An Unexpected Romance

“Charlie I’m hungry,” whined Nova from his seat on the couch in our miniscule living room.

“Oh, yeah? Well suck it up buddy. If you hadn’t of broken my alarm clock, I would have been able to get up and make us something. Your fault once again Novocain,” I replied using the nickname he hated.

“Ugh, well we are getting something to eat on the way then,” huffed Nova, while grabbing his jacket. Steph had just come out of her room with extreme bed head.

“Hey Steph. How’s Mr. Dreamy?” I asked with a smirk touching my lips. She blushed, but didn’t answer. She poured herself a cup of coffee, waved and then went back into her room. Steph was extremely lucky; school didn’t start for another week, so she didn’t have to do anything until Friday. That was her “setting up” day before school actually started.

“Let’s get a move on Charles! My stomach is going to eat itself if I don’t get some nourishment,” griped Nova.

“Fine,” I said while grabbing my jacket and purse. We left the apartment building and were soon on our way to the nearest food establishment. With my fantastic luck, we ended up back in the bakery to which mystery man worked.

Yay! Life hates me.

The shop was filled today with a rush of people who were grabbing something to eat before heading off to work. We got in the long line and talked about various things. Then we were at the front and there was the same cashier as yesterday.

“Hey feisty!!” he exclaimed. “What will it be today?” he asked.

“Haha, yeah. Umm two chai lattes and two blueberry muffins please,” I replied.

“Ahh, so Lee’s amazing muffins worked their magic on you and you had to come back for more,” he said with s familiar smirk coming to his face.

“You’re related to Levy, aren’t you?” I asked making the connection.

“Yeah,” he replied with a light chuckle. “I’m his little brother, Oliver. But you can call me Ollie,” he said with his hand stuck out.

I shuck it and replied, “My name’s Charlotte, but you can call me Charlie and this is one of my best friends Casanova.”

“You can call me Nova though,” Nova practically sang while shaking Ollie’s hand, which caused him to chuckle slightly.

“Best friend not boyfriend?” Ollie asked and we both nodded. “Ah, well Lee would be happy to hear that. You sure have him smitten. He’s never had a girl completely turn him down before.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before, but we’ve got to get going. Work calls,” I said whilst laughing.

“Oh, yeah see you two around!” he shouted as we left. I waved, as did Nova.

Once we were outside Nova turned to me and smiled brightly, “He said smitten.” And with that we both burst into laughter that had finally quieted down once we entered the hospital.

Work was amazing. I had expected it to be boring and difficult; however it turned out to be the most wonderful experience of my life. I was so happy I didn’t even notice Nova and I entering the small bakery, that I had come to find out was named ‘The Cookie Corner’.

“Feisty, Nova,” cheered Ollie who was cleaning the surrounding tables. “Looks like you’ll be the last costumers for the day.”

“Hey Ollie, so you guys close at five?” questioned Nova.

“Oh, nah. Just today. Lee and I have to go to our sister’s engagement party, or at least I think it’s an engagement party,” responded Ollie. I had just noticed that he was slightly dressed up with nice navy pants on and a light blue button down.

“That sounds fun,” I put in, finally breaking from my daze.

“No, my sister can be a little…well, uppity, at times. And her husband isn’t the nicest of guys,” said Ollie.

“Yeah, he’s the type of guy that used to dunk people’s heads into toilets throughout high school,” interjected Levy, who had just come from the back of the store. “So what can I get you guys,” he said to the both of us, even though he was only looking at me.

“We just wanted to grab a couple of teas before we head back home,” said Nova from beside me.

“We just made a new recipe for peppermint tea,” replied Ollie with a happy smile overtaking his face.

“Oh, Charles your fav!” cheered Nova, but I was too focused on Levy’s eyes to notice the surrounding world.

So freaking persistent!

“We’ll have two of those,” Nova said and Ollie went right to work. I noticed that Levy was dressed up to in beautiful black slacks and a grey button down shirt. He was also sporting a clean, white, skinny tie. He looked drop-dead gorgeous.

“So, you and the bf are nurses? That just makes you even hotter, tiger,” Levy said to which I scoffed.

“I’m not her boyfriend,” noted Nova while holding the two teas and delivering one to me.

“Oh, really?” Levy asked while quirking one eyebrow.

“Yup, I’m gay,” Nova said happily. I chuckled a little, because it always shocked me how open he was with his sexuality. He never really cared what people thought though and both of his parents were very accepting of him.

“Well, tiger look at that. Now you have no reason to turn me down,” Levy said with his ever prevalent smirk.

“Yes I do. Number one you are a hobo. Number two you were supposed to be a one night stand. Number three you...are a...hobo,” I stated faltering on the last thing because I couldn’t come up with anything else.

“Number one and three are the same, therefore you don’t really have a reason, now do you?” he questioned.

“Yup no other reason Char, so you and he are going to go out this Friday,” said Nova, ending the argument.

“What?” I said, while Levy said, “Awesome!” at the same time.

“Bye boys!” yelled Nova as he pulled me out of ‘The Cookie Corner’.

“What the hell, Nov?” I yelled once we had gotten pretty far from the bakery.

“You two are so going to end up together and I am going to be your maid of honor,” Nova said while skipping the rest of the way to the apartment.

“I disagree,” I screamed because he had gotten ahead of me with his annoying skipping.

Stupid Nova. Stupid Levy. Stupid Friday. Everything is just stupid.

Damn he skips fast...

And there went my perfect day.