love in real estate

chapter 3; silence

"yeah that's really incredible coffee" kris said after another sip, earning another slightly longer laugh from brian. this one was still breathy, but less so then the previous. a more pronounced laugh, deep and throaty. a new magnificent noise, the other laugh was nothing compared to this. kris' new favorite.

"seriously, this is insanely good." he emphasized.
"uhm, thank you, i've spent time perfecting it" brian smiled
"why coffee if i might ask? it's very good but seems a strange interest to me"

brian sat down on the unpleasantly colored couch, "i don't know, i've always loved coffee, ever since i was a kid. which i sure you can imagine was an absolute torture on my parents" another very breathy laugh, kris still couldn't get over that laugh, even if it wasn't his favorite it was still incredible. he would've laughed himself, he definitely found it funny, but he couldn't pull himself out of brian's laughter. "i guess it just seems like something almost anyone could enjoy, you know, like there's so many types of coffee there's no way someone could hate all of them."
"but enough about the coffee now" brian said. kris wanted to know more, to hear brian talk about his passion in depth for hours, but he wasn't going to push it.

"so have you thought more about selling?" kris asked. he only half cared about the answer he just wanted to keep the conversation going, to avoid the creeping awkwardness.
"uh yeah, i mean i don't really have any attachment to the house, but moving would suck."

kris knew what he was supposed to say, he had pre-written responses ready for any real estate related questions. a script to curb apprehension. he was supposed to say 'moving sure is a hassle but it gives an opportunity to meet up with friends and start new beginnings in a new area' that's what he was supposed to say.

"oh... uh that makes sense" he was desperately trying to crawl away from that all too familiar tension. he just wanted to talk to brian, to have a conversation without that tension and awkwardness he'd grown so accustomed to.
brian just smiled.

fuck.
it was awkward.

kris had always tried to avoid silences, especially ones as weighted as this one. the tension felt so thick he was surprised he could breathe. silence was suffocating. kris would do anything to fill the space, he would scream if he didn't know it would cause more confused silence.
that wretched silence spanned for an eon. any possible noise completely absorbed by the tension. brian didn't seem to feel it. he just sat there, smiling to himself. a very small smile. if kris didn't know better he would've thought it was malicious.

after this terrible forever of silence and small smiles, brian opened his mouth,
"do you want to look around the place?" a simple question, an easy conversation. thank god.
"yeah definitely." he tried, and failed, to hide his obvious excitement.

brian stood, kris shot up right after, but it was too fast. for a fraction of a second they were inches away from each other's faces.
kris immediately stepped back, blushing. brian turned away and walked into the foyer, once again seemingly unaffected by the uncomfortable situation.

kris gripped onto the glass and wood mug, took a sip of the warm coffee and followed after brian.

AN-
can you tell i know fucking nothing about real estate