Mia Peña-Griffiths (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} creativamia) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} 20somethings,@ 2022-04-09 12:47:00 |
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Who: Mia and Rhys
What: Meeting for coffee after talking on the dating app.
When: 9 April 2028
Where: Higher Grounds
Warnings: None
Completion Status: Complete
Mia was nervous. It was the first time she'd gone the dating app route, but with Dom being halfway around the world, she knew she needed to get herself out back out there, meet new people, and maybe see if there was someone with whom her heart would soar. Which, she knew, was a ridiculously romantic sentiment, but it was how she felt. She wanted to find a love that made her head spin, that made her question everything she'd thought she'd known, that calmed and settled her as much as it thrilled and excited her.
Stepping into the coffee shop, Mia felt like spring in her dress, her hair curled and colored a deep burgundy that would show best in sunlight. She'd even bothered with a bit of makeup, though she'd felt a bit anxious about it, wondering if it would establish a certain expectation that she was some super feminine woman. But a first date, even just a coffee date, felt like a good opportunity to pretty herself up some, and it was a small boost to her confidence.
Looking around, she wondered if Rhys was already there, and if she should go ahead and order if he wasn't.
Rhys didn’t want to think about the clothes he left strewn across his flat. Compulsively checking his simple look in the passing shop windows he hoped it wasn’t too casual. He really did need a more gradual wardrobe, but with the World Cup preparations it boiled down to tee shirts and jeans, and his ministry robes. Stepping inside the coffee shop he recognized Mia standing close to the counter. He saw the dress she was wearing and thought he’d underdressed. He took a deep breath. They’d hit it off messaging, maybe it wouldn’t matter. “Mia?”
When she heard her name, Mia turned, recognizing Rhys from his pictures on the app, and her stomach fluttered at how attractive he was. It was ridiculous how attractive he was, and yet he'd agreed to meet her for a little coffee date! Imposter syndrome was definitely starting to ease in.
"Rhys?" She wasn't sure why it sounded like a question, considering she'd recognized him. Her cheeks tinged a bit, and her hands smoothed down the skirt of her dress nervously. "Hi! Umm, I hope I pronounced your name right?" It wasn't a common one, and even though she'd read it a time or two in different books, she'd not really heard it out loud.
“You did.” It wasn’t often he heard his full name anymore between his family and work, but he appreciated the attempt.
“You look fantastic.” His eyes were drawn to the satin red ribbon cinched in around her waist. The dress fit hugged her curves as if the dress was made especially for her. Her profile truly didn’t do her justice, but it was her straightforward bio that drew him.
“You can also call me Riz, if it’s easier.” He felt excited. He was out with a beautiful woman and if their messaging was any indication, they had a good amount in common. “Coffee or tea?” He asked motioning towards the queue.
Her cheeks flushed a bit at the compliment, excited and a bit flustered at it. Did he really think it or was he just being polite? She'd never really thought herself ugly, just not beautiful either, and so she was always a little surprised when someone found her attractive. "Thank you," she said quietly.
Riz was easier, but she was glad that she'd got his name right on the first try. People never had trouble pronouncing her name, which she supposed she was grateful for. She grinned a bit at his question, her dark eyes seeming to sparkle a bit. "Coffee, definitely. I might be half British, but the Latina in me just can't live without coffee," she admitted. Her accent was usually decidedly British while speaking English, but there was more than a hint of her Spanish accent in those words.
Mia stepped into the queue with him. "What about you?" she asked. Tea was as much Indian as it was British, wasn't it? But coffee was the nectar of the gods, and she would always prefer it.
“I’ll drink tea, but it isn’t my favorite.” He still managed to swallow the odd cup on family occasions. “We had it at every meal growing up and it just turned me off.” Did she have any similar experiences with her family?
“Coffee’s been a necessity for me since I started working at the Ministry, but I can’t remember when I last had a proper cup. We have a coffee pot in our break room but it tastes completely different depending on who brews it.” He smiled.
He didn’t often find anyone that could match his energy. His sister Penny maybe? Manny was too self-serious most of the time and Daani brought out his somber side recently. Partially his fault considering their recent conversation. Regardless of his other relationships, he enjoyed Mia’s company so far and hoped she thought the same.
“Do you have a favorite? Maybe a recommendation?”
Mia grinned at him, scrunching up her nose as she nodded in understanding. "We didn't do tea often in my family," she admitted. "My dad's full-on British, but I'm not sure he's ever been a fan of tea. So my mum's preference for coffee was never a point of contention." She remembered always waking up to the smell of coffee every morning, and it was something she'd missed while at Hogwarts.
"I can't imagine being at the mercy of my coworkers' idea of a good pot of coffee," she commented with a soft laugh, shaking her head and moving forward with the line. "Home brewing is definitely worth it, in my opinion."
