At the Little Bear

At the Little Bear Part 13

one year later

Richard looked up when he heard his name murmured nearby; he smiled into the hopeful face of Christoph on the other side of the counter.. Richard dusted off the remnants of pretzel crumbs from his hands, before he nodded a greeting at the other man.

"Hallo, Chris," he said.

"Hey, Reesh," Christoph replied. "Are you ready for rehearsal later?"

"When am I not ready for it?" Richard countered, patiently, with a smile.

Christoph rolled his eyes, but still grinned; Richard, alongside Paul, was one of the hardest working members of their recently formed band at rehearsal. Other than Richard, Paul, and Christoph themselves, Till, Olli and Flake had been convinced to join; Flake was the only one who seemed reluctant to be included, yet Richard knew that even Flake enjoyed himself in his own way.

"Same time, same place?" Christoph asked, even as he glanced up at the menu board.

"Yup," Richard replied. "Same as ever."

"Good," Christoph murmured. "Any recommendations for your damned pretzels, there, Reesh? I swear you guys purposefully have too many choices on offer just to confuse customers."

"Only the indecisive ones," Richard countered, with a smile. "Might I interest you in the rum and raisin today? Or perhaps the sour cream and chive?"

Richard had to feel a certain sense of deja vu over the purposefully chosen pretzels; after all, those had been the choices that Paul had first offered to him when they'd first met. Christoph nodded, distractedly, as though the choice didn't really matter to him and Richard supposed that it didn't.

As he wrapped Christoph's pretzels carefully in crinkling paper packages, he couldn't help but glance over at Paul, busily serving a customer of his own nearby; Richard smiled, even though Paul had, as yet, to glance back at him. He felt a sudden wash of warm pleasure winding its way through his body, at the thought of all that had happened since first he'd walked into the Little Bear so many months ago; he'd not only found a job that he was happy with, he'd also found a man to settle down with and that he loved with every fibre of his being. His future looked bright, with a stable home to return to every night, a band to concentrate his energies into and a newly forged friendship with a man he'd long since thought lost to him.

Paul looked up once his customer had gone and the grin that he gave Richard was bright and warm, yet heartbreakingly tender. Richard grinned back, even as he thought that it was ridiculous being so grateful towards a brace of pretzels, even if said pretzels had given him all the happiness in the world.