by Durango, M.
Traffic was light, many people still biking or walking. Matt had tried biking to work a few times, but he often ended up working late and he didn’t like riding home in the dark; it wasn’t safe, as his own distracted driving proved. That, and he absolutely hated getting rained on, which would be unavoidable come winter.
He stopped at the café — The Coffee Hut — near his office building for his usual cup of coffee; as always, the place was packed with people in business suits waiting in line and a handful of telecommuters sitting at tables with their laptops, coffees, and bagels.
Matt made polite conversation with the people he recognized from work as the line edged forward. He was staring at the pastry counter debating between pumpkin bread and pumpkin scones when the barista caught his attention.
“What can I get started for you this morning?” the friendly male voice interrupted his thoughts.
Matt looked up, immediately encountering the spiky blond hair and blue eyes that he’d seen at Saturday’s party. What was the guy’s name?
Christian, his name tag read. He smiled at Matt. “Hey. Fancy meeting you here. What can I get you?” he repeated.
Matt couldn’t remember seeing Christian working here before. “Oh, hey. I almost didn’t recognize you.” Matt ordered his usual twenty-ounce black coffee and a pumpkin scone.
Christian was still smiling as he handed Matt the pastry. “Have a good day, Matt.”
Christian hurried off to help another customer before Matt could respond. Autopilot kept him moving forward to pay the cashier. As he stood with the crowd waiting for his drink order, Matt glanced over and caught Christian smiling at him. Matt smiled back, almost missing it when his order was called.
Yanking his attention back to what he was doing, Matt grabbed his coffee and headed to work, immediately banishing Christian from his mind and focusing on his projects for the day. He had several deadlines coming up and if he didn’t make some serious headway this week, he would be working weekends.
***
The week passed in a daze; Matt worked close to sixty hours to get everything done and put out a few fires along the way.
He hadn’t seen Christian again, although, oddly, he had noticed he wasn’t seeing Christian. Matt wasn’t one to keep track of his close friends’ schedules, let alone one of the baristas at the coffee shop. Matt chalked his sudden interest up to the unusual circumstances of their meeting. Besides, Christian seemed like a nice enough guy.
As much as he disliked doing so on principle, Matt decided to head into work on Saturday after his game with Sam to deal with the routine things that got pushed aside during the week’s crises. He stopped for his usual coffee both out of habit and to avoid the poor excuse for coffee in the break room.
Matt noticed Christian’s blond head as soon as he got close to the counter.
Christian looked up and smiled. “You’re not working on a Saturday, are you?”
Matt returned the smile, feeling only mildly off balance. He still couldn’t figure out why Christian kept popping into his thoughts at the oddest moments. “We had a crazy week and I wanted to try to clean off my desk before Monday.”
“Wow, that’s dedicated. What can I get you?” Christian picked up one of the pens they used to mark cups.
Without thinking about it, Matt started making small talk while Christian rang him up. “Have you worked here long? I don’t remember seeing you before last week.”
“I usually work in the afternoon or at night, depending on my class schedule. I was only here Monday morning to cover for someone who was sick.”
“Oh.” Matt wasn’t sure what to say next, his lack of social graces rearing its head. He wondered how other people made it seem so easy to strike up conversations with strangers.
Christian seemed to be one of those people. “So, you fled the party pretty quickly.”
The change of subject caught Matt slightly unprepared. “Yeah, I only went because Sam wouldn’t let up about it. Once he disappeared with his conquest of the week, I decided to get out of there.”
“No date with the Cosmo girl?” Christian teased.
“No, definitely not my type. Thanks for helping with the drink, by the way. I was completely clueless.”
“No problem; I’d lose my gay card if I couldn’t make a Cosmo.” Christian smiled at him again and motioned toward the pick-up area. “Your drink’s ready.”
“Cool. I’ll, ah, see you around.” Matt felt further off kilter, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t have been.
“Definitely. You should stop by some afternoon.” And did Christian just wink at him?
Matt found himself smiling back again — how odd was that? — and actually considering it. “I might do that.”
Although it was another unseasonably warm day, Matt wasn’t the only person at work. He spent some time cleaning up his desk and sorting through the things needing to be filed, which admittedly wasn’t much. Five years in the military had taught him to stay organized and avoid clutter. While he waited for his reports to run, he rinsed out his skull and crossbones coffee mug and cleaned the shelf where he kept his random collection of die-cast model cars and the foam ball for the miniature basketball net that hung on the wall of his cube.
It took Matt fewer than three hours to feel like he was ready for Monday, but it was long enough for the weather to change drastically. The sky was dark gray and the air felt charged, wind starting to pick up and toss the fallen leaves around. He was typically more prepared, but he hadn’t bothered to bring a jacket with him, wearing only a long-sleeved T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Matt took a deep breath and hurried toward the parking lot, hoping he could make it home before the storm broke.
He was almost to his truck when light rain started to fall. He could see Christian at the bike rack and had the sudden urge to offer Christian a ride. Matt hesitated but decided they were well enough acquainted that Matt could share his dry truck. Besides, riding in the rain was dangerous. Matt called out across the short distance to grab Christian’s attention as he retraced his steps.
