The first time I saw him

I met him on a Tuesday. It was lunch time and he was ordering a coffee, one spot in front of the line that I was. He was tall, and had a nice figure, with enough muscle to be buff but not enough to seem intimidating. I was at a café with some friends from uni class and we were having lunch. They sent me up to the counter to get more drinks as they do, because I hardly ever said no to things like that. I was too nice apparently. He turned around drink in hand and bumped right into me, spilling hot coffee all over my white blouse.

I jumped backwards and hissed in pain as the liquid seeped through my shirt and onto my skin, burning me. He used his air magic, as an elemental to dry the mess up quickly and grabbed my shoulders to steady me as I was about to fall over, trying to get away from this idiot who wasn't looking where he was going. I looked up to see his face staring at me with concern. He was beautiful and I was speechless. His blond hair fell down over his eyes a little bit and his face was soft and kind looking.

"Are you ok?" he asked, a little embarrassed probably because he wasn't this clumsy, which was the excuse I was going to hear in a minute no doubt. "I wasn't looking where I was going, sorry. But I am known to be clumsy so it can't be helped. Can I buy you a coffee to make up for spilling mine on you?" He smiled a little as he straightened me up and stepped back a bit. I looked over at my friends, Amy and Ben to see that they were laughing so hard at my complete lack of game. Well I would just have to prove them wrong now won't I? They could get their own drinks.

"Sure, that would be great." I said confidently and looked back up at this stranger to see that he was smiling happily. He turned back around to the counter and asked them for two more coffees and asked them to bring them over to his table as he didn't want to spill them if he did it himself. He really knew how to charm people. The lady at the counter, she looked to be about two of three years older than me, but this was a sorcerer's café so god knows how old she really is, was just about as red as a tomato blushing at this guy's handsome compliments and charm.

I declared at that moment in my mind that I would not get caught up in his whimsical ways. I did not need that right now, especially with exams around the corner. He led me to a table at the back of the room, just out of sight from my friends and pulled out a chair for me. I sat and then watched as he took his own. "So, do you spill coffee on people often?" I asked a little harsher than I had meant it to sound. He laughed a hearty laugh and smiled at me. "No, this is the first time I have done that. Again, I am really sorry." I smiled back at him, as he obviously was being sincere.

I wondered who he was and what he did. He looked like he would be good at doing anything. I blushed as I imagined him doing something to me that really wasn't appropriate considering that I had only met him five minutes ago. He looked at me curiously and I looked down, brushing me hair in front of my face to hide my blush. "What's your name?" He asked after a few minutes of awkward silence. I looked up again to see that our coffee had just arrived and I went to take a sip before answering. "Legacy Grace and you?" I wiped froth of my face after I said it, as I noticed in the reflection of his sunglasses that were hanging off of his shirt that I had some on my face.

"Dexter Vex." He said and I nearly spit out my next sip of coffee. No wonder Amy and Ben had been laughing so hard at me. This was the Dexter Vex. One of the dead men, legendary and badass. I looked at him again and realised that he perfectly matched the description that Amy had given me after she went to the sanctuary one time and had seen him there with Skulduggery and Valkyrie. I couldn't believe it though. I was actually having a conversation with a dead men member. Wow. I realised that I may have been staring so I composed myself and reverted to my usual sarcastic self.

"And how's that working out for you?" I asked, not really sure that I could say anything else that wouldn't give away my awe of being in his presence. He was basically a celebrity, in the magical community anyway. "Great, I think." He responded with a chuckle. His voice sounded smooth and deep with a hit of amusement mixed in that made me laugh too. "Well that's good." This conversation was going nowhere and I lost all hope of it ever coming back from the grave yard it had entered.

"I like you." He said and I stared at him in shock and disbelief. I think that if my jaw could detach from my head it would have ran away, I was so shocked. He chuckled again at my expression and continued. "You're interesting." Was that a good thing or a bad thing, I wondered, as I picked up my jaw from its resting place on the ground. "What do you do?" he asked me.
"I'm in university. I'm studying magical history." A look of recognition washed over his face. "So that's why you basically had a heart attack when I told you who I was?" he asked, now looking as if he was trying not to laugh. I nodded and blushed, looking down at my half empty cup of coffee.

"Well, at least you don't hate me like some of the other Sorcerer's around here do. Just because I had a remnant stuck in me for a while doesn't mean I changed much and I certainly didn't do any of those things. It was the remnant. I don't even remember half of if." I looked on as he raged about how he really hated remnants and tuned out most of what he was saying. I was still in awe of the fact that he was actually talking to me. Why, I wondered, was he talking to me in the first place? He could have just apologised for spilling his coffee on me and left, without any of the fuss of doing this but here he was doing it.

He looked at me expectantly and I realised that I had completely zoned out and went off into my own little world. I smiled sheepishly. "Could you repeat the question?" I asked, assuming that he had, in fact asked one. "I was wondering what you where day dreaming about. You were completely oblivious to what I was saying the last ten minutes so I gave up. I have been staring at you for the last two with no reaction, so I thought I should say something just in case you have some kind of disorder. You could have been dying right in front of me and I wouldn't have known what was going on. And I really like to be able-"

"I was daydreaming not having an epileptic fit so calm down. I was just wondering why you were talking to me. You could have just apologised to me and left with no hassle, but you didn't. Why?" I interrupted him and he looked annoyed at that but his attitude changed when I asked him why. "I heard you laughing over with your friends and found it beautiful, your laugh I mean." I blushed and picked at a strand of my hair, twirling it around my finger as he called my laugh beautiful. Nobody had ever said that about me before.

"I thought to myself, anyone who has such a beautiful laugh is worth knowing and so I was going to come over and talk to you but then I saw that you had left your seat. You were gone and I had lost my chance. But when I turned around at the counter and saw you standing behind me I was so startled that I spilt my drink and it ended up on you. I had an excuse to talk to you. I come here very Tuesday and I've seen you before, either reading or studying or talking to your friends and I couldn't help but be intrigued." I stared at him again, I was shocked. He found me that interesting? Wow. "I don't know what to say…" I trailed off and took a big drink of my coffee. "How about you say yes to having dinner with me on Friday night?" He asked and I nodded before I could stop myself.