Chapter Text
It's the end of his second week at the new job when Chris notices the man at the train station.
Early in the morning and his brain still sleepy he arrives at his train station with two minutes until the trains arrival to spare when his gaze meets a guy his size with dark hair and high cheekbones under blue eyes. He looks strangely familiar but Chris can't pinpoint where he might have seen that face - that can not be described as anything other than a resting bitchface -before.
His jaw is a bit broader and describes a very defined line to his ears.
There is no doubt. That guy is beautiful. The faux leather jacket in black and the plain red shirt complete the look and Chris has to force himself from looking away. He's been staring at the stranger for far too long already.
-
At work, Chris' thoughts trail back to the man at the train station every few seconds and Chris is wondering why he had never seen him before. His face looks so familiar though.
With his mind occupied by things that shouldn't concern him during work hours he gets three customers' coffee orders wrong and spills a whole cup of fresh and hot latte all over his black apron. His shift manager looks at him amused, but doesn't call him out. She's a kind girl who acknowledges the workers as people and knows there are better and worse days for everyone.
Lunch break comes and Chris is stumbling out the coffee house to get himself a nice and hot tomato soup from that soup place a couple buildings down the road. He doesn't even notice he's still wearing the apron that is portraying dried coffee and soy milk on the black fabric until he enters the place.
The shop is a light room with a counter opposite the door and a large stove and working place behind that.
The walls are painted in a colour nearly white with a hint of pink in it that is almost invisible. If it isn't for the actual white tiles on the floor and the wall behind the kitchen area that set the contrast, one wouldn't even notice the hint of colour.
The furniture on the other hand is a complete mess but doesn't look out of place.
The chairs and tables are wooden and Chris can still see the wooden pattern on them lurking through the light coating of colour. Each piece is painted a different colour of the rainbow and each table has a different shape.
This place feels out of place with the rest of the busy street outside but like a refugee from all responsibilities at the same time.
Chris has seen lots of places seeing that he grew up in this city but he felt like he had entered wonderland when he had entered this shop for the first time on his third day working at the coffee shop.
"Hey Chris," Judy, an elder lady who runs the place is greeting him.
"Hello Judy!" Chris grins at her and walks over to the counter to have a look at the specials.
Although it's a soup place, Judy also offers smoothies, hummus and fresh juice. Today's special is a Blueberry-Smoothie with banana and raspberry. And blueberry of course.
The smoothie sounds very good to Chris but he is feeling more for the tomato soup today.
"I'll take the tomato-soup, Judy." He smiles at her while handing over the cash.
Judy takes it and turns around to fill a huge bowl dish.
"You know," she says with her back facing Chris "with you coming here every day, you would profit from our discount card. Two percent off every meal and the tenth meal will be on the house." She turns around with the steaming meal in hand and smiles at him.
"Thank you, I'll think about it." Chris smiles back and takes the dish to a table near the windows.
Around eleven other customers are sitting at other tables and while Chris is having his lunch he watches a stream if people entering the shop and either leaving it again with take-out or taking it to a table where they enjoy their food.
He notices that quite a few people take the special and seem quite content with it. In fact a lot of them start smiling with the first sip.
By the time Chris finishes his meal, a proper queue has lined up and leads to the counter where Judy is busy serving the customers.
He gets up and brings his bowl to the counter as he does every day, Judy is preparing a new round if fresh blueberry smoothie and smiles at him when he places the empty dish in the crate for it.
"I think this wasn't quite the best time to send my new assistant, slash cook, on his lunch break." she chuckles.
Chris looks around. She's right. This is much business for one person.
"I'm sorry Judy. I got a couple minutes left, shall I lend you a hand?" He offers.
Her eyes light up and she pulls him behind the counter.
"Thank you darling!" Her face is reddened and a few streaks of her silver grey hair have escape her bun and frame her round face.
"You can take the cash machine, I'll serve, alright?"
So Chris stands behind the counter and helps Judy for ten minutes before he has to go and his lunch break is over.
She thanks him around a hundred times and hands him a glass bottle with blueberry smoothie when he leaves.
"You can come and have a refill any time, darling."
And off she goes to continue her work.
The queue is smaller now, lunchtime is nearly over and Chris hopes that Judy will learn from that and reschedule lunchtime in her place.
Chris leaves the shop and heads for the coffee house. The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. He takes a sip from the smoothie he plans on storing in the employers' fridge until his shift is over.
It is delicious! The perfect mix of banana, raspberry and blueberry. Chris can't help but let the smile creep onto his face. This smoothie is worth the work.
A few meters from his workplace he sees the man from the train station. Chris' steps fall out of rhythm and he stares at the stranger.
