The Diner: Danny & Simon

It wasn’t all that much to look at, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to Slater’s when I saw the ‘help wanted’ sign in the front window. I needed a job, especially now that my mum had lost her job. I’d been out of school for just over a year for travel, but now I was back and didn’t intend on going to university, a job was top on my to-do list. I crossed the road and pushed open the door of the diner. Admittedly, it looked better inside than it did outside. It was clean; the floors shiny and the tables and chairs wiped down. I looked around for someone who worked there and my eyes landed on a guy who looked about my age standing behind the counter. I crossed the room, my trainers squeaking on the floor until I was standing across from the counter to him. Up close, I thought that maybe the guy was younger than me, though it was hard to tell. He must have been older than 16 to be working during the week, but it was hard to tell whether he was older than my 19 years. “Hi,” the guy greeted with a wide smile that made my heart flip in my chest. “Can I help you?”
“Um, yeah,” I said shakily, thrown off by my reaction to this boy. “I saw the help wanted sign in the window…”
“You want an application form?” he asked and I nodded. “Sure.” He reached under the counter and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me.
“Thanks,” I said quietly. I glanced at the name badge on his chest that read ‘Danny’. “Do you have a pen?”
“You’re gonna do it now?” he asked as he rummaged around to find one.
“Yeah,” I nodded, sitting on a stool at the counter. “I need a job pretty desperately, so I figured getting this in as soon as possible can’t be a bad thing.” Danny just looked at me and nodded as he handed me the pen. “Thanks.”
“Let me know if you need anything,” he smiled before going off to serve a customer.

I set about filling in the application form. It was pretty standard – name, age, address, qualifications – and I whizzed through it. “Do you like working here?” I asked Danny once he was standing behind the counter once again.
“Yeah,” he grinned once again. “The hours are pretty intense, but the customers are all really nice and the guys who own the place are awesome.”
“Guys?” I asked with a slight frown.
“Yeah, Salter and Ash run it, they’ve been together for nearly a year now, though probably more, I’m not sure,” he shrugged. “I’ve had 3 other jobs before this one and I definitely prefer it here.”
"Three?" I asked out of amazement.
"Yeah," he smiled with a shrug. "I got bored with the first two pretty quick. This place keeps me busy enough that I don’t get bored." I nodded and continued filling in the last part of the application form – why I should get the job. "What's your name?" Danny asked, glancing down at my application. "I can put in a good word for you if you want."
"Really? Thanks," I smiled. "Simon."
"I'm Danny," he said and I smiled and nodded.
"I'd guessed," I said, motioning to his name tag.
"Oh," he said with a wide grin that nearly caused all rational thought to be wiped from my brain. "Of course."
"I've finished," I said, flipping my application form back to the front and handing it to Danny. My eyes widened when he started reading it.
"You're 19?" he asked, his eyebrows lifting slightly.
"Um, yeah," I said. Firstly he was reading my application form and now he was questioning it?
"You look younger than that," he said. "I thought you were my age."
"How old are you?" I asked him.
"Just turned 18," he said with another wide grin. I couldn't help but smile back.

Just then a guy only a few years older than me walked out of the back of the diner. "Oh, Ash, this is Simon," Danny said. "He's applying for the job."
"Have you got any experience?" Ash asked, looking over at me.
"Uh, not exactly," I said quietly and Ash frowned.
"We ideally need someone with waiting experience," he said. "Danny can tell you he gets rushed off his feet, we don’t really have the time to train anyone."
"I understand," I said quietly. "Um, thanks anyway." I stood up from the stool and glanced over at Danny, who was gazing at me with a gentle frown between his eye brows. I smiled softly before lowering my gaze and leaving.

I sighed wearily as I continued walking, passing shop after shop, none of which were hiring. I wanted to go back to the diner and ask them to consider me, but I did understand why they wanted someone who knew what they were doing. My phone rang, jolting me out of my thoughts and I quickly answered it. "Hello?" I said once the call connected.
"Simon? It's me, can you pick up some bread on your way home?" my mum asked and I sighed.
"Yeah, sure," I said.
"Remember to get Tesco's own brand," she said, "we don’t need to be spending unnecessarily on expensive bread." I stopped walking and nodded.
"Sure," I said quietly.
"Bye, honey," she said and I replied before ending the call. We couldn't even afford nice bread...

With that, I turned and walked back to the diner. I was going to convince them that they ought to hire me if it was the last thing I did.

