The mop of shaggy blonde hair paired with a gangly body strides over to where I and some other tennants from the flat are standing. It's your classic Australian summer night, hot and steamy, so he stands comfortably in just his undies. For some stupid reason, I decide to say something.
"Hey, you're the new guy that moved in the block across from me right? Room A1?" I say, turning to him.
"Yeah, that would be me." I didn't expect the english accent. What on earth is he doing here?
"I'm taking a break from my work, and I wanted to stay in another country." He explains, grinning. Nice smile, blondie. I guess that explains why he seems like he belongs surrounded by snow, not midgies and mozzies. I'm still confused. Why Perth? Out of all the cities in Australia, he decides to stay in one of the most unpopular tourist cities? What about Sydney? Melbourne? Brisbane?
"You picked a quiet city." I say.
"Yeah." He smiles gently, looking over our apartment block in front of us. "Doesn't look like much of a fire, does it?" He says to me.
"Hmm..." I realise this too.
As if on cue, the landlord comes marching out of the apartment, followed by a firefighter. "False alarm, people. Although, Eric no longer has a toaster." She shoots a glance at some kid that looks fresh out of uni. "You can go back inside now, sorry for waking you all up." Her eyes travel over the boy next to me.
"Are you going back to sleep?" He says as we make our way back to the apartment.
"Nah, I've got work in an hour." I gesture to my uniform. "You see?" I strike a pose, the uniform is rather unflattering on me, I'll admit that.
"Well then, what say you we go grab a coffee? I've no chance getting back to sleep in this heat, and you look like you'll need a coffee to get yourself going."
A weird proposition, especially since it's 2am in the morning. But he's right, I do need a coffee, badly. "Sure thing blondie." Blondie? Did I just say that?
"It's Jamie." He extends his hand. I shake it.
"Jamie. Well, do you intend on walking to Gino's with me while in your undies? Because I feel like that's slightly inappropriate attire." He looks down on himself as if only now realising he's almost naked.
"Right, well I'll grab some clothes. Stay here, I'll be right down." He says as he ambles up the stair to the first floor, floor A. I hear a door shut. I lean against the stair case and stare at the ceiling of the foyer to the block.
Two minutes later, he runs down the stairs in shorts and shirt, vans on his feet. Without a word, we set off. Gino's is my saviour, it's a 24 hour coffee shop, not a crappy one either. It's neat, and always nice to sit in, my saving grace for when I get called in for early morning/night shifts. Ducking in for a coffee is routine to me. I awkwardly try to keep up with the long strides of Jamie's ridiculously long legs, we don't say anything to each other, Gino's is only down the street from the apartment block. It suddenly occurs to me that only half an hour ago this boy was a stranger standing next to me in his undies, and now I'm getting coffee with him at 2am in the morning. What the hell am I doing? Jamie seems oblivious to my sudden awkwardness and internal panic. He strides forward and grabs the door for me, holding it open with a small smile. Not so outgoing now, huh? Maybe he is aware of our weird situation, too. I smile back shyly and step into Gino's. In the winter times it's a cosy indoor coffee shop with some pretty sweet heaters. The heaters must do aircon too, as it's refreshing to step out of the muggy outside heat. The cafe doesn't change it's cosy feel to suit summer, but for some reason, I like it.
"What are you having?" I jump slightly, so much for being aware of what's going on.
"Uhh.. I'll have a flat white."
"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.
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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