Thomas was glad Shania had decided to sit down. Usually he liked to just get away from people after panic attacks, but right now he didn’t want to go home and be left alone with his thoughts. He nodded minutely as Shania asked if he was okay, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, not even aware that he’d been on the verge of tears until then. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he replied, voice quiet and still a little shaky, but he knew that would pass soon enough. “Thank you,” he said again, looking up and giving her a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I just- there was this lady that walked past. She reminded me of someone, that’s all,” he explained, keeping it as brief and vague as possible, wanting Shania to at least have some idea of what had set him off, but not wanting to really delve into the topic just yet.
He watched as she dragged the half full coffee cup away from him and he couldn’t help but smirk slightly. He nodded lightly as she suggested ordering a tea instead, and he looked to see if there was a barista anywhere, quickly getting one’s attention and making a letter T with his fingers. The staff here knew him relatively well, so the girl he’d gestured to set about making him a tea as he looked back at Shania. He hadn’t really paid attention to what she looked like yet, but now he was calm again, he noted the frizzy hair and exercise clothes. “Have you been for a run or something?” he asked her, looking her up and down briefly before his eyes landed back on her face, a small smile playing on the corners of his lips.
Shania had an inclination to walk over to his side of the table and hug him, but she didn’t know if they had reached that level of friendship yet. They hadn’t know each other for that long and some people didn’t like being touched. She placed her open palm on the table and left it there for him to do with it what he wanted. It would be his choice.“Oh,” she nodded in understanding “I get that. If I thought I saw my ex boyfriend, I’d probably react the same way." The thought of seeing him again made her shudder a little and she shook away the thought. “I take it it wasn’t really her, then? Or you probably wouldn’t still be sitting here.”
She looked down at her gym clothes and let out a breathy chuckle, she’d hoped he hadn’t noticed how messy she looked. “God, no,” she replied “You’ll never catch me running. SoulCycle, it’s the only exercise I ever do. We’ve got this cool instructor that makes us shriek along to top forty songs while we cycle. It’s fun.You should try it sometime. It releases endorphins, so it could help you.”