Are you free Tuesday morning?

Rose stared at the text message on her phone, unsure of what to do. He'd seemed nice, this John Smith. He'd taken the time to seek her out after the concert to congratulate her and to get her number. He'd seemed friendly.

And then that woman had bumped into her, looking for her date. And the description sounded remarkably like her John Smith. She remembered John telling her that he was at the concert with a friend, but if the woman was saying date.

Rose let out a frustrated groan, muffling it with a couch cushion. It was Sunday now, and she didn't have rehearsal today, which she almost wished she did – it would certainly help take her mind off things.

Tea. She'd make tea.

She rose from her couch and walked over to her tiny kitchen, putting water on her kettle and switching it on. She folded her arms on the edge of the counter top and rested her chin on her forearms, eyes on the kettle, willing it to boil faster.

When it had finally boiled, she grabbed the largest mug she owned and carefully fill it with water, adding a bag of her favourite tea, a bit of sugar, and a dash of milk. The smell helped ease tension out of her shoulders and she carefully carried it back to her seat on the couch. She purposefully ignored her phone, opting to reach instead for the TV remote. She flipped through the channels aimlessly, and was rather disappointed when nothing of any interest seemed to be playing. She grabbed a second remote and turned on Netflix – going directly to her guilty pleasure – Grey's Anatomy.

Her phone buzzed again, and, with a sigh, she grabbed it and clicked on the new message.

I was thinking we could grab a cuppa. I know a place.

Rose stared at the message for a while, the tea burning her fingers through the ceramic mug, a feeling she ignored, instead opting to take a sip and hum contently.

She had to answer, she knew. It would be dreadfully rude not to.

That would be nice.

She was late.

Oh, she hated being late to anything. She walked as quick as her legs would allow, half jogging as she made her way to the coffee shop John had suggested. She'd made the mistake of not double checking the address until the last minute, and realized that it was actually significantly further than she'd originally thought.

In her fluster, she'd put on two different styles of socks, which, while barely visible under her trousers and runners, was really annoying her.

She breathed a sign of relief when she saw the sign for the café, slowing her pace so that she wouldn't be hyperventilating when she got there. As she walked by the window, she saw John sitting at one of the tables, hugging a large mug, a frown on his face.

The ding of the door made him look up, and the frown disappeared as soon as he spotted her. She made her way directly over to where he was sitting, slipped off the simple jean jacket she'd been wearing and placed it over the back of her chair. "Sorry," She said sheepishly.

John smiled widely at her, and her heart did a little backflip. "It's no problem." He assured her, taking in her red cheeks and nose, and messy hair.

Self consciously, she smoothed her wild hair as best as she could with her hands before grabbing her wallet. "I'll, um, be right back," she said quickly before heading over to the counter to order a cuppa. She waited there while the barista expertly prepared it, and left a large tip before heading back over to where John was sitting, the delicious scent of the tea calming her nerves and the heat of the mug warming her chilled fingers.

She placed it down carefully, sitting across from John, and took a small sip, holding in a moan at the taste. That tip had been well deserved.

She looked up to meet John's eyes, which were already on her, and felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "Um…have you been here long?" Rose asked nervously, shifting uncomfortably in her chair.

"Not long," John replied easily. "Got here maybe a few minutes before you. I'd have ordered your tea for you, but…" he tugged his earlobe, "I didn't know how you took it."

She smiled at him, earning a grin in response. "That's all right then," she mused, getting a chuckle from him and feeling a warm feeling spread in her stomach. "How was the rest of your weekend?"

John sipped at his cuppa before giving an enthusiastic nod. "Good, good. Had to work on Sunday, but overall it wasn't too bad."

"Do you normally work on weekends?" Rose asked him curiously.

"Weeeeelllll," he dragged the word out, making her smile, which she hid by taking a sip of the cuppa in front of her. "Every now and again, I suppose."

This peaked Rose's interest. "Where do you work?"

"At the university," John replied enthusiastic. "I'm a research assistant for one of the professors."

"What field?"

"Astronomy." John smiled widely. "Always loved the stars, me."

Rose nodded thoughtfully.

"What about you?" John asked suddenly. "How's the life of the successful musician?"

Rose felt her cheeks redden again. "I wouldn't say –" She started, only to be interrupted by John's raised eyebrows. She was sure her whole face was a violent shade of red at this point. "I'm just lucky, is all." She said quietly.

"Lucky?" John repeated. "What I saw the other night wasn't luck. It was talent. And a lot, I'm a assuming, of practicing."

"Well, I suppose," Rose muttered uncomfortably. She cleared her throat. "Speaking of the other night…that girl you were with…was that…your girlfriend?" She finally managed to say, feeling her heart pounding in her chest.

John choked on a sip of his tea before looking at her in shock. "You…you thought…what? No!" He sputtered ungracefully.

Her face probably looked like a bloody tomato. "Oh. Sorry, it's just…that girl that you were with…she said…she said you were her date, so I just…assumed." She kept her eyes on her tea as she spoke, too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

"Rose, look at me." He said, his voice amused, but she thought she detected some nervousness in it. She slowly looked up, meeting his warm chocolate gaze. "I don't have a girlfriend. That girl that I was with, Martha, is definitely just my mate."

Rose felt a smile grow on her lips. "Yeah?" She asked quietly.

"Absolutely," John promised with a smile. "I wouldn't ask you out if I was already dating someone."

Rose breathed a sigh of relief before giving him a smile, tongue touching her canine. "Well that's good, then." She said playfully, her entire demeanor changing now that she knew that she was absolutely not on a date with someone who was already taken.

The rest of the conversation flowed easily from there – they talked about John's research, about her practicing, and just about everything in between. She couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed so much in one sitting, and he couldn't remember ever smiling so much his cheeks hurt.