Mia hummed as she thought through the different types of coffee. "The darker the roast, the better, even if you don't take your coffee black. A couple times a year, I splurge on importing a bag from Puerto Rico. A very big bag, but still," she admitted.
“I get to the office early to make the first pot. That roast sounds incredible. I get a cousin of mine to send me a big bag of Sumatran twice a year.” Rhys looked at the list of roasts the coffee shop had on brew. “Something nice and dark sounds delicious. Maybe that French Roast”
"Ooh, I don't think I've tried Sumatran, but I've heard good things!" Mia said, her interest more than piqued. She did, at least, manage to bite back the flirtatious question that popped into her head, that perhaps he'd share it with her some morning. As nice as their conversation had been over the app, it was far too soon for that sort of flirting. Or, at least, she was trying hard not to get in over her head too soon, as she usually did.
"French roast is overrated, in my opinion. Ooh! Look, they've got a limited time supply of Colombian beans! I think I'll go with that," she said, excited. Beans from Central and South America were superior, in her opinion, and her taste buds were already dancing at the thought of Colombian coffee.
“I think I’ll join you. Try something new.” Any day of the week Rhys could grab a French roast from the commissary at the Ministry. “It’s something I don’t always get to try.” Was he smiling too much? He felt like it. Maybe, he was just overthinking it. She was attractive and whip smart.
Mia's smile widened, feeling a bit charmed that he would go along with her choice and try something new in the process. When they got to the front of the line, she ordered both of their coffees while opening the bag strung over her shoulder to get out the correct coins to pay. "My treat, if you don't mind," she told him. It seemed appropriate seeing as he was going along with her choice, but his response would also give her a good read on his character, she rather thought.
Rhys already had his wallet in his hand when she mentioned it. “I was going to offer to pay myself, but I don’t mind.” He slid his wallet back into his pocket. He could hear his father’s voice in his head, Always offer to pay, Rhys.
“You might just turn me on to South American coffee.” The half-step in flirting felt clunky rolling out of his mouth, but they hadn’t even sat down yet with their drinks. He took a deep breath. Hopefully he didn’t look as he felt.
She hadn't noticed his wallet, but her eyes ticked down at the movement of him putting it away, and she felt a bit of a thrill that he was willing to let her pay. As much of a romantic as she was, she was also a staunch feminist and appreciated that he didn't seem to have some antiquated view about not letting a woman buy him coffee.
"Well, I'll do my very best," she retorted, her tone taking on a bit of flirtation in turn. She paid for their drinks, taking both cups when they were handed over and passing one to him. They walked over to one of the counters with the things to doctor drinks up. "How do you take yours?" she asked as she popped the top off her cup and plucked a couple creamer pods up from the tray.
“I like things that are a little bit sweet.” He quipped back. “Cream and a spoonful of sugar.” He stirred in the creamer until it took on a sweet caramel color. Rhys always savored the first sip. The best part in his opinion. The coffee tasted bold. Pops of chocolate flowing into a nutty finish before brightening with an acidic finish. He pulled the cup away from his mouth. “I might have a new favorite.” He made a note to see if they sold it by the pound. “It’s punchy in all the right ways.” He smirked. He wasn’t just talking about the coffee.
Mia wondered if that was a line, if he was flirting with her, and she felt a surge of hope that he was. It always surprised and thrilled her when someone genuinely flirted with her. "I tend to just go with cream. Too sweet and it'll tame the boldness" Though one spoonful of sugar generally wasn't enough to do that. She just tried to avoid sugar as much as possible, so putting it in her coffee wasn't practical.
Her smile widened, pleased with only the smallest flash of smugness. "Isn't it fantastic!" she agreed with a contented sigh as she lifted her own cup up, lid still off, and breathed in the aroma. "Should we find a table then?" she asked with a nod of her head away from the counter as she finally put the lid back in place.
“Boldness is what I like,” he commented.
Looking around the crowded shop he saw two seats open on the far wall opposite the door. The spot was far enough away from the bulk of the tables that they wouldn’t have to shout over the din of the other patrons. He hated that about crowded places sometimes. It made it difficult to differentiate voices.
“I think I see one.” He motioned for her to follow her, refraining from reaching out a hand to lead her towards the table. “What do you think?”
He didn’t know whether he should pull her chair for her or not but felt embarrassed asking. “I know it’s a bit archaic, but do you mind if I pull your chair for you? There are some things you’re taught that are hard to stamp out.” He felt the heat in his cheeks as they reddened.
He took the seat opposite her. “I don’t think we touched on it in the messages but what do you do for work?” They had spent so much time speaking about their love of language that he wondered if it had much to do with her current career.
