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coffee & crushes

—

TEDDY TOLD ME to meet him at his place of work the next day. I guess it was supposed to be an informational meeting or something, which would be great because I wasn't entirely sure of what I was supposed to do here. I had awoken to the sound of his text alert, a shrill vibrating noise against the solid wood tabletop of my nightstand that made me wince hard, my eyelids clenching together and not letting go, in hope that I would hang on to some of the sleepiness that was fading from my mind.

"Good morning," I heard someone say and for a second, I thought it was Teddy and I was about to lose my mind. But my eyes finally decided to give up, fluttering open to find my roommate, Laney standing there instead.

Delaney Cooke and I had known each other since senior year of high school and we became good friends when we winded up going to college together. Now four years later, we were roommates trying to make ends meet in the big city. It was tough, being two girls struggling to secure something that could be considered good and worthwhile employment, but we made rent each month and that's all that mattered.

Of course, with my maid job potentially in jeopardy and a new career soon to be lined up for me, things were nearing becoming a lot different. Those changes would affect her as well as me in the long run, but right now, I wasn't sure how the hell to explain what I had gotten myself wrapped up in to her.

"Good morning," I said, taking a moment to stretch my limbs out before folding them back in and rolling over in bed.

"Lyn, wake up," she said and before I knew it, I felt a pillow crash into my head, making me yelp in surprise. "Some number has been hitting your line all morning. And it's not that baseball boy, so I don't think you should ignore it."

I groaned for two reasons; one, Laney bringing up my ex-boyfriend out of the blue like that when she knew how he made me and two, the realization that my stomach was empty hit me like a bus.

"Laney, can you make me breakfast please?" I begged, turning back to face her so I could put on my most charming face that I could put together at why-am-I-up o'clock in the morning. "I promise, I'll do whatever you want me to."

Laney just narrowed her eyes and I knew that a big storm was coming. "The last time you said that, I asked you to pick up my boyfriend's grandmother from the airport —"

"I did it, though," I said in a matter-of-factly manner, cutting her off.

"Yeah," she sighed, closing her eyes and pinching her temples, "but almost five hours later. She had fallen asleep and some kids on a school field trip drew on her face and he had gotten mad at me for trusting you to do that. So no, no pancakes for you. There's a box of cereal in the pantry and I think we still have some clean bowls. Go knock yourself out, kid."

"Y'know," I started, trying to hopefully throw her off, "how is Kevin doing? I haven't seen him lately, I used to love our little talks."

"What talks?" Laney asked, only causing me to chuckle.

Laney's boyfriend, Kevin, had been planning an engagement for her for the longest time now, but he didn't really know how to get it right. She and her family weren't on the best of terms for the past two years or so, meaning that he didn't really have anyone he could rely on for help and he was still mad at me about the grandma thing. That is, until he realized I was his best resource and he forgave me for the whole debacle, so sometimes we meet for drinks and discuss planning it out for her.

Of course, Laney was none the wiser to this whole situation and she thought that he was still harboring a grudge against me. Maybe he was, but at least we could put it aside every now and then and put our heads together instead.

"Yeah," I said sarcastically, "you didn't know that he and I were best friends? For two people who've known each other for five years, we sure seem to be strangers."

Laney chuckled. "You know what? I'm going to tell him you said that." With that, she walked out of my room, humming softly to herself.

After spending all of it on joking around with Laney, I could feel my enthusiasm for the day ebbing out of me like if I were a pricked balloon and all of the air was being released.

I could already tell that today was not going to be a good one. I could only imagine what Teddy had in store for me.

—

THE APARTMENT COMPLEX that Laney and I lived in was quite a steal, really. Laney had discovered the listing from some woman who was incredibly eager to move out after her husband handed her some divorce papers on a rainy afternoon — yes, the previous owner went through telling her that whole story — and she sold it for a lot less than what it originally went for. Thankfully, it wasn't a ghost story or anything, because that would've been a huge deal breaker, and we probably would've been living under a bridge considering how much real estate went for around here.

Of course, that meant we lived with quite some interesting people. One of them happened to be the infamous, Merv the Perv, whose full name was Mervin. Not only was that not a real name, but his parents were basically setting him up to be pretty terrifying. From holding up the trick or treat basket to his crotch area and thinking people would fall for it, to leaving love notes in so,e of the girls' mailboxes, he was definitely a household name around here that gave our building some character. But he was far from my worst concern around here.

