Chapter Text
‘It's him. Here he comes, right on time,’ said Capheus with a cheerful laugh. He patted Lito encouragingly on the shoulder and even pointed to the café entrance, where a smartly dressed man was walking in, a briefcase perfectly matching his outfit in his hand, pushing his round glasses up his nose.
‘Just ask him out, Lito. What's the worst that could happen?’ asked Nomi, leaning casually on the counter.
Lito put down the coffee he was decorating with foam art and raised both hands warningly to his cluster siblings. ‘Could you please be quiet? I have everything under control.’
Apologetically, they both raised their hands, but exchanged knowing glances behind the barista's back.
Dani, Lito's best friend and colleague, spoke up from the left. She was busy taking orders and now smiled encouragingly at Lito. ‘Who is it this time? And is it about you-know-who?’ She nodded her head towards the queue, at the end of which the smartly dressed man had positioned himself. He was looking at his mobile phone and seemed completely oblivious to his surroundings.
‘Nomi and Capheus,’ Lito murmured. Both greeted Dani, although she couldn't see them. ‘They send their regards,’ Lito added. ‘Guys,’ he looked at Capheus, Nomi and Dani, ‘I'll take care of this. Relax.’
‘You've been saying that for weeks, dear. Every time he was here, I had to listen to your theatrical whining in the evenings,’ Dani said with a cheeky grin.
It was true. This handsome man had been coming to the café for weeks, and so far Lito hadn't managed to speak to him properly. The man had the air of a professor or scientist; he seemed like an educated, calm and competent person in everything he did. Perhaps Lito was overinterpreting everything about the other man just because he looked breathtakingly good.
Lito hadn't gotten past a shy ‘hello’ and ‘have a nice day.’ In the evenings, however, he liked to sit with Dani in their shared flat and talk about his crush on the customer. Otherwise, he was a confident, loud man, aware that he was destined for great things in acting (even if his acting studies had not yet paid off, sadly), but when it came to this particular customer, his tongue was paralysed.
What made the whole thing even worse – or actually better, when he thought about it – was that Dani always engaged in pleasant small talk with the customer and they seemed to get along brilliantly. Lito was happy for Dani; she was the most important person in his life and of course he was happy when she was happy, but... surely it must be possible to exchange more than two words with a pleasant man whom he had seen dozens of times and felt as if he already knew.
‘Good morning, Hernando, it's good to see you again,’ Dani exclaimed when Hernando finally reached the counter. She reached out a hand over the bar and shook his shyly offered hand energetically. Hernando pushed his glasses up awkwardly, in a way that Lito found indescribably cute. He wrinkled his nose and pushed his glasses up as far as possible with his index finger, only for them to slip back down again soon after.
‘Good morning, Daniela. I was here just the day before yesterday, as you well know,’ said Hernando with a smile. He had a calm, cultured voice, which reinforced Lito's theory that he was an educated man.
Dani laughed and took his order. Lito had to focus on his work so as not to fall behind, which unfortunately meant he couldn't follow their conversation.
‘Hernando at 12 o'clock,’ Will suddenly said right next to Lito. Lito rolled his eyes. What did he want here now? ‘Go away,’ Lito muttered out of the corner of his mouth. At that moment, Hernando appeared on Lito's side of the counter to wait for his order – mocha with a pinch of cinnamon, which he bought every time.
‘Lito, my friend, be brave. See how he keeps glancing over here?’ Will explained, grinning knowingly.
Lito focused on the coffee in his hands and said nothing.
‘Spiced coffee for Hernando,’ the barista called, feeling very proud that his voice sounded powerful instead of shaky. Studying acting had been good for something after all.
Hernando came closer and Lito felt all eyes on him – Dani's, Nomi's, Capheus's, Will's. The barista pushed the coffee across the counter; his fingers touched Hernando's because he hadn't pulled his hand back quickly enough.
‘Heavy swallowing, ha! Lito, he's into you, trust me,’ said Will, who had apparently taken on the role of wingman without being asked. Lito felt himself blushing. It was now or never, he could feel it. It was like being on a film set, just before the actors began their scene. There was a crackling tension in the air.
They paused for a moment and looked at each other. It was one of those moments that shouldn't actually happen in real life. They were far too cheesy. Two people shared a moment and suddenly, however exactly it happened, they saw each other as if for the first time. As if they hadn't been able to perceive the other before, but now a veil had been lifted that neither of them had previously known even existed. Once torn apart, you wondered how you could have been so blind before. Everything was right in front of your eyes, right there!
Lito recognised this moment, having experienced one before in his life. He knew what he felt, at that very moment; it lay crystal clear before him, and if he wasn't mistaken, he saw that clarity in Hernando's eyes as well. Unconsciously, Lito tilted his head to the side, questioningly, his body tensing, as if about to jump into the sea, which he knew would be freezing cold, but at the same time invigorating like nothing else. Forward or backward, his body was suspended between two possibilities.