Christian looked up, frowning for a second until he recognized Matt. “Oh, hey. What’s up?”
“The weather looks like shit, man. Do you want a ride somewhere? We can put your bike in the back of my truck.”
Christian looked surprised. “I ride in the rain all the time, but I guess I wouldn’t turn down a ride. You’re not a serial killer or a stalker, are you?”
Matt laughed. “Nope. Apparently, I’m just a good Samaritan today.”
Christian returned his smile. “Okay, then. Where are you parked?”
Matt pointed. “A couple of rows that way.”
Christian finished unlocking his bike. “Cool. Let’s go.”
Matt led the way to his truck, surprised at his own actions. Offering a ride to someone he only knew as “a guy who can make mixed drinks and coffee” was something that had never occurred to him before.
He dug his keys out and clicked the button to unlock the doors. Lifting the tailgate, he turned to Christian to ask if he needed help; if there was one thing he could do, it was lift shit.
“You can grab the back. It’s pretty light, actually, just a little awkward and I don’t like to toss it around. It’s my only transportation.”
Once they got the bike situated and settled themselves in the cab, Christian turned to him. “Thanks, man. I appreciate this. It really does suck to ride in the rain.”
“No problem. I tried it a few times myself, but I hated getting to work soaking wet. Made me feel like I needed to start my morning over, you know?” Matt refrained from mentioning the fact that he considered bike riding in bad weather to be risky.
“Totally!” Christian agreed.
“So, where are we going?”
“I live right near downtown, kind of close to the college.” Christian gave him an address not far from Matt’s condo.
“Those orange stucco apartments, right?” Matt looked over at him t
o confirm. “I live a couple of blocks away in the condos on Albert.”
“Oh, I know where those are. They look cute. Way better than my building.”
“Cute” wasn’t exactly how Matt would describe them, at least not his particular unit, but he let it go.
Christian didn’t give him time to respond, anyway. “So, what do you do besides show up at parties you hate and give random guys rides home?”
“I work over at Elston and Downs, in the IT department.” Matt flicked on the defroster as the windshield started to fog.
“Yeah? I was thinking about doing computers for school, but it sounds kind of boring. I decided to go with history instead.”
“You’re in school?” Sometimes, Matt’s struggle with small talk appalled even him, but he thought he was doing pretty well.
“Well, obviously.” Christian’s tone of voice was teasing. “I’m a senior. I actually have a double major, so it’s taking a bit longer, but I should graduate next spring.”
Matt almost asked how old he was — he didn’t look much more than twenty-one, which didn’t seem too old for a college senior; of course, Matt was judging based on second-hand experiences.
Christian hardly took a break between sentences. “Where did you go to school?”
Matt was glad Christian kept them from lapsing into one of those incredibly uncomfortable silences that usually caused Matt to want to get away.
“I didn’t,” he answered. “I joined the Army right after high school and basically got all my training there.”
That caused Christian to pause. “So, um. You did computers in the Army?”
Matt nodded. “Telecommunications, networking, that kind of thing.”
“Like in those commercials?” Christian asked.
Matt knew exactly which commercials Christian was referring to. “It wasn’t nearly that glamorous, actually. Mostly a lot like what I do now. Sit at a desk, make sure things are running properly, fix them when they break, get bitched at by people who think things should run better than they actually do. That kind of thing.”
“So, just like a regular job? I always thought it would be different than that. More… I don’t know.” Christian gestured with his hand as he tried to find the words. “Dangerous, I guess.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it was dangerous. But most of what we do — did — was pretty routine, actually, unless we got deployed.” He shrugged. “Even that could get monotonous.”
“Did you? Get deployed, I mean?” Christian’s interest seemed genuine.
“Yep.” Matt generally avoided this part. It was enough that he knew what went in to coordinating teams in combat or what responding to IEDs was like; there was no reason to tell other people about it. He’d encountered too many people who either wanted to glorify his experience or vilify the military. Matt chose to remain silent and let people think what they wanted.
Christian was polite enough that he didn’t push. “But you don’t like to talk about it with strangers.”
Matt snorted. “I don’t like to talk about it with friends.”
“Gotcha.” He changed the subject. “What do you do when you’re not working?”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know, the usual stuff people do? Read, watch TV, play basketball with Sam.”
“Go to parties you hate,” Christian suggested.
Matt laughed. “Go to parties I hate.”
They pulled up outside Christian’s apartment and Matt killed the engine so he could help Christian with his bike. Given how quickly the rain had picked up, he figured he’d made the right choice giving the kid a ride home.
Christian shouldered his bike as Matt locked up the tailgate. “Thanks again, Matt. I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah. Take care. Maybe I’ll stop in for coffee Monday afternoon,” he added on impulse. It would be a good way to break up his day, and he wouldn’t mind another opportunity to get to know Christian better. It wasn’t often he met people he could connect with, after all.
Chapter Three
“I’m really sorry about the short notice, Matt,” Alison apologized for what Matt counted as the fourth time. In addition to being Elston and Downs’ Customer Service Manager, she had also been a friend of Matt’s and Sam’s since high school and had put in a good word for Matt when he was looking for work after the military.