Mia's lips pressed together in an attempt to contain the broad smile that wanted to spread over her face at his question. It was a bit of an old fashioned thing, but she didn't think it made her any less of a feminist to not mind those sorts of gestures. It was when people thought it should be required that it could rankle. "I think it's a sweet gesture, but I can manage this time, as that's the sort of thing more suited for a fancier place than this, I'd imagine," she answered, not wanting him to think she was totally against the thought. Besides, it was the sort of thing her dad would appreciate.
Sitting across from him, she smiled at the question, nodding slightly. "I'm not sure we did either, but that's okay. I'm an engineering intern at Shingleton," she answered proudly. "I tried for it right out of school, but they didn't have any openings at the time. When one finally opened up last year, I applied and was accepted, so it's been quite exciting. What about you?"
This time. Rhys could help but smile thinking that there may be a proper date between the two of them. “Fair enough.” He settled into his own seat.
He liked that she was driven. That she had kept working at finding a position at Shingleton. “So you work with the inventions division?” He knew a little of how the Shingleton came about, but he also knew they had their hands in every industry there was. He also knew that being an employee that she probably couldn’t say much about her work.
“I’m a security advisor with the ICW.” He always found the story of how he got there full of tangents. “If it wasn’t for my interest in politics, I’m rather sure I would’ve ended up an Auror or a competitive duelist. But I don’t quite know how well being multilingual would work on the competitive circuit.”
Too many people gave her blank looks and didn't seem to understand when she told them she was an engineering intern, so the fact that he pegged what that meant right away had her smiling widely at him. "Yes! Lots of R-and-D, though with where I'm at in my internship, I'm still doing a lot of research and experimentation in how different sorts of magic interact with different things. How amazing would it be to discover something with such wide appeal and usage as the self-stirring cauldron?" It was no secret that she greatly admired Gaspard Shingleton, even if she wasn't actually getting to work with him directly much.
"Oh, I don't know, it could be a great way to mess with your opponents' heads," she suggested a bit impishly. A security advisor, though, that sounded impressive! "I was never really interested in Ministry work. I always knew I wanted to work in research and development. I was the youngest in my family, so I got a lot of hand-me-down toys, which I loved taking apart and putting back together," she admitted. "The ICW, though, wow! You must like the work?" she prompted curiously.
“It’s so much more fun to learn information through a good conversation.” He smirked. Most of his correspondences weren’t something he could share over a cup of coffee. “It’s more memorable that way.” He sipped his coffee.
“I like learning new information and how it fits together.” So much of his work dealt with information channels between the British Seats and their international counterparts. “It’s become a little more intensive with the World Cup approaching. Many of the other ICW representatives have been pouring owls and memos into our offices lately.” He was excited for the World Cup but not the plethora of extra correspondences. “We’d be nothing without our translators' offices. Which is why I want to learn more. More language means less trips to their offices, and more trips abroad, if I can prove proficiency.”
"It is, indeed," Mia agreed with a small, pleased smile. It made her want to reach out and touch him, those tactile instincts difficult to ignore, though she did her best to resist it for the moment. He'd not initiated any sort of touch yet, and even if it was silly, she didn't want to be the first.
She liked the way he correlated their experiences. "Ooh, that's right! I keep forgetting the World Cup is here this year," she admitted a bit sheepishly. She wondered how interested in the sport he was. "I do wish I had more time to travel abroad. What was the last trip you took for pleasure rather than work?" she asked curiously. They'd touched on travel in their messages, she knew, but there was so much she didn't know about him, so much she wanted to learn, and wasn't that exciting?
He placed a hand down on the table between them. “I took a trip home last year before the preparations started.” Most of his trips home weren’t exactly pleasurable as his extended family vied for his attention. “More of a bounce around India to different relations.” He made a small face. He loved his family but the constant motion was exhausting and the reason he hadn’t made any plans for once the Cup started.
“I was thinking of a long vacation once the Cup was underway. These things run through Sports and Games and the Aurors offices once it’s underway. Somewhere sunny then cap it off with the Final.” The last match was always a spectacle and he didn’t want to miss it. “Did you have anything planned coming up?”
The words left his mouth before he realized their forwardness. Would she assume he was already trying to plan a vacation with her?
It was interesting to her that he referred to India as home, and she wondered if he'd spent a significant portion of his childhood there. Or maybe he'd lived there until adulthood. She realized then that there truly was a lot she still didn't know about him. "India is home, then?" she asked curiously. She'd never thought of Puerto Rico as home, even though that's where her mother had been raised, and now she was wondering if that was strange.
"Ooh, you should definitely do that! A reward for all your hard work in the earlier preparations," Mia said encouragingly, not reading more into it than the surface words. "I haven't got anything planned, no. My work's been keeping me quite busy, and I've still got a little less than a year on my internship, so it's not a good time to take a holiday. I think it'd be fantastic to take a whole week off after the internship and then, yeah, go somewhere sunny." Talking with him had put thoughts of Puerto Rico in her head, and she'd not been able to shake them the last few days.
