“Oh my god! This is so cute!” your friend Nina squealed as her coffee was placed in front of her. The cafe was on a busy street but the inside had a very country-side, homely feel.

 

“Oh, so is mine!” you exclaimed when you saw yours. Both your phones were out taking pictures of the cats drawn in creamer over foam and almost didn’t notice the waiter. Almost. His height and shoulder-waist ratio were the first things noticed. Nina barely nodded while you stammered out a shaky thank you.

 

“The gods have smiled upon us, Tylar,” she said once he left. Even as you said something in agreement, her eyes continued to follow him until he was behind the cashier counter. You laughed at her obvious staring and took a look towards the counter just to make sure the waiter was really that cute. But the scene behind the counter was setting a different mood. A shorter, but still a great shoulder-waist ratio, man stepped out of the kitchen and, with the attitude of a manager, asked the taller one something. The taller one’s response that gave the manger a disappointed look made both you wishing you had sat closer in order to hear the conversation.

 

    “What do you think is going on?” Nina asked.

 

    “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good,” you answered quietly. The two of you looked back to your coffee and began to talk about your own lives. It’s been a hard year for the both of you. Although Nina taught middle school English, she had to pick up a part time job at a convenience store. As for you, teaching private dance lessons was fun until the number of clients started to steadily decrease. A part time job was starting to become less of an option and more of a necessity.

 

    Both coffees were halfway done when the shorter man walked out from behind the counter with a sign in his hand. There was something in the way he carried the sign that made you curious. He placed the sign right underneath the open sign in the window. You nudged Nina’s arm.

 

    “Look,” you said pointing to the man, who might as well have been the manager.

 

    “What?”

 

    “I’m pretty sure he just put up a help wanted sign,”

 

    “Omg, really?” You nodded. “Imma go check,” she said before quickly getting out of her seat and not so subtly opening the front door just enough to look at the sign from the outside. You noticed that the two men behind the counter noticed her and laughed. You noticed the shorter one more, the way his smile lit up his face. It was a better sight than whatever the news his co-worker told him.

 

    That’s when Nina came back, moving a little too fast. Her foot hit the back leg of her chair as she was trying to pull it out causing her to stumble. Her hand caught the table too hard and knocked over the rest of her drink. In your haste to put a napkin over the mess, you spilled the rest of your coffee.  Both of you were freaking out over the spilt drinks causing a little more of a scene than you liked.

 

    “I’ll get more napkins!” you said as you turned away from the table and straight into a person. His chest, actually. He was surprisingly taller than you thought. His free hand grabbed your arm, steadying you from the loss of balance from running into him.

 

    “I brought napkins,” he said with a smile. His bangs fell a little over his eyebrows and his brown eyes were suddenly the most captivating you’ve ever seen. Nina came up to his side and took the napkins saying a thank you so much that brought you out of your mini trance.

 

    “We’re so sorry, we’ll clean this up,” you explained as Nina gave you half of the napkins, both of you diligently trying to clean.

 

    “No, no, don’t worry. We can clean; it’s part of our job,” he tried to reassure you.

 

    “Omg, no, we’ve been in the service industry. Trust, we know what it’s like. We can clean,” you kept talking. The three of you, cleaned the table. The taller waiter came with a bucket and mop just as Nina bent down to wipe the floor. Being her usual clumsy, unobservant self, she hit her head on the edge of the table. And, as she fell on her side, she knocked over the bucket of solution for the mop. You couldn’t help but curse the friendship gods for giving her to you.

 

    This wasn’t even close to being cute. At this point it was pathetic. And with two hot guys trying to help you out. You could see the despair in Nina’s eyes as the water and soap soaked the entire left leg of her jeans and some of her shirt. You tried to rush around the manager to help your friend up when you slipped on the coffee. This is it, you thought, this is how we die. If you fell then, there would be no coming back. Nina’s eyes widened as she saw your foot give way. This was it. Nina stretched out her hand as if she could somehow stop what was happening. You closed your eyes for the hard embrace of the floor.

