Coffee and Dates

Coffee With a Stranger Chapter 1

It started in a coffee shop. The most random stranger who had simply asked to have a seat at the table I was sitting at.

I was sitting by the window of a small coffee shop in the town I lived in, Filament. I was enjoying a pumpkin spice latte as the morning rays of the sun were shining through and providing a warm and comforting feeling. 

That's when he came up. His eyes a bright blue, it felt like I was staring at the blue, tranquil colors of a clear ocean, much like the ones off the shore of Costa Rica. Somehow entrancing that I felt so welcomed by his presence alone. A smile that was so bright, it was as though the sun was shining off his pearly white teeth.

 "May I sit here?" he asked, and I just nodded slowly, incapable of finding my words in that moment. Truly, this is a first for me. I normally don't have a stranger come up and to have a seat with me. But in that moment, I was not aware he was staring at me as he already taken a seat because I managed a nod instead of speaking words. So taking my nod as a yes, he pulled out the seat across the table from me and sat comfortably.

 He was wearing a navy blue long sleeve shirt, which looked quite comfortable and fit on him. It really complemented his caramel skin. I was unsure as to why I was thinking these sorts of things in my head though, it wasn't bad to compliment a guy on his clothes but somehow it felt different in that moment.

"How are you on this cold morning?" He asked me this question but for some reason, I just nodded once again. "Are you okay?" He asked another question and that's when I realised I wasn't speaking the words that were going through my brain, that is when my voice came spilling out my mouth. "I'm good. It's a nice autumn morning..ish.. honestly, so all is good. I guess." I said smoothly as if I hadn't been muted this whole time. "Well that's good news haha, my name is Luke by the way, figured you should know that if I'm gonna be asking to sit with you." He said this while holding an arm across the table for me to shake his hand. Of course, the polite thing for me to do would be to take his hand into mine and shake it, in which I did. 

His hand was soft, not rough at all. But mostly cold at the same time, and this could've been due to the chilly autumn air. "Theo." I said as I held his hand into mine to shake until both of us felt the need to let go. "Is Theo short for Theodore?" He asked me that and honestly I felt my face flush with embarrassment due to the fact he guessed that so quickly. He noticed this and let out a small chuckle. "What?" I asked unsure of what was so funny, though his laugh was soft, not loud or boisterous like most of the kids I hang around a lot. "It's odd how people shorten their name. For what? Why do it? To avoid judgement? Obscurity? Your name is great! Why shorten it?" He sounded like he was going to begin a lecture on why people feel the need to shrink their name to something simple, it felt like a sociology experiment. 

"Well, I grew up and was always called Theo. I don't really know why, but it stuck throughout the years. So overall, what I'm trying to say. is that is what I go by because it's mostly what I have been called my whole life." I tried explaining, but I didn't feel like I did him justice. "I see your point, I mean mine is Lukas, but they took the A and S away and replaced it with a E. That's not on my birth certificate. I mean, why name us something and then begin to call us something different. It doesn't make sense at all to me. I just have no idea where the difficulty lies in it all." He finished as I just took notice to his admiration, finding it quite interesting. I pushed my glasses up on the bridge of my nose, as his physical appearance didn't really cease to amaze me either, especially the fact that he was talking to me, a random stranger here in the middle of a small town, in North Carolina.

I finished off my latte after a few minutes. We really didn't speak about anything else though, the rest of the time we just sat there. I took off my glasses and placed them on the table beside the plate, rubbing my templates still trying to rub away the sleepish look I probably held before drinking coffee. I looked at him as he seemed to be deep in thought about something. I'm not sure what. If it was still about the name thing, then I am really surprised that he could contemplate on something for that long. I tilted my left wrist to look at the old vintage watch that surprisingly still works, looking at the long hand and then the short hand, slowly, my reaction creeped upon me as I shot up. "Oh no!" I said quite a bit loud causing Luke to snap out of his thoughts. "What happened?" He began asking but I didn't have time to start explaining. So I quickly said, "I'm going to be late!" and with that I ran out the cafe and rushed as fast as I could. "Wait! Yo-" was the last I heard from him after I ran out.

HI GUYS!!! Thank you for being patient with me for... so long. I'm sorry, I know I suck!! But compared to how I use to write. this should be a better improvement. 

Again thank you for waiting so long and here is the first chapter to the story of Theo!

A lot more is to come, I'll try to have characters picked out by the next chapter. Hopefully you guys enjoy the little I have for you here as it picks up the drama in the next.