If I Hadn't Ordered Coffee
If I hadn't ordered the coffee, I would now still sit next to you. I would have followed you. But when your usual remained empty, I knew I missed you and your perfect violet eyes for the second time. Damn flower shop.
~x~
From his usual spot in the back of the flower shop, the station seemed more crowded than Gilbert Beildschmidt had ever seen it in his career as the local-flower-stand-guy in a store with too much flowers. He hummed a song and watered his favourite flowers first, before turning towards the waiting costumers in the small store. Flowers first, than the people who admireme, Gilbert often joked against one of his locals.
A young woman smiled politely towards him, placing a pot full red azalea on the counter. "It's a gift." She said, glancing over her shoulder to a man outside the store, who gazed at the signs to try to figure out his way inside the biggest station hall of Germany, before smiling towards Gilbert again with a dreamy smile. It was obvious, the woman was in love.
"You could always buy some roses, maybe a better gift." Gilbert offered with a little love-matchmaker-smile, but began to wrap the potted flowers in paper when the woman heavily blushed and stuttered that it was a gift for her mother since she was spending the holidays there.
The woman left the store after she paid, still blushing –making Gilbert know he was right about her- and with the gift in her hands she walked over to the man and together they left for their destination, Gilbert watched them through the store's glass windows and waved, hoping she waved back but the woman didn't noticed. Definitely in love.
Seeing the woman with probably the man of her dreams, made Gilbert think about the crush he had once, on the platforms of this specific station. It was now a year ago, since he last saw the young man who charmed his heart without knowing it.
Gilbert was younger, had just opened the flower shop with a friend and it was on his first shift alone when he noticed the stranger. He sat on a chair in the coffee store across. The biggest cup of coffee, a book on his lap and a bag with the Canadian flag on it. A foreigner. A cute one.
Every morning when Gilbert ordered coffee, the young man was already there. Mostly halfway his book and halfway his second cup of coffee. Violet eyes behind a pair of glasses, blonde bangs. Pretty cute foreigner. Bu Gilbert never had the guts to say something to him. Nor the stranger had.
He kept seeing the stranger for a week, but they never spoke. After a week the stranger didn't come back to his usual seat near the window, maybe he was tired of waiting 'till Gilbert made his move. The one he never made.
But his coffee was now different, without his mysterious stranger or the local coffee shop. Closed down.
Gilbert continued to help his costumers. A young couple in love, probably Italian since he couldn't understand then when they asked him something. An old woman who also wanted to know where platform six was, to wave her grandchildren goodbye. A man who forgot the birthday of his wife and a woman who bought a bouquet for her tenth anniversary. They were all happy and they made Gilbert feel as happy as they must have been.
With the woman leaving the shop, Gilbert sat on the counter in his old jeans and watched the people behind the glass window pass by. A toddler let go of his mother's hand to pick up his fallen teddy bear, which had slipped through his arm when his mother noticed they'd be late fore their train if they kept up their walking rate. The Italian couple who he had helped with their flowers, asking a different person to help them now. But then Gilbert's eyes caught his special one and his heart skipped a tiny beat when he noticed the bag with the Canadian Flag. The same one his foreigner owned!
When the stranger turned around, he saw those beautiful violet eyes again. Still as pretty as they were a year ago. But this time, Gilbert would stare in them. He'd know the person they belonged to. His eyes didn't left the foreigner, who went to the bookstore instead of sitting in his usual seat in the coffee store.
"Francis! Cover my shift for an hour, okay?" Gilbert shouted to the back to his friend Francis, who was busy making a bouquet for one of their local costumers. "No, mon compain! I'm busy and you promised to bring me coffee an hour ago! Where is it, I'm busy and thirsty?" Francis called back, a little irritated because he hadn't had his coffee at this hour for three times now. Gilbert was always late with everything.
"But it's important! Please?" Gilbert begged his friend and pulled his white apron. Francis turned around to face his friend, a rose between his teeth and three in his hand. "If you promise to bring me coffee first, than you can go and play in your free hour." He hadn't said the last words or Gilbert was already at the door with his jacket and his apron lying on the counter. "Thank you Francis! I owe you one!"
"My coffee first!" Francis shouted, but when he looked at the door, Gilbert was already gone. Now hoping Gilbert brought Francis him his coffee first, before catching up with an old friend and stay away for three hours like the last time Francis 'covered' his shift.
Gilbert ran towards the coffee store, thank God there was no line. He ordered three coffee and brought the one meant for Francis back to the flower shop as fast as he could without spilling the entire cup on a girl when he tripped over a lost suitcase on his chaotic way back. He placed the cup on the table and looked behind. The blonde foreigner was stood in the line of the coffee shop! There was still hope.
But his hope disappeared as he noticed the two costumers in the store and Francis was still not ready with the bouquet. Damn!
He quickly tried to help the two women, mixing up their flowers and accidentally dropping one the ground – trying to keep his eyes on the line in the store across. The blonde was still there. Now hoping he stayed there, Gilbert thought, sweeping up the broken potsherds with a broom. He hurried to the back to grab a new one, some French curses from Francis who only cursed in French if he was really mad, and apologized to the women. But when they noticed his dreamily glance they giggled like little schoolgirls and left the store with their flowers.
The foreigner was now sitting in his usual seat with a newspaper and a small cup of coffee. Still there. Gilbert picked up his cup of coffee, threw the other one away since the blonde had already and walked over to the door to finally meet his foreigner. "Gilbert wait!" Francis shouted sounding calmed down. Gilbert sighted and turned around.
"Why are you in such a hurry? You dropped a flowerpot! A pretty and expensive one!" Gilbert rolled his eyes, Francis with his love for money and pretty things. "Okay, you want to know? A year ago I saw this pretty stranger, I never had the courage to talk to him but now I don't want to waste anytime. So excuse me, I'm going to talk to 'my' foreigner." He opened the door and walked over to the coffee store. The seat was empty, but the newspaper was still there and the cup wasn't empty yet. Maybe the blonde was buying a new book – Gilbert remembered he always had a new book every day. He would come back.
Gilbert sat down next to the usual seat. And when the foreigner would come back, Gilbert would ask him his name and his number. They had to catch up some time, he thought with a grin. He took a sip from his coffee and waited. But the foreigner didn't come back and his coffee became cold.
~x~
Cheesiest Birthdayfic ever. I don't like it that much xD. It's sooooo not me, so not sad or dramatic, it's cheesy!
I'm not happy with it, I hope you still are D=
It was supposed to be a bit more dramatic, but when I wrote it I wasn't really in a dramatic or a perfect mood to write a dramatic but yet romantic love story about Gilbert and Matthew. Damn you, Spain with your Marukai and the Delicious Tomato Song! *waves fist in the air*
But I had written the summary first and later changes it a little to match this story.
But happy Birthday Liz! Hope you enjoy it. Because tomorrow it's my day! Maybe I continue this story when you become 18 or something, I don't know.
