Enjolras took a painfully long time to reply, which infuriated and stressed out Grantaire and cracked Eponine up. They were sitting at the café, with Grantaire checking his phone every two seconds, and then checking Eponine's.
"My boss says if you two don't buy something I have to kick you out, which I'd really rather not do," Eponine and Grantaire looked up. The guy looked familiar, like one of the debate team boys. He was very attractive, with dark curls and creamy skin and hazel eyes. Grantaire noticed that Eponine seemed slightly uncomfortable in his presence, and he just seemed delighted to have an excuse to be talking to them.
"And exactly how are you going to go about kicking us out?" Eponine said, innocently smiling, but clearly implying something. The guy had to stop for a moment to think about how to respond; Eponine had a way of saying things that people didn't know how to respond to, and she loved it.
"Well there are a number of methods I normally use," he said, tilting his head and smiling at her. She just looked at her nails, not even noticing the way he was looking at her.
Grantaire coughed, trying to dissolve the tension between them, "I'm sorry, sir, but do we know you from somewhere?" he asked. The guy smiled again, his eyes still following the way Eponine was finger-combing her hair.
"Perhaps, I know a lot of people. I'm Courfeyrac," he took a seat at the third seat at the table. Eponine sighed.
"Do you even work here?" she asked, and Grantaire watched his face crumple for a minute but then resume its confident, flirtatious composure.
"Gosh, Eponine, don't you ever listen when I'm talking?" he asked. Grantaire picked up his phone again to check if Enjolras had texted him.
"No," she said, smiling.
Well I suppose if I can't immediately persuade you into becoming extremely studious through one text message, a coffee won't hurt.
Grantaire could feel his heard beat faster, and held back the urge to text back 'you can persuade me to do anything Eponine was being difficult.'
"We'll have a coffee!" Grantaire said, hoping that then Courfeyrac would leave and he could bombard Eponine with questions about him and tell her that Enjolras texted him back. Courfeyrac nodded and went back to make their coffee.
"Eponine!" Grantaire whispered, "Who is that and what happened between you two?" he asked, still remembering the way he couldn't stop smiling, the way she had taken no notice.
"We hooked up. It was a one-time thing, I mean technically a few times, but you know. It's totally over, a no-emotions kind of thing," she said, "We barely knew each other's names," she laughed. Grantaire felt awful for him, not that Eponine and him weren't going through the exact same thing, but it was still incredibly painful to watch someone in a state like that interact with the one they can't have.
"Well he knew your name, and has probably written it in his diary a million times with little hearts around it and a picture of your future wedding," he said, laughing. Eponine looked at him like he was crazy.
"That's nonsense. It was freshman year. He's been with like, every girl at this school. I had almost forgotten," she said; Grantaire could almost feel the boy's pain as Eponine talked so freely about how she didn't care.
"Eponine, I guess you didn't see how he was looking at you, and I mean he's hot- not Enjolras-hot but he's hot."
Eponine rolled her eyes, gesturing to the fact that her admirer was returning with Enjolras' coffee.
"Thank you," Grantaire said politely.
"You are very welcome," he said, his eyes almost begging Eponine to look at him, but still smiling.
"Have a nice day, Courf," she said, standing up and taking the coffee from his hands and smiling. Grantaire smiled, thinking that Eponine's smile and wishing him a good day probably made his day.
"Hey, are you two dating?" he asked, just as Eponine had turned her back to him and Grantaire was still staring at the text message from Enjolras. To answer, they both just laughed, "I didn't think so. See you 'round, Eponine, and nice meeting you, er, sorry I forgot your name," he said.
"I didn't tell you, I'm Grantaire," he said, sort of flattered that this senior cared enough to ask his name.
"Well, take care of Eponine, 'Taire!" he said, cheerfully heading over to another table as Eponine grabbed Grantaire's hand and quickly led him out of the building.
