Don't Cry Over Spilled Coffee

[Daniel Taylor]

Dan sat at his desk with Pookie on his lap. Dan was correcting the third drafts. He finished correcting the paper he was working on. He put the red pen down and stretched out his back. Time to take a break. Dan stood up causing Pookie to jump down to the floor. He got his jacket and shoes. He went downtown for a walk.

It was a nice day except the strong cold wind. The sun was and the tempter wasn’t too low for a day in November. It was the wind that made the day a little unbearable. Dan had his hands tucked deep into his jacket’s pockets. His nose was nuzzled into the collar of his jacket.

As Dan was walking he came to a coffee shop. It looked busy but he went in any way. It was good to get out of the wind and he’ll soon have something hot.

He was very happy when Dan finally got his latte. His hands warmed up. Dan looked around the busy coffee shop for an empty seat. He spotted an empty chair in the back corner. He made his way through the maze of people.

Everything was fine until his foot got caught on the strap of someone’s backpack. Dan tripped and crashed into a table someone was sitting at and spilled his latte. A natural klutz plus a busy place plus hot liquid equal disaster.

“I’m so sorry. Let my get some napkins.” Dan struggled to be free from the backpack. Once freed, he went to get a handful of napkins.

“I’m so sorry.” Dan apologized a second time when he returned with napkins.

[Michael Blaise]

If anything was going to get Michael through senior exams, it was going to be coffee. Unfortunately, his favorite caffeine crutch had run dry in his apartment, and being the slight snob he was about the beverage, he still had a handful of days before the package of imported coffee would be on his doorstep.

So the next best thing was an actual coffee shop. As much as America truly didn’t understand the art of good coffee, Vermont had a couple of hidden places that knew the hot drink wasn’t supposed to be filtered and sitting on a burner for hours. That was for truck drivers. Michael Blaise was a sophisticated, elegant college student.

Sort of.

Less elegant and more awkward, the young man sat at a small table, notes and books covered the surface. With a short, frustrated sigh, his hand filtered through his short dark hair. Studying was never something he was particularly fond or good at, but he was determined to be finished with university this semester.

But as someone slipped, Michael caught sight of the falling figure a second before he actually connected with the table. Not being particularly fast or even remotely capable of preventing something like this, he could do nothing but watch the disaster unfold in front of his eyes.

“Woah, are you alright man?” He asked, British accent sounding concerned for the poor fellow as he scrambled for napkins. It was then did he realize his notes were in peril danger. “Shit.” Scrambling himself, he swooped up what was most important, catching his books before the liquid hit them. His notes, however, were doomed to be stained a dark brown.

When the man returned, Michael put out his free hand in an attempt to take some of the napkins and help. “Don’t worry about it, mate.” He explained as lightly as he could. “It happens.”

[Daniel Taylor]

Dan handed some napkins to the poor innocent victim. Dan put the napkins on the coffee to soak it up. Dan was a klutz. He would trip over absolute nothing. He would have a big stack of papers and he would drop them. Sometimes being a klutz was just a pain in the butt.

“Your papers, would you be able to save them?” The thought of Dan ruining this guy’s papers made him feel really guilty. The whole situation was an accident, but guilt filled Dan. “Sorry.” Dan said what seemed like the millionth time.

[Michael Blaise]

With a handful of napkins given to him, Michael pressed them to his notes. He could see signs of ink running through the pages, and the curve of his lip pulled downward slightly. Although, he couldn’t stand to be mad at the man – he seemed genuinely sorry for his actions. Had it been someone who didn’t care about the damage caused, it would have been different.

But this guy was borderline sad puppy. So Michael forced a smile, keeping a friendly demeanor as he looked up at the guy. “I think most of them will be okay.” He replied honestly. Some pages were ruined, yes, but he’d survive. It’d probably do him well rewriting them as it was, having been told doing so committed it to memory better.

His smile broadened, “No need to worry about it.”

[Daniel Taylor]

Daniel was relieved to hear the innocent guy would be able to save his papers. Sometimes it sucked very much being a klutz. There were times were Daniel would trip over absolutely nothing. He didn’t understand it, but it was Daniel being himself so there wasn’t much could be done about.

Daniel wiped his hand on his pants then offered it to the guy. “I’m Daniel Taylor.” He was going to say sorry again, but Daniel had said that what felt like 15 million times already.

[Michael Blaise]

Michael finished cleaning the mess with a swoop of the napkins, tossing them into a nearby bin followed by a couple of the papers that unfortunately could not be saved. When he turned back to the man, his gaze immediately dropped to the hand offered to him.

