Table For Two

6 - Harvey

Here is a list of things I didn't expect to happen tonight. One, to be waking up still dressed in the clothes that I went on the date in at one in the morning because I hit my head on the wall. Two, to have an old friend from school call me randomly at one in the morning because she was drunk and wanted to say hi. Three, and perhaps the most ridiculous, for Ali - the cute saviour waiter from the restaurant - to be suddenly in my student flat, looking drunk and dishevelled and hot and four, for me to be standing here shirtless, in lounge pants and no underwear when said hot waiter appears randomly in front of me. I was just getting a pudding cup because I was craving something sweet and I knew I had one in the fridge and then suddenly this happens. And I'm just standing there with a spoon in my mouth and staring like a big idiot. He looks at me, equally stunned.

"Uhh... hi"

I finally swallow and retract the spoon from my mouth.

"Hi... what the hell are you doing here?"

"Oh! Uhh... met a guy at a bar and uhh... sorry, didn't realise he was a flatmate... not that I really had any way of knowing but uhh... yeah this isn't awkward at all."

"Do you... want a drink?"

"Honestly..." his eyes stray down from my face and I can feel my skin getting flushed under his gaze "I could murder a cup of tea."

I kind of blink rapidly as if processing what he had just said. Tea? Really? Not exactly what I was expecting but I incline my head towards the kitchen and we both go in. It is all white cupboard doors and grey countertops. There's a collection of bottles with varying volumes of liquid left in them on the grouped up tables and chairs are pushed out at all angles. I point Ali over towards a sofa and coffee table in the corner while I put the kettle on.

"How do you take it?"

The moment I say it I regret it because even I can hear the innuendo and judging by his snort of laughter, so did Ali but he smiles at me and it suddenly doesn't matter. He just flops down on the sofa and sighs in what I think sounds like contentment.

"Milk. One sugar. Please and thank you" he says and sticks a thumb up in the air. Okay so the same as me. It's not long before the kettle boils. I bin the plastic cup I was eating from, wash up the spoon and make us both a cuppa. I bring them over and sit on the opposite sofa from him and he gratefully accepts the brew, cupping it with both hands and completely unbothered by the heat. We sit there in silence together for a while. Normally, this would be awkward but for some reason we are comfortable like this - two relative strangers sat together taking tea. Occasionally, we catch each other glancing and just give one of those smiles that just says "sorry I wasn't openly checking you out at all, definitely not nope" and then drop eyes right back down into the mug of tea. Okay, those moments are maybe slightly awkward but then it all settles back to us just sitting and sipping. Listening to the low rumble of taxis coasting past outside and... music from somewhere. One of the other flats. People slowly trickle back in through the door, mercifully too drunk to intrude on this little moment we're having and are just trudging back to their rooms. We both do the same half-laugh that's just like a strong exhale through your nose. After a while, Ali asks questions.

"So... do all your dates go like that? Or was that a special command performance?"

"No... that was actually the first proper date I'd been on with a guy..."

"You're shitting me."

"Not at all. Honestly, that has made me question if wanting to date guys is particularly sane."

"You're not far wrong. Men are the worst."

"Oh come on, they can't all be that bad right?"

"Okay, in realistic terms... no, there are bound to be some good ones. But in general from my experiences with men... they're the worst."