He is holding a cup from the coffee house Chris is working at and doesn't seem to notice that he is stared at.
He simply stares ahead and walks past with an expression on his face that screams 'murder'.
Chris notices that he is kind of cute though.
Chris' eyes follow the guy, not without acknowledging the nicely shaped legs that are wrapped in light-washed jeans that hug his ass just right. He manages to focus on his way ahead just in time to safe himself from running straight into the lamp post that guards the doors of the coffee house. Chris takes a step aside just in time to avoid the post but crashes into a guy who wraps his arms around Chris to keep him from falling.
"Hey there, slow down buddy. You could at least invite me to have coffee first." A deep and amused sounding voice makes Chris blush and he looks up at the man.
He is almost as tall as Steve and his dark hair is shaved to the length of merely a fingers' broadness.
His eyes are welcoming an his smile warm and huge and framed with a well-maintained beard. The light grey t-shirt he is wearing makes a nice contrast to his dark skin.
Chris blinks at the man. He is beautiful.
That is the second beautiful man he sees today. And this one even talks to him.
"I'm so sorry" Chris apologises and takes a step back.
He looks at his hands discovering that the smoothie survived the adventure instead on covering somebody in deep purple stuff.
He looks back up and his blue eyes meet the guy's.
"Um" Chris scratches the back of his head "thank you."
The guy grins at him.
"No problem at all, Chris."
"How do you know my name?"
"Oh" the guy laughs a booming laugh "the sign on your apron. Which you are wearing by the way." He points at Chris' name tag and presses his index finger against it.
"Oh, yeah." Chris dead pans and feels a blush working it's way on his face.
They stand there awkwardly and look at each other for a couple seconds.
"So what about the coffee" Chris feels brave.
"What coffee?" the guy seems confused.
"You said you like being invited for coffee..."
"Oh yeah!" He exclaims.
"Well, there's a coffee house. You coming?" Chris heads for the entrance and hold the door open for the stranger to enter before him.
The man chuckles and passes Chris blowing a kiss at him.
Chris smiles to himself - he likes that dude although he doesn't even know his name - and follows inside. His shift is about to begin.
Meanwhile his accidental date stepped to the counter and eyes the options.
Chris decides that he has embarrassed himself already so he has nothing to lose and goes fully himself. He steps up to the man and wraps an arm around his shoulder.
"So, guy whose name I don't even know yet but intend to buy a coffee for, what is your choice." He smirks.
"Mackie." The guy responds.
"Huh?"
"Anthony Mackie, but my friends call me Mackie." He grins at Chris.
"Oh, okay. Nice to meet you, Mackie."
"Honestly, this is the worst date ever!" Mackie says a bit too loud, the coffee house's busy noises quiet down a little.
Chris and Mackie look at each other and break into booming laughter.
The noises continue.
"Alright," Chris catches his breath "I know something."
He slips behind the counter and begins to prepare a latte for his new friend.
"I knew you looked familiar!" Mackie almost yells at Chris.
"What?" Chris freezes with a pitcher in hand.
"You looked familiar. Now I know why. You're the handsome coffee shop guy." Mackie wiggles his eyebrows.
Chris finds himself in lack of a witty reply so he occupies himself with preparing the latte while new orders rain in.
Mackie doesn't seem to mind and takes over the role of announcing the completed orders instead. He does so in the most ridiculous tones and Chris is grinning to himself by the time the flow of orders thins out enough to chat with Mackie.
"The what?" Chris finally works up the courage to ask Mackie about his remark from earlier.
"Huh?" Mackie asks but a light of understanding appears in his eyes.
"Oh, yeah, actually I've been here almost every day the past one and a half weeks once I noticed you here." He explains while his voice changes due to the grin that forces his lips to rise at the sight of Chris face going dark red and looking even more confused.
"You stalking me?" Chris asks half joking.
"No! God no!" Mackie seems to be shocked at that suggestion "maybe a little" he adds with a grin.
Chris raises an eyebrow.
"Truth be told, I saw you walk in around lunch time last week and I thought you were a customer but I was wrong so I decided to watch your awkward way to charm everyone while enjoying my coffee." Mackie is full on laughing by the time he finishes.
Chris, on the other hand, is gaping at him with big round eyes accompanying the irritation visible on his otherwise soft face.
"You're a weirdo" slips from Chris mouth after a short moment of silence. He covers his mouth with both hands when he realises what he just said but recovers quickly to complete the next order.
Mackie's laughter startles not only Chris and he slaps his right hand against Chris' left shoulder, some of the freshly prepared coffee spills over Chris hand and apron but he smiles anyway.
