I'd recognized him from earlier that week, he'd ordered coffee like usual, and I'd handed it over without thinking much of it at the time.
Apparently, he had thought about it a lot more.
"That was..." I started, then squinted at him. "Wait. Is that why you always order it?”
He shrugged, completely unbothered. "What can I say? You got me hooked on it."
Despite myself, I laughed, and Dane laughed too. Something about it felt different from every other conversation we'd had across the coffee counter.
Maybe it was because neither of us was in a hurry. Or because I wasn't juggling orders or thinking about the next customer in line.
Or maybe it was simply because this was the first time we'd actually sat down and talked without anything hanging over it.
To my surprise, it was easy.
I’d expected awkward pauses, forced conversation, the moment where everything ran dry and we were left staring at our drinks, pretending that was normal.
Instead, the knot of tension I hadn’t even realized I was carrying had started to loosen, and I found myself no longer waiting for him to change his mind and walk away.
Maybe Dane really had been the right person to ask, because being here with him felt easier than it should have been.
By the time we finished, the afternoon crowd had started to pick up.
Dane glanced around once before looking back at me. “We should probably move.”
“Yeah.”
I stood first, sliding my chair back as we left the table behind and headed toward the park path just a few steps away.
We started walking. We looked like strangers heading in the same direction without meaning to.
There was too much space between us, like we hadn’t quite figured out what we were supposed to look like in motion together yet.
I let out a small breath and stopped. “Okay. We need to fix this before your pack thing.”
Dane slowed. “Fix what exactly?”
“This.” I gestured vaguely between us. “We’re supposed to be dating.”
Dane glanced down at the space between us. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
I sighed, then held out my hand. “Try it.”
Dane looked at it like I’d offered him something far more complicated than it was. He hesitated for a moment longer, then slowly reached out and took my hand.
His fingers were a little rougher than I expected, steady and sure when they closed around mine.
For a second, I just stood there, aware of the contact before I consciously decided not to think about it.
I gave a small tug and started walking again, forcing it to feel normal even though it wasn’t.
“See?” I said. “That’s better.”
Dane looked down at our joined hands. “Is it?”
“Yes.” I said it like that settled it, and we started walking again.
