It was early morning of what was to be, a very long day for Gavin Free. It was about 6:30. Which was before his 7 o'clock meeting, his 8 o'clock conference, his 9 o'clock think tank and so on. Being the CEO of a big gaming company wasn't exactly easy, you know.
It wasn't until that morning that Gavin expressed any sort of emotion that didn't involve his work.
It was time for his morning coffee. He normally heads straight into Starbucks and orders a decaf caramel macchiato tall, but due to construction on the roads, the Starbucks closest to his work was 20 minutes out of the way. So he settled for a small coffee shop - not a part of any big chain - that was only five minutes away from the skyscraper/apartment complex in which he called home.
He took a step into this coffee shop, smelling freshly brewed coffee and hearing laughter and chatting instead of the normal dull mood he would get at Starbucks, which was typically distasteful designer perfumes and boring small-talk. The place was cute, almost elegant in its appearance. It was far below any standards Gavin was used to. But then again, where else was he supposed to get his morning fix?
"Welcome to Coffee With A Smile, what can I get you?" The apron-wearing young man behind the counter asked cheerfully.
Gavin smoothed down the collar of his pristine Hugo Boss suit before replying, "can I have a skinny latte?"
"Sorry sir, but we're out of skimmed milk. I can make you a normal latte?" The boy, no older than 25 (almost the same as Gavin), offered with an eager smile. After all, this was Coffee With A Smile.
"How about a macchiato?" Gavin queried, his eyes skimmingquickly over the rather empty and dull menu-board that had been hand-written in an unusually messy style of handwriting.
"Unfortunately, I can only offer you an espresso, an americano, a latte, or a mocha. Other than that, I can offer you tea?" The boy informed hopefully. Gavin looked down at his black name tag that had been pinned haphazardly onto his green apron, it read in messy, unneat, bright white handwriting, 'Ray'.
For a split-second, Gavin was about to get irritated; how could a coffee shop not have skimmed milk?! Then he actually got a good look at Ray; the fairly cute young barista, around his own age, with adorable dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. Nah, he was far too gorgeous for Gavin to be inexplicably arrogant to.
"Uhh… I'll just have an americano, please." Gavin said, his voice nervous for the first time in what felt like years. He didn't wanna make a fool of himself in front of this gorgeous young man who just happened to smirk at him in a teasing way before scribbling down Gavin's order and handing the scrap of paper to another man behind the counter who seemed to be busy actually making the drinks rather than taking orders. But by the looks of his sour demeanour, he wasn't really the kind of person Gavin would like to be served by anyway, especially when he was currently being tended to by this handsome young man.
"So, I assume you're more used to those chain-company coffee shops?" Ray asked, glancing quickly and amusedly over to the grumpy young redhead behind him, who was busy actually making Gavin's drink.
"Yeah, I usually grab a Starbucks before work… I'm more used to it, I guess." Gavin answered with a grin; not just at Ray's enthusiasm for some random customer such as Gavin, but for the conversation as a whole. He actually showed himself to be fairly sweet and kind as they talked, Ray often showing his enthusiasm for various video games and TV shows that Gavin also shared an interest in. Such as their joint enthrallment of the Halo franchise and the unusually unpopular arcade game Speedrunners (which they both thought was amazingly fun, considering the surprisingly low cost of the game).
They talked colloquially as Gavin waited for the other barista to make his coffee, Ray obviously only being the server as no one else had entered to be waited upon neither was anyone already waiting for their order to be created. Coffee With A Smile was actually a fairly cute cafe, Gavin suddenly found himself regretting not visiting there more often.
But when Gavin's take-away coffee order arrived, Ray quickly scribbled something on it with his black marker pen before handing it to Gavin with a cheeky wink that he had quickly grown to enjoy.
"I hope to see you again, sir." Ray said with a fond smile at Gavin, just before he turned around to leave.
"Gavin, my name's Gavin." He replied with an unusually natural smile for this time of day before his morning caffeine fix.
Gavin gave Ray a quick (yet unnervingly shy) wave before exiting the door he'd entered through, smiling at the attractive man he had just met once more before actually noticing the familiar scruffy scrawl on the side of the take-away cup.
'Ray aka. BrownMan :)' had been written alongside his cellphone number in sharpie on the side of the cup. BrownMan was obviously his gamertag; the pair of them had discussed Xbox games in enough depth for them to actually have a full-on conversation about games they enjoyed equally, which was something that Gavin surprisingly didn't have as much of as he would have liked. Considering he worked as a CEO of a gaming company, his employees frequently showed enthusiasm for games that they didn't actually enjoy just to get Gavin's attention, rather than share a conversation with Gavin about games they actually liked to play. Which was what Gavin would have preferred, and which was what he instantly got out of Ray before he even stated his name.
Gavin smirked, certainly looking forward to the phone calls, texts and conversations over Xbox Live he was hopefully going to share with Ray. This guy had been cute and friendly - certainly something Gavin hadn't often seen at work - so it was obvious that it was going to be something to look forward to sharing with the young barista he had pretty much just fallen in love with.
Gavin Free wasn't usually one to believe in love at first sight; he usually thought that Romeo and Juliet, and other tales like that were tragic and unrealistic (more because of their pathetic attempt at realism rather than the numerous deaths that took place within the span of a couple of days after two strangers from feuding families met each other, than anything else). But Ray seemed different. And if Gavin was completely honest, he had absolutely changed his opinion about love at first sight.
