The Setup » [lashton] √

1.5

"So, why are we getting coffee if we're going straight to drinks?" Ashton asked, his eyes watching Luke as he checked the street and led them across it.

"I haven't had a coffee today, and this place is so good; when I realised we were so close, I couldn't help myself," Luke sighed thoughtfully, "and you know how I feel about coffee,"

"Lukewarm," Ashton replied without skipping a beat, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

He looked at Ashton for a long moment and narrowed his eyes in a glare, "ha ha ha, you're a fucking comedian,"

The older man's meek smile spread into a grin. Luke rolled his eyes and kept leading them up the small incline to the coffee shop. Moments like this annoyed Luke because part of his brain wanted to giggle at how funny and charming Ashton could be. The rest of him liked to dampen that with the reminder; he could be an asshole when he wanted.

When they got to the coffee shop, Luke ordered for them, taking his job of pretentious coffee connoisseur (Ashton) incredibly seriously. He ordered Ashton's coffee just how he liked it but added a pump of the house-made vanilla syrup and put the whole thing on ice.

By the time they'd climbed in the Uber with their coffees, they were already running late to meet the others. As they'd gotten in, Ashton had been grumbling about 'being polite' and 'time-management'. Then he'd taken the first sip of his coffee, and Luke saw the way something clicked behind his eyes.

"Okay, you're right, this is good enough to, 1. Be worth drinking coffee at 5 pm and 2. Be late," he conceded.

Luke could feel an 'I told you so' just below the surface, but saddled it knowing full well it was best not to push his luck. They had a whole evening together with their friends; the last thing he needed was to be getting attitude from him all night. Ashton sipped the last of the coffee hurriedly through the straw as they exited the Uber.

"Alright, I'm going in; you should finish your coffee and come up in a bit," he said, tossing his cup in the bin a few feet from the entrance.

Luke couldn't help but roll his eyes at Ashton's turned back. It didn't bother him that Ashton didn't want people to know they were sleeping together. It was that Ashton was entirely ridiculous, he really thought that them arriving together with coffee, was somehow going to clue everyone into what was going on. Platonic relationships seemed to be entirely forgotten, but nonetheless, the coffee was nice and that was making up for some of it.

He took his time finishing his coffee, replying to texts, checking Instagram, Twitter, even going so far as to listen to TikTok's on full volume on the street. Until finally he was throwing his cup, and the soggy chewed on cardboard straw in the same bin Ashton had used earlier and made his way inside, through the lobby and up twenty-three floors on the elevator. His eyes searched over the heads and he awkwardly made his way through the crowd, both lost and trying not to look it, until a long brown arm was waving up above the heads on the balcony.

He made his way through the tables, strategically thinking he'd take the seat between Michael and Calum rather than the one between Ashton and Calum. Maybe he was overthinking things a bit, Ashton must have been getting in his head? No, he just didn't feel like putting up with him right now.

Calum made eye contact with him as he approached, a massive grin splitting across his face. Luke gave him a much smaller smile back as he slipped into his carefully preselected seat.

"You're so late," Michael told him.

"Yeah I went past that coffee place, Cal you know the one, and I had to go in and get a coffee, 'cause they're too good not to," he said with a shrug, then he looked up and smiled to Ashton as if in greeting.