Salubrious part six

Two days passed. It was the Friday before the concert. Charlie was having trouble with his anxiety, severely. Pim was trying to help.

“Why don’t you ask his interests? I know you two like playing that magic card game together. You two must have some other stuff in common,” Pim started.

Charlie frowned. “Yeah we like a lot of the same stuff but that doesn’t matter.”

“Why?” They were in the break room. Allan wasn’t at work yet.

“This. This, Pim.”

Pim eyes widened to the text message chat.

“Goodness,” Pim said in a surprised tone.

“Yeah. He keeps messaging me good night and good morning. Is this shit weird or am I just being weird about it?”

“It’s weird. I think…” Pim commented before Charlie started talking again.

“Yeah like he keeps messaging long monologues. About nuclear science, about movies, about anything.”

“Is he too nerdy? Is that it?” Pim nudged him, laughing teasingly.

Charlie laughed despite himself. “Shut up. Seriously. He’ll be here any minute.”

“But, Charlie, look…” Pim pointed to the screen. “You respond to his questions, his messages, everything, like instantly.”

“Well? Uh, I don’t wanna be rude,” Charlie shuffled, looking down at his shoe.

“This was until two in the morning!” Pim exclaimed.

“I can’t sleep. It’s like I’m stuck on a loop of no eating, no sleeping. I’m like a zombie.”

“Look! Look at your emojis!” Pim grinned.

Good morning Charlie😴did you sleep well 😉😝😏

Kinda. I need to get coffee! Did you sleep at all 🧐🤣😉 good morning

Nope. Not a wink 🤭

Charlie took his phone back, blushing deeply. “I’m just messing around.”

“Allan sent you a giggle emoji…” Pim remarked, looking at him flabbergasted.

“It was funny. I guess,” Charlie shrugged.

Allan walked in with two cups of fancy coffee.

He sat down, sliding one of the cups with whipped cream and caramel sauce drizzled on it toward Charlie.

“I left early to pick you up that one coffee you’ve been craving. Enjoy,” Allan said.

Charlie grinned, taking the cup eagerly. “Wow. That’s super nice, thanks Allan.”

Allan leaned in toward Pim. “Sorry I didn’t have time to get you one.”

Pim put a hand up, shaking his head, “Ah, no worries. I’m okay.”

“Well, have a good day, I have a lot of email correspondence to go through.” Allan said. Charlie nodded, sipping his coffee. “Turns out making people smile is a burger-cratic nightmare.”

Charlie laughed. “Hah, that’s cute,” he blurted out, covering his mouth, blushing.

Allan noticed. “Thanks.”

“You said burger-cratic instead of bureaucratic…” Charlie said in a strange tone.

“Well you said you wanted burgers last night. It slipped out…” Allan said in a matter of fact way.

Charlie stood up excitedly, “Dude I did! Pim this guy is on it.”

Pim laughed weakly, not sure that to say.

“Uh, that’s grape, Guys,” Pim decided to take a dive into the joke.

Charlie laughed. “Good one, man,” he said to Pim.

“Well I shouldn’t stay long. I got red tape to navigate through-uh.”

“Well I’m sure you know how to navigate the system smoothly…” Charlie said almost too suavely.

Allan shrugged, but moved closer to Charlie with his chair. “Is the drink good?”

Charlie nodded, leaning forward toward him. “Yeah. It’s good. I can’t believe you remembered that random description I said about my favorite type of coffee the other day,” Charlie repeated in a much more serious way. Allan grinned, as they both moved in closer.

Glep walked in, clearing his throat loudly as if to cut the scene.

They both suddenly realized how public this was and Allan stood up, looking a little nervous and embarrassed.

“Ok. Well, have a good day guys,” Allan nervously jumbled out. Pim nodded, mouthing out, “You as well.”

“Uh, You too. See you tomorrow. I’ll pick you up. That was the plan, right?”

Allan nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks again. Like I barely said anything about the coffee but you remembered,” Charlie said in an uncomfortably compromised voice.

“That’s me. I log everything into my brain like a computer or something.”

Charlie laughed too enthusiastically. “I can believe it.”

Pim face palmed, huffing out a flustered sigh. Allan left after and Glep gave Charlie a curious look but said nothing, sitting on the beanbag.

“What?” Charlie asked emphatically as Pim gave him a knowing look, as he was sipping his coffee with relish.

He gets another text, spiting out his coffee.

You look cute too🥰 drinking that coffee

“Fuck,” Charlie spit out.