A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 38

A/N: This scene ran waaaay long, so I've had to split it into two chapters - hopefully it should still read okay.

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Group chat: Ella 👑, Viv 🦋 and Becca 💕

Becca 💕
I'm here. Now going in 😱

She paused with her hand on the cafe door, heart hammering.
It's not too late to change your mind.
But she was kidding herself - she knew there was no way she was going to stand someone up.
As she opened the door, an old-fashioned bell jangled. Inside, there was a long counter down the right hand side and tables and chairs and booths on the left. Her eyes swept the room, but there was no Chris.
He's not here.
She checked her watch - she was only five minutes late. Surely he wouldn't have left already?
'Excuse me?' A man spoke, catching her unawares and making her jump.
She looked over to see an older gentleman, probably in his late sixties, with white hair and twinkly blue eyes.
'I'm sorry my dear, I didn't mean to startle you. Are you Rebecca Smith?'
'Err...yes...yes, I am.'
He smiled at her. 'I thought so. The other member of your party is already here.'
'He is?'
Oh God.
'Yes. If you follow the room round to the left, your table is the last one.'
'Thanks.' She said, but she didn't move.
'Would you like me to show you to your table?' He offered.
'No, thank you. I'm sure I can find it.' She said and forced herself to move.
'I'll be along shortly to take your order.'
She walked slowly around to the left where there were three booths tucked away from the rest of the cafe. The first two were empty, but at the furthest one she could see the back of a blonde head and an unmistakably wide pair of shoulders.
There he is.
She took a deep breath and tried to swallow against the dryness in her mouth.
Remember, it's not a date, and if it's awkward you can just leave.
She forced her legs to move and walked over to the booth.
Chris looked up from the book he was reading, an expression of surprise briefly flicking over his face before he smiled the most dazzling, heart-stopping smile.
'You came.' He said, standing up.
He was wearing a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing his muscular forearms and making him look even more attractive, if that was possible.
Oh God, this was a bad idea. I don't know what to say.
'Please, have a seat.' He said, gesturing to the other side of the booth.
'Thanks.' She mumbled, noticing that he sat down once she had.
She fiddled with her bag, not wanting to look at him.
'You managed to find the place okay then?'
'Yeah. Google maps is great.' Becca said.
Okay, this is awful. You can't spend the whole time looking at your bag. Make an effort.
There was a pause, and then they both started talking at once.
'What are-'
'I didn't-'
They both laughed awkwardly.
'Sorry.' Becca said, finally looking at him. 'What were you going to say?'
'No, you first.'
'Okay. I was...um...just going to ask what book you were reading.'
When he'd seen her, he'd put the book down on the seat next to him, so she hadn't been able to see what it was.
He chuckled slightly to himself and seemed a little embarrassed. 'Just something that someone recommended to me.'
He lifted the book up and she saw that it was Pride and Prejudice.
She smiled warmly at him for the first time. 'How are you finding it?'
'Umm...it's a bit harder going than I expected. But I'm sure that I'll get into it.'
'Where are you at?'
'Not very far - I only started reading it this morning. Elizabeth Bennet has just met Mr Darcy for the first time.'
'Ah yes: 'she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me'.'
He opened the book and she saw with irritation that he'd folded the page over to mark his place.
He raised his eyebrows. 'That was word for word.' He said, impressed. 'Have you got the whole book memorised?'
She laughed. 'No, just certain bits. I find it easy to memorise things.'
'Wish I did. I really struggle to learn all my lines.'
That folded over page was really bugging her.
'May I?' She asked and held out her hand for the book.
'Sure.' He said, handing it over.
She opened it and unfolded the page. 'You know, librarians really hate it when people fold pages over.'
'Do they?' He asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.
'Yes.' She tore a piece of paper off a notepad on the table and put it in the book. 'Use a bookmark instead.'
'Consider me corrected.' He said with a smile. 'So, I got something for you.' He added.
What? No! That's not...
'Um...I'm not sure that...um...' She stumbled over her words.
He reached under the table and brought out a mug with the words 'Crabby before coffee' on it.
'Once I saw it, I just had to get it.' He said, grinning.
Becca laughed, partly with relief.
'Thank you.' She said, taking it.
Her phone pinged for the fourth time since she'd sat down.
'Do you need to get that?' Chris asked.
She picked it up and checked the screen. 'No, it's just Viv and Ella checking up on me. I'll call them later.' She put it on silent and put it in her bag.
'I like this place.' Becca said, looking round at all the games piled on tables. 'How'd you find it?'
'I grew up not far from here. I've known the owner, Joe, my whole life. He and his wife Sylvia have run this cafe for as long as I can remember.'
'And here he is.' Chris added as the man from earlier walked over.
'Becs, this is Joe Barnoli, the owner of this cafe. Joe, this is Becs, she was just saying how much she likes your place.'
Joe beamed at her and took her hand in both of his. 'It's a pleasure to meet you, my dear. Do you prefer Becs or Rebecca?'
'Either is fine. It's nice to meet you too, Mr Barnoli.'
'Call me Joe, please.'
'Okay, Joe.'
'And I will call you Rebecca. It is a beautiful name for a beautiful lady.'
Becca smiled at him.
'What can I get you, my dear?' He asked her.
'I'd like a coffee please.'
'Anything for you, Chris?' He asked.
'Just a refill please Joe.'
'He's really sweet.' Becca said after he'd gone.
'Yeah. So, what do you want to play first?' Chris asked, indicating a large stack of games on the seat near him.
'Wow, that's a lot of games. Just how long are you planning on being here?'
Chris laughed. 'I wasn't sure what you'd want, so I just got a selection.'
'Hmm, well you've certainly covered all the bases; Cluedo, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, Monopoly - probably best to avoid that one though.'
'Worried that I'll beat you?' Chris teased.
'More worried that it'll degenerate into a food fight or something - I can get a little competitive sometimes.'
He laughed. 'Wouldn't want that. Okay, we'll pass on Monopoly for now. How about Battleship? Do you think that's safe?'
'Let's risk it.'
'You know, I really didn't think you'd show today.' He said seriously as they were setting the game up. 'I'm very glad you did though.' And he smiled at Becca in a way that made her stomach tie up in knots.
Oh God, does he have any idea how hot he looks when he does that?
'Well, truthfully, I wasn't going to. At nine o'clock this morning I was still in my pyjamas with no intention of turning up.'
He laughed out loud. 'What changed your mind?'
'I'd tried to get in touch with you to cancel - I'd forgotten that your phone was at the shop. By the way, when you get your phone back you'll probably have about ten million messages from me saying that I'm not coming.'
'Ten million?' He said, smiling.
'Okay, maybe three or four. But then I remembered that you didn't have your phone, and I kind of had to come then because I didn't like to think of you waiting for me and me not turning up.'
'Umm...' He said, looking guilty.
'What?'
'I've got a confession to make.' He said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and holding it up.
'Your phone?' Becca said, frowning. 'I don't understand...'
'Scarlett said that if I gave you the chance to back out, then you would.'
'Scarlett said?'
'Yes, Scarlett Johannson, she plays-'
'I know who you're taking about, Chris. I'm just wondering how the hell she's such an expert on what I would do, given that she's never even met me?'
'Was she wrong?'
'Well, no.' Becca admitted grudgingly.
'Apparently you remind her of herself - she can sometimes be a little guarded around new people too.'
Yeah, me and Scarlett Johannson, we're practically twins.
'I'm sorry about the dishonesty, though. Are you mad?'
She sighed. 'I suppose not. Scarlett was right, I would have cancelled on you if I could have-'
He laughed and pressed his hand to his heart. 'Ouch, way to shoot down my ego!'
'But now that I'm here, I'm glad I didn't get the chance.'
He smiled. 'I'm glad you didn't get the chance as well.'
'But I'm not going to feel guilty now for totally thrashing you at these games.' Becca joked.
'You think you're going to thrash me?'
'Oh yes. I was going to go easy on you, but no more.'
'Bring it on.' Chris laughed.