“A bit of a habit from youth.” He smiled. His mother had fully adopted England at her home, but his father had instilled in him a pride in the country of his ancestors. “My father always told us to think of it as a place of returning.” That sounded better in his head, hopefully the sentiment came across. “I consider London my home. I think he just didn’t want us to forget we have two.”
“Well, I guess that takes Puerto Rico off the list of sunny getaways.” He flashed a cheeky grin. It had slowly crept into his top since they began chatting, but he wanted to see it through her eyes.
“Maybe Bermuda. Crystal clear waters and coves to relax all day.” It all sounded a little too picturesque but he quite liked the idea of a week away lazing on the beach.
"A place of returning," she echoed with a small smile. "I like that." It was something she could easily imagine her mum saying, and she realized in that moment that she quite liked Rhys so far. Of course, the next moment she was reminding herself fiercely that she was not supposed to go falling head over heels for anyone again. She was supposed to be dating around, taking time to learn about multiple people and truly see if her true love match was out there. She couldn't know that after ten minutes on a coffee date!
The way he said that had her stomach fluttering, reading into it that he didn't want to go to Puerto Rico without her, and she could already imagine showing him around her favorite spots.
"Bermuda's amazing. I'm sure you'll love it! Do you think you'll actually take a whole week? Maybe even longer?" she asked curiously, wondering if he were the sort of workaholic that just wouldn't be able to relax into a long holiday like that. Sometimes she thought she was a little too good at compartmentalizing and not thinking about work when she wasn't there. Of course, the opposite of that was just as true, and she was just as likely to get caught up in her work and forget about her personal life, but Mia was trying to learn to balance it better. It was a process.
“Definitely a full week.” He looked at her curiously. “I thought about taking a full month. I’d need to map it out though.” He wasn’t sure what he would do in Bermuda for a month. He was good at what he did and he liked his job, but he could see where he became engrossed in his work. It was one of the reasons he went to the dueling lodge, got involved in a book club, and took half days when the workload allowed. “I’ve been trying not to work too hard. I can burn out easily and be a bit intense, or at least that’s what my colleagues tell me.”
Her brow twitched at the look he gave her, and she tilted her head back at him slightly. "A month seems like a lot! I can't even imagine what I'd do with a whole month off from work." Not that she wouldn't enjoy some time off; a month just seemed like a lot. Though perhaps she would feel differently if she had someone to spend that kind of time with.
"Oh, I can totally understand that! Though intensity can be a positive trait if it's not ramped up too much. I like to think I'm the right level of intense." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how weird they sounded, as if she were a bit mad. "At work, I mean." Though, did that mean she sounded like a bore? "Though in other ways too," she added, and hearing the note of flirtation in her voice had a wave of embarrassment shooting through her, and her blush burned bright enough to show even in her tanned skin.
Rhys noticed her face reddening as she continued qualifying her statement. It made him smile. Reaching his hand across the table and intertwining his fingers with hers, “You’re passionate. Intensity goes hand in hand.” Her love of life was magnetic. He wanted to see the world the way she did.
He gave her hand a squeeze. “Besides, there isn’t anything wrong with a little intensity.” He’d always found himself drawn to intense people, most of them a little over sarcastic like Hailey. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get into all that on a first date. He looked down at their hands. He liked holding her hand, it felt good.
Her heart seemed to flutter when his hand took hers, and she let her fingers curl around his. "I'm glad you see it that way," she said softly, still feeling a bit flustered about the whole thing. It seemed unbelievable to her that she might have found someone who could match her intensity, who might genuinely enjoy it. Not that she was rushing in. That was not allowed.
"So… the dating app. I don't know about you, but I felt a bit silly turning toward it. Though right now I'm rather glad I did." His hand felt so warm and soft covering her own that she had no desire to pull it away, and she loved that he hadn't yet either.
Rhys realized that physical contact was a gamble on a first date, but seeing her reaction he squeezed her hand slightly. She hadn’t shown discomfort towards the gesture and her responses were still positive. Part of him still couldn’t believe this was going as well as it was.
“It feels a bit silly, yes.” He thought about how long it had taken him to write that three sentence blurb underneath his pictures. Ludicrous when he knew he couldn’t technically say what he does for a living and what’s more he’d had to make it sound flirty. “It took me a while to find the right tone for it, but I’m glad I saw it through.”
His first outing into the dating app had been an abysmal failure though he did manage to get a few good book recommendations out of it. And seeing his brother’s most recent winstagram he couldn’t be happier. Manny needed something good going in his life.
