Its a strange world

Chapter 3

The remainder of the day was torture. And weird. But mostly torture.  The guy, this mysterious guy who was making me feel things I didn't want to feel, about him anyway, stayed in the café for the whole day. And I mean the whole day, he was the last one left at the end of the day when I was tidying up.

I was intrigued but I also wanted to stay away from him. Maybe he was some sort of hypnotist or something who went round confusing people or a magician trying out an experiment. Basically I was coming up with hundreds of totally unrealistic  theories so that I wouldn't have to face the fact that I am probably straight. Fuck. I bet even my friends will be disgusted.  

Everytime I looked at him - which, I'm not going to lie, was a lot - something fluttered in the pit of my stomach. He was working on something on his laptop, hardly stopping the whole day and a thick strand of his poker straight brown hair would keep falling over his eye, causing him to brush it away with an irritated sigh.

It was past closing time and he was still here, sitting there completely absorbed with his work. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with chucking people out but now I couldn't think of the words to say without sounding rude.

"Erm excuse me sir" I started as I walked up closer to him so I didn't have to yell

"Yes?" he asked looking up. As he did so he suddenly seemed to notice the emptiness around us "Oh god I'm so sorry"  He said in a rush, starting to clumsily pack away his things. He gave a little nervous chuckle and I swear I could have died. "I just got so caught up in my work I didn't even notice"

"Nahh its okay" I was proud of how casual I sounded, considering that I had almost just died. "Take your time I'm not in a rush" Oh way to go me, now he knows how lonely and pathetic I am.

He finished cramming all his stuff into his bag before walking quickly to the door. Just at the last second he turned sharply and I tried my best to look like I hadn't been staring after him

"Well, erm, thanks" He said with a slight nod of his head and then he turned and walked out of the door.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He came back everyday that week without fail and he was one of the first people in and always the last one out. I knew his name now, its Alex, which in my opinion is a gorgeous name and it suits him well. I got it under the pretence that we have to ask for names to write on the coffees.

"Black coffee please"

"Of course sir and can I have your name?"

"My name?"

"Yes, to write on your coffee...its more personal"

"You didn't ask for it yesterday?"

"It was Monday"

"Oh...Alex, my name is Alex"

"Perfect"

Okay so maybe I got a little excited when he told me but I never realised how effective working at a coffee shop by myself for most of the day could be for chat up lines. Not that I was chatting him up. Maybe we could just be friends, who spent a large amount of time together, and who kissed, and maybe had sex. What's wrong with that? Apart from everything.

On Friday afternoon I was just about to go out and inform him of the time but when I emerged out of the cleaning cupboard, he was sitting at his table with everything packed away, apparently waiting for me.

"Oh" was all I could manage

"I know, makes a change doesn't it" He smiled, gesturing at the empty table.

"Haha" that laugh could not have been more awkward if I tried. "I was all geared up to chuck you out as well" thank god that came out more casual.

"I was wondering..." He began, glancing down at his shoes "Are you up to much tonight?

Brain to mouth, brain to mouth - please for the love of god close. "umm" I floundered, desperately trying to summon words "no, I'm not"

"Do you want to grab some dinner?"

WHAT. Did he just-? Was I delusional? Did he actually say something different and I just made those words up? Have I finally gone mad? Probably. He was still sitting there though, waiting for an answer so I gave him the only word I could think of - a very weak "Okay".