Impress Me Not: Insomniac Cafe

Chapter 21

Well, he got a free coffee out of this day, at least. Mateo had wasted just about all of his morning reading rather than making any progress, but he could enjoy the little things.

That was one of the reasons why he had stopped reading in general when he got older. He would get so engrossed in a book that he wouldn't be able to think about anything else until it was completed. Even then, it would take a whole day or two just to get the story out of his head. He could never write something that could bring someone to a completely new world, but he had enjoyed it when he read regularly.

He hated that Lucas knew that fact about him. Mateo had been wanting to keep that in his past for so long. But all it took was one bookstore that they both had the honor of going to for a job and his whole secret was out.

Mateo was glad that Lucas wasn't the type to spread stuff like that around to everyone else. Instead, he liked to torture him by finding books that he knew Mateo would get invested in and taunt him with it.

But, now that he was thinking about it more, maybe it was actually something that would work in his favor. After all, now that he was slowly coming back to the real world, he had noticed that the coffee boy was looking over to him a lot. He wasn't expecting the man to be nice to him, especially not after what had happened the last time.

Hmm. Maybe his type was more the shy ones. He could pull that off. Some silent curiosity mixed with a handful of glances his way and he could have him hooked.

...

Oh, who was he kidding?! Mateo wasn't the shy type. He never had been. He was handsome and he had always been handsome. There wasn't any reason for him to be insecure, nor was there any reason for him to be shy or act coy. When people threw themselves at him, it just wasn't necessary.

There had to be some kind of approach that would work on him. Mateo felt like he was getting somewhere with him too, like he had somehow gotten him curious enough about him for Mateo to get a foot in the door. That was all he needed when it came to this. Just a little wiggle room and he could get this whole operation going.

What was he talking to him about before? He had still been swimming in those words so much that he hadn't been able to remember what they were even talking about. All he knew was that he somehow got his next coffee for free. It tasted really good, and had the kind of warmth that he always enjoyed when it was cold outside. Mateo never understood why people would want to have cold coffee right now. It wasn't snowing or anything, but still. It wasn't the kind of weather for cold coffee.

A bookstore. He was talking to him about a bookstore. It had to be the only thing the man actually talked to him about that wasn't in regards to his work or himself. Maybe if Mateo got him to talk more about other things, he could swing it back to a potential date and warm him up a little.

"Hey," he walked up to the breakfast bar. It was connected to the counter that the workers were using to prepare the drinks. "What place did you recommend me again?"

"Agatha's Books," Anton said, cleaning something that he couldn't see. "It's a bookshop just a few places down from here. It seems kind of small, but you'd be surprised at how many books you'd find there."

"I think I'm more surprised that you recommended me something," he smiled. "I thought I was going to have to go somewhere else for recommendations."

"I told you that when we were busy," he said. "I can't have a full on conversation when we're in the middle of a rush, you know."

"Sorry about that," he apologized. He was actually warming him up! This had to be the most remarkable thing he had done yet. Lucas was going to be amazed. "I guess I got too carried away."