Morning Shift

Café Dates (end)

This was the weirdest Saturday morning Nicky had ever had.

Usually, his weekend would begin with him jumping awake to tend to a crying baby, or to fighting twins, or even sometimes, to a groaning father. As the oldest in the Haddad family, Saturdays meant helping his mom take care of his bored siblings so his dad could catch up on the sleep he missed working during the week.

This Saturday, though, his morning began at the café next door to Happy's, where he sat with a warm cup of hot cocoa in his gloved hands, slowly sipping it as he waited for Jonah— his boyfriend, Jonah— to come take the place at the table across from him. He listened to the faint jazzy café music that played in the background of everyone else's conversations as he waited, nervously tapping the beat on the cup. It'd been about a week since Jonah and him had kissed, and they'd hung out since then— typically at one of their houses or when Jonah was working— but this was the first real "date" thing they'd done. Nicky was nervous, sure, but he was so ecstatic that his first ever date was with Jonah, his nerves seemed almost irrelevant.

        "Hi!" Jonah grinned as he sat down on the chair across the little round table and put his coffee cup down.

        Nicky couldn't help but smile as he felt his ears heat up. Even being in the presence of Jonah made him go all lovesick and weird, but it was okay now, because he knew they were both feeling that way. "Hey. What'd you get?" He asked, gesturing to the cup.

        "Coffee. Black. Like a true Israeli."

        "Really? That's a thing?" Nicky laughed.

        Jonah shrugged and took a sip. "Probably not. Aba just says it whenever we go to Starbucks. Anyway, how was your morning? Put any of your siblings up for adoption?"

        "Almost," Nicky said with a roll of his eyes. "But today my dad's helping my mom out so I could come hang out with you, so I kind of avoided them for a morning."

        He didn't miss the way Jonah's grin widened. "That's nice of him."

        "Yeah. I think they're just happy I'm talking to other people besides my idiot brothers and sisters."

        "Fair. Hey, did I tell you that NHL man talked to my coach again about me?"

         Nicky's eyes widened and Jonah bounced a little in his seat. He looked like he was about to explode. Nicky didn't know much about sports, but he knew this was insanely important. "Holy shit, really? What'd he say?"

        He listened intently to Jonah's excitable hockey story, even though he didn't understand it all that much. He got the gist of it— NHL man said Jonah had some impressive skills and deserved a national shot— but he didn't mind listening to the other parts, where Jonah described what parts of his abilities impressed the scout in particular. It made him happy to see Jonah talking so freely and happily about the things he loved.

        When Nicky first started getting to know him, Jonah wouldn't talk about himself at all. It was like he didn't know how, and even if he did, nobody would want to hear what he had to say. Nicky knew at that point in time, Jonah had nobody. There was no one he could trust or even talk to.

        Now, though, he spoke about his day or the things he liked without even being prompted to do so, and that made Nicky happier than he ever thought he could be when it came to his feelings about other people.

        And that was another thing— Nicky realized he had opened up a little bit. After talking with Jonah for a little while, he forgot to put such thick walls between them, and started to just be himself. He stopped calculating every move he made and every word he said and started to just live. No more barriers were needed to shield himself from a potential failure, because he was growing to be okay with those possibilities.