Table Buddies

It had become a habit for her to stay in the library for hours on end, studying for her finals. The table by the large windows in the corner was what she deemed as her special space with books scattered around and about. But of course, in the weeks before the finals, the library would be crammed.

That's how she ended up having a table buddy. 

With blonde locks that brushed across his piercing blue eyes, she couldn't deny being distracted. But as he neither introduced himself nor said anything to her direction, she deemed him not interested in her and continued her review. It was better to study than dwell on a one-sided crush, minding her own business. Though she thinks his downing of two cups of coffee one after another was a tad bit much.

It went on for several days: she would be first to arrive and he would slide in an hour later carrying two cups of coffee. Of course, both were for him as he pored over his notes without a glance in her direction. She would be too engrossed in her books to mind. When it was closing time, they'd both pack up and leave together without saying a word or acknowledging each other's presence.

She was poring over her anatomy notes when she felt rather than heard a thud on the table. Her eyes snapped to the figure in front of her. His face was planted on his notebook, an arm resting on top of her open textbooks.

Silently putting down her pencil, she gingerly stood up and peeked at his face. Dark bags hung underneath his closed eyelids and a soft snore confirmed her suspicions: he had been so exhausted that two cups of coffee couldn't even help keep him awake. With a sigh of relief that her table buddy had only fallen asleep and didn't die from being over-caffeinated, she sat back down.

Looking at her textbook she was clearly studying out of from a moment ago being covered by his arm, she decided to wrap up her studying for the time being until he woke up. She spotted the pencil loosely grasped in his hand and with careful movements, removed it from his loose grip. It would be bad to be rudely awakened by a clattering pencil.

Leaning back, she observed him. He looked around her age, though he was probably in another department, seeing his notes with diagrams and statistics. She wondered about his name, where she could find him on the campus - if they would have ever met if they weren't table buddies. Did he play sports or was he the nerdy type? Do they have common friends?

Catching herself staring, she shook her head and pulled out her phone, determined to not think about him lest she'd really develop a crush. But of course, having an attractive person in front of you with the sun shining down from the window and down at his figure and giving him the image of an ethereal being didn't really help her case.

In the middle of reading through the random Wikipedia article about the Area 51 raid, she was snapped back to reality by a rude awakening. He woke up with a start, hair sticking up in various directions as he stared at her with wide eyes.

"How long did I sleep?" he asked hoarsely.

She checked the time. "Around two hours."

"Two hours?!" he exclaimed, only to get a series of hushes from the other residents in the library. Lowering his head, he hissed, "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You were sleeping so soundly, I didn't want to interrupt," she said, "besides, with how much coffee you've been drinking that you still conked out—you probably aren't sleeping properly."

"What can I do—finals are next week," he mumbled. Sitting back down, he ran his fingers through his hair as he stared sullenly at his notes, probably regretting those two hours of rest. Glancing at her, he couldn't help but chuckle.

She raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

He shrugged. A small smile tugged the side of his lips. "Nothing much. Just that we've been sitting across each other for two weeks, yet we've had yet to talk until today."

"That is a long time," she chortled. Fiddling with her books, she finally said, "You know, it's unhealthy to drink two cups of coffee consecutively in the afternoon."

At that, he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. He said sheepishly, "It's actually—I mean, I've been wanting to talk to you for a while now, but I didn't know how so I bought coffee but I didn't know what you liked so I bought different kinds of flavor every day hoping you'd saying something—in the end, I chickened out and just finished both of them."

Her jaw dropped and she abruptly stood up. "Are you telling me I could've gotten free coffee and a date with a cute guy if it weren't for you chickening out?"

"Cute?" He squeaked, the tips of his ears turning red. "Are you saying you were waiting for me to make a move?"

"You could do it right now," she suggested.

He stared at her, then shyly said, "Wanna go grab a cup of coffee?"

"I'd love to," she accepted with a smile.