Impress Me Not: Insomniac Cafe

Chapter 36

"Well," Anton thought a little. "I should probably warn you that I'm a pretty boring person for the most part. I don't have my own place, will drop everything to go to my café if I need to be there. And I'm not that much of a romantic."

"I don't really think you're boring," Mateo said, still smiling. Anton couldn't tell whether he was genuinely smiling or whether he was just being skeptical of him. "The way you talk is always interesting."

"How?" He had heard that from so many people, and he could never really get a straight answer out of them as to why they thought he was interesting. Anton didn't see why those captivating eyes would ever be interested in someone like him. He could have so many other people, yet he chose him.

"You talk as if every word has a meaning," Mateo answered, keeping the eye contact with him. "Instead of the shallow small talk, you always mean everything you say. I think that's why so many are drawn to you."

"You realize I lie, right?" Now he was definitely trying to stroke his ego. Anton wouldn't believe the sincerity of those eyes. "I'm not someone to be put on a pedestal."

"It's just the way you say everything," Mateo shook his head. "But that's just what I've noticed. I've studied Social Psychology for a long time, though."

"Oh, great," Anton shook his head in disbelief. "Another psychologist."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "I wasn't saying that I was a doctor in it or anything."

"I have three members of my family who are psychologists, or psychiatrists," he answered. Gabe was going to get a kick out of this when he told him.

"Are you living with any of them?"

"No," he answered. "I'm living with my dad." That was probably another reason why he was just trying to get this out of the way now. Many people thought if you still lived with your parents that it meant that you were either too attached to them, or you didn't have enough money.

"Ah," Mateo nodded, leaning back in his chair. "Not enough money to move out yet?"

"I'm not going to move out," Anton told him. "He needs someone to live with."

"Really?" He leaned in again, intrigued. "Is he sick?"

"No," He sighed. He really didn't want to open this can of worms, but now it just seemed like he was going to have to. "He's almost going to retire, actually. I'm just living with him so he isn't lonely."

"Did your parents split up recently or something?"

"They couldn't have split up if they were never together to begin with."

"What do you mean?"

"My father was the kind that got around a lot," Anton finally explained. "He had plenty of kids from a bunch of different women. I'm just his youngest."

Many people didn't get it. It wasn't that he had 'daddy issues'. He was just the only one of his siblings that could actually see the man that was sorry about all the dumb stuff he had done and forgive him. Anton wasn't going to blame any of them. Most of them he had never even met. It took his father until he got older to realize the wrong in his ways, but that didn't mean that he should live alone.

His father actually helped him through a lot when he first moved down there. Anton's college experience wasn't the best. He struggled a lot, but his father helped him through a lot of it, and accepted him when he didn't realize that he needed it.

"How many children did he have?" Mateo asked.

"I don't even know," he shook his head. "It's not important anyway."

"I think you're a lot more interesting than you think, Anton," those green eyes got his attention again. "There's a lot more to you than the surface."

"I could say the same about you," Anton smirked. "Book worm."

"I don't like books that much," Now it was Mateo's turn to roll his eyes. They had gotten their food a little bit earlier while they were talking, but the conversation had distracted him from eating until right then.

"Why do you hide it?" Anton asked. "You know it's not that bad of a trait to have, right? Reading books usually gets seen as intelligence."

"Not fiction books," Mateo sighed. Just like that, he could see just a glimpse of what was underneath the surface of that faux confidence. "Nonfiction marks you as intelligent. Reading anything fiction is a waste of time."

"Is that what your family taught you?" Anton folded his arms. Mateo looked like he was stuck in a memory for a moment.

"What do you mean?" He blinked to snap himself out of it.

Oh no. He wasn't going to get away from this topic. If Anton had to say something personal about himself, then he was going to make sure that Mateo did too. It was only fair when you were on a date anyway.

"If I could guess anything about you," Anton leaned in. "It would be that you were raised by a family that had high expectations of you and taught that nothing mattered in life other than what brought in money. That's why you focus on your own appearance and always look for others appraisal of you."

For once, the man that he first saw as a complete narcissist that always knew what to say, was speechless. Anton must have hit a nerve there, because it looked like a mask fell off that model-like face. For once, he was seeing the true man.

This was definitely turning into an interesting date. 

Author's Note: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was fun getting a little bit more background into both Anton and Mateo. They're an interesting duo. Now we just have to see if there's enough of a connection to push this just a little bit farther.

Thanks for all the votes and comments! I'll see you all soon with another update!

-Saturn