Chapter Text
'Oh, bloody hell!'
It felt like a wall slammed into Colin. One that was nothing but whipcord and wiry muscle, balancing a backpack straining at the seams and an armful of books that intimidated Colin merely by their thickness, let alone their content.
'Shit, I'm sorry!' The young man shifted the pile of books to one arm, and grasped Colin by the wrist, intending to keep him from overbalancing, but he pulled too hard and ended up colliding with him. 'Didn't see you there.'
Colin gaped at him. Up close, he was adorable. He had a mop of unruly auburn curls pulled back into a messy bun with bright blue eyes, surrounded by thick lashes. 'Hi.'
''Scuse me.' The man nodded at the door behind Colin. 'I lost all track of time, and I'm about to be late for work.'
'Oh, sorry.' Colin stepped to the side and reached for the door handle. 'After you.' He watched with half-smile tilting his mouth as the man disappeared through a pair of saloon doors painted in the colors of the Pride flag. He would have never dreamed of doing this in London, much less Cardiff. He wasn't as well-known as Jamie, Dani, or Sam, but it wasn't a risk he was willing to take. But here… Americans didn't really follow football, and as long as his name wasn't Messi, Cristiano, Neymar, or Pele, he could do as he liked for once. No one in New York seemed to know who Colin Hughes was, and that was fine by him. 'Just do it, Colin,' he muttered. 'You are a strong and capable man.' And not a piece of shit, he added silently. Despite Sharon's assurances he didn't need the last bit, he still said it from time to time when he needed an extra boost.
'Goin' in or comin' out, honey?'
Colin started at the intrusion and yanked the door open again. 'In, I suppose.' He let the throng of people he'd been blocking stream through the door, then followed them inside. The coffee shop was the size of a postage stamp, festooned with memorabilia, and not a single scrap of it sports related. He joined the queue to order a coffee, and frowned at the menu board. What in the hell was a He-Man? Or a Bert and Ernie?
'What can I get you?'
Colin blinked. It was the redheaded whirlwind, with an apron covering the slim dark blue button down scattered with tiny pink flowers he wore. He'd rolled the sleeves back, exposing a tattoo of a leafy vine winding around his wrist and up his forearm. A crooked name tag proclaiming him as Josh was fastened to the top of the black apron. 'What's in a He-Man?'
'Black coffee flavored with hazelnuts and cinnamon.'
He spoke in the sort of drawl that sounded like honey and sunshine. Colin could have stood there all night listening to it. ‘What if I want milk in it?’
Josh grinned. ‘Then it’s a Prince Adam.’
Colin’s lips quirked in an answering grin. 'I see. And Bert and Ernie?'
'Decaf latte, whole milk.'
'And the Shirley Temple?' Colin's brow rose in trepidation.
'Hot chocolate with whipped cream and pink sprinkles.'
Colin leaned across the counter. 'Don't suppose I could get a Shirley Temple?' he asked in a low voice so no one else could hear. He was giving himself two weeks of his month-long holiday to eat what he liked, and then it was back to his meal plan. It was also something he’d never allow himself to order back home. Everyone would give him a hard time about it. Except maybe Sam and Ted. Who would probably order one without an ounce of shame or embarrassment, and give an effusive compliment to the barista that made it.
'Sure.' Josh's nose crinkled. 'And don't be embarrassed by it. It's pretty popular.' He tapped a few buttons on the till. 'Do you want it for here or to-go?'
'Ahhhh.' Colin tapped the edge of his credit card against the counter. It was his first time in New York, and he wanted to explore a little more before heading back to his hotel for the night. Excitement tingled along his nerve endings, and he felt like a little boy in church on a bright summer morning, itching to run to ends of the earth. 'To-go, yeah? Landed a few hours ago. Never been here before. Thought I'd walk around a bit.'
'And where's home for you?'
'London.'
'Jet lagged?' Josh slid the receipt across the counter.
