than before somehow. “Barry’s gay?”
“Oh shit, you didn’t know? Yeah he’s gay. He's been going out with Gary for what? 6 months? Lucky for you, he’s been out for a longer.” Emma laughed and handed him his heart attack in a cup. “Do you know where you got the ‘Gay’ thing from?”
“You’re going to make fun of me, but there was this guy earlier. He was so sweet and pretty and he made me incredibly distracted during the broadcast…” He kind of mumbled as he sipped his straight caffeine.
“Oh was he in the studio?”
“Well, well no. I saw him before going into the studio. He helped me pick my stuff up when I dropped it.”
“...Dan… He wasn’t even there?”
“No…” Dan lowered his head in shame. This was very on brand for him, but it was entirely inconvienent.
“Alright Dan, you know I wouldn’t normally charge you for this because we’re tight, but Nora has really been getting on me about not chargin customers…” She clearly felt guilty. Dan has had a terrible morning and now he has to pay for his crappy concentrated heart attack trigger?
“Actually I can take care of that.” It was another voice. Dan recognized it, but couldn’t place why he knew this man's voice. He lifted his head up to look at the kind sir and saw the pretty chilvarous stranger from earlier that morning.
“Uh, uh, Hi.” Dan’s face was on fire. A brighter red than the Hatchetfield Fire Department fire trucks.
“Oh is this? Oh, OH. Well, you can pay right here for Mr. Reynolds’s order of ‘Cardiac Arrest in a Cup”
“So that’s what’s in the giant mug infront of you?” the man laughed a little as he said it. It was sweet, welcoming, warm.
“That’s just what Emma calls it. It’s actually, um, 6 shots of straight espresso. I know it’s unhealthy, but it’s the only thing strong enough to benefit me at all.” Dan knew that it was bad for him, but it truly was the only thing that could give him any energy. He had always had a very high caffeine intolerance after all.
“Hey, I’m not one to judge. After a long day, I mix a redbull, a white monster, and a swedish fish Ghost. Does it sound gross? Yes. Does it work? Also yes.” He looked Dan up and down and stuck out his hand for a handshake.
“The name’s Bailey” Dan took his hand. It sounds cliche, but when Dan held Bailey’s hand he just felt right. It felt as thought nothing could go wrong in that moment.
“Dan, Dan Reynolds” And so they stood there, just looking into each other’s eyes, continueing to shake hands for a definitely not socially acceptable amount of time.
Dan realized how long they had been holding hands for, and very quickly and abruptly broke contact.
“Um, do you want to sit down?” Dan gestured to the seat next to him.
“Oh! Yeah I would love to” Bailey then turned to Emma, “Can I have one of whatever he's having?”
“Are you sure? You really want ‘Cardiac Arrest in a Cup’?” She tilted her head with concern.
“Well I gotta see what all the fuss is about don't I?” He smiled and turned to Dan, “Besides, I trust that you have good taste”
Was this flirting? Is this what flirting is supposed to be? Oh my God, Bailey was flirting with him.
Emma handed him his own serving of “Cardiac Arrest in a Cup”, and Dan and Bailey just sat there talking. They talked about a lot of things, from when Bailey got to Hatchetfield, to how Dan sees Donna as a sister regardless of what everyone says about them. It was nice. Dan wasn't sure when the tone shifted, but there was a clear point where their little chat felt more like a date than a friendly hang out.
Suddenly, a woman burst through the coffee shop doors, “Bailey! Get your ass over here, we gotta go!”
“Oh hi, Shapiro! Can it wait just a second?”
“No Bailey! You told me you were just stopping in Beanies for a second, it has been 30 minutes! We have got to go!” She was pissed.
“I'm sorry Shapiro, I really am. I promise I'll be out in a minute. Just give me a second please?” He smiled and hit her with what can only be described as puppy eyes.
“Fine, fine, fine. But if you're not out in 2 minutes, I'm leaving and telling the boss you're too busy talking to some guy in a coffee shop to do your job!” And she stormed outside.
“I'm so sorry about that. I really have to go, but this was really nice. Maybe we could go on a proper date sometime? Say dinner and a movie?”
“Yes! I mean, yeah sure that sounds good” he couldn't let Bailey know just how excited he got at the concept of seeing him again. He didn't care that a pretty boy was enjoying his company enough to want to see him again. Nope, he didn't care at all, what are you talking about?
Bailey laughed and quickly wrote his number down on the receipt for his drink.
“Call me okay?”
“Okay, I will,” Dan said while trying to contain his pure glee. He was genuinely giddy about getting this pretty guy's number. But the pretty guy didn't need to know that.
“Toodles Dan,” Bailey smiled and walked away.
“Bye!” Just like that, Bailey walked out of Beanies back to where Shapiro was waiting for him. Dan couldn't take his eyes off of him.
“So that's the guy huh?” Emma smirked and gave Dan a knowing look.
“Shut up.” He looked at the receipt in his hand and smiled. Not a fake smile or a small smile, but a real, genuine smile. Dear God Dan what have you got yourself into.