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Walking into Grounders Coffee feels like coming home to Clarke, especially after a night like tonight. Everything from Lincoln’s signature brightly-colored t-shirts, to the scent of Octavia’s blueberry scones, to the green velour armchairs that are practically reserved for her and her friends, puts her awful night/week/month into perspective.
Being there reminds her that she’s had worse months, honestly.
The first time she ever came into Grounders, she’d been half-dressed and drenched from a sudden downpour, running away from her boyfriend’s apartment when his girlfriend of four years had unexpectedly showed up. Grounders is where she reconnected with her college friend Octavia, and had been welcomed into Octavia’s friend group. The manager at Grounders, Lincoln, had also given her a job when she’d dropped out of medical school and her mother had subsequently cut her off.
So no matter how bad her month has been, no matter how badly behaved her art students are, no matter how truly despicable her blind date was tonight (she’s going to have words with Murphy about his taste in friends), being at Grounders gives her confidence that she’s not at her professional and romantic rock bottom.
She sinks into her favorite armchair and closes her eyes in relief. In a few minutes, she’ll muster up the will to go order a tea from Lincoln, but first she needs a moment to collect herself.
It’s not long before she feels someone sit down in the armchair adjacent and prop their feet up on the communal coffee table.
“I didn’t even know you owned any dresses,” a deep, familiar voice says, and her eyes snap open to find Bellamy smirking at her.
She hadn’t known Octavia’s brother well when they were in college. He’d tagged along when Clarke had invited her friend home for Thanksgiving break, because Octavia was then and remains still his only family he cares about, but he’d spent each year not-so-quietly resenting Clarke for coming from money. Needless to say, they hadn’t gotten along well.
When Octavia’s friends– now Clarke’s friends– had taken her in, however, she knew she had to accept that Bellamy was a part of that deal. He’d grown up a lot since college, and went pretty far out of his way to help her get her life under control without the safety net of her parents’ money. She doesn’t have favorites among her friends, but if she did, Bellamy would be one of the frontrunners.
“It’s a pretty well-kept secret,” she says, smiling tiredly at him and eyeing his button-up and tie. “Are you just coming from the university? You usually look less like a professor and more like one of your students at this time of night.”
He rolls his eyes and slumps down further in the chair.
“First of all, that’s insulting. I teach first-years, and I know I look older than eighteen. Second of all, Raven set me up on a date tonight.”
“Oh,” Clarke says, surprised. Neither Raven nor Bellamy has shown much interest in anything more than a hookup since Clarke started inviting Raven around, so it’s unexpected that it would occur to either of them to set Bellamy up on a date. “How did it go?”
“She never showed.” He sounds slightly disappointed. “My waiter comped my meal out of pity, though.”
“Did you at least order the most expensive thing on the menu?”
“Big-ass steak,” he says, smiling slightly.
“Nice.” She pulls her heels off and swings her legs around to tuck them underneath herself. What Lincoln doesn’t know won’t hurt him. “If it’s any consolation, my date actually showed and I’m pretty sure my night was still worse than yours.”
“Oh, this should be good.” His smile widens.
“He spent the entire first hour talking about his gingivitis–”
“Yikes.”
“–was horrible to the waitstaff–”
“Which is like Clarke Griffin’s number one pet peeve.”
“–talked to my chest instead of my face most of the night, and then disappeared to the bathroom. About twenty minutes later, I realized he'd actually ditched me at the restaurant. I had to pay for both of our meals and the taxi back here.”
“Where did you find this guy?” Bellamy asks, shaking his head. He’s smiling slightly less than he was to begin with.
“Murphy set me up."
“And that wasn’t an immediate red flag?”
“He’s got good taste in women,” Clarke says defensively. “I liked Emori. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt.”
“That’s a mistake you’ll never make again,” he laughs. Clarke has always liked his laugh, even when she didn’t like his personality all that much. It’s contagious; she can’t help but smile when she hears it.
“Still, the night wasn’t a total loss.”
“No?” He says, his eyebrows rising.
“Nah. Ending up here with you is miles ahead of ending up sad and alone on my couch at home.”
He smiles down at his lap, like he’s trying not to let her know how pleased he is, and clears his throat.
“I think we both deserve a drink,” he says, standing. “You want Earl Grey or something stronger?”