 

    The floor was somewhat warmer and softer than you expected. You kept your eyes shut just a moment longer, trying to process why you weren’t in any pain.  

 

    “Are you okay?” he asked softly, concerned. You slowly opened one eye, noticed his arms hooked under yours. Your other eye opened, noticed the way you somehow fit into his chest. If this hadn’t been such a disaster, this could’ve been really cute. You struggled a little to stand up straight and out of his arms.

 

    “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” you gushed. He laughed and you almost forgot about your friend who was still possibly dying of embarrassment as well. You turned to look but all of a sudden she didn’t even need your help. Cute waiter guy was already helping her and checking her forehead! Now, you’re both dark skinned. She being Mexican and you being African American your blushes don’t normally stand out (something you were both grateful for) but, this time, there was no denying the red in her cheeks, or yours. Cute waiter guy helped Nina, as manager guy helped you, to a nearby table and told you to just sit as they finished cleaning. Both of you realizing that this was probably the worst damage you’ve ever done - there was the Starbucks incident of 2015- agreed without a fight.

 

    When they were done, cute waiter guy went to put the mop and bucket away, manager guy came to where you were sitting and reached into his apron. He pulled out a few coupons.

 

    “Honestly,” he started looking at both of you, but mostly you, “That had to be the funniest thing that’s ever happened here.” He looked at the coupons. “I’m not sure why, but here’s something to get you guys back here.” He bit his lip nervously as he handed you a few, but was completely fine giving some to Nina, a fact that neither of you missed. He was about to walk away, but there was a hesitation. From you and him. Something told you that you could really like this guy. But a chance was leaving. He knew it would get awkward if he stood there for much longer, and you knew too. Before you could open your mouth Nina blurted out:

 

    “What’s your name?” There was a visible sign of relief from him. He smiled a shy smile and looked at you as he responded.

 

    “My name’s Minseok.” He offered his hand to you first.

 

    “I’m Tylar,” you said as you took his hand. The contact was nice. His hand was warm and strong. In his grip you could feel the callouses. The handshake lasted a little longer than normal but his handshake with Nina was a short, up-down. Nina gave you the “girl-I-got-you-don’t-even-worry” look.

 

    “We’re sorry, for the mess we caused,” Nina said as she started to get up from her seat. Her wet pants almost made you want to cry for her.

 

    “We’ll try not to do that next time,” you said following her lead. Minseok smiled and tilted his head.

 

    “So there is a next time?” he asked playfully. You finally laughed since the whole mess started. It was a good laugh, a little nervous, but what you didn’t notice was that he was captivated in your laugh almost as much as you were captivated in him.

 

    “We’ll see,” you flirted. You didn’t even bother to look at Nina. You knew she was giving you the “damn-girl-get-some” look.

 

    “It was nice meeting you,” Nina intervened.

 

    “You too,” he said courteously. Nina took your wrist and began dragging you to the door. As you passed him you whispered a bye and he nodded and smiled back.

 

    It wasn’t until you were safely inside your car that the both of you had a complete and total breakdown from the events that transpired.

 

    “Super hot waiter and I go and wet my and leg!!!”

 

    “I can’t believe I fricken slipped in the coffee!!!”

 

    “Who the hell hits their head on a table?!?”

 

    “Who the says, ‘We’ll see’ ?!? What am I?! Twelve?!?” You put your forehead to your steering wheel as Nina put hers against the dashboard.

 

    “We’re awful,” she mumbled.

 

    “How soon is too soon to go back, though?” you asked against the horn.

 

    “Tomorrow,” she answered.

 

    “What about Wednesday?”

 

    “Nah, maybe Friday?”

 

    “Okay, next Sunday then.”

 

    “I’ll stay home.”

 

    “Promise?”

 

    “No, Imma spy on you.”

 

    “Okay, fair enough.” You raised your head from the steering wheel and turned the keys in the ignition. Eight days.  Nina kept her head on the dash the entire drive back to your shared apartment. You’d see him again in eight days.