Her smile grew a bit when he agreed, and her stomach fluttered when he took it one step further. She was glad he'd seen it through, too. Was it too early in the date to say she'd like to see him again? That wasn't the same as jumping right into a relationship, right? She had a date scheduled tomorrow with that gorgeous redhead, after all, so there was no rushing anything. But she couldn't deny wanting to see him again already.
Drinking the last of her coffee, she calmed her inner monologue and focused on the here and now, particularly the handsome, intelligent man across from her.
Stepping into the coffee shop, Mia felt like spring in her dress, her hair curled and colored a deep burgundy that would show best in sunlight. She'd even bothered with a bit of makeup, though she'd felt a bit anxious about it, wondering if it would establish a certain expectation that she was some super feminine woman. But a first date, even just a coffee date, felt like a good opportunity to pretty herself up some, and it was a small boost to her confidence.
Looking around, she wondered if Rhys was already there, and if she should go ahead and order if he wasn't.
Rhys didn’t want to think about the clothes he left strewn across his flat. Compulsively checking his simple look in the passing shop windows he hoped it wasn’t too casual. He really did need a more gradual wardrobe, but with the World Cup preparations it boiled down to tee shirts and jeans, and his ministry robes. Stepping inside the coffee shop he recognized Mia standing close to the counter. He saw the dress she was wearing and thought he’d underdressed. He took a deep breath. They’d hit it off messaging, maybe it wouldn’t matter. “Mia?”
When she heard her name, Mia turned, recognizing Rhys from his pictures on the app, and her stomach fluttered at how attractive he was. It was ridiculous how attractive he was, and yet he'd agreed to meet her for a little coffee date! Imposter syndrome was definitely starting to ease in.
"Rhys?" She wasn't sure why it sounded like a question, considering she'd recognized him. Her cheeks tinged a bit, and her hands smoothed down the skirt of her dress nervously. "Hi! Umm, I hope I pronounced your name right?" It wasn't a common one, and even though she'd read it a time or two in different books, she'd not really heard it out loud.
“You did.” It wasn’t often he heard his full name anymore between his family and work, but he appreciated the attempt.
“You look fantastic.” His eyes were drawn to the satin red ribbon cinched in around her waist. The dress fit hugged her curves as if the dress was made especially for her. Her profile truly didn’t do her justice, but it was her straightforward bio that drew him.
“You can also call me Riz, if it’s easier.” He felt excited. He was out with a beautiful woman and if their messaging was any indication, they had a good amount in common. “Coffee or tea?” He asked motioning towards the queue.
Her cheeks flushed a bit at the compliment, excited and a bit flustered at it. Did he really think it or was he just being polite? She'd never really thought herself ugly, just not beautiful either, and so she was always a little surprised when someone found her attractive. "Thank you," she said quietly.
Riz was easier, but she was glad that she'd got his name right on the first try. People never had trouble pronouncing her name, which she supposed she was grateful for. She grinned a bit at his question, her dark eyes seeming to sparkle a bit. "Coffee, definitely. I might be half British, but the Latina in me just can't live without coffee," she admitted. Her accent was usually decidedly British while speaking English, but there was more than a hint of her Spanish accent in those words.
Mia stepped into the queue with him. "What about you?" she asked. Tea was as much Indian as it was British, wasn't it? But coffee was the nectar of the gods, and she would always prefer it.
“I’ll drink tea, but it isn’t my favorite.” He still managed to swallow the odd cup on family occasions. “We had it at every meal growing up and it just turned me off.” Did she have any similar experiences with her family?
“Coffee’s been a necessity for me since I started working at the Ministry, but I can’t remember when I last had a proper cup. We have a coffee pot in our break room but it tastes completely different depending on who brews it.” He smiled.
He didn’t often find anyone that could match his energy. His sister Penny maybe? Manny was too self-serious most of the time and Daani brought out his somber side recently. Partially his fault considering their recent conversation. Regardless of his other relationships, he enjoyed Mia’s company so far and hoped she thought the same.
“Do you have a favorite? Maybe a recommendation?”
Mia grinned at him, scrunching up her nose as she nodded in understanding. "We didn't do tea often in my family," she admitted. "My dad's full-on British, but I'm not sure he's ever been a fan of tea. So my mum's preference for coffee was never a point of contention." She remembered always waking up to the smell of coffee every morning, and it was something she'd missed while at Hogwarts.
"I can't imagine being at the mercy of my coworkers' idea of a good pot of coffee," she commented with a soft laugh, shaking her head and moving forward with the line. "Home brewing is definitely worth it, in my opinion."
Mia hummed as she thought through the different types of coffee. "The darker the roast, the better, even if you don't take your coffee black. A couple times a year, I splurge on importing a bag from Puerto Rico. A very big bag, but still," she admitted.
