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Oh shit. It was him at the register again. Dan took half a second to freeze in the entrance, until the sound of the door opening behind him reminded him that this was actually an area that people tended to walk through rather than blocking traffic like an asshole. Not sure why he was panicked anyway, half the reason he came here every day was to see this man. But seeing him and talking to him were two different things. There was something about those blue green eyes that made every word fall out of his big stupid brain, and Dan was not known for being out of words.
Phil was his name, Dan was pretty sure. Okay, well, totally sure. They didn’t wear name tags here but he had done a lot of days sitting at a table, headphones playing nothing while he listened to the staff banter. And also a bit of Instagram stalking. Not like, hardcore stalking. Just the sort of stalking where he had followed the coffee shop account, to keep an eye out for specials and closures. And also watched every single reel they ever posted and checked all the comments and looked to see who the coffee shop was following until he found the private account of a man named Phil whose profile picture had the same bleach blond hair and the same silly little tongue sticking out and Dan knew it said Phil because he had gone back and looked at it more times than he wanted to count but never, ever hit the follow request.
But anyway. Dan was at the front of the line now. And the man who was named Phil but not in a way that Dan knew he was named Phil because there was no reasonable way he could have known that grinned at him and said, “Hey! Dan, right? The usual?”
As predicted, there was no response at all on the tip of his tongue. Dan felt his mouth gape as he watched the bright smile slowly fade from Phil’s face.
“Sorry! I’m not a creep, I swear. It’s just you’re in here a lot, and you know, we put the names on the cups. So. I can pretend I don’t - I mean I can forget. If you want. Um, hi there sir, what can I get started for you today?”
“Um, no. That’s okay. I’m just, surprised I guess. I’ve never been a regular before. Yeah, the usual is good.”
Phil beamed again. “Okay great! Medium cold brew, little room for cream.” Phil scrawled Dan’s name onto the cup. “I’m surprised that you’ve never been a regular before. I would have guessed you were a man of habit based on how often you’re here. You must really like our coffee.” Dan tried not to read too much into the smirk on Phil’s face as he said that, more focused on trying to beat back the heat he felt rising in his face.
“Yeah, something like that,” he mumbled in response. The smirk on Phil’s face widened.
“Alright we’ll get that coffee right out for you, anything else?”
Dan was suddenly desperate to keep this conversation going, imprint himself a little bit more into the day and the mind of this man. His eyes darted back to the pastry case and latched to the first thing he noticed. “Yeah I’ll have, erm, one of those pepper things.”
Phil’s nose scrunched in confusion.
“Pepper things?”
Dan felt his face flush deeper. God forbid he have a normal interaction with this guy.
He jabbed his finger towards the display case. “The… erm, round… no the… yeah that one.” He sighed in relief as Phil identified the pastry he was failing to describe.
“Oh the cardamom buns! They’re really good, one of our best sellers. They’re more sweet than savory, but you seem like a sweet kinda guy.”
Was this man fucking fluttering his eyelashes now?
With that Dan was tapped out for the rest of the interaction. Paying wordlessly and failing to make eye contact as Phil handed over his pastry and coffee, focusing on the big smiley face under his name rather than the other man.
“Thanks Phil,” he muttered, turning to find a seat.
There was something strange underneath Phil’s voice when he responded, “Enjoy, Dan!”
He heard tittering from behind the counter. The other staff were flocking towards Phil, stage whispers and squeals, followed by hissed admonitions. He was never gonna be able to come back here, was he? He dared one glance up as he pulled out his laptop to pretend to work, and saw three sets of eyes staring at him as Phil seemed to be blushing down into his phone. Yeah okay, so they were taking about him. Perfect. Whoever said social anxiety didn’t matter because no one else was ever actually thinking about you was a huge fucking liar.
He groaned, and decided to enjoy his last meal here. The coffee was decent, and whatever this pasty was did taste nice. Head down to the table, he instantly read the notification on his phone as it buzzed.
Instagram: New follower, @amazingphil
Dan froze. Eyes darted up to see Phil’s eyes dart back down.
He opened the app to follow request back. The response was instantly approved.
New DM notification too.
Dan read each message as it popped up, but only one thing stuck in his head. Well two things, but to avoid bursting into flames he decided to desperately ignore the fact he accidentally revealed he knew Phil’s name.
He snuck another look behind the counter. Phil looked like he was trying to slide all the way to the ground and out of sight as he typed furiously.
Dan’s stomach was squirming, and not in the cup-of-cold-brew-before-breakfast way.
He glanced up again. Phil was looking back at him. This time neither of them glanced away.
A shy grin grew on Phil’s face and he looked back at his phone once more. Dan watched him type until he heard the buzz again.
Dans cheeks were red hot again but this time it didn’t feel like it matter.