oh goshhh this was so much fun to write!!!
"How do you do it?" Raleigh asks one day, paying for the usual order of a caramel mocha (extra caramel sauce, extra whipped cream, no sea salt) and a brownie, thickly frosted and rich.
Mako gives him a look. “Excuse me?”
"You work in a coffee shop, and yet you’re so skinny - I’ve only known you for, what, six months? Look at me." He grins sheepishly. He wears his brother’s old flannel shirts open now over tight tees; they won’t button any more, but he can’t bring himself to give them away.
Mako blushes. “Maybe I was already looking at you, Becket,” she teases. She’s been looking at him since the day he first walked in, and watched the effect every excuse he’s come up with to see her had on his body. His flat stomach and lithe build have grown soft, swelling over six months of caramel mochas and brownies and I thought I’d come here for my lunch break and Oh, I should probably grab some bread, we just ran out and My coffee maker’s broken, and honestly, Mako doesn’t mind. Raleigh looks warm and safe and happy and God, his stomach in those tight tees sticking out of his flannels will kill her.
Raleigh laughs, and Mako gives him a smirk. He smiles his sunny smile at her. “No, but, seriously, how do you do it? Cause, you’re like, a coffee stirrer, and I’m a... a muffin. And I’m kinda getting sick of replacing my entire wardrobe.” Mako’s wry smirk disappears and she goes bright pink.
"Maybe it’s because I ask people out on dates, instead of making excuses to see them at work every day for six months. At a coffeeshop." She puts her hands on her hips, fixes him with her stare, and it’s Raleigh’s turn to blush.
"Uh… movie?" he asks, and for all the world he looks like a little boy, asking a girl to hold hands at recess.
"Maybe dinner," she counters, and Raleigh groans.
"Mako, you really are trying to make me fat -"
She puts her finger to her lips, shushes him like a librarian. “I’m not trying.”
Raleigh takes her hand, pulls her from behind the counter. She laughs, and it’s beautiful. His soft arms wrap around her shoulders and her head nestles into his broad chest. “It’s a date,” he says.
