Chapter Three

"Can you look after the shop for five minutes? I really need a coffee right now." Dan looked at Pauline, knowing she would say yes because well, Dan just happened to be her boss, even though they were good friends, too.

"Sure, go ahead." She smiled lightly.

"Thanks," he grinned. "You want anything?" he asked while throwing on his coat, mindlessly checking his phone's notifications for a second and seeing a message from his friend Dodie. He decided to reply later and let his phone slide back into his pocket, together with his hand.

"Could you get me a Caramel Macchiato, please?"

Again Dan nodded. "Be right back." He walked out of the shop, passing a new customer and mumbling a quick "Good afternoon" before actually having walked out of the door.

The closest Starbucks wasn't far away from Dan's boutique. One could reach it within just two minutes, and on busy and tiring days like these, that was more than convenient.

He opened the door leading inside the coffee shop and was immediately greeted by the compelling smell of coffee and caramel.

It was warm inside, so Dan removed the coat from his torso and held it in his arms instead. There weren't many people here, or at least not more than usual, and he walked over to the counter to make his order.

"Hello," the barista said. She sounded and looked bored and clearly wanted to be somewhere else. "What would you like to order?" She looked at Dan, a fake smile on her face which almost amused him but he kept himself away from chuckling. The girl was around 17 or maybe 18 years old, and Dan remembered how annoying his jobs were when he was that age. He also noticed she had a foreign accent but wasn't able to identify it.

"A Vanilla Spice Latte and a Caramel Macchiato, please."

"Which size?"

"Grande."

She typed the order into the cash machine before looking at Dan again.

"£7.05, please."

Dan nodded, opening up his wallet and handing the money to the young barista.

"What's your name?" she asked while grabbing two paper cups.

"Dan."

She nodded and wrote his name on both cups. "Wait over there, please."

Dan did as he was told, once again checking his phone while walking to the other side of the counter.

He waited, standing, typing some words to reply to Dodie's message.

A coffee was ready and one of the baristas called out the name, however, Dan didn't catch it. So he looked up, just to find a familiar somebody grabbing the coffee.

Dan almost laughed. They were in London, for god's sake, and this was the third time within two weeks they met. How high were the chances for that?

But he was sure it was him. It wasn't just the black hair and the bright blue eyes that he recognised, it was his countenance that made him sure it was him. He just stared at him, but the guy didn't seem to notice.

Dan realised he didn't even know the guy's name when he opened his mouth to say something.

"Oh, wow," was all he could say, and no, he didn't think of those words. They just kind of escaped his lips. But it was enough to make the black haired man look at him.

"Oh, it's you again," he said after a few seconds and chuckled. "Are you stalking me?" he asked in a joking tone and Dan laughed quietly. "I wish. This is getting creepy. Maybe you're the one stalking me."

They both smiled at the other, not saying anything but just sort of staring at each other. Dan was still fascinated by the guy's looks, especially the blue eyes. Now that he was able to see them up close, he noticed little sprinkles of yellow and green inside of them. They looked like a tiny planet to him, and he just felt the need to explore the world hidden behind the stranger's eyes.

But Dan's phone's ringtone made him come back to reality.

It was just another message from Dodie and he decided to reply later. He shook his head a bit after realising he probably came off as a bit weird, even though the man whose name was still unknown to him technically did the same staring-thing as him.

He tried to think of something to say and said the first thing that came into his head. "Um, so, how did that audition go? Last week?" Dan asked and the black haired man looked away from Dan. He decided to rather stare at the coffee cup in his hand.

"Not well, I'm afraid. I guess I wasn't what they were looking for."

A small wave of guilt washed over Dan. That probably was a sensitive topic for him, and he had just randomly brought it up. He bit his lip when he tried to think of something else to talk about.

"What a shame. I'm sorry," he said quietly and the not-so-strange-anymore-stranger smiled a bit.

"It's fine, you didn't know."

Dan nodded a bit, his eyes wandering to the coffee cup in the other man's hand. He tried to read the name. "Fillip? Is that your name?"

The guy pulled his eyebrows together for a second before he looked at the cup and realised what Dan meant.

"Oh, that." He laughed a bit. "Well, yeah, technically. It's spelt wrong on here, though, and most people just call me Phil."

Dan smiled and reached out his hand for Phil to shake it. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, but he knew Phil got that.

"Nice to meet you, Phil. I'm Dan."

"Nice to meet you too," he chuckled at Dan's joking tone.