I walked through the door and instead of Danny or Ash, there was another guy standing at the counter. I went over to him and cleared my throat, gaining his attention. "Can I help you?" he asked and I cleared my throat again, but this time out of nervousness. This guy seemed so much more...intimidating than Danny or Ash.
"Um, I came in a while ago and filled out a job application," I said. "And the guy I spoke to said that I didn't have enough experience. But I just wanted to say that...even though he's right, I'll work super hard and I'm a fast learner and I'll do every shift that you ask me to. I don’t have any other commitments, so I'll be here whenever you need me. I really need this and I'm willing to work whenever you need and I'm happy to start immediately. I think that even though I've never been a waiter before, that I'll pick it up really quickly and I'll work really hard and do the best I can." I got to the end of my little rant and took a deep breath, looking up into the man's dark green eyes. He stared at me for a moment before turning away.
"You start tomorrow, be here for 5 a.m.," he said. I blinked in surprise.
"You mean, I got the job?" I asked. It may have been a stupid question, but I was in shock as to how it had happened so suddenly.
"Yeah," the man said. The door to the back of the diner opened again and Danny and Ash came back out. "Danny, can you take the help wanted sign down?"
"Sure," Danny smiled, glancing at me and grinning.
"What?" Ash asked and the man who had hired me shrugged and walked over to him before pressed a kiss to his lips.
"His little rant reminded me of yours," he murmured, kissing him once again, “and you’ve been saying we needed to hire someone else for ages.” He then walked through the door and out of sight. Ash sighed and looked over at me with a slight smile.
"I hope you realised what you signed up for, it's not exactly an easy job," he said and before I could reply, Danny was beside me and answering.
"I'll show him the ropes, Ash, don't worry," he said as he slung his arm over my shoulders. I felt myself blush but otherwise didn't react. Ash just shook his head and went through the door into the back of the dinner. "They're gonna be preoccupied for a while now, if you know what I mean," Danny grinned, winking at me. I blushed again.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to them," he said with a chuckle. "They're like a newly married couple, can't keep their hands to themselves. Word of warning, knock before entering the office." He made a show of shivering as though remembering something he wished he didn't and I couldn't help but smile even as I blushed more. "So when are you starting?" he asked.
"Tomorrow, 5 a.m.," I told him and he smiled and nodded.
"You'll get used to the times," he said, "though you should probably kiss your social life goodbye." I thought he was joking, but I'd soon find out he wasn't.

--

Waking up at 4a.m. was horrendous and I so desperately considered going back to sleep and giving up on the diner before I even started. But I couldn’t, they’d given me a job when I had very little experience – they’d taken a risk on me and I wasn’t going to let them down. I showered quickly and got dressed in a pair of black jeans and a white shirt – I wasn’t sure what I should wear, but that was as smart as I could do. Danny had been wearing a pair of black trousers and a red shirt but I didn’t know whether those were his own clothes or a uniform. Oh well, I’d know for next time.

I arrived at the diner at 10 to 5, still blinking sleep from my eyes. “Morning, sunshine,” a voice said from behind me and I quickly spun round to come face to face with Danny. How did he look so awake, so fresh, at this time in the morning?
“Morning,” I said quietly, blushing at the term of endearment.
“You’ll get used to it,” Danny said with a smile.
“Hope so,” I murmured, looking up at him once again and feeling my insides turn to mush as he gazed back into my eyes. They were such a captivating blue colour and I wanted to step closer to work out the colour properly. But then Ash and the other man from yesterday appeared.
“I didn’t introduce myself yesterday,” the man said, holding his hand out. “I’m Slater.”
“Oh,” I smiled, shaking his hand. “Simon.” The man smiled and glanced at Danny before heading through the door, which Ash had just unlocked. I looked at Danny curiously, but he was looking at the floor, a small smile on his face. I shrugged off the strange behaviour and followed the others inside.

“So, Danny’s going to be taking care of you today,” Ash told me. “I usually work in the office, though I’ll come out here if it’s busy. Slater usually stays in the kitchen. Give either of us a shout, though, if you need us.” I just nodded. “Can you set up the tables first? Danny will tell you what to do once you’ve done that.” I nodded and moved to the first table and took the chairs of the table, tucking them underneath. Ash and Slater went into the back of the diner a moment later and I was left with Danny. I kept glancing over at him, but he seemed absorbed in the coffee machine every time I did.
“Um, Danny?” I asked once I’d finished taking all the chairs down.
“Yeah,” he said with a happy smile.
“Um, I wasn’t sure what to wear,” I said, finding myself blushing once again. What was it about this boy that reduced me to nothing but nerves? “Is this okay?” Danny smiled – though it might have been a smirk – and let his eyes travel down my body slowly. Goosebumps rose on my skin and I shivered under his gaze.
“What you're wearing is good,” Danny said eventually and I released the breath I’d been holding. Danny grinned suddenly, as though he knew what he was doing to me, and then said, “there used to be a uniform, but they got rid of it. Trousers and a button up shirt is the general uniform now.”
“Oh, good,” I smiled. “So, what do you want me to do now?”
“Well there isn't really much else to do, but I’ll give you a quick run through of how to work the coffee machine before customers arrive. It’s not too complicated,” he smiled, motioning for me to join him the other side of the counter.

The coffee machine was more complicated than Danny had implied, but I picked it up pretty quick. I was making a cappuccino and boiling the milk, but Danny quickly took my hand and raised the jug higher. “You’ll get burnt if you hold it too low,” he said, but I was hardly paying attention. His fingers were strong and warm over mine, making my heart race. And he was standing so close to me, I could feel his body heat, and I looked up at him to find him already looking down at me. I swallowed nervously but then the door opened and Danny jumped backwards. And suddenly, without Danny holding it as well, the milk jug slipped through my hand and clanged onto the floor. I leapt backwards, trying to avoid the splatter of hot milk, into Danny, sending us both sprawling into the floor.