“Earl Grey is perfect. Thanks, Bell. You're the best.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says, though he’s not exactly making eye contact with her. “You don’t have to keep buttering me up. I got a free meal, I think I can splurge on a couple of consolation drinks.”
Octavia texts her while he’s at the counter waiting for their order, asking how her date went.
Top five worst dates ever, Clarke texts back. Maybe even top three. I’m at Grounders if you can step away from the oven for an in-person rundown.
Octavia’s typing speech bubble is up for a long time before she responds, Lincoln says you’re being taken care of. I’ll catch the rerun tomorrow.
Clarke is still staring at the little speech bubbles with suspicion when Bellamy returns and sets her tea down in front of her.
“Thanks,” she says, pocketing her phone and humming with contentment as she takes a sip.
“Just trying to clear the incredibly low bar Murphy’s friend set.”
Clarke studies him as he sips his chai latte. She knows why she let Murphy set her up; it’s been long enough since things went sideways with Lexa that she’d been easily persuaded it was time to get back out into the dating world. She still has no idea why Bellamy agreed to take Raven’s friend to dinner.
“How did you end up on a date tonight?” She asks.
“I didn’t,” he smiles wryly.
“But you were supposed to be. Why’d you let Raven set you up?”
“I don’t follow.” Clarke can almost hear a lie in it.
“You don’t have trouble meeting women. If you wanted to go on a date– which is kind of unlike you, you have to admit– I don’t see why you didn’t just find someone for yourself.”
“I did find someone for myself,” he says, toying with the cuffs of his sleeves before rolling them up his arm. It’s one of Clarke’s favorite looks on him, but her dismay that he was actually interested in a woman trumps her ogling his nice arms. “She just didn’t seem interested in dating me.”
Clarke’s heart squeezes painfully. She’d always secretly hoped that if Bellamy ever wanted to date anyone, she’d be at the top of his list.
“When did this happen?”
“It’s been kind of an ongoing thing.” He’s looking at her steadily as she tries to keep her reactions in check. She’s got no idea what her face is doing, and she’s really worried about what it might be giving away. “I’ve had a hard time seeing past her, so when Raven offered to set me up, it seemed like a good idea.”
“You never mentioned anything to me,” Clarke says, hoping that will explain whatever hurt she might be showing.
“I should have,” he says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and setting his mug on the table so he can clasp his hands. “I was afraid you’d tell me I didn’t have a chance in hell.”
Clarke is aware that her mouth is hanging slightly open, but her mind is too busy trying to figure out if he means what she hopes he means to think about her facial expressions.
“I’m talking about you, if you didn’t get that,” he adds conversationally.
Her heart squeezes again.
“I think your chances are pretty good,” she says, scooting forward so her knees are brushing his and her mug is safely out of her hands.
“Yeah?” One of his hands moves to smooth her hair away from her face, and she can see up close and personal the scar on his lip, accentuated when he smiles.
“Absolutely.”
She doesn’t get the chance to think of anything clever to say because his lips are on hers, strong and gentle, and she’s suddenly very preoccupied. She’s just about in his lap when Lincoln throws a balled-up napkin at them from across the room.
“I know my coffee shop is very romantic, but could you guys maybe take this somewhere else?” He calls. Clarke gives him the finger but stands and lets Bellamy help her into her coat.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Octavia says, sticking her head out from the kitchen. “I bet Raven and Murphy free scones for a year that this stupid blind date idea wouldn’t be what finally gets you guys together.”
“I gave you the perfect opportunity to cockblock,” Clarke points out before she realizes what Octavia is implying. “Also, I’m going to murder Murphy. I can't believe he purposefully set me up on the worst date ever just so he could win some stupid bet!”
“Murder? Really?” Bellamy asks, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Because I was thinking about sending him a really nice thank-you card.”
“I’m not letting him off the hook just because I got the guy I really wanted,” she says, smiling reflexively when he grins.
“You’re right. It’s like I don’t know you at all.”
The next time they all go out to dinner, they all walk out while Murphy is in the bathroom and leave him with the check.
“This is the thanks I get?” He grumbles when he slinks into Grounders and finds them all waiting for him. “Remind me never to do a favor for either of you again.”
“Just quit playing matchmaker for us, and we’ll call it even,” Clarke tells him as Bellamy’s hand finds hers.
She rubs circles into the back of his hand with her thumb and he grins at Murphy, adding, “I don’t think your services will be needed again, anyways.”