"Caramel Macchiato and Vanilla Spice Latte for Dan," the barista said and Dan turned around to take his coffee.

"Wanna sit down and have the coffee together?" Phil asked, and everything inside of Dan screamed yes, because this guy just made him so curious and Dan was still so fascinated by him that he just really wanted to get to know him better.

But he knew he would have to get back to work. "I'd love to but... I guess I gotta get back to work. I'm sorry." Dan smiled. "But maybe another time?" His heart started to beat a bit faster and he didn't even really know why.

"That would be great," Phil said with a smile on his face and started to search for his phone in his pocket. "How about tomorrow afternoon? If you're available?"

"I'll make sure I'll be." Dan couldn't keep the smile off his face.

"Great, you wanna exchange phone numbers then? Just so we can think of a good time and stuff?"

Dan nodded and Phil handed him his unlocked phone to save his number. Shortly after Dan handed it back to Phil and Phil sent him a message so he could save his number as well.

"I really gotta go now," Dan said. "But it was nice meeting you again." He grinned and Phil did the same.

"You, too. See you tomorrow," he said and Dan nodded.

"See you then." He turned around, two cups of coffee in his hands, and walked out of the coffee shop. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

He tried his best but that stupid smile on his lips wouldn't vanish. He knew Pauline would notice.

But in the end, he didn't really care. Why should he hide his happiness? A cute guy with the most luminous eyes just asked him out and Dan was really excited about it. So why not show it?

With quick steps, he made his way back to the boutique. Instead of just five minutes, he had already been gone for almost ten. He just hoped Pauline didn't mind.

When he walked in, he saw her talking to a customer so he didn't say anything and just waved quickly which Pauline acknowledged with a nod. Dan placed her Macchiato on the counter and started drinking his own coffee while checking business related e-mails on his computer.

Pauline managed to sell something to the customer and smiled at her after she had left the shop.

"Well done," Dan remarked and Pauline looked at him.

"Thank you, but now tell me why you're smiling like that again."

See? Dan knew Pauline would notice. "Again?" Dan asked and ignored her question on purpose with a sheepish grin.

"Again. You did that last week and the week before that. What are you doing when I'm not with you?"

Dan chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Do you even realise how wrong that sounds?"

"Do you even realise how bad you are at changing topics casually?" She laughed a bit and Dan shook his head, doing the same.

"Even if that was true," he started, "I'm your boss so there's no need to tell you."

"Oh, come on," she teased and rolled her eyes playfully. "Tell me already! I think I can guess why you're smiling like that anyway."

"Oh?" Dan said, still not looking at her and still smiling.

"Indeed."

"Then tell me," he challenged and looked at Pauline.

She snorted and shook her head. "You're seeing someone, right?"

Dan didn't say anything but still smiled.

"Oh my god, I can't believe it. For how long?" Pauline asked and Dan giggled.

"I'm not really seeing him yet. He just asked me out today, for the first time. I didn't even know his name until a few minutes ago."

"Where did you meet? What the fuck, I can't believe you didn't tell me," she said with a bit of faked offence in her voice.

"Here in the shop. He was looking for a shirt and I helped him find one, the usual. A week later we met again on the tube and now we just met again at Starbucks." Dan shrugged his shoulders and started to write Phil's number down in his notebook, just in case he broke his phone. That had happened before, so when he got a new phone he started writing down all of the numbers.

"You're bullshitting me," Pauline said and Dan laughed at her scepticism.

"I'm not."

"You do realise we're in London, right? You don't just meet people three times within two weeks, that's not how it works. In a small town, maybe, but not here."

"It is what happened, though."

She shook her head. "Dan, if you've met in a strip club you might as well just tell me."

Again, Dan started laughing. "What the hell," he breathed out and Pauline raised an eyebrow.

"If you're ever gonna introduce me to him, I'm gonna ask him if you said the truth. What's his name anyway?"

"Phil," Dan simply said. He had stopped laughing but still was a bit out of breath.

"Phil. Hm."

"What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing. It sounds cute. Is he cute?"

"Very," Dan said and closed his notepad. "But now let's get back to work, hm? You might wanna take care of her." He pointed at a woman who'd just walked in and looked kind of lost in between the clothing racks.

"Ugh, fine. But don't expect me to shut up about you and Phil later."

"Sure," Dan mumbled quietly, and yep, that stupid but kind of cute smile was still on his face when he said that.