Danny groaned and I quickly moved off him. As we’d fell, his arms had moved around me, as though to help me, but it hadn’t really done any good and I’d just landed on him. “Oh, my, God, I’m so sorry!” I cried, standing up quickly. Danny got to his feet to and rubbed his back. “Are you okay?” I asked anxiously while keeping my distance from him. If he was angry at me, I didn’t want to get to close.
“I’m fine,” he said, shooting me a small smile. I still wasn’t convinced, though.
“Well, that was a good way to start the day,” a voice said to me left, and I realised that someone had come into the diner a moment ago. I looked over and saw two middle aged men sitting at the counter, matching grins on their faces.
“Uh, I-“ I stammered, but didn’t know what to say.
“This is Simon, he’s new,” Danny said for me.
“Is it safe to order 2 coffees?” one of the men asked and I couldn’t help but blush, while Danny just laughed.
“Coming up,” he said, grabbed two mugs and heading to the coffee machine, walking right through the spilt milk. “Simon, this is John and Tim,” Danny said as he made two coffees. “They come in every morning during the week.”
“We can’t seem to stay away,” one of the men said.
“So I’m guessing this is your first day?” the second said and I nodded.
“Um, yeah,” I said, anxiously glancing between the spilt milk, Danny and the door that Slater and Ash were behind.
“Don’t worry,” Danny said and I realised he was talking to me. He placed the two coffees in front of Tim and John and then turned to me. “There’s a mop in that cupboard,” he said, pointing towards a small door the other end of the diner. I nodded and quickly hurried to find it.

I returned to the counter with the mop and bucket and quickly cleaned up the spilt milk, desperately fighting the blush from my cheeks. Tim and John left while I was mopping up, and having them gone made me relax a bit – it wasn’t so embarrassing being watched by strangers. Once I finished, I turned to Danny again. “I’m really sorry,” I said softly and Danny smiled and waved it off.
“Don’t even worry about it,” he said happily. I sighed softly and returned the mop and bucket to the cupboard.

The rest of the day passed surprisingly quickly. Ash had been right – Danny is rushed off his feet and training me as he went didn’t make things easier, I’m sure. But I picked up a few things – the coffee machine for one. And the customers seemed to like me. Danny pointed out the regulars and I tried to be better with them, because I knew they’d be back and I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of someone I’d see again. By the time 10p.m. rolled around, I was wiped out. When the last customer left and Danny turned the sign from ‘open’ to ‘closed’ I sagged against the counter with a groan. I heard Danny laugh as he came and sat on a stool opposite me. “You’ll get used to it,” he said. I felt his fingers on my hair and I closed my eyes under the gentle touch but then blushed and quickly pulled away.
“How long did it take you to get used to it?” I asked him.
“Well, I was on my own, so I was doing a lot more when I started,” he said with a shrug.
“You were on your own?” I asked in amazement – I would never be able to do this on my own.
“Yeah, Ash had gone away and Slater needed someone to start immediately,” he said and I nodded.
“So…?” I asked and Danny smiled softly.
“About a month,” he said and I groaned again.
“A month?” I asked and he nodded.
“It’s worth it, though,” he said, “the pay is good, Slater and Ash are good to work for.” I nodded.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “And I do appreciate them taking me on.” Danny just smiled again.
“I’ll go find Slater and tell him we’re finished out here,” he said and I nodded and watched him walk through the door into the back, my eyes skimming over his back and down his legs, only to rest on his arse. It did look good in those trousers.

Once he was gone, I sighed and relaxed against the counter once again. I looked over at the coffee machine and finally had a chance to think about what happened this morning. It seemed like a life time ago. But it still made me blush. From when we’d be gazing at each until to when we’d been sprawled on the floor with his arms around me… It had all happened so quickly looking back, but at the time it seemed to be happening in slow motion. I bit my lip but it didn’t fight off the smile that grew on my face.

“What are you smiling about?” Danny asked and I jumped, not realising that he’d come back into the room.
“Um, nothing,” I said, standing once again. Danny looked at me for a moment before smiling and shrugging.
“Ash said we can go,” he said. “Same time tomorrow.” I nodded and came around from behind the counter. “How did you get here?”
“Walked,” I said and he nodded.
“Me, too. Where do you live?” he asked and I told him, earning yet another wide smile. “I’ll walk you home.”
“Oh, you don’t have to,” I told him, though I was secretly thrilled.
“It’s on the way,” he said, opening the door for me. I blushed and walked out of the diner. “Besides, I wouldn’t feel right letting you walk home alone.”
“Hey, I’m older than you,” I pointed out but Danny just grinned and shrugged. I dropped it, seeing as I didn’t want him to decide against walking with me.