“I get to the office early to make the first pot. That roast sounds incredible. I get a cousin of mine to send me a big bag of Sumatran twice a year.” Rhys looked at the list of roasts the coffee shop had on brew. “Something nice and dark sounds delicious. Maybe that French Roast”
"Ooh, I don't think I've tried Sumatran, but I've heard good things!" Mia said, her interest more than piqued. She did, at least, manage to bite back the flirtatious question that popped into her head, that perhaps he'd share it with her some morning. As nice as their conversation had been over the app, it was far too soon for that sort of flirting. Or, at least, she was trying hard not to get in over her head too soon, as she usually did.
"French roast is overrated, in my opinion. Ooh! Look, they've got a limited time supply of Colombian beans! I think I'll go with that," she said, excited. Beans from Central and South America were superior, in her opinion, and her taste buds were already dancing at the thought of Colombian coffee.
“I think I’ll join you. Try something new.” Any day of the week Rhys could grab a French roast from the commissary at the Ministry. “It’s something I don’t always get to try.” Was he smiling too much? He felt like it. Maybe, he was just overthinking it. She was attractive and whip smart.
Mia's smile widened, feeling a bit charmed that he would go along with her choice and try something new in the process. When they got to the front of the line, she ordered both of their coffees while opening the bag strung over her shoulder to get out the correct coins to pay. "My treat, if you don't mind," she told him. It seemed appropriate seeing as he was going along with her choice, but his response would also give her a good read on his character, she rather thought.
Rhys already had his wallet in his hand when she mentioned it. “I was going to offer to pay myself, but I don’t mind.” He slid his wallet back into his pocket. He could hear his father’s voice in his head, Always offer to pay, Rhys.
“You might just turn me on to South American coffee.” The half-step in flirting felt clunky rolling out of his mouth, but they hadn’t even sat down yet with their drinks. He took a deep breath. Hopefully he didn’t look as he felt.
She hadn't noticed his wallet, but her eyes ticked down at the movement of him putting it away, and she felt a bit of a thrill that he was willing to let her pay. As much of a romantic as she was, she was also a staunch feminist and appreciated that he didn't seem to have some antiquated view about not letting a woman buy him coffee.
"Well, I'll do my very best," she retorted, her tone taking on a bit of flirtation in turn. She paid for their drinks, taking both cups when they were handed over and passing one to him. They walked over to one of the counters with the things to doctor drinks up. "How do you take yours?" she asked as she popped the top off her cup and plucked a couple creamer pods up from the tray.
“I like things that are a little bit sweet.” He quipped back. “Cream and a spoonful of sugar.” He stirred in the creamer until it took on a sweet caramel color. Rhys always savored the first sip. The best part in his opinion. The coffee tasted bold. Pops of chocolate flowing into a nutty finish before brightening with an acidic finish. He pulled the cup away from his mouth. “I might have a new favorite.” He made a note to see if they sold it by the pound. “It’s punchy in all the right ways.” He smirked. He wasn’t just talking about the coffee.
Mia wondered if that was a line, if he was flirting with her, and she felt a surge of hope that he was. It always surprised and thrilled her when someone genuinely flirted with her. "I tend to just go with cream. Too sweet and it'll tame the boldness" Though one spoonful of sugar generally wasn't enough to do that. She just tried to avoid sugar as much as possible, so putting it in her coffee wasn't practical.
Her smile widened, pleased with only the smallest flash of smugness. "Isn't it fantastic!" she agreed with a contented sigh as she lifted her own cup up, lid still off, and breathed in the aroma. "Should we find a table then?" she asked with a nod of her head away from the counter as she finally put the lid back in place.
“Boldness is what I like,” he commented.
Looking around the crowded shop he saw two seats open on the far wall opposite the door. The spot was far enough away from the bulk of the tables that they wouldn’t have to shout over the din of the other patrons. He hated that about crowded places sometimes. It made it difficult to differentiate voices.
“I think I see one.” He motioned for her to follow her, refraining from reaching out a hand to lead her towards the table. “What do you think?”
He didn’t know whether he should pull her chair for her or not but felt embarrassed asking. “I know it’s a bit archaic, but do you mind if I pull your chair for you? There are some things you’re taught that are hard to stamp out.” He felt the heat in his cheeks as they reddened.
He took the seat opposite her. “I don’t think we touched on it in the messages but what do you do for work?” They had spent so much time speaking about their love of language that he wondered if it had much to do with her current career.
Mia's lips pressed together in an attempt to contain the broad smile that wanted to spread over her face at his question. It was a bit of an old fashioned thing, but she didn't think it made her any less of a feminist to not mind those sorts of gestures. It was when people thought it should be required that it could rankle. "I think it's a sweet gesture, but I can manage this time, as that's the sort of thing more suited for a fancier place than this, I'd imagine," she answered, not wanting him to think she was totally against the thought. Besides, it was the sort of thing her dad would appreciate.
