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Titch had to drive way too many imperial kilometers to get to the nearest bit of civilization off campus.
See, he had been attending horticultural school in fucking New Jersey for about a month. He had always wanted to travel to the states for education, but to New Jersey out of all places? It wasn’t his top pick. It’s not like he had any other choice. The rest of the schools he applied to rejected him.
The school owned quite a lot of land which was good for learning about crops. Not so good when you need to go get groceries. Sure, the campus had some plain old stores he could attend, but Titch really needed to go to the outside world for a moment. He was sick and tired of the same old stuff. It was a miracle it took this long for an adventure out into the American streets.
He planned to just pull into the nearest shop or establishment he could spot on the outskirts of town. That place just so happened to be a small independently run coffee shop named Bedazzled Coffee. The shop looked nicely decorated and far better than the shitty cafe on campus he’d forgotten to stop by at. Anything would beat that coffee.
True to its name, the interior of the shop was, well, bedazzled with colourful blue, pink and green furniture items and sparkles everywhere. It was quite bright for Titch’s taste. He could vaguely see what demographic the shop was for, and he knew he was not it, so he tried to appreciate what it was trying to be.
One thing caught his attention, though, and it had nothing to do with the furniture. In the middle of the store, there was a tall brown-haired man, hunched over on his computer. He sat alone with papers and empty cups scattered around his table. God, was he gorgeous. Titch knew it was wrong to stare, but something about him captivated him. Maybe, it was the way his curly hair framed his face or his moles.
He had to snap out of it. He wasn’t gay, not like there is anything wrong with that. He’d burned that generational homophobia out of him. It was just he just wasn’t one. He was admiring a very handsome man, and there was nothing wrong with that. Pure straight behavior.
A cheerful voice cut through his thoughts. “Hello! How can I help you today?” The woman at the till called out. Her brown hair was tied up into a high pony tail. He walked up to the counter, trying to avoid sneaking glances at the man. On closer inspection, she had the same moles and freckles as that stranger.
“I’ll just have a large black coffee,” He said. His voice betrayed him, clearly showing his accent. It was so distinct, compared to everyone else here.
She tapped the order in and muttered, “Ah, I knew you weren’t from here.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“As obvious as you ogling at my brother,” A sly smirk appeared on her face.
He flushed. Was it that noticeable? Was he even still doing it? He definitely thought he stopped by now and he definitely wasn’t “ogling”. He was just looking, admiring perhaps. Yup. “I am so sorry, but I wasn’t–”
“Go talk to him.” She interrupted, “He absolutely adores company. He's the type of guy to strike up a conversation with anyone.”
“Isn’t that weird? There’s enough seats for me to sit elsewhere,” Is this what Americans did? Sit with strangers that want to be alone? If someone came up to Titch in a coffee shop, he would tell them to fuck off. Sitting with a stranger was daunting, even if that stranger was hot.
“Say that Amanda sent you,”
He sighed in defeat. This girl was persistent. “Alright,”
Amanda’s customer service voice came back.“Good. That’ll be 3.20. Name?”
“Titch,” Her head tilted up a bit. He didn’t blame her. It was quite a weird name for someone to have, especially back at home. He paid for his order, trying to take as long as possible because he wasn’t ready for that confrontation. It was fine, though. It wasn’t very busy.
He tapped the chair in front of the man nervously. He was even prettier up close.“Do you mind if I take a seat here?”
“Go ahead! I’m not really doing much with all this space,” The taller one said, despite most of the table being covered in papers. He tried to grab all of the papers to his side. “Take a seat.” He resumed typing away on his computer as the blonde sat down on the chair.
Titch was never good at small talk. He scrambled in his brain to say the right thing. To make a good impression. Instead, he said the first thing that came to mind. “So… what are you doing?”
“Writing an article for the paper,”
“You write for the news?”
“It’s just an internship to get me started.” He replied, dismissively like it was no big deal. “I forgot to introduce myself. Silly me,” He extended his hand out for a handshake. Oddly professional. “I’m Derek. Nice to meet you.”
“I’m–”
A booming voice called out, “Black coffee for Titch!” There she went, interrupting him again.
“Titch…” He completed, annoyed.
Derek wasn’t phased by the name. Instead, he teased, “Black coffee? What are you? An old man?”
That didn’t stop the growing smile on his face, in fact, it made it worse. “Shut up,”
When handing his drink to Titch, she whispered into his ear, grinning. “I wrote his number in the sleeve,” She proclaimed. She wanted to set him up with her brother so badly. Sure, he was attractive, but anyone with functioning eyes could see that! That didn’t mean he was attracted to him or other men. Too bad for her, he had a confession to make.
“I’m not gay,”
She chuckled. “Sure, honey. Well, it’s there if you ever change your mind,”
He took a sip of his coffee carefully. He was right. It was way better than that shitty campus coffee. It had the correct amount of acidity and sweetness for his liking (which really meant that it was more bitter than sweet.) It was pretty perfect to his standards. He would certainly be ordering this again, no matter how far he has to travel.
Meanwhile, Derek grabbed his drink to sip on it, but nothing came through. He opened the lid. “Oh, It looks like I ran out,” He remarked to himself. The blond wondered how many of those he’d already drank. He stood up, “I’m gonna go get another coffee. Want anything? I’ll pay,”
“No thanks,”
“You sure?” He nodded.
Derek returned with his cappuccino, and a small bag with two Boston Cream donuts. “I got two, so you could try them. I don’t think you have Boston Creams in Britain. They’re my favourite. You should give it a shot.” They did have those in Britain. It was just Titch had never bothered to try them.
“I don’t really like sugary treats,” He answered. Then, Derek hit him with the cutest puppy eyes. God help him. He was giving in a lot today. “Fine, Fine,” He grabbed the donut and took a bite, watching the other light up with the biggest grin ever. He would do anything for that smile.
The donut tasted pretty good. It wasn’t overly sweet which was his biggest fear. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to finish it. He could eat more than one in a single sitting. It was quite light and airy too. The textures worked well in his mouth.
“It’s fine,” He mumbled with the slightest smile on his face. He continued to bite into the pastry.
The taller one immediately caught his bluff. “I knew you would like it!” He exclaimed.
They continued on like that for who knew how long, conversing back and forth about random things. First, it was some small getting to know you thing, but as time moved on, they talked about more personal things. It strangely went along like a date. Huh. They were stuck in a trance together until suddenly, Amanda came out of nowhere behind Titch.
“Boys, I know your date is going well, but I need you to leave. We’re getting busy and we need more space. You two have been sitting here for hours. Derek, I already give you enough free real estate, don’t complain. Shoo!” Amanda explained, kicking her brother’s chair. He squealed.
Had it been hours? Time passed by really fast. He had so much to do today. How had he lost track of time that easily? He knew it was Derek, but he didn’t want to admit that. “It’s alright. I need to leave too. See you around?”
Derek’s eyes glistened, “I hope so,”
When exiting, he tossed his cup out, making sure to keep the sleeve with Derek’s number. He gently slipped it into his pocket for safe keeping.
Bedazzled Coffee had gotten a new regular.
