Learning To Love - Jamie Campbell Bower

Coffee

"Two flat whites." Jamie asks the girl at the till.

"Sure thing, they'll be five-ten minutes."

"Such good service," Jamie says turning to me, "for such a busy little shop." He gestures around to the entirely empty shop. Elevator music plays from a hidden speaker, but that's about it for the shop's atmosphere. I laugh. I stride over to a booth in the corner with a window overlooking the street.

"Shall we sit here?" I ask him. It's my favourite seat, I always sit here, even when I'm alone, though it's a table for two.

"Looks good." Says Jamie. We sit.

"So, where do you work?" Asks Jamie.

"I work at the children's hospital about 5 minutes away." I point with my finger down the street, where a taller building can be seen in the distance. "You see?"

"Do you usually do morning shifts?"

"Mostly, but sometimes I end up doing afternoon shifts. I don't mind either. It's good fun." I catch myself before a babble too much about my job. My friends all hate their jobs, even my friend Jasmine, who works at the same place as me. Time to put Mr. Mystery Boy in the hotseat.

"What about you? What do you do?"

"I'm an actor," he says, eyes lighting up, "but I'm on break at the moment."

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"No," he looks down, shifting in his seat. "I come from London."

"And you came to Australia for a break? Perth?" I eye him questioningly.

"Don't look at me like that! I like it here!" He gazes out the window. "It's quiet, it's away from home, it's nice." He looks back at me.

"Away from home?" I don't want to pry too much, but I can't help it. I'm truly puzzled as to why an actor from London would choose to spend a work break here.

"Don't you ever get bored of home? Seeing the same place everyday?" He drops my gaze, looking awkward. He clearly doesn't want to say the real reason why. Great, now I've got him worked up.

"Sorry." I say, dropping my gaze as well. "I just think you're interesting."

"I think you're interesting, too." He leans forward. I look up.

"Two flat whites?" The waitress from behind the counter interrupts us.

"Thank you." We both say. She places down our coffees and leaves.

I stir my coffee. "What do you mean?" I ask, wanting to continue our conversation.

"Well," he says, "Just half an hour ago you met me standing in my underwear outside our apartment block. Now, you're sitting in here with me at 2am, drinking coffee, upon my proposal. Do you usually do things like this?"

I laugh. "Not really." I say, "Usually I'm predictable, just like living in the city is."

"Have you always lived here?"

"No." I say, taking a sip. "My parents house is right by the coast, I grew up there. I love it."

"I'd like to go to the beach." He says, perking up. "Will you take me?"

"Will I take you?" What is with this boy and his strange proposals? "Well..." I think for a second. "I finish my shift at 10...and I have some errands to run... we could go this afternoon?" I say.

"A picnic! I need to go shopping anyway. How is..." he glances at his watch. "3pm? 12 hours from now?"

"12 hours from now." I agree. "Speaking of hours and shifts, I should be heading off. In fact, I should probably take a taxi from here if I want to be on time. Are you ok with walking home?"

"Ah, I suppose." He mocks disappointment. "I'm joking, perhaps I should rest up." We stand, leaving our empty coffee mugs.

"Thanks for keeping me company." I say, smiling comfortably now.

"Oh, it was my pleasure." He says. "You know, I never got to appologise about the whole underwear thing."

"Don't." I shoot back at him, "It was my pleasure." I continue, smiling in mockingly flirty matter. "12 hours? I'll see you then." I turn and exit the shop, Jamie follows, still, apparently, digesting my words.

"12 hours." He says, composing himself. I turn and walk down the street, not bothering to look back. Where did I get this burst of confidence from? Maybe he's rubbing off on me. I see a taxi in the distance and hail it, climbing in.

"The childrens hospital, please." I say, and the taxi takes off down the street.

----------------------------------------------

2022 AUTHORS NOTE: HELLO BARRAGE OF NEW READERS???

It's nice to see Jamie acting again! An unexpected consequence of this is that suddenly I'm getting an insane amount of email notifications from this long abandoned wattpad account.

Anyway, here's a disclaimer that I wrote this thing when I was 15. I'm 22 now. The writing isn't actually that bad considering I probably can't write like this anymore, but please don't expect much from this story lol

enjoy?

- b