Sitting across from him, she smiled at the question, nodding slightly. "I'm not sure we did either, but that's okay. I'm an engineering intern at Shingleton," she answered proudly. "I tried for it right out of school, but they didn't have any openings at the time. When one finally opened up last year, I applied and was accepted, so it's been quite exciting. What about you?"
This time. Rhys could help but smile thinking that there may be a proper date between the two of them. “Fair enough.” He settled into his own seat.
He liked that she was driven. That she had kept working at finding a position at Shingleton. “So you work with the inventions division?” He knew a little of how the Shingleton came about, but he also knew they had their hands in every industry there was. He also knew that being an employee that she probably couldn’t say much about her work.
“I’m a security advisor with the ICW.” He always found the story of how he got there full of tangents. “If it wasn’t for my interest in politics, I’m rather sure I would’ve ended up an Auror or a competitive duelist. But I don’t quite know how well being multilingual would work on the competitive circuit.”
Too many people gave her blank looks and didn't seem to understand when she told them she was an engineering intern, so the fact that he pegged what that meant right away had her smiling widely at him. "Yes! Lots of R-and-D, though with where I'm at in my internship, I'm still doing a lot of research and experimentation in how different sorts of magic interact with different things. How amazing would it be to discover something with such wide appeal and usage as the self-stirring cauldron?" It was no secret that she greatly admired Gaspard Shingleton, even if she wasn't actually getting to work with him directly much.
"Oh, I don't know, it could be a great way to mess with your opponents' heads," she suggested a bit impishly. A security advisor, though, that sounded impressive! "I was never really interested in Ministry work. I always knew I wanted to work in research and development. I was the youngest in my family, so I got a lot of hand-me-down toys, which I loved taking apart and putting back together," she admitted. "The ICW, though, wow! You must like the work?" she prompted curiously.
“It’s so much more fun to learn information through a good conversation.” He smirked. Most of his correspondences weren’t something he could share over a cup of coffee. “It’s more memorable that way.” He sipped his coffee.
“I like learning new information and how it fits together.” So much of his work dealt with information channels between the British Seats and their international counterparts. “It’s become a little more intensive with the World Cup approaching. Many of the other ICW representatives have been pouring owls and memos into our offices lately.” He was excited for the World Cup but not the plethora of extra correspondences. “We’d be nothing without our translators' offices. Which is why I want to learn more. More language means less trips to their offices, and more trips abroad, if I can prove proficiency.”
"It is, indeed," Mia agreed with a small, pleased smile. It made her want to reach out and touch him, those tactile instincts difficult to ignore, though she did her best to resist it for the moment. He'd not initiated any sort of touch yet, and even if it was silly, she didn't want to be the first.
She liked the way he correlated their experiences. "Ooh, that's right! I keep forgetting the World Cup is here this year," she admitted a bit sheepishly. She wondered how interested in the sport he was. "I do wish I had more time to travel abroad. What was the last trip you took for pleasure rather than work?" she asked curiously. They'd touched on travel in their messages, she knew, but there was so much she didn't know about him, so much she wanted to learn, and wasn't that exciting?
He placed a hand down on the table between them. “I took a trip home last year before the preparations started.” Most of his trips home weren’t exactly pleasurable as his extended family vied for his attention. “More of a bounce around India to different relations.” He made a small face. He loved his family but the constant motion was exhausting and the reason he hadn’t made any plans for once the Cup started.
“I was thinking of a long vacation once the Cup was underway. These things run through Sports and Games and the Aurors offices once it’s underway. Somewhere sunny then cap it off with the Final.” The last match was always a spectacle and he didn’t want to miss it. “Did you have anything planned coming up?”
The words left his mouth before he realized their forwardness. Would she assume he was already trying to plan a vacation with her?
It was interesting to her that he referred to India as home, and she wondered if he'd spent a significant portion of his childhood there. Or maybe he'd lived there until adulthood. She realized then that there truly was a lot she still didn't know about him. "India is home, then?" she asked curiously. She'd never thought of Puerto Rico as home, even though that's where her mother had been raised, and now she was wondering if that was strange.
"Ooh, you should definitely do that! A reward for all your hard work in the earlier preparations," Mia said encouragingly, not reading more into it than the surface words. "I haven't got anything planned, no. My work's been keeping me quite busy, and I've still got a little less than a year on my internship, so it's not a good time to take a holiday. I think it'd be fantastic to take a whole week off after the internship and then, yeah, go somewhere sunny." Talking with him had put thoughts of Puerto Rico in her head, and she'd not been able to shake them the last few days.
“A bit of a habit from youth.” He smiled. His mother had fully adopted England at her home, but his father had instilled in him a pride in the country of his ancestors. “My father always told us to think of it as a place of returning.” That sounded better in his head, hopefully the sentiment came across. “I consider London my home. I think he just didn’t want us to forget we have two.”