*****

Ninety minutes and two coffees later, Chris had won at Battleship, been demolished at Scrabble 302 to 124, and was now losing impressively at Trivial Pursuit.
'You know, I'm beginning to think that you're cheating - no one is this good.' He joked.
'Maybe I'm just a lot cleverer than you.' Becca teased.
'Oh I know that you're a lot cleverer than me.' He said, 'But I still think you must be cheating somehow.' He winked.
Becca grinned at him.
'Right - orange question for the win.' He said and looked at the card. 'Nope, that's too easy!' He threw it down onto the table and picked up another one. 'Nope, too easy too. I want to find a really tough one for you.'
'You can't do that.' Becca said laughing.
'Okay, this is a good one - what does a philatelist collect?'
She grinned at him. 'Stamps.'
'No! How can you possibly know that? Can you see the answers?' He said, turning the card over.
Becca just laughed.
His phone rang five minutes later.
'Do you mind if I take this?' He asked. 'It's Rob. He was going to call with some info on tomorrow's shoot.'
'No problem. I'll just catch up with Viv and Ella.'
She half-listened to Chris's side of the conversation as she fished her phone out of her bag.
'I'm at the board game cafe with Becs.' He said.
She looked up at the sound of her name to see that he was watching her.
'Yeah, great. But I'm pretty sure that she's cheating.' He continued with a grin and a wink at her.
She screwed up a bit of paper and threw it at him, making him laugh.

Part 2 to follow...