'It's only a five hour difference.' Colin tucked his card back into his wallet. 'Not so bad.'
Someone behind him cleared their throat, punctuated by impatient toe-tapping. 'You can pick it up at the end of the counter.' Josh tipped his head in that direction. 'Name for the cup?'
'Colin.'
'Okay. Colin.' Josh's smile as he scrawled Colin's name across the cup made Colin's insides melt into a puddle of goo. 'Be a few minutes.'
Colin retreated to the end of the counter, and scrolled through Isaac's Instagram to pass the time. He was on some beach in southern France, with what Colin felt were objectively pretty women, but his gaze kept straying back to the alluring ginger taking coffee orders, who apparently had a bigger brain than anyone Colin knew. Aside from Beard, Higgins, and Sharon. He shook his head, already feeling deflated. He'd managed to see the title on one of those books Josh carried. Something about calculus, which might as well have been Latin, as far as Colin was concerned. He'd barely managed to pass his secondary school algebra class. And Josh was way out of his league. Too bad nerdy guys were exactly his type. Someone called his name, and pushed his cup across the polished wood counter. He retrieved it with a smile, then saluted Josh with it on the way out the door. 'Cheers, matey.'
'Bye.' Josh gave the cup a significant glance, and Colin's eyes dropped to the side. Under his name, Josh had written his own name and a phone number. Colin gawked at it, then glanced back at Josh, his ears burning. Josh peeked over a customer's head and winked with a cheeky grin. Flustered, Colin's head ducked before Josh could see his flaming cheeks and he stumbled out of the coffee shop. He made it halfway down the block before he took a sip of the hot chocolate and stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, letting people flow around him as though he were a boulder in a stream.
It was delicious.
Dark and rich, it reminded him of the hot chocolate his gran used to make for him at Christmas. Colin felt a wave of homesickness he didn’t usually feel. It wasn't necessarily that he missed Cardiff, although he did. He missed his gran. She'd always been so proud of him, and one of his biggest supporters. She'd said a lot of things in Welsh that he couldn't repeat in English about Jamie Tartt after that profile. He wandered into a park and perched on the edge of a large fountain. Josh’s number stared up at him from the side of the cup. What would the guys on the team do? He knew the answer to that. None of them would dither over this. Jamie would have simply said something suggestive that managed to be charming — how did he do that? — and arranged a date before he’d finished paying for his coffee. Right. What was the worst that could happen? 'Just do it, you daft sod,' he muttered, pulling out his phone. Before he could let himself think too much, Colin tapped out a message to Josh. Hot chocolate's great. Thanks. I… don't do this very often… I never do this… Maybe we could have dinner or something. And feel free to tell me to bugger off. He hit send before he could talk himself into deleting the whole thing, and slid his phone back into his pocket.
The vibrating ding that announced an incoming message just a few minutes later startled him, and he bobbled the cup and nearly spilled his drink. 'Christ… stop acting like you've never asked anyone out…'
You mind breakfast?
Colin's heart nearly stopped. 'That escalated quickly.' Was Josh insinuating what he thought? Three dots flashed at the bottom of the screen.
Just breakfast. I don't put out on the first date.
A burst of nervous laughter bubbled up in Colin's throat. Breakfast is fine. I like breakfast.
Is Thursday okay? My schedule's a little insane right now.
Yeah.
There's a really great diner near Columbia. I can text you the address. Meet you at 8:30 or so?
Colin felt like he'd just scored the winning goal of the World Cup. See you then.
Sam’s face filled the screen of Colin’s phone. ‘Sam, are you busy?’
‘I’ve got some time.’
‘I have a date tomorrow.’
Sam’s head tilted to the side with a bemused frown creasing his normally cheerful face. ‘Didn't you just land in New York yesterday?’
‘Yeah. So?’
‘That seems fast.’
'Jamie or Dani would have met someone the second they got off the plane and slept with them,' Colin argued.
Sam nodded. 'That is true.'
