On The Town - G.D
Summary: a nice coffee date in New York City with the love of his life while talking about starting a family.
Word count: 2k.
In late November of 2023, Grayson was feeling rather bored.
Though, being twenty-four and married, his life seemed to be lacking the flair it held just years ago.
So, he had come up with a plan the night before, while he listened to the light snores of his lover just inches away from him.
He was going to take her on a date. A simple coffee date that he thought would fuel his urge to do something out of his weekly routine. Sure, it was simple, but, different.
His wife, Y/n who was a graduate of NYU and an advanced biology teacher for freshman at Bronx High School of Science, told him a simple “No.” the day of.
“Why not?” He asked perplexed.
“Grayson, I’d love to, but look at all this— there is no way I can go out and just forget about grading over one-hundred papers.”
He cocked his head back, oddly offended. “Are you really turning down your husband for some freshman papers?” He didn’t understand.
“No— Grayson— it’s just, I have so much work to do and I’m already so far behind.” She placed her head in her hands that rested up on the table of their kitchen.
“Oh come on Y/n, when was the last time we had some fun, just you and me?”
She collected herself rather quickly in hopes of ushering him off and getting back to work.
“We had fun at Angelica’s wedding, remember?” She muttered, scribbling down a number at the top of someone’s assignment.
“Angelica is so boring! I nearly fell asleep while people made their toasts. Please, I’m bored. This is boring.”
She let out a slow sigh, but didn’t look up at him.
“You’re only bored if you want to be. It’s a chemical switch you can make in your brain Grayson.”
She was talking science to him, she was far gone from getting her to leave that kitchen table until she was done.
Hours later after the altercation, Grayson was forced back into their room where he found himself organizing his clothes in the closet by color and type just to do something.
Once he gave up halfway, he fell onto the nicely made white bed and face-planted onto the fresh linen bed sheets.
He didn’t know Y/n had walked in.
Grayson let out a sigh, still thinking about ways to trick her into getting out. I could fake breaking my arm? He thought. No. That’s too brutal, she’d have a heart attack.
He was losing hope and turned over, ready to beg Y/n to go onto a date with him when he nearly knocked heads with her.
“Oop-” she said, stumbling back on her heels while Grayson’s reflexes came to the surface and he wrapped his arms around her.
“How long have you been there?” He asked, watching the soft light bring out her eyes.
She did the same to his, remembering the golden and green flakes that shined in the sunlight.
“Not long,” She patted his chest, picking off a small piece of lint.
“You change your mind about going on a date with me?” He then asked, gripping her just a bit harder.
She didn’t answer, but smiled.
“You aren’t ready for this heat, I’m about to do the worst!” He let go of her, and started doing awful choreographed dance moves that were so out-dated he looked like a Dad trying to embarrass their child.
“Oh, god,” she said behind her hand that was covering her mouth while she laughed. “I don’t think I want to now.”
“What? You scared of all this—” he started doing the shimmy around her, circulating her and singing an out of tone song that drove Y/n into overdrive of laughter.
“Stop! Gosh Grayson who are you?!” She exclaimed through laughs.
She wheezed really hard when he tried doing a handstand, but tumbled over onto the big plant in the corner of the room.
“Grayson—”
“I’m good; just lost my balance. I’m fine.” He shrugged it off —along with the small amount of dirt that was resting on his leg— and looked at Y/n out of breath.
“About that date...” he started.
Grayson gripped hard on Y/n’s hand, making sure he didn’t lose her while they swam through the crowd of people getting off the subway.
It’s not like he was didn’t trust her to be able to get off the subway without him, he just didn’t want to lose her in the crowd.
After the swarm had dispersed onto the busy streets of New York City, he reminded himself that she was okay and that he could let some pressure off Y/n’s poor hand.
The city was bright and beautiful; something that he thought about almost every time he was there and always lead back to Y/n.
Because that’s what she was to him; bright and beautiful. She was a teacher for a science school, —which he had never even thought about as a career that a woman would want— and was so stunning he’d do anything just to get her attention for .2 seconds.
That’s what he did in fact. In college, their rooms were in the same hall (three doors down to be exact) and were diagonal to where if you peaked your head out from your desk and the other person's door was open, you could see the whole view of their room.
Occasionally, Y/n’s roommate would accidentally leave their door opened after she got home from her classes, and Grayson, who would be studying for an assignment would see Y/n wrapped up in a cardigan closing the door gently behind her.
It took him months before he finally had enough courage to talk to her.
And when he did, he realized that not only was she even more beautiful from three doors down, but had the personality of an angel. Yes, an angel.
