CHAPTER NINETEEN

TUESDAY

KURT

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

I opened my eye blearily and peeked at the alarm clock next to my bed that was buzzing with reckless abandon.

7:30am

At first, I groaned and took the extra pillow laying next to me on the bed and plopped it onto my face in an effort to drone out the sound of the alarm and the brightness of the sun that was creeping in through the curtains in my room. But before I could roll over and hit snooze, I practically flew out of bed when I remembered why I was waking up so early on a Tuesday. I had a coffee date with Blaine!

I kicked the covers back and peeked out my door to see if Wes was in the shower. Thankfully, he had already moved into his room and I rushed to collect my towel and robe and flew into the shower; doing my best to remain quiet.

My hygiene routine had changed a lot since high school; gone were the hours spent in front of a vanity slathering creams and lotions on my face. Instead I relied on regular appointments with a dermatologist and a balanced diet with occasional facials administered by an esthetician. High school Kurt would be in awe at my less-than-10-minute showers but I had found that the longer ones just weren't necessary. Besides, I looked good without all that extra stuff.

Post-shower, I shuffled back into my room and threw on the outfit I had picked out last night to wear to my coffee date. I wanted to ensure that I looked fresh but approachable when I met with Blaine and I couldn't wear what I'd worn the first time we met (that's just a no-no). I opted for a baby blue button up with a white v-neck sweater over top and fitted dark indigo jeans and simple cognac dress shoes. The labels all bore designer names, but they weren't important. What was important was that I wanted to make an impression and I had hoped this would work.

After perusing my outfit one last time, I practically skipped into the kitchen to have some toast and hopefully fight off some of the nerves that were in the pit of my stomach when I thought of the date I was going to go on in just over half an hour from now. I didn't want to be late and since I would have to take the train to get to the correct Starbucks, I wanted to brave the train before the rush hour traffic started to get out of hand.

Unfortunately, when I crossed the threshold of the kitchen, Wes was sitting at the table reading something on his phone. He practically spit out his coffee when he saw me standing in our kitchen at 8 in the morning on a day that I would have to work. Since I normally didn't wake up until about 10, this was certainly out of the norm.

"Uh, what are you doing up?" he asked, perplexed.

I shrugged and willing my voice to seem indifferent rather than portray the excitement I felt inside. "Just getting a head start on the day."

He laughed. "Right. A head start, on a Tuesday; wearing real clothes before noon."

I glared at him as I popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. "Just because I take pride in my appearance and don't lounge about all day in grody prep school sweatpants doesn't mean I'm not comfortable." I paused as I grabbed the jam from the fridge. "And besides, why do you care what I'm going anyway?"

Wes grimaced. "Dude, calm down."

"You know how I hate to be called..."

"Kurt! Jesus. Let me talk for a second before you get all defensive." I rolled my eyes and turned back to the toaster, willing it to pop the bread up any second now to avoid this conversation. Wes cleared his throat. "I'm being nosy because you're being so secretive these days. I'm sure it has something to do with this dating thing since the minute I bring it up, you go all hermit crab on me. I've known you for years, Kurt. Stop trying to shut me out all the time. I just... I care."

The toast popped up as I turned around to look at my roommate who looked deeply concerned, eyes pleading for either an explanation or a chance for me not to be mad at him. "Wes, I know, okay. I'm just... nervous. And you know nervous isn't a normal feeling for me."

"Why are you nervous?" he asked.

"Because, there is a reason that I'm up early." I took a deep breath before I gave Wes the satisfaction of knowing what I was up to. "I'm meeting someone for coffee."

I could tell my roommate was trying to hold back his excitement and that one questions was nibbling away in his mind, so I waited patiently as he tried to contort his face to one of disinterest rather than curiosity before he asked his question. "Does this 'someone' happen to be a gentleman suitor?"

I laughed. Only Wes and his prep-school persona would ask such a normal question in a ridiculous way. "Who even calls them suitors anymore? But if you must know, yes. It's a guy and it's a date."

Wes emitted a slight squeal before coughing to contain his glee. "Well, that's great."

I rolled my eyes as I turned back to my toast. "You can be excited for me, I won't be mad at you for that." I was spreading the raspberry preserves onto my toast when I felt two arms wrapping me tightly around the shoulders. I started laughing uncontrollably as my roommate continued to squeeze the life out of me before I tried to pry his arms from my shoulders. "No need to be that excited, Wes."

He chuckled as he backed away. "When am I going to meet this guy that makes you, the ever amazing Kurt Hummel, nervous?"

I shook my head. "No sir. I want to be sure that this guy is going to stick around before I introduce him to you crazies." I placed my toast on a paper towel and went to sit on the table, Wes joining me at his seat across from me.

"How will you know if the guy is going to stick around? Six months? Four weeks? Eighteen years? What you're suggesting seems like a rather indeterminate amount of time. Besides, I feel like as your roommate I'm obliged to give any gentleman callers a good talking to about their intentions with you before they try to get all up in your business," Wes stated pointedly.