It was cold out, but we didn’t walk quickly, preferring to drag out our time together. “So I think we’re going to get to know each other pretty well, don’t you?” Danny asked and I glanced at him. “Well, we are going to be working together for over 12 hours a day. And there are days that get quiet and there are periods of no customers. We’ll only have one another to talk to.”
“Oh,” I smiled. “Yeah, we probably will.”
“Not that that’s a bad thing, right?” Danny asked, nudging me.
“Of course,” I smiled at him. He really did have the most amazing eyes. The looked more teal coloured than blue in the light from the street lamps and the moon. I’d imagine I could spend all day looking into eyes and still not decide on what colour they were. “Um,” I stammered, feeling I ought to change the subject, even if it was my own thoughts that needed to be changed. “I’m sorry again about this morning. Do you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine,” he smiled. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I can't believe I made such a mess in the first 10 minutes…” I sighed. “I’m just glad Ash or Slater didn’t see.”
“They did,” Danny grinned. “They heard the bang and checked through the window in the door to the back.”
“What?!” I exclaimed, “oh, my, God. I’m surprised they didn’t just ask me to leave.”
“Hey, everyone makes mistakes,” he smiled. “They understand, they’ve probably done something similar at some point.” I just made a vague, noncommittal noise – I’d imagine they hadn’t done anything quite as clumsy in front of a guy they were starting to have a crush on…
“How long have they been together?” I asked, trying once again to distract myself from my own thoughts.
“Two years ish,” he said, with a shrug. “They had a period where they weren’t together, but they don’t really talk about it much. But I know that they’re meant for each other, you’ll see it too once you’ve spent more time with them.” I just nodded.

A few minutes later, we got to my road and I cleared my throat. “Um, this is me,” I said, motioning to my house. Danny smiled and nodded.
“How about tomorrow we walk to work together?” Danny asked and I blinked.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “That sounds good.”
“Great,” he smiled. He looked at me for a moment before taking a small step backwards. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning then?”
“Yeah,” I said again. Danny grinned before saying bye and turning and walking back the way we’d come.
“Hey, I thought you said I lived on the way?” I called after him with a confused frown. Danny just grinned over his shoulder.
“Good night, Simon,” he called back. I bit my lip once again to stop myself grinning like a crazy person and headed inside.

--

Waking up the next morning was even harder than the day before, due to how little sleep I’d got. And then I remembered about Danny and I quickly got out of bed and showered. I was definitely going to put in more effort this morning. I was going to hopefully make him forget about my clumsy behaviour. I spent extra time on my unfortunately curly hair, trying to calm it slightly, and chose a navy blue shirt that made my grey-ish eyes stand out more.

At half past 4, I pulled on my shoes and then paused. Danny wanted to walk in with me, but we didn’t agree a time or a place. Would he come here? If he did, would he ring the bell? That would wake my parents up and I didn’t want that… I quickly went downstairs and looked out the window. My heart jumped a beat when I saw Danny leaning against the wall at the end of my front garden. I quickly opened the front door and closed it behind me. “Hi,” I smiled. “Have you been waiting long?”
“Not too long,” he smiled, standing up properly. “Don’t you look nice today.” I blushed and lowered my gaze.
“Thanks,” I said quietly. “Um, let’s go.” Danny grinned and I realised that his smile was just as breath taking as it had been the day before.

We got to the diner right on time to meet Slater and Ash on their way in, walking hand in hand. I smiled softly, sending up a silent wish that I could have that… maybe even with Danny. “Morning,” Ash smiled.
“Morning,” Danny and I said at the same time. Ash grinned at us, and Slater sent Danny a look that I couldn’t quite decipher. I frowned for a moment but then dismissed it.

The day progressed pretty much the same way as the day before, only this time I managed not to embarrass myself. And Danny had been right – there were a few quiet times today when there was only 1 or 2 customers at a time, so we had more time to talk. I liked those times the best. According to Danny, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are usually the quietest during the day. I knew those days would soon become my favourite days.

Soon, my life became pretty routine. But that wasn’t necessarily bad. I spent the majority of the day with Danny, before, during and after work, and I quickly came to realise that, yeah, I had a pretty massive crush on him. How could I not? He was funny, kind and cocky but in that charming way. I couldn’t help but love it when he made somewhat arrogant comments, because he did it with a cheeky grin on his face. Even after a month of working at the diner, I felt I knew him better than anyone else in my life and I was pretty certain that I wanted to be more than friends…but I just didn’t have the nerve to ask him out.

