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It was a quite Wednesday morning, in a quiet bookshop in Soho; there again it was always a quiet bookshop, given the sign in the door only had two sides, one which read ‘closed’ and the other reading ‘very closed’.
Aziraphale sat lounging at his desk reading, his attention was so rapt that he barely registered the bookshop door opening and Crowley sauntering in, only becoming aware of the presence of his friend as a shadow fell across the book he was reading. Aziraphale turned, instantly relaxing as he recognised the slender features. In Crowley's hands were two takeaway coffee cups, one reasonably sized the other obnoxiously large.
‘This is yours.’ Crowley pushed the smaller cup towards waiting angel. Aziraphale drank, relishing the almond syrup the demon had remembered he loved so much. He appreciated it maybe for slightly longer than was necessary as the demon looked on.
‘Thank you, I needed that.’
Crowley took a gulp of his coffee, apparently downing the lot in a way that should have been impossible. ‘Nina’s is going to be leaving with Maggie on their honeymoon for a couple of weeks from tomorrow and the shop is going to be closed. Just thought I should put you on notice.'
‘Oh, I had no idea that was tomorrow,' Aziraphale nonchalantly replied, hiding his apprehension. ‘You will have to find somewhere else to get your fix in that case Crowley’
Finally, after what seemed like an internal battle, Crowley mentioned that he had downloaded an app, Find a Grinder, which would help him find another coffee shop. There were loads of coffee shops on it, apparently.
Naturally, Aziraphale was more than happy to assist his friend in finding somewhere else to procure his coffee. As Crowley made himself comfortable lounging on a nearby chair they spoke of Nina’s leave, reminisced, and sold approximately zero books - but that wasn’t really the point.
Finally, Crowley sauntered his way from the shop, leaving the angel alone.
Aziraphale retrieved a mobile telephone from the back of a desk drawer; he had it solely for emergencies. Quite what emergency an angel could get into that would require a phone was a mystery, moreover, quite how that phone that was never switched on could assist was questionable, but his reasoning was sound.
After leaving it to charge for an hour, given that the battery was completely dead, he made his way to his flat for tea he finally managed to find the app store.
He thought back to his conversation. Grinder that was it! He clicked on the first link; clearly spelling wasn’t their strong point. They appeared to have missed out the ‘e’. Odd, Aziraphale thought.
Quite what the topless men on the sign-up page had to do with coffee he wasn’t sure, nevertheless he persisted. He was going to help his friend not go without coffee. If he had to take the onslaught of many underdressed men with delightfully full bulges - he corrected his thinking, he was an angel after all - fully clothed men holding very large cups of coffee, then that was a sacrifice he would make. The cups were so large that anyone might think that a particular angel may have been a little distracted at the time, but of course that cannot have been the case. After all, Aziraphale was a man-shaped being of the world and had been very active in ancient Greece, solely for the culture naturally. In fact he had been so immersed in 'culture' during this particular period that he barely left Greece at all.
Taking a seat he started to fill out his profile; once again Aziraphale was nonplussed. He filled it out honestly - "looking for freshly ground coffee" - but quite why his body type or ethnicity mattered he did not know. The question around position caused him some trouble though, "top or bottom?" Quite what that had to do with coffee, he couldn't tell. Naturally he was versatile, he could take his coffee anyway he pleased.
It might have been at this point that he doubted quite whether he had downloaded the right app.
But then he noticed some more options which allowed him to "hookup", "meeting at a coffee shop",. Surely this must be right.
He placed his phone down, starting to make his way to his bedroom, when he heard a very familiar tone; he could have sworn that Crowley had the same tone on his smartphone, but considering his insatiable lust for coffee that made sense. Maybe he had been in the market for some other coffee?
Making his way back to the phone he read the message from Ant. "Hi, your new here, fancy meeting some fun" came the message. Maybe this group took their coffee seriously after all. Aziraphale's reply was a simple, "Of course, I was thinking of meeting at a coffee shop somewhere in the Soho area."
The response came within seconds, "Heavenly Beans?" and soon their meeting was arranged.
The last message came out of the blue. "Here’s something to warm you up in the meantime". Aziraphale scrolled down to the attached photo; it was like the home screen all over again but he realised he would need a bigger coffee cup to cover the compromising elements before him.
The next photo was less explicit, with a full body view of Ant with very limited clothing. There was something familiar about the slender figure, but the head had been cropped out, forcing Aziraphale to dismiss a strange thought which flickered into his mind. He was now both simultaneously certain that he had made a mistake and that he really had not made a mistake.
Overall, Aziraphale was content with how his first venture into the online work of coffee shop location had gone and he eagerly awaited his meeting with Ant the next day at 7pm.
Aziraphale walked towards Heavenly Beans, which wasn't too far from his shop, as darkness fell. He had no idea what Ant looked like, so would have to assume from the photo he had received. Certainly, that photo was not emblazoned upon his mind, and he certainly had not looked at it more than once; well maybe a few times. Nevertheless he was resolute that he was admiring the picture as a work of art; nothing which he would deem to be untoward had passed his mind.
Aziraphale pulled himself together, opening the door and walked into the shop. On the left side of the shop from a hidden booth Aziraphale could see a pair of black skinny jeans protruding, this must be the chap; although he was acutely aware that he had seen the same jeans before. Biting the bullet, he walked up to the booth looking into the shadow only to see a very familiar face looking back at him.
‘Ant.’ Aziraphale smiled.
‘Shit...’ Crowley stammered attempting to get to his feet and failing.
‘I’ll still have that drink if you want to, you know,' Aziraphale managed to stutter. By this time the demon recovered himself a little and was back on form.
'Of course you will, but what the fuck are you doing on Grindr?’
Azeraphale sat and they talked about the odd course of events that had let them to this point. Crowley was less than convinced by the angel’s explanation, but what did it matter?
Aziraphale rose to leave once he had finished his coffee. ‘I should be getting back, unless you want to....’ his voice trailed off. Crowley merely stood, taking Aziraphale's arm in his own, and they walked out of the shop and into the moonlight. Explanations, reasons and arguments could come later, but for this moment it was just for them.