Matt shrugged; he was used to last minute, need it done yesterday requests. “It’s okay, really. I know you didn’t come up with this on your own. Like I said, it’ll be time consuming but not too difficult.”
Alison’s high-heeled shoes clicked loudly on the tiled hallway floor. “I don’t know why these last minute projects surprise me anymore. Phil seems to come up with a new one every month or so. His expectations are completely unrealistic.” She gestured with her coffee cup for emphasis, hot liquid splashing over the rim.
Matt moved easily out of the way of her hand. “I think your manager spends too much time trying to justify his latest great idea and forgets the work takes time.”
Alison turned into an empty conference room. “And you get the blame for his lack of planning.”
Matt tried to assuage her concern. “Hey, I’m used to it. Phil can bitch at me all he wants. He’s not my boss.”
“Try not to sound too happy about that.” Alison smiled wryly.
Matt laughed. “Sorry. What’s our next step?”
They spent a few minutes planning before Alison asked, “Still glad you traded your Army career for the private sector?”
“You would be amazed at the similarities. Bureaucracy and disconnect between the people making the decisions and the ones handling the actual work is everywhere.”
“You’re always so encouraging.” Alison stood up and gathered her papers. “I’ll make sure you’re kept in the loop, at least.”
“Thanks.” Matt followed Alison out of the conference room. “I’ll get you the preliminary requirements tomorrow.”
“You’re a miracle worker.” Alison waved as they headed off in opposite directions.
It was going to be another long night. Realistically, Matt could do much of what needed to be done remotely, but he tried to keep his evening telecommuting to a minimum. He had learned the hard way that working from home in the evenings ate into his gym time. On the other hand, it limited the amount of time Matt got his ass kicked at pool by Sam, which wasn’t such a bad thing.
Late hours meant more coffee. Even though he suspected Christian’s suggestion to stop by in the afternoon was an attempt to drum up business for The Coffee Hut, a two-dollar drink sounded a lot better than the sludge his company provided.
Sure enough, Christian was behind The Coffee Hut’s bar making over-priced flavored coffee drinks.
Christian looked up from wiping down the espresso machine and smiled when he recognized Matt. “Ah, so you fell for my devious attempt to increase our afternoon business?”
Matt returned the smile. “I knew that’s what you were up to,” he accused.
Christian gave him a contrite look. “I’ll have to try to be more subtle next time.”
“I wouldn’t think coffee would require a hard sell. Anyway, I’m planning on working late and need the extra caffeine.”
“That’s too bad. About working late, I mean.” Christian kept chatting as he made Matt’s drink. “Thanks again for the ride Saturday. It really did save me a lot of time.”
“No problem. I was going the same way, anyway. And it’s not like we’re complete strangers.” Matt’s awkwardness faded the more they talked and he found he was enjoying getting to know Christian, even if it was in bits and pieces.
“Well, it was definitely cool of you. Not many people are willing offer rides to their barista.”
“I figured I owed you since you saved my ass Friday night by making that drink.” Matt pulled out his wallet to pay and dropped a buck in the tip jar.
“Oh, I get it, so now we’re even and I shouldn’t expect any more rides?” Christian put
a sleeve on the cup he had just finished filling and handed it over to Matt with a flourish.
Matt laughed, both at Christian’s words and his display. “I don’t know, maybe you’ll catch me in a generous mood.”
Christian smiled sweetly. “I’ll just have to hope you’re around the next time it’s pouring rain.”
Christian’s smile drew an answering one from Matt and left Matt with an oddly pleased feeling. “You’ll just have to hope your luck holds out. Thanks for the coffee.” Matt raised his cup in a salutary gesture.
“It’s what we’re here for!”
***
The project Matt and Alison were working on continued to take up more of Matt’s time as it grew in complexity. Sometime around the third week of back-and-forth meetings with the vendor and Alison’s boss, Matt realized he should have expected it.
Long days punctuated by more unforeseen changes and new demands from Phil found Matt visiting the coffee shop more frequently during the afternoons.
“Back again?” Christian asked. “That’s every day this week. Did Phil change the requirements again?” He grabbed a cup and poured Matt’s drink.
Matt handed over a five and dropped some of the cash in the tip jar. “No, just the deadline. And the vendor’s being slow setting up the reports.”
Christian made a face in sympathy before turning to Alison and ringing up the double tall, extra hot, two-percent, one-pump vanilla latte she ordered. Matt wasn’t even sure what half of that meant.
“Sometimes I’m glad I sell coffee for a living.” Christian handed Alison her change. “Good luck with your vendor.”
“Thanks. Good luck with the afternoon rush,” Matt teased as a group of six or seven people entered through the far door.
Christian rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
Alison was silent throughout their exchange and Matt caught her watching him as they walked outside. “What?”
“What do you mean, what? I’ve known you for ages and I’ve never seen you all gabby like that.” She pulled her suit jacket around herself against the chill in the air. “Are you actually starting to come out of your shell?”