I burst into a deep laughter; my roommate was an idiot. "First of all, I'm not a girl or.. whatever. And you have no claim over me aside from the fact that we've known each other for years. No guy needs to haveyourapproval to date me. And as for a timeline, how about I introduce you to Bl- thisguy, if he works out, after ten dates?"

Wes' eyes bulged. "Ten dates! That could take months!" I laughed with a slight shrug as I took a bite of my toast. "How about three?"

"This isn't a barter," I retorted.

"Come on Kurt! Ten dates could take awhile. Let's say you go out every weekend on one date per week. I wouldn't meet him until..." he looked at the calendar on the wall, doing quick mental math, "Around New Years. And with your schedule - and I don't even know about this other guy's - it could be until January. That seems like too long to go before you introduce him to your friends."

I smiled a bit. I knew part of the reason Wes was pushing this was because he was curious and, apparently, living vicariously through my dating life. But I knew more than that he was just making sure that I was being open with this guy and trying not to bog myself down with the fact that he could be like William - even though thus far he was the farthest thing from my ex. "Okay, how about... if he's still around in three weeks, I'll introduce you to him then. By that point, we'll have been seeing each other - or whatever you want to call it - for a month. That seems acceptable, right?"

He beamed. "Deal. Shake on it?" he asked as he extended his hand. I shook it firmly with a nod. The moment I let go, Wes let out a suspiciously evil laugh, causing me to practically choke on my last bite of toast.

"Uh, what was that for?" I asked as I cleared the crumbs from my face.

"This guy has no idea what he's in for," he stated with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.

I threw my paper towel into the trash and grabbed my keys from the key hook. "Please don't make me regret this," I said facetiously.

"No promises, Hummel."

I chuckled as I pulled on my pea coat and shoved my keys and wallet into my pocket and headed out the door. I looked at my watch to check the date. October 23.If Blaine was still around by November 18 - the Saturday before Thanksgiving - he would have the 'privilege' of meeting Wes, I told myself.Lord help him.

.....

The train had taken hardly any time at all and I was greeted with the smell of pumpkin spice and the general goodness of coffee at 8:28 on the dot. I looked around the coffee shop to see if Blaine was already there but to no avail. The Starbucks was packed - one of the pitfalls of being located near Times Square - so I got in line and kept one eye on the door to see Blaine and the other on the tables around the register to see if any would be cleared out by the time I'd ordered my coffee.

By the time I made it to the counter, it was 8:36 and Blaine still wasn't there. I was a little irritated - partially because Blaine was late and I hated when people weren't prompt and partially because it took nearly ten minutes to make it to the counter - but quickly placed my order with the barista and settled into waiting... again.

The moment my coffee was in hand and I had found a seat at a table by the window, it was 8:42. Blaine was nearly 15 minutes late and I started to think that Wes might not get to meet this guy who had me intrigued from the moment I first saw him.

I glanced out the window at the people passing by with their scarves flowing in the wind, hats covering their heads and noses slightly pink with the chill of the wind before one figure across the street caught my eye. A guy in a gray pea coat and billowing red scarf was running at full-force practically running into people on the sidewalk. He nearly trampled a woman with a stroller as he stopped for the crosswalk and I took a better look at the guy.

It was Blaine, looking exasperated and incredibly stressed.

I chuckled a little in my mind, glad that Blaine was feeling flustered for being late and keeping me waiting, although I also felt a little bad for the guy. Clearly his morning was not going as planned.

BLAINE

I was thankful that I had asked Kurt to come up to my neck of the woods for coffee because so far, this morning had been hell. The power had gone out in the night and my alarm clock hadn't gone off, the hot water heater in our building wasn't working properly and I had left my toothbrush at the hotel and didn't have a spare one at my apartment and with the power going out last night, my phone hadn't charged and was currently dead and useless on my nightstand. That and I hadn't done laundry so my favorite sweater was dirty and I couldn't find my lucky Warbler pin anywhere. Once I managed to pull myself together, I realized it was already 8:30 and I was going to have to run the whole way to make sure I wasn't later than I already was.

The run to the Starbucks had been a rough one; I had run into at least a dozen people and nearly killed a child in a stroller once I was across the street from the Starbucks Kurt was meeting me at. I waited impatiently for the light to change and debated darting across traffic when I was rescued from thoughts of my potential - and accidental - vehicular homicide when the light changed and I darted across the street. I managed to peer into the window and saw Kurt stationed at a table by the window and groaned when I saw that he already had a coffee in his hands. I wanted to buy him coffee as an apology for my tardiness, but I guess that wasn't going to happen now.

I violently shoved the door open, nearly making a display of coffee cups take a tumble. I grabbed the table tightly and cautiously adjusted the cups on the display before turning back toward Kurt, who had a slight smile on his face.Okay, he's not totally pissed,I thought to myself. But the moment he and I made eye contact, his face drooped and gone was his sweet smile and in its place was a somewhat icy glare.

Shit, he was scary when he was mad.

"Hi," I hesitated as I placed my bag on the floor next to the table, smiling hopefully - willing Kurt to forgive me until I had a chance to explain.

"Hello," he said, stony expression fading slightly. I hoped my smile had something to do with that, but I would take whatever I could if it meant he wasn't irritated with me anymore.

