One for the Angels

I didn’t know if it was just a mere coincidence or because it had been a week exactly, but on the seventh day, Danny spoke to me.

I was a little late for my lunch break, and I was grumpy because Hannah had broken one of our coffee machines. I stomped outside and practically thrust the chocolate glazed doughnut and hazelnut macchiato (I quite enjoyed giving him fancy drinks) into his hands. He looked up at me, eyes wide and startled like I’d just woken him up, and I felt myself soften a little.

“Sorry,” I sighed. “Hannah wasn’t paying attention today and she somehow managed to break our lucky coffee machine, so your drink might be kinda shitty. Not that the other coffee machines make everything taste bad, it’s just that I’ve been using the lucky one for the past week to make your stuff so I’m downgrading today. I hope it’s still good. If it’s not I understand. I’m rambling again, why don’t you just tell me to shut up?” I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cold sidewalk a few feet away from him, keeping a respectful distance between us.

Danny had been eating calmly as usual, but this time, he turned and looked at me. And then he said, “Hello.”

It was so sudden and out of the blue that I didn’t answer at first, trying to make sure if I’d really heard him correctly. Blinking at him, I managed to say, “Hey.”

“Sorry,” he said, a little quietly. “I just didn’t want the first thing I ever said to you to be something weird.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I said, still staring at him. “That’s totally okay.” His voice was sort of raspy and husky and slow, but I liked it. I wanted to fall asleep to the sound of his voice every night. Maybe that was weird, but I hardly cared. “Um.” Now that we were speaking, I had no idea what to say.

I was so caught up in watching him that I didn’t even realized he’d spoken. “Sorry?”

“I said my coffee is good,” he said softly.

“Oh. I’m glad. Maybe you’re our good-luck charm.”

He raised his eyes to my face again. “Yeah, maybe.” We didn’t talk for the rest of my lunch break, mostly because I was too busy sneaking glances at his face when I thought he wasn’t looking, hoping to see those deep, brown eyes. I’d always thought the color of coffee was beautiful, no matter if it was black or so light and sweet it nearly resembled a cloud. However, now I found my new favorite shade of it.

When I got up to go back in, I turned to him. “See you tomorrow?”

Now it was his turn to be surprised, but he nodded. Apparently he’d given up on the talking thing again. Oh well. I gave him a little wave before going back inside. It was strange, maybe, but now I couldn’t wait to come to work.