Who: Michael Glass and Gwen Stacey When: First week in September Where: Baxter Bakery What: Meeting in person after a potentially awkward skype intro Rating/Warning: low/none Status: Complete!
It had taken Michael a few seconds to realize why the young lady on the other side of the counter looked so familiar. She was Claire’s friend who’d been skyping with her when they’d still all been getting settled into the house. The one who’d been introduced to him while he was stretched out on the couch shirtless taking a break and now he couldn’t remember what Claire had told him her name was. “Welcome to Baxter Bakery, what can I get for you?” he asked, his normal friendliness still there but a little buried under his distraction as he tried to remember her name. He cursed softly as he realized that he’d forgotten to give her his name and he rushed to fix that. “I’m Michael by the way. I don’t know if you remember but Claire kind of introduced us when you two were skyping.”
Gwen hadn’t been thinking about the half naked dude that she’d sort of been introduced to when she was chatting with Claire via Skype. She was headed into Baxter Bakery to say hello to Audrey, get a mocha, and head off to work. The guy behind the counter was wicked cute. She stepped up, broke into a grin, and was about to give her order when he gave her his name. “Oh, hi.” The grin on her features brightened. “That’s right. You were… on the sofa.” Topless. Whoa.
Michael couldn’t help the soft laugh that escaped him at her comment about him being on the sofa. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that, I was just taking a break when you saw me. I wasn’t expecting anybody other than my roommates to see me,” he told her, reaching up with one hand to push his hair back some. It was probably time for him to be thinking about getting it cut again but he’d worry about that when Audrey said something about it. He didn’t work with making the food so it was possible she wouldn’t so long as it didn’t get too long. “I’d like a chance to make a better impression than that if you’d let me? Since you’re a friend of Claire’s and all.”
His comment about making a good impression made Gwen’s eyebrows jump up a little bit in surprise. She cocked her head to the side, a little smirk breaking out across her features. “Oh yeah? Well, I am indeed a friend of Claire’s, and I would love a better impression, though I have to admit that the one I got over Skype wasn’t bad at all.” It was a partial tease, a partial flirt. She wasn’t all that great at flirting. She should probably just throw in the towel.
“Well I’m glad to hear that,” Michael told her with an easy grin. “Alright Claire’s friend, if I’m going to get this chance at making a better impression than lounging on my couch, I think it’s only fair you give me your name. I didn’t catch it that day,” he told her flirting just a little bit. He was technically still at work and his breakup wasn’t all that far behind him so he was being a little cautious. But Claire’s friend was nice and they were just talking, getting to know each other.
“Gwen. Gwen Stacy.” Gwen said, giving him a warm smile. She wondered if reaching her hand out for him to shake was too formal. Or even appropriate. There wasn’t anyone waiting in line behind her, so she shifted her weight to one hip and brought one hand up to fiddle with the gift cards on display in front of the register where he was working. “And you’re Michael.” She remembered because she thought he looked like a hot angel. That thought made her blush a little.
“Michael Glass,” Michael said giving her a warm smile as he allowed his gaze to be drawn to where she was playing with the gift cards. “So Gwen Stacy, how are you going to let me make it up to you? And when?” he said trying to figure out what he’d said that had made her blush.
He was flirting. He was flirting? Gwen was so bad at all of this. It’d been ages. The last time she remembered really flirting with a guy was back in undergrad when she’d practically forced Peter Parker to take her out on a date. That was back at Stanford. Time really does fly. “What did you have in mind?” Gwen asked, finally tearing her attention away from the gift cards to turn and look up at him again. It was hard to not thinking about him shirtless. At least it was a happy thought, if a distracting one.
“Lunch some day? I’d say dinner but I work nights,” Michael told her, stopping himself from adding that dinner was also more datelike and he wasn’t ready to be dating anyone else just yet. He met her gaze evenly. “Friday maybe?” he asked. “Unless you already have plans,” he added after a moments pause.
“Lunch. Friday.” Gwen said, giving him a nod. Lunch was good. It wasn’t a date. It was two people becoming friends, yeah? That sounded about right. Definitely on par for Gwen’s experiences. “Nah, I’m a techie geek who spends too much time working. I never have plans.” She winked, then the grin spread across her features. She was terrible at flirting. Self-depreciating humor was about as close as she could get. “Do you know where Stark Tower is? There’s this little cafe across the street. Can you meet me there? Noon on Friday?”
“Well you do now. As for after Friday, we’ll just have to see if we can’t come up with a way to get you to have more plans,” Michael told her winking back at her. “I’ve heard the name so I should be able to find the Tower. And I’ll see you there on Friday. It’ll be my treat,” he added, his tone leaving no room for argument about that.
His comment about giving her more plans made Gwen chuckle softly. “All right. We’ll see if we can give me more plans.” And she would have argued about who should take the check. “All right. ...again. Your treat. No arguments here.” Were her cheeks hot? She felt like they were burning at the sight of his wink. He had to be so damn good looking, didn’t he? “Well, I should…” She made a vague motion toward the door. “Let you get back to work.”
Michael couldn’t help but smile at the sound of that soft laugh. “Only right since I asked you out Gwen,” he told her, his smile turning into a friendly grin at that blush. “Are you sure you have too?” he asked her teasing her a little bit more. “I was enjoying talking to you but you probably need to get to work. Friday at noon. Don’t forget,” he told her, his voice taking on a mock sternness.
He’d asked her out. But it wasn’t a date. Just lunch. Lunch with a very attractive friend-of-a-friend. Gwen made a mental note to wear something extra cute on Friday. “I really should. Wouldn’t want you to get in trouble with Audrey.” A playful smirk crossed her features. ”And… oh yeah, Merlin will probably be wondering where I am, too. I won’t forget. Friday at noon.” She gave him a wave, then turned to head out.
“Oh I don’t think she’ll fuss too much. I’ve seen her flirt with the customers after all,” Michael told her with a glance towards his boss. “But I might get in trouble for the line getting backed up too badly. And it would be a shame if all these people were late to work because I was too busy making a lunch date with a pretty girl,” her mention of his boss’s fiancee took him by surprise but it only registered on his face for a second before she turned to walk away. He returned her wave and called for the next customer as she headed for the door, smiling to himself as he watched her leave, looking forward to Friday.