Her smile fell when she caught sight of the time on his wristwatch. "I have to go," she said glumly, trying not to be too happy about his disappointed look. "I promised my mum I'd babysit my younger brother."

His smile fell, but he graciously stood when she did and helped her slip on her jacket. He even fixed her hair after it was settled properly on her shoulders, making yet another blush rise to her cheeks.

"Can I…maybe…walk you home?" He asked with a small, hopeful smile.

She returned his smile with one of her own. "That'd be nice." She told him, biting her lip.

When they left the café, John tentatively took her hand, holding it loosely and giving her plenty of time to shake it off. Instead, she tightened her grip, giving his hand a small squeeze. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him grin widely.

The walk back to her flat was significantly longer than the one to the shop, because they ambled along, taking their time and filling the walk with pointless conversation and jokes. At one point, they actually had to stop because John had Rose laughing so hard she had to stop and clutch her stomach, making him laugh and grin widely with pride.

When they finally reached her flat, she felt disappointment start to bloom in her stomach at the thought of him leaving, but she plastered a grin on her face and cheerfully said, "this is me."

He stopped, looking up at the building and then back down to her, and she thought she might be able to see disappointment in his eyes as well.

"Well, Rose Tyler," the way he said her full name made a shiver of anticipation run through her whole body, and she bit her lip as she looked up at him, noticing, not for the first time today, the cute freckles that were sprinkled across his nose and the warm look in his eyes. "I had a lot of fun," he said quietly, standing close enough to her that her had both her elbows cupped in his palms, and her hands gently clasped onto his forearms.

"Me too," she breathed, her gaze momentarily lowering to his lips before lifting to meet his eyes again.

He leaned in slowly, giving her enough time to back away, but she met him in the middle, their lips pressing softly together, molding together perfectly. She could taste the earl grey he'd had at the café on his lips still, and it made her smile into the kiss.

They broke apart gently, keeping their faces close enough that he was just brushing his nose against hers. She bit her lip again, this time meeting his gaze directly, blush still on her cheeks and warming her face.

Carefully, he leaned in again and pressed his lips to her again, pulling away after only a second and releasing her elbows, a goofy grin on his face. "Until next time, Rose Tyler," He said before turning and walking away.

Rose watched him go for a few seconds, pressing her fingers to her lips and watching what she decided was a delightfully fit backside before she grinned, shook her head, and made her way into her flat to wait for her mum.

John felt like he was walking on air as he walked back to his flat, a grin seemingly permanently on his face. He was whistling a jaunty tune when he arrived at his apartment, swinging his hips and bobbing his head as he unlocked the door and made his way into his flat.

"Now that is the sound of a man coming home after a great date," his flat mate, Jack, smirked from his position on the couch, headset on and controller in hand. For all intents and purposes, he was focusing quite intently on the video game on the computer screen in front of him, but there was no way he was going to let John get away with that.

John snorted, neither denying nor otherwise. He grabbed his own headset and controller and set up next to Jack, waiting for him to finish this particular match so that he could join him.

"Seriously though, man, how was it?" Jack asked as he blew up a building in the video game, his tongue sticking out slightly as he focused.

John sighed. "It was incredible, Jack. She's just…brilliant. She's really, really brilliant." John felt butterflies in his stomach at the very thought of Rose, and he grinned widely as he looked at his friend.

Jack smiled. "That's great, John." He clapped his friend's shoulder, grinning broadly. "By the way, Martha wanted you to call her."

John groaned, leaning back against the couch and rubbing his face with his hands, as though the very thought of calling Martha was exhausting. "Did you know she told Rose that she and I were on a date the other night?" John told Jack bitterly, thinking back to how uncomfortable Rose had been at the beginning of their date.

Jack snorted. "She never said that, no. But I met her the day after the concert and she was complaining about how you were drooling over some other girl on your date."

John sighed, exasperated.

"I told her it wasn't a date," Jack continued. "She seemed…confused."

"I swear, I don't know how to make it clearer to her that I'm not interested." John moaned, frustrated. His good mood couldn't last forever, he figured.

"Just tell her. She's a good kid, she'll get it." Jack advised. "If you wanna call her now, I'll wait for you before starting the next game."

John clapped Jack on the shoulder appreciatively and pulled his phone out of his pocket, standing and going into his room for what he assumed would be a pretty painful conversation. He closed the door behind him and hit the call button under Martha's contact information.

"Hello?"

"Hey Martha, it's John," John said needlessly, knowing that his name would have popped up on Martha's cell but wanted to introduce himself anyway. "Jack said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Oh, John! Thank you so much for calling," he could hear relief in Martha's tone. "Listen…I just wanted to apologize." She admitted.

That got John's attention. "Apologize?"

"Yeah, I –" he heard her take a deep breath before continuing. "I realize I might have been slightly…presumptuous…the other night. I read more into it than I should have, I know that. And I'm really sorry if I made you or Rose uncomfortable."

"That's…thanks, Martha." John relaxed.

"I hope we can still be friends." Martha said nervously. "I really didn't mean to make Rose think badly of you, if she did. I really did think that…" that we were on a date. She didn't have to finish her sentence.

"Of course." John smiled, glad everything was sorted. "I'll talk to you later, Martha."

"Bye, John. Thanks for being so understanding."

They hung up, and John felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He made his way back to the couch where Jack was waiting, fiddling on his phone. When John sat, Jack regarded him with raised eyebrows, not saying anything. John grinned, which seemed to satisfy his flat mate, who nodded and returned to the menu of the game to start a new one.

John felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his phone, opening the message.

Do you like bowling?

John felt excited knots in his stomach when he saw the name of the sender. He grinned widely.

I love bowling.

End.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please review, let me know what you thought!