Dean gave his details to the employee managing appointments and wandered over to look at the headphone display while he waited for his name to be called. He didn't have too on to wait before a chipper redheaded girl came bounding his way.
"Dean Ambrose? Hi, I'm Becky, I'll be helping you out today...phone isn't it...come on over here and grab a seat."
He hopped up onto the stool she had pointed out at the end of the busy tech support bench, next to a well built guy with an intricate tattoo peeking out from beneath his shirt sleeve. The tattooed man was staring resignedly at the screen of a tablet, blank save for a logo in the centre of the screen. Becky picked it up and tapped at the display.
"No sign of life? Ok, I'll just take this out back so one of the specialists can take a look, won't be long."
Dean watched the video screens on the wall for a moment before deciding that it would probably be a good idea to be ready for Becky when she returned. He pulled his phone from his pocket and switching it on, laid it on the bench.
"Woah, man. How does that even still work?"
He spun round to the source of the question, the tablet owner beside him. The man nodded towards Dean's phone, the screen shattered into so many pieces that it was barely even possible to make out anything it showed.
Dean shrugged at the guy, taking in as he did so the man's neatly trimmed goatee framing a pleasant smiling mouth, his warm brown eyes casting an appraising glance over Dean in turn. He sat up a little straighter and smiled back, his own gaze travelling down the man's broad chest to his thick, denim clad thighs.
"Who knows? But it's not much good to me when I can't see who's calling or answer a text. It could be the asshole ex responsible for me throwing the thing and smashing the screen trying to call. I sure as hell don't don't want to listen to him begging me to take him back."
No reaction from the man at his insinuation that his ex was an ex-boyfriend. This was promising.
"I hope you're able to get it fixed...and that the asshole leaves you alone..."
A large warm hand settled on Dean's knee.
"...nothing worse than trying to move on when someone's trying to hold you back."
Dean's eyes flickered down to the hand on his leg and back up to the face of it's owner.
"Right. So, our guys have done the install, I just need you to wait here while it reboots so we can be sure you can log back in with no problems before we're done."
The sudden reappearance of Becky made them both jump. She took in the scene across the bench and grinned.
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation there lads."
She plugged the tablet into a loose charger cable and set it in front of it's owner, turning her attention to Dean.
"Ok, this looks like it should just be a simple replacement, I can see you're still under warranty so there'll be no extra cost. We've got a little bit of a backlog so it might take up to an hour. You're welcome to wait, or you can call back for it later.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he could see that tattoo guy was trying very hard not to look overly interested in what his decision would be. An hour was a long time to sit in the store, but it would give him plenty of time to get to know the other man, at least to get his name and his number. No contest really.
"I'll w…"
"Dean! There you are!"
He looked round to the entrance and swore under his breath.
"Oh for fuck's sake...gimme a break..."
The tattoo guy leaned in and asked quietly if that was the ex.
"No. It's my roommate Seth...I guess he got bored waiting for me."
Seth finally made his way through the crowded store to Dean. He stared at the broken phone and tutted impatiently.
"Not fixed yet? You've been here forever. What's the hold up?"
Becky gave him a professional smile and repeated what she had just told Dean about the slight delay and the time it would take to replace the broken part.
"An hour? We'll come back. Come on, Dean."
Without giving him any further chance to speak, he pulled Dean from his stool and dragged him towards the door. Glancing back over his shoulder, he gave the tattooed guy an apologetic shrug, the man raising his hand in a sad little wave in return.
Twenty minutes and two stores later, Seth stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Dean.
"What is wrong with you? You've been moping since we left the phone store. It's only a phone Dean, you'll get it back...jeez...OW!"
His dramatic eyeroll was interrupted by Dean whacking him on the upper arm and glaring at him fiercely.
"I'm not moping over my phone. Did you not see the big guy sitting next to me? The very attractive guy sitting next to me?"
"He was ok I suppose, that girl who was helping you was hotter...oh."
"Don't you want me to be happy, Seth? You're supposed to be my friend…"
"I'm sorry. Really sorry."
"Come on, I'll let you try to buy my forgiveness back with ice cream while we wait to go back."
-x-x-x-x-x
His hour up, Dean dragged a still apologising Seth back to collect his phone. Spotting Becky's flaming red hair with ease, Dean headed to her station while Seth got distracted by a display model of the latest laptop.
He glanced around, just on the off chance that tattoo guy was still in the store, apparently a lot less subtly than he thought.
"If you're looking for the big fella, I'm afraid he left already, but perhaps I can distract you with this."
Becky handed him back his phone, screen repaired, leaning over the bench as she grinned excitedly.
"Screen's as good as new again, if you want to check a few of your apps, see how they're showing…"
She gave him a conspiratorial wink.
"...you might want to start with your pictures...let's just say I had a little help in testing."
Curious, Dean opened up his photos, delighted when he saw that the first item was a shot of tattoo guy, holding up his repaired tablet, a message typed on the screen.
Call me! Roman.
(I'm in your contacts!)
(Becky rocks.)
I genuinely witnessed the seed of this story happening next to me while sitting waiting for my phone to be repaired one night, though instead of roommate, it was an angry older sibling impatiently dragging one half of the pair away. I only hope their tech guy was as enterprising as Becky!