“Well, I guess that takes Puerto Rico off the list of sunny getaways.” He flashed a cheeky grin. It had slowly crept into his top since they began chatting, but he wanted to see it through her eyes.
“Maybe Bermuda. Crystal clear waters and coves to relax all day.” It all sounded a little too picturesque but he quite liked the idea of a week away lazing on the beach.
"A place of returning," she echoed with a small smile. "I like that." It was something she could easily imagine her mum saying, and she realized in that moment that she quite liked Rhys so far. Of course, the next moment she was reminding herself fiercely that she was not supposed to go falling head over heels for anyone again. She was supposed to be dating around, taking time to learn about multiple people and truly see if her true love match was out there. She couldn't know that after ten minutes on a coffee date!
The way he said that had her stomach fluttering, reading into it that he didn't want to go to Puerto Rico without her, and she could already imagine showing him around her favorite spots.
"Bermuda's amazing. I'm sure you'll love it! Do you think you'll actually take a whole week? Maybe even longer?" she asked curiously, wondering if he were the sort of workaholic that just wouldn't be able to relax into a long holiday like that. Sometimes she thought she was a little too good at compartmentalizing and not thinking about work when she wasn't there. Of course, the opposite of that was just as true, and she was just as likely to get caught up in her work and forget about her personal life, but Mia was trying to learn to balance it better. It was a process.
“Definitely a full week.” He looked at her curiously. “I thought about taking a full month. I’d need to map it out though.” He wasn’t sure what he would do in Bermuda for a month. He was good at what he did and he liked his job, but he could see where he became engrossed in his work. It was one of the reasons he went to the dueling lodge, got involved in a book club, and took half days when the workload allowed. “I’ve been trying not to work too hard. I can burn out easily and be a bit intense, or at least that’s what my colleagues tell me.”
Her brow twitched at the look he gave her, and she tilted her head back at him slightly. "A month seems like a lot! I can't even imagine what I'd do with a whole month off from work." Not that she wouldn't enjoy some time off; a month just seemed like a lot. Though perhaps she would feel differently if she had someone to spend that kind of time with.
"Oh, I can totally understand that! Though intensity can be a positive trait if it's not ramped up too much. I like to think I'm the right level of intense." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how weird they sounded, as if she were a bit mad. "At work, I mean." Though, did that mean she sounded like a bore? "Though in other ways too," she added, and hearing the note of flirtation in her voice had a wave of embarrassment shooting through her, and her blush burned bright enough to show even in her tanned skin.
Rhys noticed her face reddening as she continued qualifying her statement. It made him smile. Reaching his hand across the table and intertwining his fingers with hers, “You’re passionate. Intensity goes hand in hand.” Her love of life was magnetic. He wanted to see the world the way she did.
He gave her hand a squeeze. “Besides, there isn’t anything wrong with a little intensity.” He’d always found himself drawn to intense people, most of them a little over sarcastic like Hailey. He wasn’t sure he wanted to get into all that on a first date. He looked down at their hands. He liked holding her hand, it felt good.
Her heart seemed to flutter when his hand took hers, and she let her fingers curl around his. "I'm glad you see it that way," she said softly, still feeling a bit flustered about the whole thing. It seemed unbelievable to her that she might have found someone who could match her intensity, who might genuinely enjoy it. Not that she was rushing in. That was not allowed.
"So… the dating app. I don't know about you, but I felt a bit silly turning toward it. Though right now I'm rather glad I did." His hand felt so warm and soft covering her own that she had no desire to pull it away, and she loved that he hadn't yet either.
Rhys realized that physical contact was a gamble on a first date, but seeing her reaction he squeezed her hand slightly. She hadn’t shown discomfort towards the gesture and her responses were still positive. Part of him still couldn’t believe this was going as well as it was.
“It feels a bit silly, yes.” He thought about how long it had taken him to write that three sentence blurb underneath his pictures. Ludicrous when he knew he couldn’t technically say what he does for a living and what’s more he’d had to make it sound flirty. “It took me a while to find the right tone for it, but I’m glad I saw it through.”
His first outing into the dating app had been an abysmal failure though he did manage to get a few good book recommendations out of it. And seeing his brother’s most recent winstagram he couldn’t be happier. Manny needed something good going in his life.
Her smile grew a bit when he agreed, and her stomach fluttered when he took it one step further. She was glad he'd seen it through, too. Was it too early in the date to say she'd like to see him again? That wasn't the same as jumping right into a relationship, right? She had a date scheduled tomorrow with that gorgeous redhead, after all, so there was no rushing anything. But she couldn't deny wanting to see him again already.
Drinking the last of her coffee, she calmed her inner monologue and focused on the here and now, particularly the handsome, intelligent man across from her.