Coffee Shop

It’s been two weeks since Sidney first met Aoife at the coffee shop, and no matter how many times he has revisited the shop, he hasn’t run into her.

“Oi, Dupes, get your arse in gear,” Sidney yelled towards his teammate Pascal, who was still getting changed from practice, ‘We’re stopping off for some coffee on the way home’. After they were both ready Sidney led the way to his car, before driving off to the coffee shop he now visits regularly. “Usual?”, Sidney asked Pascal, before getting out of the car.

- - - - -

Sitting in the car Pascal watched his friend and teammate walk into the coffee shop, with a pondering look on his face. See Pascal has noticed a small difference in Sidney since they have started practice again, the main one being that he frequently visited the coffee shop on the way home from the rink, even though he had a perfectly good coffee machine at home.

Looking at Sidney standing in line Pascal was still trying to figure it out, before a short woman with auburn hair turned around and smiled at Sidney, sharing a laugh, as though they already knew each other well. This confused Pascal, firstly because Sidney didn’t normally act so… open towards strangers, and secondly because he was not aware that Sid had a girl in his life.

- - - - -

Walking into the Coffee shop, Sidney stood inline behind a shortish woman wearing a smart dress and heals while she ordered, having a feeling that he knew her, but couldn’t be quite sure. However when he heard her speak in an English accent, he immediately recognised her as Aoife. Tapping her on he shoulder Sidney called ‘Aoife’.

Turning around, a smile formed on Aofie’s face as she recognised the man in front of her. “I believe you owe me date.” Sidney stated bluntly causing Aoife to laugh.

‘hmm’ she replied in a teasing manor, ‘If I remember correctly, which I am pretty sure that I can, I only promised you my number’

Laughing Sidney came up with a quick remark, ‘Yes, but a phone number will lead to date, so we may as well get straight to it’. This statement even surprised himself as he is never normally this confident or forward when conversing with the opposite sex. When she raised her left eye brow Sidney laughed before continuing, ‘plus, I did buy you a coffee so you do owe me one’.

‘That may be true,’ she started shaking her head, ‘but incase you forgot you spilled coffee all over me. However I am in a good mood’, she continued in a teasing tone, ‘So you are lucky enough to get a date with me,’ it was Sidney’s turn to raise his eyebrow this time, causing Aoife to laugh, ‘sorry, i guess it’s the other way round superstar’. Both laughed loudly, before getting interrupted with the Barista calling out Aoife’s name handing her the coffee before taking Sidney’s order.

‘Well Sid, times gone fast, and I need to get back to work, but I can give you my number, and address and I have the day off tomorrow so, tomorrow?’ Aoife said towards Sidney in a juxtaposition of both a confident yet shy tone.

A large smile making it’s way onto Sidney’s face, he said, ‘I would like that’, while getting out his phone and swapping numbers with Aoife. Then standing on her tiptoes she leaned up to Sidney giving him a peck on the cheek, as small blush forming where her lips touched him. Then with a swift wave she left out of the coffee shop door, not even acknowledging the pair of eyes that was seemingly following her every move from the range rover parked on the side of the road.

Receiving his and Pascal’s order, Sidney turned making his way out of the door, when his phone went off in his pocket, then looking at the message he saw text from Aoife, confused he opened it:
Aoife:
Hey superstar, you may need this if you’re picking me up tomorrow;) *insert address here*

Shaking his head Sidney put his phone away and climbed into his car, giving Pascal his order, ignoring the inquisitive looks that were being sent his way. The rest of the way to Pascal’s house the ride was silent before Pascal finally spoke up, ‘Who was that Siddo?’.

With a small smile on his face, Sidney glanced at Pascal before replying bluntly ‘Aoife’, not giving any extra information on the girl that has been clouding his thoughts since he met her two weeks ago.

- - - - - - -

At quarter to one, sitting on the sofa in the living room of her small flat, Aoife slipped on her shoes whilst waiting for Sidney to pick her up. She was quietly excited about the date, earlier she skyped her sister, telling her about the second run in and getting advice on what she should wear, before deciding on a light blue dress and some sandals, due to the hot weather outside.

