Aftershocks

"This is crazy, right?" Dae spoke aloud to himself, as he stopped in front of Evan's workplace two and a half weeks after their blowout. After spending all of his time mulling over what had happened, he knew he needed to at least try to talk to the redhead. "Fuck! I look really desperate, don't I?"

He stuffed his hands further into the pockets of his worn leather jacket, and took a deep breath, before nudging the door open with his shoulder. The bell above the door chimed, signaling Dae's entry into a space that should have felt inviting but caused him to shiver when time seemed to slow down and what felt like every pair of the staff's eyes fell on him.

His breath hitched in his throat when a certain pair of eyes locked onto him--one that used to hold a playful intrigue, but currently only held annoyance. His mind began to race, and it took Dae a moment to realize that a hostess was in the middle of repeating herself to him. "Sit anywhere you'd like, sir. Evan, your server for tonight, will be right with you."

Just the mention of Evan's name made Dae's heart stutter. He couldn't believe that he would actually have a chance to talk to Evan again--which sounded messy in his own head, but he was choosing to ignore that at this moment. His anger had subsided, and Dae spent a good portion of their time apart thinking about what Evan had said.

And that spunky redhead was right.

Dae realized he'd been treating Evan like property instead of a person, and he desperately wanted Evan to know that that wasn't the person he was. Hell, that's why Dae made the trip to the diner in the first place. It wasn't like he'd planned to binge here but--

"Hey. You okay, sir?" Dae is snapped back to reality and could feel the smile fade from his face when another waiter asked if he was alright. The sudden shift in his mood seemed to have made the waiter nervous.

"Uh yeah. Thanks for asking." Dae felt an embarrassed blush simmer under his skin and thanked the gods that his Islander skin held it in pretty well. He cleared his throat quickly, before looking down at the menu. "Sorry to inconvenience you while you work."

"No worries." The waiter offers a small smile but didn't actually step away from the table. The silence that followed is heavy with awkwardness before the waiter speaks again. "Are you ready...? Or should I come back?"

"Oh." Dae's tone did nothing to hide his surprise and disappointment. He tried to quickly recover so as not to make this innocent waiter feel bad for just doing his job, "Sorry, again. Just didn't know there was more than one Evan that-"

"No worries..." Dae could tell the waiter felt even more awkward, "My name is actually Marty. I'm in training, Evan's watching from over there; he sent me over to get some practice in. He said your order wouldn't be too hard for me to do by myself..."

Dae felt the prominent sting in his heart before he quickly threw a look to where Marty had indicated the redhead would be. Evan's eyes held so many emotions but he simply shook his head at Dae dismissively, before turning to head into the kitchen for another order.

"Sir?" Marty glanced at Evan's retreating form before looking back at Dae with a softness--or pity--in his eyes, "Should...should I give you a minute?"

"Just a black coffee, Marty. Thanks." Dae handed over the menu before looking away from a concerned Marty, who hesitated for just a moment before walking away.

As Dae sits in the booth, slowly sipping his coffee and continuously reassuring Marty that he's okay, he watched for a moment to try and get Evan's attention. He didn't want to have Marty get the redhead, because then the poor kid would think he was in trouble. But then, finally, Evan walked up to the older woman who Dae remembered from his last visit here, before heading out the back door. The older woman watched Evan walk out before waving Marty over.

Dae panicked as they both glanced in his direction before Marty nodded and started walking over to the table. Dae readied himself to be kicked out, for his business to be spread all throughout the restaurant, for him to be banned from all mom and pop shops that employ beautiful redheaded waiters, for--

"Excuse me, but are you Dae, mister?" Marty's timid voice broke Dae out of his spiral. As his vision refocused he saw another nervous smile on the poor boy's face.

"Uh...yeah. Yeah, Marty, I'm Dae." Dae glanced away and realized his knuckle was white around the mug. He loosened his grip with a deep breath out, before turning back to look at the nervous waiter.

Marty starts fidgeting with his hands as he spoke. "Sonya--the owner of this place--said that you should get your, and I quote, 'leather-clad ass out back and talk some sense into Evan.'"

"What?" Dae could feel his mouth go dry.

Marty let out a nervous chuckle. "He's apparently been a little lost in his head lately...and she hasn't seen you around so, she figured the two were related."

Dae stands up quickly, causing Marty to jump a little before he reached hurriedly for his wallet. As he starts rifling through it, Marty holds up his hands. "Sonya said you're square, just go talk to your guy."

Dae flings the ten-dollar bill on his table anyway, clapping Marty on the shoulder as he slid out of the booth. "Then that's all for you. Have a good day Marty, and hopefully, I see you around."

Dae power walked his way towards the back exit, passing a smiling Sonya on the way. When he pushed through the door that confidence and urgency calmed as he saw Evan a little further into the alleyway staring at the sky with a lit cigarette in his hand.

He approached cautiously until he was a few feet away, "Honestly? I'm surprised you haven't parkoured onto the roof..."

Evan's body goes rigid and he closed his eyes, slowly bringing the cigarette up to his mouth to take a long inhale. As he blew the stream of smoke towards the sky, he slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at Dae. And once those daggers were on him, Dae felt awful.

Evan finally spoke and Dae wasn't sure which was colder--the redhead's stare or the tone of his voice. "Did Sonya put you up to this?"

"She...helped." Dae took a small step back, and Evan seemed to zero in on his hesitance.

"Well, now you're here...So what the hell do you want?" Evan asked before taking another drag of his cigarette.

"I...I think I need to apologize." Dae spoke and then instantly regretted it.

"You think?" Evan laughed incredulously. "Wow."

"No. No. I know that I was wrong and I know that I-" Dae tried to respond before Evan held up his hand with such command that Dae shut his mouth.

"Here's what I know, Dae. I know you were pissed off and probably in aggro mode when you grabbed my arm, so I'm gonna choose to forgive you for that. But don't let it happen again. And I know that you came here to try to apologize and not be a crazy stalker, so I can even forgive you for THAT! But I'm not gonna sit here and let you grovel at my feet, unsure of what you're even apologizing for. It's the one thing you did--the one thing I hate the most--and you don't even fucking know what it is! Until you can fucking say it, and apologize with your whole chest, I'm not sure we can keep seeing each other, Dae. It's too fucking confusing...for both of us."

Evan's voice cracked slightly on the last sentence, and Dae felt even worse. There was a strong, suffocating silence that filled the space between them. Dae fought against the tightness in his throat to say anything at all, but before he could prevail the redhead shook his head. "I have to get back to work."

Dae watches as Evan puts the cigarette out against the brick wall, before heading back inside. As he watched the redhead walk away, with the storm of emotions brewing deep within him, he whispered a reply. "I hope I get to see you again, Evan."