The door to my building crashed open. I was struggling to hold all the different coffee cups, my arms waving about like I was spinning plates. As I stumbled forward into the main office, Goldstein was on me like a shot.
"ANDERSON!" He bellowed. "IN MY OFFICE NOW!" All the other employees stopped and stared. I saw Ryder, my desk buddy and good friend, offer me a sympathetic smile, along with the confusion in his eyes as to why I had so much coffee.
As I managed to bundle myself and my goods into Goldstein's office, I saw from the look on his face that I was in trouble.
"Late AGAIN! He exclaimed, his little chubby face turning pick with exertion. "That's every day this week! And why do you have so much goddamn COFFEE?!" Battling to keep the cups level, I placed them down on the desk, ready to explain myself.
"I know I'm late again Goldste- I mean, Sir." Goldstein nodded as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "And I value this job more than anything, you must understand that. But today the situation was honestly beyond my control."
"What was it this time Anderson? Your alarm clock broke? A dog jumped out in front of the bus? You banged some hooker last night and were paying your due?" I paused slightly, for a second offended by the accusations that were pouring out of my balding, rather overweight boss' mouth. Then I pushed it aside.
"No none of those." Stepping back, I opened my arms and pointed at all the coffee cups now displayed neatly on the table.
"I bought coffee for everyone!" Goldstein looked unamused. His brow furrowed and I wondered if Sam's wonderful plan was about to backfire.
"For everyone?" My boss asked, sounding suspicious. "Why?"
"We're all hard working people." I replied, "We need a pick-me-up sometimes. And I figured what a better way to start a morning of story finding and reporting!" Selecting one particular cup, I pushed it forward towards him. "I trust you like your full fat latte with cocoa powder." Goldstein paused. For a second he seemed confused, wary even. Picking up the cup slowly, he took a sniff and realised that yes, this was his usual coffee order.
"Plus the coffee store want us to run a story about what kind of coffee our readers prefer and why." I said, adding to my already very persuasive (or so I thought) speech. Goldstein took a long sip, holding the coffee in his mouth for a unusually long time, before finally swallowing and nodding his head.
"You know what Anderson." He said. "When I saw that clock tick past nine am, I was going to fire you today." My smile wavered slightly, hands gripping onto the nearest coffee cup tightly. "But this…" He continued "…This is initiative. Congratulations Anderson – you live to fight another day. Now hand out the rest of these cups." Elation coursed through me. Grabbing hold of the cups, I rushed out of the office, thanking my lucky stars for Sam and his beautiful beautiful brain.
Everyone was staring when I exited the office. I guess they had been expecting a scene, so when I appeared looking jubilant they all quickly rushed back to their computer screens.
"Here you go!" I said happily, plonking the coffee down on everyone's desks. "Coffee for everyone!" A couple of them looked confused, but simply nodded and took the cups. When I finally reached my desk Ryder looked the most confused of all.
"Did you seriously just buy everyone in the office coffee?" He asked.
"This coffee just saved my ass." I replied, sitting down triumphantly in my seat and taking a long sip of my latte. I pushed Ryder's drink over to him and he eyed it suspiciously.
"I didn't realise we were into bribes now."
"Oh come on!" I said. "You know what Goldstein is like! He's an idiot!"
"Well you were late, again." My friend replied.
"Yes, technically I was late." I continued, wheeling a little closer to him again. "But this time I had a really good fucking reason."
"And what was that?"
"Dude, I think I'm in love."
For a second Ryder's expression wavered. The two of us had been friends a while. He was kinda geeky looking, and very Jewish, so when I had been assigned his desk upon my employment at The Forward I had been less than pleased. Turned out though, he was a genuine guy. I was pretty sure that for the last year or so he had been kind of in love with me, but he didn't want anyone in the office to know he was gay, so he had never made a move. I might have considered it, but we never spent that much time together outside the office.
"You're in love?" I could see the scepticism in his eyes. Taking another long glug of my coffee I slammed it down on the table and grinned.