After hearing a knock on the door Aoife stood up, and picking up her bag, she made her way to the door, opening it to see Sidney leaning against the door frame smiling, ‘Hey Eve, you ready?’.

Nodding, and leaning up to kiss Sidney’s cheek in greeting, Aoife stepped out of the apartment and locked the door allowing Sidney to guide her to his car. ‘So Superstar, where are you taking me?’

‘Uh, uh, uh’ Sidney started, laughing slightly as she had trouble getting into the car, and placing his hands on her hips the lift her up slightly, ‘that is a surprise little bit’.

‘Little bit?’ Aoife asked slightly confused, ‘ and what if I didn’t like surprises?’.

‘Yeah, your nickname, as you are extremely short, what are you 5ft?’, then seeing her nod he laughed, ‘I was only joking you know, but wow you really are little. Anyway, everyone likes surprises’. After that the car ride had a light atmosphere, full of jokes and random facts about each other.

‘The Zoo?’ Aoife yelled excitedly jumping around in her seat, causing Sidney to jump, and laugh as he glanced at her from the corner of her eye.

‘Excited?’ Sid asked, after parking the car, getting out and walking next to the woman next to him who has a bounce in her step.

‘Excited!?’ She exclaimed ‘I love the zoo, especially the penguins. Are there penguins there?’

‘Hellooo’ Sidney joked, ‘penguin right here’. This caused Aoife to let out a loud laugh as the pair got their tickets, ‘no but, yes there are penguins and lots of animals’ he continued.

Throughout the day Aoife and Sidney walked around the zoo, visiting the lions, giraffes, flamingoes and also getting lunch at one of the restaurants situated in the zoo, getting to know each other better. Although Sidney got recognised a few times by young fans wanting a picture, the pair were left relatively alone, enjoying each others company.

‘So,’ Sidney started as the two walked hand in hand towards the aquarium, ‘you know what I do for a living, yet I still have no idea what you do. So what is it you do?’ He asked turning his head to look down at the woman at his side.

‘International development’ She replied, and upon seeing his confused glance ‘basically I look into the development of countries, working out help schemes for slum dwellers, in fact before I moved here I visited the Kibera slum in Nairobi. I just come up with schemes to improve the living standards’.

‘That sounds, actually really great’ Sidney started, ‘how often do you go out there?’

‘It depends,’ Aoife replied, ‘I tend to go in the summer, and sometimes in January, I work from home a lot, but there were better opportunities for the job here in America so, here I am.’ She laughed.

‘That must be such a satisfying job’ Sidney stated before looking in front of them and pointing towards a section to his left ‘there’s the penguins’.

Letting out a jump and small squeal Aoife pulled Sidney by his hand to stand in front of the penguins, ‘Hey Sid, you should get a picture with them, it will be like a team picture’.

Laughing along with her, Sid pulled out his phone and gave it to Aoife to take a picture before asking an older man next to them, to take a picture of the pair together in front of the penguins. Sidney then setting it as his phone background. ‘You need to send me that picture’, Aoife demanded, before too setting it as her wallpaper. For the rest of the day, they carried on exploring the zoo grounds, before getting ice cream and heading home.

‘I had a really great time Sid’, Aoife stated looking un towards Sidney, ‘We should definitely do this again. If you’d like that is’.

‘I’d like’, Sidney replied, laughing along with Aoife at his immediate response, his eyes flickering towards her lips. “Hey, Aoife, do you kiss on the first date?’, he muttered quietly.

‘I don’t know,’ she started, ‘Why don’t you find out’. Looking at each other the two closed their eyes as their lips touched, sharing a small kiss before pulling apart, both smiling widely.
‘I suppose I better go’, Sidney whispered, leaning in for one last kiss before saying goodbye. Leaving with a promise of a phone call, Sidney made his way down to his car, his grin not dropping as he replayed the moment in his head, knowing that he would be calling this girl very soon.