Percy's P.O.V
Annabeth agreed to hang out with me even though I was covering for mom at the shop again.
I hardly ever cover the shop, but it was mom and Paul's anniversary and I loved decorating for Christmas, so I didn't see a downside, until Annabeth had asked to hang out. I wasn't expecting her to agree to hang out at work on her day off, I was pleasantly surprised. I was also really looking forward to it, as I really enjoyed her company.
I didn't know if she knew I was the boss's son, I hadn't mentioned it and she hadn't asked how I knew my mom, so I assumed she didn't know.
I think Leo and Frank are the only employees that actually know. I somehow always seem to crossover with their shifts whenever I have to cover for mom. Not that I mind, Frank and I are really good friends and Leo's pretty cool too, I don't know him as well as I know Frank, but we get on really well and we have a similar sense of humour.
Annabeth seemed to get my sense of humour too, which was great. Not many people appreciated my sarcastic humour, I was glad she did.
All I had to do now, was make sure not to make a fool of myself by doing something stupid, like falling off the ladder or stapling my hand. Fingers crossed! Though she'd seen a photo of me in a princess tiara yesterday, which in hindsight, I regret sending. But she'd still asked to hang out after seeing it, so it can't have gone down too badly.
I was early to the coffee shop today. I'll admit I was a little nervous, I really wanted today to go well, there was just something so captivating about Annabeth. I just wanted to get to know her and spend time with her, and maybe sometime in the not-too-distant future, take her out on a date.
Frank was on shift tonight, and he knew I was hanging out with Annabeth while decorating the shop. He'd said he was happy to just serve the customers and that he'd let me know if he needed any help. Fortunately, Friday nights were normally really quiet in comparison to other nights, as it was the first night of the weekend and usually a date night, because people didn't have work the following day. If mom hadn't wanted to decorate the shop for Christmas, I suspect she would have just had me on stand-by as Frank could easily handle a quite Friday night.
"Hey Percy, you ready for your date?" Frank asked as he put on his apron.
"It's not a date Frank; we're just hanging out while I decorate the shop for Christmas. If it were a date, I'd have put more effort into it than bringing her to her place of work." I said rolling my eyes at him exasperatedly.
"But you do want it to be a date" He said to me.
"Well yeah she's amazing" I said.
"Perce, I think you might be in love" Frank said to me laughing.
"Behave Frank; we only met a few days ago. Besides you're one to talk, how's Hazel?" I teased. Frank blushed but smiled, he hadn't asked Hazel out yet but we both knew he wanted too.
Frank went to the counter to serve a customer and I went into the back storeroom to get the first box of Christmas decorations. I commandeered the table in the back corner of the shop and set to untangling Christmas lights. I was about halfway through untangling two sets of snowflake lights when Annabeth arrived. She spotted me immediately and waved which I returned before she went to order a drink.
"Hey" she said, "Do you want a hand with that?" she asked, and I realised that she hadn't gone to get herself a drink but to hang up her coat behind the counter.
"Hey, yes please, you can only get so far before you start re-tangling on your own. Could you take the right handset?" I asked handing her what I'd managed to untangle so far.
"Sure, where are you going to put them?" She asked.
"Well, I was thinking about going corner to corner diagonally crossing in the middle, so it looks like the snowflakes are falling from the roof. Or is that a bad idea?" I asked.
"I think it's a great idea, and definitely different to last year" She smiled, and I tried to remember where mom had put them last year, but I couldn't recall.
"Where were they last year again?" I asked.
"They were behind the counter hanging as if it was snowing over the counter." She told me and I nodded I could picture that now she'd said it.
"How are you going to attach them?" She asked.
"Well, I thought about sellotaping over the wire to keep them in place, but I thought that might damage the paint when taking them down, so I'm going to use a staple gun because the holes should be tiny." She nodded in approval and helped me get the first set up; we were putting the plugs at the counter end because it was out of customer's reach then.
"So, as we decorate do you want to play 20 questions?" I asked.
"Sounds like a plan" She replied so that's exactly what we did.
Ψ
Piper's P.O.V
Jason had taken me out to dinner and then to ice skate at central park. The whole date felt really rather magical. We ate dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, which wasn't that far from central park, the food was amazing, but the company was better. I was really impressed that he'd remembered I had said I was a vegetarian the other night.
All through dinner we'd talked about anything and everything, it was really comfortable conversation. I learnt that he had a sister called Thalia and that she was a veterinarian in the city. I learnt that he was majoring in travel and business and that we actually shared a business class on a Tuesdays. I couldn't believe I'd never noticed him before, he said it was possibly because he always sat in the back, who knows.