"So you're working nearby?" Chris inquires while sweeping up the mess.
"Define work" Mackie chuckles.
"Umm" Chris raises an eyebrow, barely able to contain the insecurity awaking in his chest.
"Just kidding," Mackie saves him with a smirk.
Is he flirting?
'No' Chris decides. After having witnessed him interact with the other customers announcing the completed orders and handing over the cups, Chris is sure that Mackie is one of those remarkable people who flirt with everyone, probably being completely unaware of it.
"I manage the cinema at the train station. You know the kinda shabby one that looks a little hipster." Mackie explains "I'm loving it so I wouldn't call is work per sé."
"So you like films then?" Chris asks and feels dumb the next second.
"Well, yeah. I do, but I love the effect it has on people way more than the actual film."
"I didn't know you were of the deep kind." Chris teases.
"Oh, you know, Chris From The Coffee House, there's still a lot you don't know about me. This is our first date after all."
-
When Chris is heading home later that day, he is already struggling to keep up with the flood of jokes and memes Mackie sends him every few minutes.
Anthony, so Chris figured, will probably make a very good friend and the way they got along earlier really made Chris day better and distracted his mind from The Man.
That is, until he sees him waiting for the train at the station.
The Man looks a little tired and his face seems to be screaming for even bloodier murder than this morning. Chris hates to admit to himself that he is still attracted to that appearance.
The train arrives and Chris gets on the same car as the stranger but doesn't see he him from this point.
On the thirty minutes ride home, Chris is already acting out all kinda of conversations he probably won't ever have to The Man, so he doesn't notice the usual looks he's receiving from many people on the train.
In fact Chris kind of knows that he probably is attractive but he is almost never aware of it and even more oblivious to people trying to flirt with him.
One stop from his destination, Chris fishes his phone from his pocket and sends a text to his best friend Scarlett. For a second he contemplates texting his other best friend of more years about it but Scar is usually better with these kinds of things and doesn't live across the big pond and in a different time-zone as him.
"I met a guy today. He is fun."
The message is pointless but he knows that Scar will pick up on his actual problem once they meet for coffee which usually happens within the following days, sometimes week, to either of them texting each other.
Scarlett is a very intelligent woman who knows what she wants in life and while she is a few years younger than Chris, she made a lot more progress in the direction of the way she wants her life to lead. this means that she is usually busy working on her career as an actress.
Chris doesn't wait for a reply but pockets his phone instead and stares out the window for another minute until the train halts at his destination.
The Man is walking right in front of Chris but while he takes the way left, the stranger is heading for the stairs straight ahead and their ways part from there.
-
The next mornings, Chris sees him almost every day. Waiting at the station. Taking the same train. Leaving at the same station. Heading in the same direction.
He seems to be completely disinterested in everyone around him though, so Chris doesn't even try to work up the courage to approach the guy.
Chris' thinks about the beautiful stranger when getting up in the morning and is dying to get to know him more each day.
He is distracted at work, but not too much for people to notice, and gets soup from Judy's for lunch, never meeting the new cook who also creates awesome smoothies.
Scarlett is too busy and abroad to talk on the phone so they mostly communicate via text message and Chris really misses his friend.
Mackie on the other hand visits him at work every other day and they joke around while Chris is serving one finding customer after the other without paying attention to their awkward attempts on talking to him.
Once in a while Mackie shoots those poor souls a reassuring look.
-
A few weeks later, Chris is once again entering Judy's place when he sees a different person than Judy behind the counter.
The person's back is facing him occupied with chopping something that looks like carrot. Chris' heart - or stomach?- reacts to the prospect of that awesome carrot-ginger soup being back, that he had a few weeks ago but was never offered again.
The door falls shit behind him and the person who must be the new cook looks up and turns around leaving Chris with a few extra palpitations of his heart.
The cool has already turned back to chopping but the split second of their eyes meeting was enough for Chris to know that he knew that guy.
Well, at least he had seen him before.
The long dark hair up in a bun and the sharp cheekbones drawing attention to the eyes that look too soft to fit into the face that displays homicidal tendencies.
Judy doesn't seem to be in today and Chris is just too overwhelmed by the sight of The Man in this place to move for a few seconds.
The door opening behind him pulls him from his thoughts and he remembers what he came here for.
Chris walks over to the counter and checks the specials-board.
"Carrot-ginger soup" is written on the black surface. Around the letters are doodles of carrots and ginger roots.
Chris looks down and faces a broad back.
He can't say he doesn't like what he sees. Suppressing a smile is rather hard, he finds but then the cook turns around to take his order.
Chris is aware of a couple more customers behind him waiting patiently for their turn to order but he can't seem to find words.