“You ready to go?” Danny asked one Saturday night a few minutes after closing the diner.
“Yeah,” I smiled, grabbing my jacket. It was moving into the end of autumn now and starting to get cooler outside. We walked for a while in silence before I decided to break it. “Thank God its Sunday tomorrow, I could really use a lie in.”
“Mmm,” Danny smiled. There were advantages and disadvantages to Sundays, of course. The advantage was no early start, but the disadvantage was no Danny. “You know one of the bad things about working at the diner?” Danny asked suddenly and I frowned. Now that I’d been there for a month, I’d adapted to the hours and I couldn’t really think of any major negatives of working there.
“No?” I asked curiously.
“It does kind of wipe out time for a relationship,” he said and my face fell.
“Oh,” I muttered. “Yeah…”
“I mean,” he continued, even though I really wished he wouldn’t, “being able to see them from 10 o’clock onwards or on a Sunday isn't really all that fair, is it?”
“No,” I said quietly. I wanted to say something like, so maybe you should go out with someone who you spend time with every day? But I just couldn’t, I wasn’t brave enough. We reached my house and stopped, but I knew he still had something to say.
“So I was thinking you and I should just go out,” he said and I blinked and then frowned.
“Excuse me?” I asked, feeling somewhat insulted. I didn’t want him to have to be with me because he didn’t have time for anyone else.
“No!” he quickly said, a note of panic in his voice. “Crap, I didn’t mean it like that. Um…”
“Well what did you mean?” I asked, losing the battle against my hurt and anger. “Because it sounded like I’m you're only option and you have to settle for me…”
“No, of course not!” he said, reaching forward and taking my hand. If I hadn’t been in shock that he was holding my hand, I would have taken my hand out of his. “No, Simon, I’m sorry, I just… That was my retarded way of asking you out, I was just trying to be…I don’t know. I’m an idiot, okay? Can I try again?” I frowned and bit my lip.
“I guess,” I said quietly.
“I like you, Simon,” he said and my lips parted in shock.
“Oh,” I whispered. Danny took hold of my other hand and stepped closer to me, making me look up into his gorgeous eyes.
“Will you go out with me tomorrow?” he asked softly, his eyes warm yet anxious. “Please?” I looked into his eyes for what felt like an eternity but I already knew what my answer would be.
“Yes,” I whispered and Danny grinned.
“I am sorry about…I didn’t mean to make it sound like…you know?” he asked softly and I smiled.
“I know,” I smiled, squeezing his hands gently. I stepped closer to him and looked up into his eyes. Even though he was nearly two years younger than me, I liked that he was taller than me. “So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” I asked him with a soft smile, moving even closer to him. I wasn’t sure where my nerve had suddenly come from, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Um,” he whispered, his eyes leaving mine momentarily to glance at my lips. “I, um…”
“Hmm?” I went into tiptoe so I was slightly closer to him, my heart suddenly racing.
“Um,” he said again and I couldn’t help but grin. And then Danny’s lips were on mine, soft and strong. I immediately let go of his hands to wrap my arms around his shoulders as I moulded myself to his body and his arms went around me, one on my waist and the other resting so close to my butt. It felt like all the pent up desire was flowing out of us in this kiss. I knew I’d soon run out of breath but I wanted this to continue for a lifetime. I moved one of my hands into Danny’s hair and tugged slightly, earning a low moan to escape from the back of Danny’s throat. I grinned and pulled back, ending the kiss before one of us passed out from lack of oxygen. “Wow,” he grinned. “For someone so shy, there’s a lot more to you.”
“Is that good?” I whispered, my blush once again returning.
“That’s very good,” Danny murmured before kissing me once again.

When the kiss ended once again, I moved my head to rest on his shoulder and hugged him tightly, never wanted to let go. “Danny,” I whispered, grasping onto his shirt.
“Yeah,” he whispered, pressing kisses to my neck.
“Do you want to stay over tonight?” I asked anxiously. I mean, I wasn’t ready for that yet, but I didn’t want him to leave just yet.
“Yeah,” he whispered again and I pulled back with a smile.
“Come on,” I said, taking his hand and leading him inside. My parents were in bed by that time, we went quietly up to my room. Danny took his phone out and quickly text his mum to tell her he wasn’t going to be home.

Now we were in my room, however, I started to feel nervous. “Hey,” Danny whispered, moving to stand in front of me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and looked down at me. He kissed me tenderly, much more gently than the two kisses we’d shared outside and it immediately helped me relax. “Let’s get some sleep?” he said softly and I smiled and nodded. Danny pulled away and then quickly pulled his shirt over his head and I couldn’t help my small gasp. Danny glanced at me, a small smirk pulling at his lips as he then kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks and lowered his trousers. I quickly closed my eyes, suddenly beyond embarrassed. I hadn’t actually thought this far ahead, I didn’t realised that we’d be…you know…almost naked. All of a sudden, I could feel Danny’s lips on mine once again – I hadn’t even heard him move. And then I felt Danny’s hands on the buttons of my shirt. I wanted to stop him, but he was doing it slowly and I gradually realised that it might actually be okay. Once my shirt was fully unbuttoned, Danny pushed it from my shoulders and it fell to the floor. “Halfway,” he whispered and I smiled and looked up at him. “Think you can manage your trousers?” I blushed but nodded. I turned away from him and quickly took my shoes and socks off before taking a deep breath and pushing my trousers off. And we were both in our underwear.

I quickly went over to my bed and got under the blankets and Danny did the same with a gentle smile. “You don’t need to be embarrassed around me, Si,” he whispered, bringing his hand up to gently stroke my cheek.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ve never done anything like this before…I’ve never been this, um, undressed with another person…”
“You don’t need to apologise,” he whispered. He shifted closer to me and pulled me into his warm body. I rested my head on his chest and after a moment, I relaxed and sighed in content. “I love that about you.”
“You do?” I whispered, while silently screaming that he’d used the L-word.
“Yeah, your shyness is so endearing,” he said softly, running his fingers through my hair. I closed my eyes.
“I love how confident you are,” I whispered. “I’m kinda jealous of it, actually…”
“Well I think it just makes us perfect together,” he whispered and I smiled.
“Yeah,” I whispered, moving my hand to trace swirls over his soft skin.
“Though I’m really not as confident as you think I am,” he said suddenly.
“You are,” I whispered. “You're the most outgoing person I know.”
“It took me 2 weeks to work up the guts to ask you out and even then I did it wrong,” he said and I couldn’t help but smile and turned to place a soft kiss to his chest.
“You worked up the guts a lot quicker than I would have,” I whispered. “I don’t even know how long it would have taken for me to ask you out.”
“I finally decided that you were worth looking stupid for,” he said and I melted a little bit. “But I ended up looking stupid anyway.”
“Yeah,” I giggled softly, “but I said yes anyway.”
“Yes you did,” Danny said and I could hear the grin in his voice and didn’t need to look up to confirm it. Looking back on Danny’s attempt at asking me out only made me laugh. Of course, it wasn’t funny at the time, but now that misunderstanding is behind us, it was funny.
“I’m going to sleep now,” I whispered and Danny’s arms tightened around me.
“Night, baby,” he whispered, the pet name making my heart skip a beat. I closed my eyes but couldn’t help but smile.