I learnt that he was slightly short sighted and needed glasses but preferred contacts. I learnt that he was a stickler for following the rules, he'd never skipped a class, not even in high school. Even I had skipped at least one class in high school. I learnt that he got his figure from playing various sports and was actually on the college basketball team, he also invited me to watch his next home game.
I learnt many other things and I also told him many things. The only thing I didn't tell him was who my dad was. Don't get me wrong, I loved my dad to pieces, but there was a certain attention I got when people knew who he was that just took over. And the fact that my dad was a famous actor, wasn't the most interesting thing about me, so I hardly ever told anyone.
Annabeth had put it together almost straight away and didn't treat me any differently. I got the impression Jason was going to be the same, but I'd wait to find out.
"Do you fancy getting a coffee or hot chocolate to warm up?" Jason asked once we'd finished skating on the ice. It was almost 9pm and the temperature had really started to plummet, a warm drink sounded perfect.
"That would be great, y'know we're not far from Jackson's and Percy and Annabeth are hanging out there tonight." I replied, thinking I could check in on my friends 'not a date.'
"Oh, you know Percy?" He asked.
"No, not at all – but I'm like 99% sure Annabeth likes him. They met after the icing sugar thing the other night." I told him and he nodded thoughtfully like he was putting something together. "What?" I asked.
"I'm just thinking of my interactions with Percy since that day and actually that would make sense." He said.
"What would make sense?" I asked.
"That Percy met someone" He told me as we turned the corner on to the street of Jackson's.
"You think he likes her too?" I asked as we came to a stop outside of the shop.
He looked through the window and smiled and responded, "See for yourself."
I followed his line of site into the store; it was only Percy, Annabeth and Frank, it was nearing closing, so I wasn't surprised. Frank was cleaning down one of the coffee machines. Percy and Annabeth were talking and laughing and well, flirting, pretty obviously in my opinion. Annabeth looked so happy; it was really great to see.
A voice brought me out of my trance of watching Annabeth and Percy. "Hey little brother" a tall athletic looking girl with spiked black hair said, she looked nothing like Jason bar her bright blue eyes.
"Hey Thals, what brings you here?" He asked hugging Thalia, the vet I remembered from earlier.
"Coffee," She said like it was obvious and then looked at me, "You must be Piper, Annabeth's told me a lot about you".
"Hi" I said, and I started to have memories of seeing Thalia in the coffee shop a lot, I just thought she was a regular, I didn't realise Annabeth and she were friends. "All good things I hope".
She nodded and smiled. "Shall we?" she said opening the door and letting us walk through first, if she'd spotted Annabeth before we entered, she hadn't mentioned it.
"Hey Frank, can I get my usual, Jason, Thalia what do you want?" I asked as Frank set to getting me my usual Americano.
"Just a black coffee" Thalia said distracted, she was watching Annabeth and Percy laugh and decorate the Christmas tree.
"I'll have a black coffee too" Jason said.
"And two black coffees please Frank" I called over to him and he nodded.
Frank set three coffee cups on the counter and I paid for them and as he gave me my change, he noticed we were all watching Annabeth and Percy who seemed to be totally oblivious to us all.
"They've been like that for hours." Frank said.
"I've never seen her like this" Thalia said, "or him for that matter," she shook her head and thanked me for her coffee before departing.
"I would say I'd wait for her, but we've been here for a few minutes and she hasn't even noticed. I'll catch up with her when she gets home." I said and Jason nodded and smiled in agreement.
"I'll walk you; I'm going to have so much fun teasing PJ about this." He said.
"Bye Frank!" I said before we left the shop heading to my apartment.
"Jason, you can't tease him, you might ruin it." I said.
"What do you mean? He's my cousin it's what we do! He teased me about you" He replied.
I could see his point, but I'd never, I repeat, NEVER! Seen Annabeth that happy in all the time I'd known her. Even when she dated Josh back in freshman year, she wasn't that happy, I didn't want anything to ruin it.
"I just like seeing her happy, I don't want anything to ruin it" I told him truthfully, he seemed to consider this before answering me.
"Okay, I'm still going to tease him, but I promise not to take it too far" He said, and I guess it was the best I could hope for I mean boys will be boys, right?
Ψ
Annabeth's P.O.V
Hanging out with Percy last night had been so much fun. We managed to decorate the whole shop, it took us until 11pm, long after Frank had finished and closed up the shop, but we'd managed to decorate everything.