"I know it sounds stupid, but this guy… He's just…" For a second I got lost in Sam again. His smile filled up my brain and I felt like giggling. "We talked for so long I missed my stop. It was his idea to go get the coffee." As I looked at my cup again I realised just how much this guy had done. Not only had he saved my job, he had also given me a new lease of life. "I am so glad I caught that bus."
"Did you get his number?" Ryder asked, sounding a little too inquisitive.
"No." I suddenly realised, despondency settling over me. "But I do know where he works."
I only had an hour for lunch, so I took a cab to 12th street and ran the rest of the way. Gotham Bar and Grill was huge, and imposing. As I walked into the main reception the maitre de eyed me with what could only be described as distain.
"May I help you sir?" She asked. I smiled, wanting to be polite, but also looking over her to see if I could spot Sam.
"Er, I'd like lunch please." I said jovially. The maitre de shot a knowing look over to one of her co-workers, but let me inside anyway.
The restaurant was busy. As I was lead forward I scanned the room, but couldn't spot him anywhere.
"Excuse me," I asked, moving to tap the maitre de lightly on the shoulder but then thinking better of it. "Do you know if Sam is working today?"
"Sam?" She replied. "You mean Sam Evans?"
"Yes." I replied, hoping she was right.
"Yup." My server replied. I guessed that with my attire she had forgone her overly polite approach. "Checked in this morning."
"Can you sit me in his section?" As the woman turned to look at me, she scanned her eyes up and down, judging me.
"Ok." She said after a while, rolling her eyes. "If that's what you really want."
As I sat down at the ridiculously posh table, I checked my reflection in the fish knife. It was too thin to really see, but I hoped I looked ok. As I smoothed back my hair the maitre de dumped a menu on my table and sighed.
"Bon appetite." I nodded a thanks, not looking up at her, and then grabbed the menu. I knew this place was expensive, but surely I could afford a lunch. As my eyes scanned through the dishes, looking for something I wanted, suddenly I noticed the price.
"Holy hell!" At that moment I looked up. A waiter was standing in front of me, a waiter with blonde hair, and a rather shocked look on his face,
"Sam!" I exclaimed. He had changed out of the outfit I had seen on the bus, dressed in smart black trousers and a white shirt that only outlined his defined figure even more. A neat back bow tie sat around his neck – it made my own tie I was wearing seem shabby.
"Blaine?" He replied, obviously surprised to see me. "What are you doing here?" A couple of the other diners had turned to look at us – they were eyeing me with severely disdainful looks, but right now I didn't care.
"I came for lunch." I said, holding up the menu and smiling. "Although with my budget, I think I might just order a coffee." Sam smiled. My heart flipped inside my chest but I thankfully managed to contain my face.
"How did you know where I worked?" He asked after a second or so. Suddenly I wondered if he thought I was stalking him.
"You told me." I replied quickly, wanting to make it clear I wasn't some creepy weirdo. Sam paused for a minute, thinking. Then he nodded.
"Oh yeah, I did." He smiled again and I relaxed.
"I wanted to thank you." I continued, moving onto why I was really here. "That trick you said with the coffee really worked. My boss didn't fire me!"
"He was going to fire you?" Again I realised my mistake. Blushing, I scratched the back of my neck nervously and Sam smiled again,
"Well he didn't. And it never would have happened without you."
"Glad to be of service." I could tell the other diners were getting impatient, so I tried to wrap up what I wanted to say.
"Basically, I was wondering…" Shyness crept over me again. I wanted so badly to sound confident, but I just couldn't around Sam. He was breathtaking. "Could I take you out for dinner sometime? To say thanks?" Suddenly Sam blushed. The colour in his cheeks was beautiful, and for a second I wanted to reach up and touch it.
"Me?" He asked, sounding surprised.
"Yes, you. Definitely you." Sam bit his lip. He held a menu over his face for a second, obviously trying to straighten himself up. Then he brought it down and looked back at me.
"Yes, I would love to go out with you." He said. My heart soared. "But no dinner. Something else."