The following morning, I woke up and immediately smiled when I felt Danny’s body spooned up behind mine. We’d changed positions during the night, but were still cuddled together. For a moment, I worried about how my parents would take the fact that a guy stayed over, but then I realised that I just didn’t care. I was 19, nearly 20, and I was mature enough to make good decisions. And Danny was definitely a good decision.

I shifted slightly and realised that I desperately needed to go to the bathroom, but I really didn’t want to disturb Danny. Super carefully, I raised his arm and slid my body from away from him. I heard him make a small noise of protest, but he didn’t want up. Once I was out of the bed, I glanced back at him and couldn’t help but smile. He was so cute, curled up on his side still fast asleep. I crept across my room and opened my door and stepped out, closing the door behind me. A crunch under my foot caught my attention and I realised there was a sheet of paper on the floor. I picked it up and read Gone to Mark and Lindsey’s x. I couldn’t help but grin when I realised that Danny and I had the house to ourselves. Mark and Lindsey were my parents’ closest friends and they usually met up once a month – I was lucky that it happened to be today.

I quickly went to the bathroom to take care of my business and then quietly went back into my room. I smiled softly when I realised that Danny was awake and looking around in confusion. “Oh,” he smiled, relaxing back on the pillows. “I didn’t know where you’d gone…”
“Bathroom,” I said quietly as I crawled back into bed.
“Come ‘ere,” he muttered, grabbing me and pulling me into his body. I giggled but willingly snuggled into him. “What time is it?” he asked after a minute or two. I raised my head and looked at my bedside table clock and read that it.
“Nearly nine,” I said.
“Woah, I never normally sleep this late,” he said. “I’m so used to getting up at 4, that I usually don’t sleep past 6 on days off.”
“Me, too,” I told him.
“It’s nice,” he whispered, his hold on my getting slightly tighter. I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about lying in, or lying in with me.
“It is,” I agreed with a smile, snuggling even closer to him.

A little while later, we got out of bed. “Um, can I borrow some clothes?” Danny asked and I looked at him.
“Sure,” I smiled, “though I’m not sure they’ll fit… you’re quite a bit taller than me.”
“Well, if I’m gonna meet your parents, I don’t-“
“My parents aren’t here,” I said. “They’ve gone out.”
“Oh,” he said and he visibly relaxed.
“Were you really worried about meeting my parents?” I asked as I moved closer to him.
“Well, yeah,” he said with a shrug. “I want them to like me.”
“I’m sure they’ll love you,” I grinned, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing a kiss to his lips.
“I hope so,” he said quietly. I just smiled and went to find my largest pair of grey trackies and a t-shirt.
“Here,” I said, chucking them at him.
“Thanks,” he grinned, slipping them on. I found myself a pair of navy trackies and a t-shirt and quickly got dressed too.
“Do you wanna make pancakes?” I asked and Danny grinned.
“Of course,” he said and we headed downstairs.

We spent the next hour or so making and eating pancakes. I managed to spill flour everywhere when Danny surprised me by grabbing my hips. “Aw, baby,” he grinned, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I know you always say you're not, but you have to admit, you are slightly clumsy…”
“I am not, that was your fault,” I said, making Danny laugh.
“Oh, so are you saying that the milk incident was my fault, too?” he asked.
“Yes!” I cried.
“Why?”
“You were…” I trailed off, suddenly somewhat embarrassed.
“What?” he asked with a grin.
“You were, you know, right there,” I said quietly with a blush. “And I was…flustered.” Danny grinned as though he’d just won first place but then nodded.
“Do you have any idea how adorable you are?” he asked and I just blushed more.
“No,” I muttered.
“Huh, well I’m just gonna have to work hard to prove that you are,” he said. “Firstly, there’s how much you blush, second, how clumsy you are, third-“
“Okay,” I interrupted. “I get it.”
“Third, how shy you are,” Danny continued with a grin. “Fourth-“ I cut him off by suddenly pressing my lips to his.
“I get it,” I murmured again.
“Do you?” he asked, cocking his head to the side and looking at me.
“I’m adorable,” I murmured, feeling myself turning red. Danny just grinned and lowered his lips to mine once again in a much deeper kiss.
“I like your lips,” Danny said and I lowered my head and hid in his shoulder.
“Thanks,” I muttered, even though I was embarrassed. Danny chuckled and pressed a kiss to my temple before picking up the flour and continuing to make the batter.