As the months went on, they both became more comfortable with each other, and before they knew it, Grayson was down on one knee at the top of the hospital after her sister Angelica gave birth to her first son.
Grayson held the door open for her, letting her experience the warmth and overwhelming coffee bean smell that reminded her of home.
Y/n scanned the floor of the shop, eyeing down a table for two just near the window.
They both sat down rather quickly, unraveling their heavy jackets and ordering two completely different drinks while they made small talk.
“You know that boy, Roy?” Grayson had no idea who she was talking about, but nodded.
“In my first period? Roy?” She saw right through him, trying her best to jog his memory.
“Anyway, so, Roy, in my first period today he comes up to me and asks me if he can turn his project in on Monday after school. So like, ‘well, you had two school work days and at home.’ and he gets all quiet and nervous and is like ‘well my mom doesn’t have enough gas to take me to the library until Sunday.’” Y/n looked at Grayson’s eyes to see if he was listening. (Sometimes when she would talk, his eyes would get this look in them and she knew it was going straight over his head.)
“Grayson, are you listening?” He nodded and placed his hands under his chin while resting his elbows on the small table.
“So, anyway, I emailed his mom and told him he didn’t have to worry about the project since I know he’s a good kid with good morals.”
Their drinks had arrived, and she thanked the waiter and smiled up at her kindly.
This was one of those times he remembered why he was in love with Y/n.
She was kind, —that was obvious— overwhelmingly a mother figure to her students and overall a good person.
And for some reason, realizing that a small gesture she made, would possibly change lives.
He thought about how it made his insides turn to a soft warm glowing feeling that showed up in his cheeks. The thought about wanting to marry her again, wanting to take their lives to the next level.
A family. Was what flashed in his mind while she smiled at him and waited for him to come back to reality.
“You gonna drink your coffee?” She asked him softly.
“Ye— Yeah. Sorry.”
“No no it’s okay, just thought you’d want me to wait for you.”
There it is again. The little things. His self conscious told him.
Grayson then picked up his cup, gently tapping it with Y/n’s white mug that held a French latte with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
“You got a latte?” He asked.
“Mhm,” She answered as she took a sip.
“Hm. Must have not been paying attention.”
A calm silence filled in between them before Y/n spoke up. “Well yeah, I’m drinking for two, might as well go all the way.”
He nearly choked on his saliva.
“You— what?”
“What? I mean ever since you stopped drinking dairy I’ve had to start drinking for you and me. It’s basically the same.”
Pulling her brows together, she gave him an almost sad look, not understanding why he said what he said the way he said it.
“What?” She asked.
“No— nothing. It’s just— I just thought you—” his eyes darted to her stomach that was hidden under a dark reddish orange cardigan.
Her head dropped, and her heartbeat sped up almost immediately.
“Oh my g— Grayson, wait. You thought I was—” Y/n’s voice dropped to a soft whisper. “Pregnant?”
He felt embarrassment wash over his facial features. “I mean, I dunno. I was just thinking about it because you said something about a kid and I just— I mean we’re still so young I don’t think we’re ready to have a kid. Unless...” Grayson shrugged.
More silence slid in between them, this time not being so calm.
“Well I don’t know Grayson. We’ve never talked about having kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to carry your child— or children. But are we mentally and financially stable for that?” Y/n gripped at his hand gently from across the table, reminding him again of the ring on her finger.
“You’d wanna have my kids? F’real?”
“Well, yeah. I mean— wait, do you not want me to? We haven’t talked much about adoption but if your thinking about it we can—”
“No, Y/n, that’s not what I meant. I mean, like, you’d really want to have a kid? My kid?”
She nodded, and a wide, hard smile formed on her dark red cheeks.
“Yeah. I guess so. I just never thought of it as an ‘if’ more like a ‘when’.” She took another sip of her latte.
After that, they talked a whole bunch more. From Y/n’s crazy childhood stories about how she was the spitting image of her mother, to imagining what their kid would look like with the two of them combined.
Grayson told her about him and Ethan’s crazy antics: crawling out of their cribs and having to have nets on them, hitting their grandma with their bottles, and being wrapped up in what he called a “blanket burrito” by Cameroon and cutting his head open on the metal rim of the trampoline.
They had talked and talked for hours, oblivious and untouched by everyone around them and getting to know even more about each other as if it were one of their firsts dates again.
The two stayed until the shop closed, helping place the chairs upon the table for easier access when the staff mopped the floor. Then, they walked to the subway drunk off lattes and lack of sleep, and ended the day with Y/n falling asleep in Grayson’s lap while he stroked her shiny hair away from her face and behind her ear.
It was the match that started it all.