No new latte, all for the best

Last week I went into town to buy some new shoes. Not that I just wanted to buy shoes, period. But because I needed to buy shoes that were less cold than my Converse and more comfortable than my Cowboy boots.

After I had done a fair amount of strolling around the shopping area I felt it was time to take short break and so I went into Cafe Nero to treat myself to a nice hot drink. It was extremely crowded, but I was determined to sit down as my feet had deserved a bit of rest.
There was a seat free on a table next to a geeky looking guy. I asked him if the seat was taken and he said no so I sat down.

He was reading a book, I was not able to tell which one as the book was almost closed. It was opened just enough for him to read it and his hands were clasped around the cover. I thought it a bit rude to bent down and look at the title. Plus it might provoke a conversation which I was not in the mood for having.

So I just sipped my large green tea and enjoyed a nice moment of rest. Little did I know this moment was not to last very long. As the guy sitting next to me was buried so deep down into his book that when he wanted to put his cup of latte back on the saucer he missed. More than half of the cup, which had still been in there a split second before was now spread out on the table and on my lap.

"Oh bugger!" he looked at the contents of his cup on the table. I looked at the contents of the other bit on my lap. "Oh bugger indeed!" He looked at me and then at my lap. "Oh no! I am so sorry! Let me..." "It's okay, just get me some napkins." He got up and wanted to put his book down on the table. I snatched it from his hands just before it reached the big bad puddle of latte. "Thanks!" "It's okay, just get those napkins!".

I looked at the cover of the book: "Paper Kisses: A True Love Story". Weird. He did not really strike me as the romance type of guy. Perhaps he had gotten it recommended by a friend I thought to myself as I read that it was about two star crossed lovers in Nazi Germany. I raised one eyebrow when the guy returned with napkins.

"No, no, let me do that" and I took the napkins from his hands that had just started to dry my lap. "Oh, I'm sorry.", he smiled nervously embarrassed by yet another clumsy performance. "It's because of the coffee you see." I frowned, both eyebrows this time. "No not really." "It's the coffee, I can't really handle it that well." A silence followed as I was still waiting for an explanation. "I mean, it’s the caffeine." "Ah, right, now I get it. So why do you drink it?" "Well, that's why I drink latte, with lots of milk."
Yes, latte is with milk, I knew that.

Meanwhile I was still trying to get that wretched latte off my jeans. "If that does not come out I will have it dry cleaned for you." I looked up. His face was buried in his briefcase. Who was this guy? Was he some business man, or a lawyer? He fetched a business card from his briefcase and gave it to me.
"Ben (Benjamin) Fletcher, The Super Stationer, Assistant Manager". He worked at the stationers? Why was he carrying a briefcase around?
"Thanks, Ben. That is really nice." "It's no big deal really. I have one of those home dry cleaning devices." This was no surprise to me. It was actually kind of sweet that he offered to clean my jeans if I could not get the stain out.

"I'm Fleur." I put out my hand. He took it. "Nice to meet you Ben." He smiled a shy kind of smile. "Nice to meet you too." He immediately turned from me and opened his book to continue reading.
Okay. Well at least I did not create the idea of attraction. for this odd ball came across very sweet. But I feared he needed to be matched with one of his own kind. And that, to say the least, was well, let's say 'Out of my league'.

I finished my tea which gave my pants some time to dry a little. Then I got up and put on my coat, which thankfully covered some of the giant Latte stain.
"Enjoy your book!" I said to Ben. He looked up at me and then he looked down at the light brown spot on my jeans. "Sorry to make you go out on the streets looking like an idiot." He replied as he pushed his glasses up by squishing his nose and his eyebrows together.
"It's okay." I said. You must know all about it.

I left him reading. He had not ordered a new latte. All for the best.