The cook raises an eyebrow and looks expectantly at him.
His thick long eyelashes framing his blue eyes that dip into turquoise.
He is utterly beautiful.
"I'll take the special." Chris manages to blurt and sighs in relief when the man nods and turns around to fill a bowl dish.
Chris' hands are shaking. He feels anxiety waking in his brain and reaching to his stomach with long and cold claws.
When The Man turns around to hand him the dish, Chris puts the change on the counter, hastes a breathy thank you grabs the dish and a spoon and takes the table furthest from the counter and cook.
The soup manages to warm his insides and calm the beast in his belly. He feels calmer with every spoon and by the time he emptied the bowl he is almost as good as new.
Chris leans back in his chair and observes the people coming and going. Or so he tries to tell himself when in reality his gaze is mostly wandering to today-not-so-grumpy face serving customers.
When he brings back the empty dish he tries to catch the other guy's gaze but doesn't succeed so he makes his way back to work.
-
"I got a problem."
His finger lingers over the 'send' button.
Should he really text Hayley on this?
Hayley is a wise soul he met during his trip to the UK when he was twelve. They stayed in contact since then and she grew to be his best and most trusted friend.
He hits send and goes to bed.
All he could do today was to think of his encounter with the guy and it's all he can think of now.
-
Chris wakes up with a bitter taste on his tongue. This can only mean that this day won't be one that can be counted among his better ones at the end of the day.
He groans and gets up.
A look at his phone tells him that Hayley has replied.
He opens the messenger app and reads her message.
"Shhhhh...
Don't think too much, sweetheart. Just talk to them."
He isn't even surprised that Hayley got what he was aiming at right away.
After fifteen years of friendship they know how each kind of problem would be phrased in a text message.
Chris sighs and heads for the shower.
-
After his face screaming 'murder' once again this morning, Chris feels discouraged when he enters Judy's later that day.
The guy is standing with his back to the door and Judy greets Chris with a warm smile.
She is back behind the counter.
"Hello, Judy" he greets her "I missed you."
Judy beams at him.
"Aw, Chris, that is so sweet. I had to manage some things around the shop and didn't have the time to serve personally."
She winks at him.
"But this means you finally met my chef."
Chris scratches the back of his head while pretending to read the menu.
"Umm, kinda." He looks back down at Judy's face.
That is when the chef turns around and their eyes meet for a split second.
Chris works up a smile as greeting but it goes unacknowledged on the other's face.
"Alright, what can Ido for you?"
Judy claps her hands, oblivious about what happened -or did not happen- over her shoulder.
Chris smiles at her.
"The usual."
A minute later he is sitting at his usual table once again.
The bitter taste on his tongue can't be covered by the sweet tomato-soup and he feels his thoughts nipping at his nerves.
By the time his dish is empty he has come to the conclusion that - however pretty he might be - the guy is rude.
Chris isn't really convinced by his own observation, though.
Judy would hire a rude person, would she?
And Chris doesn't know anything about the person anyway; maybe he is just very shy.
He gets up and returns the dish to the counter.
Judy is busy chatting with some boys at a table near the door so he is unsure wether to just leave the empty bowl dish at the counter or not.
The chef's back is facing him. Again.
"Excuse me" Chris works up the courage and finds his voice sounding weird.
The chef turns around and looks at him.
Apart from the annoyed and sort of angry expression he seems to have by default there is no emotion whatsoever as evidence of a reaction displayed on his face.
"Should I just leave this here?" Chris asks while raising his hand holding the empty dish.
The Man moves closer and takes it from him without a word.
He is about to turn around again when Chris feels brave once again.
"Did we go to school together? You look so familiar. Do we know each other?"
Nope, this totally didn't sound like a weak attempt on flirting.
The guy raises an eyebrow.
His voice is low and carries something like annoyance and irritation to this awkward situation with it when he replies.
"No, I guess we did not and you only look familiar since I've first seen you in here."
"Oh, okay." Chris deadpans.
He feels so awkward and for some reason as if he just got dumped.
Meanwhile, the chef had turned around and Chris takes this as a sign that the conversation is over.
He turns around and heads for the door.
He smiles at Judy who looked up and is waving him goodbye and leaves the shop.
The soup in his stomach threatens to say yellow once again. Chris feels sick.
"I didn't think too much. I feel worse."
He texts Hayley.
Another text pops up in his app.
"I will be in town next week. Coffee?"
Scarlett will be back!
Chris smiles.
The sun is shining.
The sky is a greyish blue and although it is getting colder as December is approaching, Chris feels a little warmer.
Who needs rude people when there are friends, anyway?