Percy had insisted on not leaving anything for Mrs. Blofis to do. He told me, that she'd really appreciate it if she didn't have to decorate anything in the morning, which I knew to be true. So, decorate we did, we strung up the snowflake lights, so they were hanging over the customer tables, we'd tinselled the back of every chair and booth, and the counter too. He'd put up a garland under the menu board that was above the counter which looked great. It was a classic deep Christmas green with silver and blue baubles, and a set of battery powered fairy lights.
We put up and decorated a tree in the back corner after moving table six; hopefully Mrs. Blofis doesn't mind the moving of table six. And the last thing we did after hanging the spare baubles from the roof and paper chains behind the counter, was to spray the windows with fake snow.
Percy had cans and cans of the stuff. He put the classic mounds of snow at the bottom of the window and he was going to stay longer to make paper snowflakes to stick to the window, when I suggested making a snowflake stencil instead. So that's what we did, and we added fake snow, snowflakes to the window too.
Ψ
I had actually never really taken to Christmas, because I never really felt included once the twins were born, which wasn't their fault but as a result I didn't go home to spend it with my dad, my step-mom, Helen, or the twins. Don't get me wrong we (my dad, Helen and I) get on better now, but our relationship was still strained and now the twins were older they were starting to notice. So rather than ruin their Christmas, I just stayed in New York on my own, much to Piper's disappointment, every year.
While Percy and I decorated the shop, we got to know each other more and it was really refreshing to have someone be so open about who they were with me. I didn't get that very often, the only people who were that open with me were Thalia and Piper.
I learnt that he was a marine biology major, that he hated calculus (I had offered to help him with that), that he worked in the local aquarium, part time, and that he liked to swim. Now that I thought about it, a lot of what he liked to do, and was interested in, related back to some form of water. I hadn't noticed last night.
I tried to put thoughts of Percy to the back of my mind as I got ready for work. I had volunteered, the first year I started at the coffee shop, to open on a Saturday morning and I've been doing it ever since. I didn't hear Piper get in last night, so I imagine she'd returned pretty late. I decided not to wake her, as she didn't have a shift today, I left a note by the TV and slipped out the door as quietly as possible and made my way to work.
I guess I must have some define force looking to balance out my good mood because about a block away from the shop I literally bumped into Luke again.
"Sorry" I said, and I heard a laugh.
"We really need to stop meeting like this Annabeth." Luke said to me smiling.
"Yeah, we do" I smiled a little, it was kind of awkward though, I still felt majorly uncomfortable around him. "I'm Sorry Luke, I really have to get to work" I said not wanting to draw out the awkwardness any longer.
"Oh, right okay, I guess I'll see you around" he said. I waved and continued on to the shop. I felt his eyes burning a hole into my back as I walked away. I shivered, and for the first time in a long time, it wasn't because of the cold.
Ψ
The Saturday morning rush took me by surprise, apparently a lot of New Yorkers had decided today was the day to get all their Christmas shopping done. Fortunately, Chris was on the shift with me and he was as quick as lightening on his feet. He took care of all the in-store orders, and I did all the ones to go.
Finally, around half past ten we reached a little bit of a lull this was also when Mrs. Blofis turned up.
"I have to hand it to Percy, when he said he wanted to decorate the shop, I hadn't expected it to look this magical." I smiled. I was glad she liked it.
"Morning Mrs. Blofis" I said as she passed me to go into the back.
"Morning Annabeth, morning Chris" she smiled as she greeted both of us "I've just got to do some paperwork, so I'll be in the office, if it gets too busy and you need a hand come and grab me." And with that she was gone.
"She's a really nice lady" Chris said, he'd only been working here a couple of weeks.
"Yeah, she is, great boss too." I replied, he nodded and went to take an order out to table nine.
Chris was what I called an all-business kind of guy. He came in, he worked, and he went home. We didn't talk much, and I suspected that that was the way he liked it. I didn't mind, I often liked to work in silence, it let me mull over projects for classes.
But today my mind couldn't stop drifting to my two chance meetings with Luke and how much they unsettled me. I couldn't place what it was about him that unsettled me, but there was definitely something.
"Excuse me miss?" a customer called out to me interrupting my thoughts.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, what can I get for you today?" I asked.
Ψ
Thalia's P.O.V
"Dude, again?" I heard the guy, who was working with Annabeth, hiss at some guy a couple of tables over.
