“Hi.” Audrey beamed as she set down his usual order in front of him. “Can I sit with you today?”
“Uh…” His eye darted between the coffee and her face. She waited patiently with her cup in hand. “Sure, if you want to.”
“Great.” She slid into the seat across from him and took a sip of her flat white. “I’m sorry about the note, I—”
“You didn’t need to get me anything. I didn’t pay for this.” What little she could see of his brow furrowed, and she bit the inside of her cheek.
She’d expected this much. She didn’t need to know him well to have guessed he’d have a hard time accepting something for free.
“Of course I did, Theo. I wanted to. I owed you a thank-you for standing up for me that day. It’s on the house.”
“Oh.”
He took it between his large palms and slid it closer to his chest. Even if he wasn’t going to drink it, she’d wanted to give him something to do with his hands, especially since he’d lost what usually kept them occupied.
“Well, it was nothing.” His neck turned pink. “But thank you.”
“It wasn’t nothing. And Patricia’s not allowed here anymore, by the way,” she said, taking another casual sip of her drink. “I mean, she’s always been a nasty piece of work, and I should’ve kept my cool. The whole thing was my fault, but I didn’t like her pushing you around like that. I don’t do well with bullies.”
That got him to huff. “Yeah, me neither.” He plucked absently at the cardboard sleeve around his cup. “And it wasn’t your fault.”
“I’m really sorry about the whole thing. I get it if you haven’t wanted to come back since then.” She grasped her own cup between her hands, grateful for its warmth. “You didn’t have to come here if you didn’t want to. You could have just texted me like I said in the note. You have my number now.”
“No, no, it’s all right. I—I wanted to see you.” He finally looked at her head-on, gazing steadily into her eyes. “You said you had something of mine?”
“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’vejust 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 wereneversupposed 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—youdid?” 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 ofhis 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. “Youwant to get to knowme?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?!”
Bemused.
Theo was completely bemused.
It was adorable.