Taking the remaining napkins and cleaning his hands off, he finally took his hand and gave it a friendly, firm shake. “Nice to meet you.” Michael offered politely. “Michael Blaise.” A tilt of his head of acknowledgement to the name given to him.

As he drew his hand away, fingers brushed across the man’s palm lightly before Michael indicated towards the counter. “Need another coffee? I was thinking of a second, myself.” He offered, although he was aware that it normally wasn't custom to buy a coffee for someone who just spilt theirs all over his things.

[Daniel Taylor]

Daniel shook the hand that was offered to him. “My name is Daniel Taylor. Nice to meet you.” Although, it would have been nicer if Daniel’s coffee stayed in his cup. Daniel pulled his hand away. In the process Daniel felt a light tickle on his palm, but he didn’t think twice about it.

He looked to the counter. “Sounds good.” Another coffee would be great consirding Daniel only had a couple sips of his first cup. The invisible light bulb turned on above Daniel’s head. “Let’s me buy for you. It’s the least I can do.” It would be kind of silly to have Michael to pay. Besides it was another way for Daniel to say sorry for the little accident. He already said “sorry” many times.

[Michael Blaise]

Michael gave a short laugh, bringing his now free hand up to run through dark locks briefly before it fell back at his side. "Right, mate. Daniel Taylor. Won't forget." He raised his eyebrows once, wondering why the man felt the need to repeat his name again. Or was he really just that nervous? It was enough to warrant questioning just what his story was.

But that was for coffee, and Michael headed for the front counter, turning to look at Daniel as he did. "Alright, that sounds fair." Being a university student, one could never really say no to a free cup of coffee, so he was hardly about to argue the offer.

Pressing his palms into the counter, his focus shifted to the woman behind it, giving her the best smile he could offer. "My love, could you please make me a standard caramel cap?"

[Daniel Taylor]

Daniel managed to get from the table to the counter without tripping or crashing into another table. That was good. “I would like a medium mocha salted carmel, please.” Daniel ordered the same thing. Hopefully he would be able to drink it this time and enjoy it. He paid for the two drinks. He went to the counter to pick up the drinks with Michael.

Other customers stood waiting for their drinks. “What were you working on?” Daniel asked. Might as well make some small talk while they wait for their drinks. Daniel did kind of licked out that Michael didn’t blow up at the accident. He seemed kind of humble. Or at least that was the impression Daniel got from Michael.

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((OOC: The reasoning behind Danny saying his name twice is because I forgot that I had him introduced himself in my last post. lol))

[Michael Blaise]

When the waitress nodded to him, he gave a wink in her direction followed by another flash of a smile before he followed Daniel to the designated waiting spot, fingertips drumming lightly on the surface of the counter before turning to the man. "Hmm?" Although he heard Daniel fine, it bought him a few moments before he spoke up.

"Oh, it's just my final for a class." He explained quickly, brushing it off without much importance. "It's an intensive research essay on the history of interior design." Wow, that sounded lame. Did it? His lips pressed together into a hardened line briefly before he rolled his shoulders, trying to shrug it off.

"And how about you?" He asked with a tilt of his head. "What brings you here? Other than coffee, of course."

[Daniel Taylor]

Well that was just perfect. Now Daniel felt terrible. He was a teacher and now he was interrupting a student when he was studying. Hopefully Daniel didn’t set Michael too far back in his final essay. But there nothing Daniel could do to make up for the past, except for buying Michael another coffee.

“I needed a break for grading papers and I wanted to get out of the house.” Daniel sighed thinking about the pile of ungraded homework that still needed to be graded. There was no telling if Pookie was going to leave him alone when Daniel goes back to his grading. "I'm a creative writing teacher at Hammel."

Daniel watched the barista create the drinks. She knew exactly what to put in the cups and how much without looking at recipe or something. Once the two drinks were done she handed them to Daniel and Michael. Daniel took his drink. He took a long sip of the hot liquid. He wanted to taste his drink this time.

[Michael Blaise]

Even as Daniel spoke, Michael's gaze was focused on the barista making their drinks. By no means was he judging her, rather the girl seemed to have an artistic way about making coffee - he couldn't help but to watch. The corner of his mouth dragged upward as both hands wrapped around the coffee cup handed to him. "Thanks, love." He said with a tilt of his head to her before turning back to the man he just met.

He had answered the Brit's question before even getting a chance to ask it, instantly grabbing his interest as he lead them back to his table. Shuffling a few papers and books, he eased them to the side to make room for the man.

"Ah, I attended Hammel back in the day." As if it was really all that long ago. Then again, working on a final for his university classes made it seem as such. "How do you like it there? Quirky little place to say the least."