‘I went for a coffee. He works at the cafe, and wrote his number on my cup. He's gorgeous and way out of my league…’ Colin froze. He'd completely forgotten to switch the pronouns, as was his usual habit. But Sam was so disarming, even when he wasn't trying, that Colin wasn't so sure that admitting his date was with another man had been an accident. And it did feel like something that weighed on his shoulders fell away. He plopped on the foot of his bed and met Sam's gaze. Sam hadn’t recoiled in horror or disgust, but instead offered an encouraging nod. 'I'm gay.'
Sam's already cheerful smile shifted into something as soft and warm as a sunbeam on a spring afternoon. 'Thank you for sharing that with me.'
Colin released a breath he didn’t realize he held. 'Can you keep it quiet for now?'
'Of course. It's not mine to tell. You'll share it with other people when you're ready.' His posture shifted into something more businesslike. ‘So. You have a date tomorrow?’
Colin nodded with a sheepish grin. ‘And I don’t know what to wear.’
Sam’s brows rose in surprise. Colin maybe be in over his head with his car, but never when it came to his clothes. He had a tendency to dress in an understated style with a discreet flourish or two. ‘It’s not some sort of weird party, is it? Where you dress up in costumes?'
‘It's breakfast.'
Sam’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Breakfast with Rebecca had often implied a lot more than eating Wheetabix while perched on her kitchen island in his boxers. 'Is it just breakfast, or is it… breakfast?'
'What's the difference?'
'Well, one is where you go somewhere and order eggs and toast. The other is when you make toast naked in their kitchen.'
Colin shook his head, more than a little dazed by that revelation. Sam appeared to have a much richer life off the pitch than he could possibly imagine. Still, for all of Sam's angelic innocence, he wasn't the one wandering in the weeds here. 'It's just breakfast.'
'Let me see what you've brought.'
Colin switched to the front-view camera, and panned it slowly over the clothes in the closet. 'Is casual all right?'
'I think you'll be fine. The grey shorts, the blue shirt — the short-sleeved one — and the black trainers.'
Colin plucked each item from the closet as Sam listed it. 'Are you sure about the trainers?' Wasn't that too casual?
'The trainers will be fine.' Sam propped the phone against his water glass. 'Now. Tell me everything.’
‘There isn’t anything to tell,’ Colin countered.
‘I’m not seeing anyone, so I’m going to live vicariously through you. Details.’
‘I literally ran into him outside the cafe. He’s a ginger. Blue eyes. About as tall as you.’ Colin's voice trailed off as he imagined Josh talking about something terribly important, and he couldn't do more than nod every so often, barely comprehending one word in ten. 'And so bloody smart, I'm going to sound like a babbling idiot next to him.'
'You've barely met. How can you know that?'
'He was carrying an armload of books.'
'So?'
'Like math and science that I've never heard of.' Colin slumped, already feeling defeated. 'I should just cancel it.' Better to cancel now than to arrive at the diner and spend five minutes with Josh before he realized what a total plonker he was and faked an emergency.
'You aren't stupid, Colin,' Sam said patiently. 'Not to say you haven't made a few stupid decisions, but you won't know if the two of you have anything to talk about unless you try, no?'
'I suppose.'
Sam glanced up at the top of his phone. 'I've got to go. Colin, it's going to be fine. What is it that Ted says? Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination?'
'Yeah.'
‘Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?’
‘The date goes horribly, and we agree to never see each other again?’
'Exactly. Not the end of the world.’
Sam seemed to want to say something more, but Colin could tell he held himself back. He knew that face. ‘Lay it on me,’ he sighed.
Sam leaned closer to his phone. Not for the first time he wondered if half of Colin’s decisions were made with what he thought he should be, any not who he was. ‘Just be yourself. Not how you think a footballer should be. And have fun.'
'Right… Fun.'
'Bye, Colin.'
Colin waved a farewell, then flopped back across his bed.