Chapter 2
"Well, the boring and pretentious guy is staring at you right now," Jayce says, stretching his arms over his head and looking taller than anyone should have the right to while sitting down.
Kent immediately turns to check, stomach doing a weird funny thing, and certainly there it is:
Lynch is drinking and looking straight at him from over his cup of tea, brows a little furrowed.
As soon as he realises Kent is looking back, though, he drops his gaze, and he does not look up again.
There's no way he could have heard them from all the way over there, but Kent wants to apologise anyway, wants to walk up to Lynch's table and tell him he doesn't think Lynch is boring or pretentious at all, even though the umbrella
is
kind of weird.
But that's okay; Kent likes weird just fine.
"Go over there," Mayer tells him.
"This is your chance."
"I thought you said he was boring and pretentious."
"Maybe he is." Mayer shrugs.
"But he's hot, and you need to get laid."
"I second that," Jayce adds, helpful.
"The getting laid part, not the hot part.
He's alright, but too tall."
Mayer and Kent both turn to look at him in incredulity.
"What," Jayce says defensively.
"I like short guys!"
Kent swallows hard.
He risks another glance at Lynch and their eyes meet across the coffeeshop.
This time, he does not look away as quick as before, holding Kent's gaze without shielding an inch.
"Okay, okay," Kent says with a sigh.
"I'll go if he keeps looking after a while."
"Coward," Mayer says under his breath, and Kent punches him in the arm.
"Asshole."
"Owl head."
"Bedhead."
"That's true."
Three other customers come in, highschool girls in their uniforms that couldn't be older than fiftteen, and Kent offers them a bright smile as he hands them their cappucinno, iced tea and espresso, which has them giggling as they mumble their chorus of thank you's.
Really, Kent loves his job.
He likes working with Mayer and Jayce, even if they don't stop him from flirting with hot customers that are definitely going to turn him down, and he likes learning about new drinks because some day he'd like to make them, if Mayer leaves this job before Kent does.
The money is alright, the schedule fits his classes nicely, most customers are nice, and he gets free coffee.
Yeah, he definitely likes this job.
Lynch is drilling a hole into his head, Kent is so aware of his piercing eyes focused on him.
He walks up to the counter to ask for another tea and that quiet, intense gaze has Kent messing up his name and apologising and offering to get him another cup.
"It's alright," Lynch says.
He fingers his camera's strap and speaks so low Kent has to lean in to hear him.
"I have an offer."
"Oho?"
"Shut up, Mayer." Kent chucks a sugar packet at Mayer and turns to Lynch again.
"My shift is over in half an hour if you can wait.
We kind of have an audience." As if on cue, two customers walk in, a couple holding hands and laughing.
"I'll wait." Lynch nods and goes back to his table.
This time it's Kent drilling a hole into his back, he can't get his eyes off him.
"
Nice
," Jayce says, grinning.
"Good job," Mayer adds, ruffling Kent's hair.
Kent is not so hopeful.
If Lynch wanted anything to do with him, he'd have called at some point, surely.
He had taken with him the paper cup with Kent's number on it, so it's not like Kent could make himself feel better by believing Lynch forgot to save his number, or threw the cup into the trash can and then ended up regretting it.
He takes off his apron when it's seven o' clock, and resists the temptation to look at himself in a spoon's reflection to check if his hair is okay.
Lynch probably just wants to ask if there's a spot available for another barista at the coffeeshop, or maybe offer Kent to hang out as friends.
It wouldn't be the first time that happens; that's how Mayer and him met, actually, when Kent first came to the shop as a customer and asked the barista with the feline smirk out, only for Mayer to turn him down but tell him that he thought Kent was cool and his weekend-casual volleyball team was just in need of a new player, if he was interested.
Maybe Lynch will be Kent's new friend.
Kent is more than okay with that.
There's always space for more friends, and he doesn't have anyone that talks to him about photography and maybe books and museums, which isn't really pretentious as far as Kent is concerned.
Lynch's finished his second cup of tea by the time Kent approaches him and sits down in front of him, trying not to fidget.
Okay, so maybe it'll take a little time to get used to being friends with the prettiest guy he's ever seen, if that's the route Lynch takes.
"So, uh.
Hi."
"Hi," Lynch replies, serious.
"Thanks for coming," he says, like Kent is the customer visiting his shop.
"First of all, before telling you, I'd like to say that you don't have to say yes out of compromise, if you're the kind of person to do that.
I need someone willing and serious about it.
It'll be better for me that you refuse if you aren't convinced."
"Okay?" Kent says, and it comes out sounding like a question because really, by this point he has no idea what to expect.
Sadomasochism?
It's always the quiet ones, they say.
Some manga club?
He doesn't seen any anime stickers on Lynch's camera.
"Shoot."
Lynch breathes in deeply.
"I need someone as a model for several weeks for a project.
I'm about to graduate from my photography class and my last assignment is taking pictures of someone else every day for a month, with certain conditions to meet; nothing out of the ordinary, and you don't have to actually model.
You seem..." He purses his lips, thoughful.
"Ideal for it, I guess."
"Oh."
"I would pay you, of course.
We can discuss how much as soon as you want, if you accept."