Chapter Two #3
“Yeah, I do.” She pulled his notebook out from her pocket and slid it across the table to him. His eye widened and he gasped beneath his mask.
“Oh my god. I thought I lost that.” He snatched it up and flipped through it eagerly. “I’ve been looking everywhere for it. I tore my whole house apart.”
“You dropped it that day and I picked it up right after you left. I’ve been trying to find you to give it back ever since.”
“That’s so sweet of you, thank you. You have no idea what you’ve just returned to me.
You’ve really saved my ass, here. I thought I’d have to—” He suddenly froze, a hint of redness coloring what little she could see of his cheeks above the mask.
He looked back up at her slowly. “You, uh…you didn’t happen to look through this, did you? ”
“Yeah. I did.” Audrey bit her lip. “I was trying to find clues as to who you were other than Theo-who-orders-large-extra-hot-Americanos-to-go, so I went through the whole thing. Turns out there are a lot of Theos in New York and none of the ones I found online were you.”
He swore under his breath and ran a trembling hand over his face before wincing and jerking it away, only to rest his forehead carefully in his palm. He seemed to be having some trouble breathing.
“Audrey, uh…look. I—I’m sorry about the drawing. You were never supposed to see that. I was just—”
“I liked it.” When she spoke, he stilled and slowly glanced up at her again through his fingers. “The portrait of me? I thought it was stunning.”
“You—you did?” He sounded surprised. “Are you sure? I…” He hesitated.
“I didn’t ask permission to draw you. I don’t want you to think I’m creepy or anything, I just—” He drew in a deep breath and closed his eye, as if he couldn’t bear to see her reaction.
“I just like to draw what I think is beautiful,” he muttered.
Audrey reached across the table and slowly slid her right hand over his left.
He’d jerked away from her every other time they’d so much as barely grazed each other, but this time, he didn’t.
His hands dwarfed her own, and his skin was rough and calloused, but warm.
When she touched him, his eye flew open and he stared at their hands in disbelief before meeting her gaze.
“I’ve never seen myself the way you drew me.
It was nice.” She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand, feeling the bumps of his tiny starburst scars beneath the pad of her finger and trying to read them like braille.
They were such curious markings, and she really wanted to know what she could divine from them.
“I’d like to get to know someone who sees me like that—and stands up for me like that.
He seems worth knowing.” She squeezed his hand.
“He’s a mystery I’d like to unravel. Would that be okay? ”
“Are you serious?” He raised an eyebrow. “You want to get to know me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?!”
Bemused.
Theo was completely bemused.
It was adorable.
“Because I think you’re really sweet and cute and I can’t stop thinking about you. Do I need another reason?” She shrugged.
“Wait. ‘Cute’?!” A crease formed between his brows. “No. But you…y-you saw my face. You saw what’s under the mask.”
“I did, yeah.”
“And you still think—?”
“I couldn’t stop thinking about that day—when you finally started talking to me and we were so rudely interrupted.” She gave him a serious look. “Is it a problem if I want to get to know you? You don’t have a girlfriend or anything, do you?”
He barked a sardonic laugh and then coughed. “Uh—no. No, I definitely don’t.”
“Well then, are you interested in me?”
“God yes,” he whispered, his voice so low she almost didn’t hear him.
“Then why is this so shocking?”
Theo drew in a deep breath and blew it out, running his free hand along the back of his neck beneath the hoodie. The mask puffed over his cheeks, and she bit her lip again to hide a smile.
“How can you just be so…” he muttered to himself before shaking his head. “Audrey, I, uh…I don’t get out much these days, you know. You already saw one of the few places I go. And…you already saw why.” The red in his face deepened and he looked away from her again.
“That’s all right. I don’t get out a lot either. It’s pretty much here and school and home.”
“Are—are you sure?” He seemed wholly uncertain if what was happening to him was real.
“Yeah. I like you.” She beamed at him and his eye grew even wider.
“You do? Just like that? Even with—with this?” He pointed nervously to his right cheek.
“Yeah. I do.” She tightened her fingers around his palm. “It’s just a scar, Theo. We all have them.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Not many people have them like I do.”
He’d murmured that last part while he searched her face, almost as if he thought she might be lying. Panic briefly flashed across what little of his expression she could see, but when she didn’t contradict herself or withdraw, he seemed to realize she was serious.
And he calmed.