Instead of going on a date, we stayed at mine and watched dvds. To be honest, it was much better than going to dinner or anything like that, because we got to snuggle on the sofa together. We didn’t need to talk unless we wanted to, whereas at dinner, we’d need to fill the whole time with conversation. It was just more relaxed. And really, it already felt like we knew one another more than well enough not to have a proper first date. We’d already gone past ‘first date’ topics in our friendship and I was more than happy to snuggle on the sofa with him as though we’d been together for ages.

At 4 o’clock, Danny sighed and I immediately sensed the difference between that sigh and his content sigh that I’d been hearing since the night before. “What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling away and looking up him.
“I need to get going soon,” he said and my face fell.
“Oh,” I murmured. Was it crazy that I didn’t want him to leave? Probably. But I didn’t care.
“I know,” Danny whispered. “I don’t want to, but my mum will want me home soon.” I nodded. I felt beyond idiotic that I didn’t want him to go, I knew I’d see him the next day, but I’d really liked falling asleep in his arms. And I wanted that to happened again and again.
“It’s okay,” I smiled, standing up and pulling Danny up with me. “Will we still walk to work together?”
“Of course,” he grinned, kissing me tenderly. I smiled and hugged him tightly.

--

We’d agreed to keep our relationship…not secret, but not obvious. Somehow, though, Tim and John immediately noticed when they entered the diner the following morning. “Don’t you two look happy?” Tim had grinned. Danny had just smiled at them while I got their coffees.
“What happened over the weekend then?” John asked.
“I made a fool out of myself trying to be cool when asking Simon out,” he said and I grinned as I placed the mugs in front of Tim and John.
“I hope you called him on it,” John said to me and I smiled.
“Of course I did,” I smiled, linking my fingers with Danny’s.
“Good,” John grinned. “We’ve been waiting for you two to finally get together.”
“Mm, it’s just like a repeat of Slater and Ash all over again,” Tim said.
“Though they took a lot longer than the two of you did,” John said. “If you two were dancing around each other for 3 months like they were, I probably would have knocked your heads together…”
“It took them 3 months?” I asked in surprise.
“Yeah, but they were dealing with a lot of other stuff at the same time,” John shrugged. “If you think Slater’s a moody bastard, you should have seen him before Ash arrived.” He said this with a grin, though, so I knew he was only somewhat serious.
“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “In the months after Ash left, Slater was pretty hard going. If you think he’s kinda distant now, that’s nothing to what he was like before…” I just nodded, finding it hard to imagine Slater in terms of how they were describing him. He wasn’t exactly warm with anyone besides Ash, but he was a good boss.

For about a month or so after Danny asked me out, no one else suspected anything. I guess we were good at not letting it show when we were at work. But the build-up of desire led to some awesome walks back home in the evenings. Sometimes we hardly got around the corner before Danny would grab me and kiss my breath away. But then Danny and I turned up to work one morning holding hands without realising it. Ash and Slater didn’t say anything but I knew they’d both seen. I was expecting Ash to say something at least, seeing as he and I had become pretty good friends over the few months I’d been working at the diner, but he didn’t. He looked pretty surprised though, but later that day he just grinned widely at me, causing me to blush. “I think you’re a cute couple,” was all he said and I could only thank him before he went back to the office.

When I told Danny that Ash knew, Danny just grinned and shrugged. “That’s fine,” he said, “now I can do this whenever the diner is empty.” And his lips were on mine. I quickly pulled back blushing, and hit his shoulder.
“Danny!” I whispered. “Anyone could see!” I looked around us through the glass windows but no one was around. I looked back at Danny but he was just smirking. I rolled my eyes and went to clear the table of the customers who had just left.

--

There was one morning, however, about 6 months after we first got together, when Danny wasn’t outside my house in the morning. I frowned and pulled out my phone but didn’t have any texts or missed calls. I sent him a text asking if he was okay and letting him know I was going to start walking, but I didn’t get a reply. All the way to work, I was biting my lip with nerves. What if something happened, what if he was ill? I didn’t want to phone him in case he wasn’t well and needed to sleep.

When I got to the diner and saw him standing there waiting for Ash or Slater to let him in, hurt slammed into me like a hammer. “Danny?” I asked quietly once I reached him. “What happened, where were you?”
“Just…needed to be on my own, I needed to think,” he said and I frowned.
“You could have texted me, I was worried about you,” I said but he didn’t reply other than to step away from me slightly. I frowned and felt my heart constrict painfully. What was going on? I continued to look at him until Ash appeared with a happy smile.
“Good morning,” he said loudly, clearly not picking up on the atmosphere surrounding Danny and I.
“Morning,” Danny said quietly as Ash opened the door, walking in as soon as it was open.
“Woah, what’s his problem?” Ash asked me but I just shook my head. Something was wrong with my boyfriend and I had absolutely no idea what. “Oh, well I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” he said and I nodded even though I knew it was something.