The guy just shrugged and got up to leave, I couldn't see his face. I decided not to dwell on it, as I stretched my neck out after a long night shift at the clinic last night.
After I'd bumped into Jason and Piper last night, I'd headed off to my shift. I always take the night shifts at this time of year because so many animals get abandoned and brought in, usually at night. I hate it, in terms of that, I hate that the animals get abandoned, it wasn't fair. It's not like they understood what they'd done wrong, and it infuriated me beyond belief.
There were also many animals that got hit by cars because people weren't paying attention when they drove late at night. It made for busy work and I really didn't mind that.
Last night we had, a few injured dogs, a couple of abandoned dogs, as well and a really interesting one involving a pet tortoise that hadn't gone into hibernation yet, which was really unusual. I'd spent all night trying to coax the tortoise into what we call our hibernation fridges. Their actually like little incubators really, set at the perfect temperature for tortoises, among many other animals, to go into hibernation. Finally, at 4am, Bernie, that was his name, Bernie the tortoise, decided to give the incubator a go.
"Here's your tall black coffee, no sugar and cheese toasty" the guy said as he placed my order on the table.
"Thank you," I said looking at his name tag "Chris" he smiled and nodded before returning behind the counter.
Annabeth noticed I was here a few minutes later and waved; I smiled and returned the gesture. I always came in after my Friday nightshift. But I must confess this morning it wasn't just the coffee that drew me here. I was really curious to see Annabeth and how she was after her date, (was it a date? I didn't know), with Percy. I had to confess I was expecting her to look happier this morning, but something was bothering her I could tell. I decided to wait until she took her break to ask her, as I sat and enjoyed my coffee and toasty.
Ψ
About twenty minutes later, Annabeth sat down across from me and handed me a new coffee.
"Thanks" I said, "How are you?" I asked.
"Good, how are you?" she asked, but the 'good' felt a bit half-hearted.
"I'm fine, what did my Kelp Head of a cousin do now?" I asked.
"Kelp Head?" She asked and she looked genuinely confused.
"Percy," I said "What did he do? And don't say 'nothing', Annie, something's bothering you and I saw you two together here last night, so what did he do?"
"Firstly, don't call me Annie, you know I hate it, secondly, when were you here last night and why didn't you say hello? And lastly, something is bothering me, but it isn't Percy, he hasn't done anything." She replied.
"Firstly," I said knowing my imitation of her would annoy her and I loved winding her up. "I can't promise not to call you Annie, it comes naturally, secondly, it was before my shift around 9ish, but you were too caught up in Percy-land to notice, so I decided just to get off to work, and lastly if it isn't Percy what is it?" I asked, one of the many things you should know about Annabeth, is that she doesn't like people prying into her life. So why am I doing it? Well, I get a pass as her oldest and best friend, because I genuinely want to try and help, and she knows that.
She flashed me an irritated look before saying, "You sound like Piper, I don't like him like that, we're just friends. Am I not allowed a male friend without having to like him?" she vented, and I waited, knowing if I did, she'd answer my question. "Luke" she said after a few moments, "Luke is what's bothering me."
I was genuinely confused right now; we hadn't spoken about or to Luke since high school, since he broke her heart. Luke and I had had our own issues as well, we hadn't really been the same after the incident, but we were civil for Annabeth.
I have never told anyone the truth about that incident, but I knew Percy suspected.
When Annabeth found me at that party crying because she'd accidently walked in on Luke with someone while in the search for a bathroom, it not only broke my heart because it broke her heart. But because it also broke mine as well, it confirmed everything about the incident, that at the time, I was unsure of. She had adored Luke, right from the off, when we all met all those years ago, we were like the three amigos, but after that night we were never the same.
I guess my confusion must have shown on my face because she elaborated.
"I've bumped into him a couple of times in the past week, quite literally. The first time was Monday, the second time was this morning. Things are so awkward and there's something really unsettling about him, it's probably nothing." She said I doubted that it was nothing.
"He's here? In the city?" I asked, I mean it wasn't completely implausible, we hadn't spoken in years, and he was free to go wherever he pleased. I don't know why it shocked me, but it did.
"Yeah, not sure what for, to be honest we've not said much to each other. But seeing him again after all this time, it was uncomfortable and weird."
"I bet, so let's forget about Luke, tell me about how you met my Kelp Head of a cousin, Percy." I said wanting to talk about anything but Luke.
Ψ
~Author's Note~
Hi All, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter please let me know!
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