“Okay.” Theo stared down at their hands. “Okay. I’d…I’d like that, if you have some time to spend. I have—well, I have plenty of time these days, if I’m being honest.”
“Great. I’m glad we’re in agreement.” She withdrew her hand and took another sip of her flat white. “Let me ask you something: Do you ever drink the coffee we make for you?”
“Of course I do.” He looked at her like she was crazy. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s great coffee. Yours is particularly good.”
“Do you drink it cold?”
He shook his head. “I try not to. It’s usually cooled down a lot by the time I drink it, but it’s warm enough. I put it in an insulated mug when I leave and take it home with me.” He pointed to the worn leather satchel he carried. “I keep one in there.”
“You do know we can make coffee directly in your own mug, right?” Audrey gave him a wry smile. “Josh and I implemented a sustainable cup policy a while back. And that will keep it hotter for you.” She leaned across the table and gave him another stern look. “It’s better when it’s fresh.”
He chuckled under the mask and then winced.
“Fair point. And no, I didn’t know about the cup policy.
That’s cool.” He bent and rummaged around in his bag, eventually emerging with a fancy black-and-silver insulated coffee tumbler.
He pulled the top off the coffee she’d made him and poured it inside before screwing the tumbler lid on tightly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Audrey checked her phone. Her break was over. “All right, Theo, I’ve got to get back behind the counter, but you’re going to text me, right?” She pointed at his phone. “You put me in your contacts yesterday like I told you to, yes?”
“I didn’t, but I will. I promise I’ll text you tonight.” He hesitated for a moment before steeling himself, squaring his shoulders and sitting up straight in his chair for once. “You’ll get one from Theo Sullivan.”
Finally: a last name.
“Okay, Theo Sullivan.” She held out a hand and waited. “I’m Audrey Adams. It’s nice to finally, truly meet you.”
He stared at her hand before slowly pulling his right one out of his hoodie pocket. It trembled while his palm swallowed hers whole, and he seemed to have some trouble gripping, but he still held her firm as he shook her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too.”
Her smile widened.
When he pulled away and hid his hand in his pocket again, his warmth lingered on her skin.
“You know I’ll text you back, right? You don’t have to wonder if I will or not.” She tilted her head at him. “Are you going to come and see me? I can have coffee with you during my breaks, and I’d like that. I’m here every weekday morning until ten.”
His eye crinkled. “Yeah, I’ll come back. I’ve missed you, I was just worried about…about what you thought.”
“You didn’t have any reason to worry.”
The crinkles faded. “Actually, yes. I did. I saw the video from TikTok. The one that went viral.”
Audrey paled. “Oh.” The video wasn’t very long, but there was a part of it that had captured Theo’s face during the altercation. Some of the comments she’d seen were reason enough for her to hope he didn’t have social media, even though she’d been searching so hard for him there.
“But Theo, so many of the responses talked about how you were doing the right thing by standing up for me and trying to stop Patricia. They weren’t—”
“Freeze frames of my uncovered face were posted on Reddit and Twitter, Audrey.” He shook his head.
“A few reporters even found me. I don’t know how they got my contact info, but they tried to interview me, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it with them.
I had to get my lawyer involved for them to leave me alone and not publish anything.
” He closed his eye. “Not everyone was kind.”
“Those people can go fuck themselves.” Her voice shook, and she bit the inside of her lip so hard, she thought she might bleed. She drew in a deep, steadying breath, trying to still her shaking hands. Her anger over the whole thing still simmered so close to the surface, it was hard to hold back.
Theo looked at her for a long moment before finally nodding. “All right,” he murmured. “I’ll come back and see you tomorrow.”
She let out a long, relieved sigh and beamed at him. “Okay then. It’s a date.” She gave his shoulder a squeeze and grabbed her cup, slipping behind the counter and pulling her apron back over her head while she placed the mug in the dirty bin.
“All right, Audacity,” Josh muttered in her ear as she crossed him. “That was smooth. Real smooth. And you’re getting on me about a date? You sure you should mix business and pleasure?”
“Shut up, you creeper.” She punched his shoulder and grinned impishly. “But that was good, right? Could’ve gone south really fast.”
She got back to her work, taking over making orders at the Marzocco while Josh worked the register.
Theo stayed until 9:30 this time, drawing quietly at his table in his recovered notebook.
Every once in a while, Audrey would glance up and catch him watching her, and he’d look away in embarrassment.
But every time he did, it made her smile.