The rest of the day passed awkwardly. Danny hardly even looked my way let alone talked to me. I wanted to just go to the bathroom and cry. I felt so utterly pathetic. When the diner was quiet, I slipped back to the office to find Ash. I wasn’t going to stand out there with Danny when he was acting like I didn’t exist. I knocked on the door and Ash called out for me to enter. Slater was in there as well, but once he looked at me he quickly left. “Si, you okay?” Ash asked and I shook my head, sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
“What if he wants to break up?” I whispered. “He won't even look at me, Ash. It’s like he hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you, Simon,” Ash said softly, coming around the desk to sit next to me.
“You don’t know that,” I said weakly. “I really thought he was happy with me… But the last couple days he’s been kinda…funny and now this… What if he’s just building up the nerve to end it?”
“I’m sure that’s not what he’s doing,” Ash said. “Why don’t you just talk to him?”
“I don’t want him to break up with me,” I whimpered, a tear rolling down my cheek. “I love him so much. What if I talk to him and it just makes things worse?”
“I thought that about something, too,” Ash said softly. “I was scared about talking to Slater about stuff, and you know what? Not talking made things worse. I’m sure once you talk to Danny, things will sort themselves out.” I took a deep, shaky breath and shook my head.
“I guess,” I muttered. I cleared my throat and quickly blinked back my tears. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ash smiled, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Anytime.”
“Thanks,” I smiled weakly. I stood and took another deep breath for heading out into the diner. A couple customers had appeared, thank God, so I quickly got to work waiting on those that Danny hadn’t got to. We managed to avoid each other for the rest of the afternoon and evening, even though all I wanted was for him to notice me…

At 10 o’clock, I flipped the sign to ‘closed’ while Danny was mopping the floors. I quickly went into the back and into the office, seeing as the door was already open. “Is it okay to go?” I asked Ash, who nodded.
“Have you talked to Danny?” he asked and I just shook my head.
“See you tomorrow,” I said before turning and heading back to the front. I didn’t look towards Danny ask I walked through the diner and opened the door to leave.
“Wait,” Danny said and I stopped. I wanted to ignore him, to walk away, but I just couldn’t. I turned back and looked up and met Danny’s gaze.
“What?” I asked, my voice shaking slightly. Danny frowned and ran his hand through his hair.
“I’m sorry,” he said and I let the door shut once again as I sighed.
“What’s going on?” I asked him quietly, anxious that the next words out of his mouth would end our relationship.
“I have something important to tell you…and the last time I tried to tell you something important I screwed up and unintentionally hurt you,” he said quickly. “And I didn’t want that to happen again, but it has anyway ‘cause I’m such a fucking idiot and I…”
“You have something important to tell me?” I asked, stepping closer. “Why couldn’t you just tell me?”
“I was scared,” he said weakly and my anger at him vanished just like that.
“Of what?” I asked softly.
“Hurting you again by saying something stupid…” he said. “And making you realise that, actually, you don’t want to be with me.”
“That would never happen,” I said. It was quiet for a minute and then I cleared my throat. “So, um, are you gonna tell me what’s so important?” I asked. Danny looked up and met my gaze and I realised that he wasn’t, couldn’t, whatever. “Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said turning away again, stamping down my hurt.
“No, wait, please,” he said and I turned again. Just then the door to the back opened and Slater and Ash appeared. “Okay,” Danny said and I don’t think he’d realised that we weren’t alone anymore. “So the thing is… okay, I’m not gonna try and make myself sound clever or anything, I’m just gonna tell you… I love you.”

My lips parted in shock as I stared at him. His eyes were fixed on the floor and he was obviously nervous and it was incredibly endearing. I looked over at Ash and Slater – Ash was grinning and Slater had a small smile.

I walked over to him slowly, my heart racing, until I was directly in front of him. “Danny,” I whispered, “I love you, too.” Danny released a breath and finally looked up and met my eyes.
“Really?” he whispered and I nodded.
“Of course I do,” I whispered. Danny gazed at me for a moment and then burst into his grin and wrapped his arms around me.
“I’m so sorry I’ve been a complete twat today,” he said, letting go of me again. “I’ve just been so nervous about telling you. I mean, I mucked up asking you out and I hurt you and I didn’t want to say this wrong and hurt you again. I was just…panicking.” I smiled and shook my head.
“You could never say that wrong,” I whispered, stretching up and kissing him softly.

And then there was quiet applause from the other side of the diner and Danny and I pulled apart and looked over at Ash and Slater, who were both grinning now. “Oh, God, how long have you been there?” Danny asked with a groan.
“Long enough,” Ash said with a grin and Danny groaned and dropped his head to my shoulder. I couldn’t help but laugh. He may be embarrassed but I was so, so happy.
“Stay at mine tonight?” I whispered just so Danny could hear and he pulled back and smiled at me tenderly.
“I’d love to,” he smiled, pressing another kiss to my lips.
“Okay, enough you two,” Slater said, moving towards the door. “Get out so we can lock up,” he smiled and we both grinned and practically ran out of the diner.

--

“I was thinking,” Danny said the following Sunday afternoon. Sunday had become our day, when we could just be together and do couply things, seeing as we didn’t really get the chance during the week.
“Well done,” I smiled, holding his hand in mine and playing with his fingers.
“I think we should live together,” he said and I blinked in surprise and turned to him.
“Really?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so it makes sense for us to live together, right?” I gazed at him, my lips parted in shock.
“I love you so much,” I whispered, moving to straddle his lap. “You know that, right?”
“I know, I love you, too,” he smiled. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes,” I smiled, kissing him softly. Danny’s answering grin made my heart skip a beat. “I can't wait to live with you.”
“Me, too,” he smiled. “Waking up everyday with you in my arms… it’s like a dream come true.”