Because no matter how hard I tried to block him out, Caleb Anderson would always still be here.

Caleb was the worst because, somehow, he was the best at the same time. He was calm, patient, rational, and whenever he would see me in the hallways, he offered me a quick hello before going on about his day. Yes, he was a charming and good-natured person in general, but I had an issue with him. Ever since we lived here, I'd been trying to catch his eye, but he just never seemed to pick up on the signals. My last relationship had ended quite some time ago, and I felt I was in the right headspace for something new.

But that something new definitely didn't seem to be Caleb.

Often times, I had tried to get him to notice me, even going to some rather insane extremes. Like at the building-wide Halloween party on the rooftop, I had flirted with him so hard, and when my heels started to hurt my feet, I made a big deal about it so he could carry me down to my apartment. And the thing was, he actually did it. While my plan had been for me to get him alone so we could talk in private more and maybe even make out, he just assumed that I was drunk and laid me down on my bed, tucked me in like if I were a child, and put a bottle of ice water from my fridge on the bedside table. 

It was just deeply humiliating and I couldn't bear to see him again. Whenever we were in the halls at the same time, if he didn't see me, I would turn and go the other way. If he was getting on the elevator, then I would be fine with waiting for it to come back down. I just couldn't relive the moment where I made such a huge fool out of myself and all for nothing.

So when I came into the lobby this morning to grab my mail before heading out to meet Teddy, my heart surely skipped a beat when I saw him there. And he looked up at me as soon as I came in, so there was no hope of me pretending I didn't notice.

He was dressed in running clothes; a tight, blue athletic top that clung to his skin, and jogging shorts that had compression shorts peeking out of them. As if he caught me looking over his body, he nodded to me, setting down the book in his hand. "I'm going for a run and then to the gym."

I nodded, feeling like I should've guessed that. "Makes sense. It's a beautiful day out."

"If you love the rain," he said with a chuckle. At the look of confusion on my face, he blushed, pushing his hair out of his face and smiling at me. "Forecast says it's supposed to rain today, somewhere around twelve. So I'm just trying to get my run in right now. I hate the rain, don't you?"

I didn't, but for some reason, I felt the urge to lie to him. "Yeah, its always so inconvenient."

"So inconvenient," he echoed, still smiling at me and I didn't know whether to embrace it or go run into the ditch somewhere. If I knew where the biggest ditch was, then I'd definitely go with the latter, but being in such a big city like New York made that a lot more complicated. "So what are you doing right now? Are you going to work?"

Honestly, I guess that was going to have to be what I called it from now on. Because if I couldn't tell Laney what I was doing with Teddy just yet, then I could definitely not tell Caleb. So I nodded, meeting his eyes evenly when I did so.

"Yeah, I'm going to wok right now," I said, and the subconscious need for me to make this conversation longer than it needed to be kicked in, so I added, "I'm grabbing some food before work though, like a bagel or something."

"Well, that's good," he said, reaching into his gym bag — that I didn't notice until now — and withdrew a small umbrella from it. "Here, take my umbrella. You're going to be out there longer than I will, and you never know when that rain is going to let up, so you'll definitely needed it more than I will."

"Oh, no," I said, holding my hand up to reject his offer. "I can't do that, Caleb. I don't want you to catch a cold or something. I can make a quick run upstairs to my apartment and grab mine."

"Well, I don't want you to catch a cold either, nor do I want you to be late for work," he said, pushing the umbrella closer to me. "I'll be fine, you don't have to worry about me. Just take it."

The funny thing is, he actually seemed genuinely interested in this conversation. Which of course, could be chalked up to the fact that he was just a really nice person, and that I was probably reading this all wrong. But the way he looked at me, there was just something about it that made my heart quicken and I just knew, that there was no way he could fake this.

I looked him squarely in his hazel eyes, my hand wrapping itself around the small umbrella in his hand, feeling my fingers brush lightly against his and it took everything in me not to squirm or do something that would kill the moment.

But I didn't have to, for he let go of it once it was securely in my hand, turning away to place a makeshift book mark made from a receipt into his book before stuffing it in his gym bag and standing up. He looked back at me with the same smile, although it felt a lot less intimate now. But that was okay, because this was progress.

"Do you want to head out together?"

I blinked, being caught off guard by his words, but I thankfully didn't blush and give myself away so easily.

"Yeah," I said. I wrapped the loop of the umbrella around my wrist and smiled back at him. "Are you ready?"

I wasn't.