Meeting Him in a Coffee Shop ✓

As you can tell balance is not my best friend

"Come one, let me buy you a shirt! It's the least I can do considering I practically ruined this one. I'll even let you pick out the store!" I pause, realizing that my bank account will probably not agree with me, "So long as it's not some super high-end store."

"Fine," he concedes, smirking. "But, you have to let me buy you another drink and treat, cause I did make you lose the one you already had.

I smile, "Very well." I grab all the gross napkins to throw out. After throwing them out along with you now empty cup, I go over to him, "Ready to go, coffee-boy?"

He laughs at my silly nickname for him, "Yeah, let's go, coffee-spiller! Onwards!" he yells running out the door.

I laugh, thanking the worker who was currently moping the mess we had made, before chasing after him.

He's standing at the end of the sidewalk, looking back and waiting for me to catch up.

"Alrighty, where to first?" I ask, searching the streets for something relatively cheap. After I spent an extra week longer than expected on my "European Tour" my bank account was definitely suffering.

His blue eyes pierce into mine, "Well, there's this really great place called 'East End,' they have some really great things and decently priced too."

I smile, thankful that he didn't decide to go to Gucci or someplace similar.

"It's a bit of a walk from where we are though, hope you don't mind." He steps onto the street as the cars have stopped because of the red light. I mirror his steps as I walk alongside him.

"It's totally okay. I've been walking all over London and it's absolutely beautiful!"

"Wait, you're from America, right?"

"How'd ya guess?" I laugh, "Was it the American flag I had in my hair?"

"No, it was the smell of burgers and the football in your hand. Didn't even see the flag, to be frank." He laughs, causing his whole body to shake.

"Wait, are you from London? Cause I haven't heard your accent in the city."

"No, actually I'm from Wiltshire. It's just two hours West of London."

"Is that near Bristol?"

"Yeah, how do you know Bristol?" His body moves closer to mine as he steps out of the way for the people who are walking along the sidewalk opposite to us.

"Uh, I was just traveling around so..." I trail off, losing my train of thought as my heart beats faster and my eyes widen in response to his close proximity. I tell myself to stop getting so flustered. He was doing it to be polite and probably doesn't even have any feelings for me.

He seems genuinely intrigued, "Oh, traveling? Where else have you been?"

I shake my head, attempting to clear my head and recollect my thoughts. "I was traveling around Europe actually. Not really backpacking cause I had two suitcases plus a backpack, but I still call it backpacking."

We spent the rest of the walk to the store talking about my travels all around Europe. He tells me about the time he took a road trip across Europe with his close friend.

For some reason, I feel a twang of jealousy towards the friend that was able to spend extended periods of time with him, visiting a lot of really cool places. I remind myself that I had been to many of the places he went to as well, along, but still went to these places. I also tell him that I had extended my trip an extra week because I loved England too much that I wanted to spend more time exploring.

"Well, what can I say, England is a great country," he puts on an accent that I can't quite place, but find hilarious. "Have you been to Brighton?"

"Oh, yes! It's absolutely gorgeous there! The beaches are amazing and I've been to Spain so I've seen some great beaches, but honestly, if the opportunity arose, I would be more than happy to move to Brighton."

"No way, my sister lives there!"

I gently shove his arm, as if angry, "Well you should have told me that! I would have gone and visited her."

"Well you didn't tell me that you were going to Brighton!" he pushes me back with the same amount of force.

I, of course, lose my balance and almost fall backward onto the concrete sidewalk but strong arms catch me before I do and make a fool of myself.

"Blimey, I know I'm strong, but I didn't think I used that much force on you."

"As you can tell, balance is not my best friend," I laugh, reluctantly freeing myself from his arms. I push him back gently as payback for almost making me fall and also to try to push the butterflies in my stomach away. "And don't get it in your head that you're stronger than me. I could definitely beat you in an arm wrestling battle!"

He puts his arm on my shoulders, pulling me closer, "Sure you can beat me, keep on believing that."

Due to my short height, my head fits very nicely into the crook of his arm. I feel safe in his arms so I don't pull away as we continue walking.

We spent the rest of the walk talking about each other's childhood. Even once we are at the store, the stream of conversation does not end as we talk about questionable clothing choices that we made in high school or secondary school as he calls it.

"Thank you." I grab the bag from the sweet old lady at the cash register as I put my wallet into my purse.

"Here, let me take it." He attempts to grab the bag from my hands, but my grip only tightens.

"Hey, some of my clothes are in here as well, I can hold the bag."

"I know," he smirks, "But I was just trying to be a gentleman."

My eyes dart between his, not believing that he was telling the truth. I barely met this guy and he's already being so sweet to me. His eyes are maintaining my gaze so I reluctantly loosen my grip so that he could take the bag.

"Okay, fine. Thank you."

"Now, m'lady," he extends his other arm to me. He raises a bushy eyebrow in confusion when I stop and look at him, confused as well. "You're supposed to put your arm in mine," he stage-whispers to me.

"Oh, sorry," I giggle, wrapping my arm around his, trying to ignore the sparks flying between where our arms touch and the butterflies that seemed to have doubled in size in my stomach.

"Let's go to Arches Cafe, onwards!" He pushes the door open with his leg and skips outside.

I skip in line with him because our arms were interlaced and I did not want to be dragged behind because I knew that if I did not keep up he would definitely have no problem doing so.

We laugh the whole time until we finally stop at an intersection that we cannot cross yet.

"So, if Arches Cafe any good?" I ask, letting his arm go so that I could take a better look at his face as I talk to him.

"It's actually really good. My mates and I come here for breakfast often. I know I said I would get you a coffee, but would you possibly also like to have lunch with me as well?" His face shows vulnerability as he asks, ready for rejection but seemingly holding on to a bit of hope.

How much would one lunch hurt I ask myself?

"I would love to!" I smile and excitedly tell him.

"Well then, shall we?" He extends his arm again and this time I don't hesitate, wrapping both my arms around his arm this time. Not only have the butterflies grown this time, but it seems that the sparks have decided to turn into electric shocks. I still choose to ignore them and continue to walk alongside him to the cafe.