"First of all, I wanted to apologize for my tardiness. It is very unlike me to be late and this morning has been rather horrible,"until I saw you, I added in my mind, "but I assure you, I would never want to keep you waiting."

He smiled back ever so slightly and nodded in understanding. "You could have called, you know," he replied.

"I would have if my phone hadn't died and if my power hadn't gone out last night."

His eyes bugged. "That's bad luck."

"You could say that," I replied. "But that's in the past now and I apologize for being late. I do hope you'll forgive me."

He chuckled a little and waved nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it. At first I thought you were standing me up, but then when I saw you practicing for the New York Marathon on your way over here, I figured that something had to have happened."

I grinned. "It's certainly been one hell of a morning." I checked my watch and saw that I only had about half an hour before I had to leave to go to work and I wanted to make the most of my time with Kurt, but after my morning I desperately needed coffee. "And due to said-morning, I am in dire need of some coffee. I see you have your own coffee, but can I get you something? A refill? Please consider this a small form of an apology."

"You remind me a lot of my roommate in some ways - such formality in the way you speak... not that I'm complaining. I think I'm good in terms of coffee levels, but I wouldn't mind if you brought something back in the form of a baked good," Kurt said. "And you're lucky, the line seems to have died down since I first got here."

"I certainly am thankful for that. I need luck in any form I can get at this point," I said with a wink and immediately regretted being such a dork until I heard Kurt's musical laughter resulting from my gesture. "I'll be back." I turned toward the counter before turning back to Kurt. "Oh, what would you want from the bakery?"

He took a sip from his coffee and placed it down on the table before replying; glint of... something in his eye. "I like surprises," he replied in a flirty tone and added a wink of his own.

I felt a lump in my throat and I gulped as I turned around and headed back toward the counter. God, he was just as flirty in person as he was over text messages. I certainly was not complaining but damn, I was going to need to up my game or something. I was horrible at flirting and incredibly out of practice but Kurt - as expected - is a pro. Is thereanythingKurt wasn't good at?

One thing that he was exceptionally good at was looking amazing in his clothes. I knew he was into clothing and made his living from dressing others, but the guy clearly knew how to dress himself. He looked impeccable - as he had the other two times I'd seen him - and I could tell that his clothes were tailored. I looked down at myself - feeling frumpy in my hurried ensemble - though compared to most guys my age, I still looked put together. But I had to figure that Kurt would probably consistently outshine me in the wardrobe department and as a potential benefactor of getting to see him in his various outfits, I couldn't complain too much.

Thankfully the line had dwindled significantly by the time I was ready to place my order and I asked for a raspberry cream cheese coffee cake along with a croissant - in case Kurt didn't like sweet - and brought both baked goods and the coffee back to the table to join Kurt in just a few minutes. I sat down and placed napkins down on the table between the two of us, enabling them to act as a plate, and pulled out the croissant first. I gauged Kurt's reaction - he didn't seem too interested in toe croissant - before pulling out the raspberry cream cheese confection. That seemed to please Kurt much more as he unknowingly licked his lips and practically consumed the treat with his eyes.

"I'm guessing you like what you see," I said with a joking tone, causing Kurt's gaze to snap up from the cake into my eyes.

"Who said I didn't already?" he asked, flirtation oozing from his insinuation.

Dear sweet baby Jesus. I'm pretty sure my heart was beating loud enough for the whole coffee shop to hear and I could feel a blush rising on my cheeks.

"You okay Blaine?" he questioned as he reached forward to break off a piece of the coffee cake.

I coughed and hoped that I could calm down a bit before responding. No need to come off like a crazed teenager when he and I were both adults. "I'm fine. Sorry, my mind was elsewhere."

I took a sip of my coffee, thankful for the warmth it brought to my throat, and looked back at Kurt who looked effortlessly cute as a piece of crumb cake dangled from the corner of his mouth. Even though I'm sure he was really working his flirting angle, he still managed to seem slightly innocent and sweet; the man never failed to surprise me. "Uh, you have a little... right there," I said, motioning to the corner of my mouth.

"What?" he asked as he dusted his fingers across his lips and cheek. He managed to brush off most of the crumbs, but the slightest bit of raspberry remained at the corner of his mouth. I smiled and grabbed a napkin from the table and motioned toward it, silently asking if I could clean off the offending remnants myself. With a slight nod, he leaned forward toward my extended arm. I felt my heartbeat quicken and my eyes fluttered nervously between Kurt's eyes - which I finally had noticed were a stunning icy blue - and his mouth where his perfectly pursed lips were waiting.

I lightly wiped the napkin on his cheek and pulled back. I hadn't pulled hard enough on the napkin and, much to my amusement, the napkin had remained stuck on the raspberry filling, leaving the napkin stuck in an awkward wad on the side of his face. I tried to hold back the chortle escaping my mouth, but I couldn't and, thankfully, neither could Kurt. He reached up quickly and pulled off the napkin and threw it at me from across the table. I dodged the napkin and he rolled his eyes as he grasped his coffee cup off the table and took a gulp.

"Well, now that you've sufficiently embarrassed me in public," he said with jest, "why don't you tell me about your morning?" He settled back in his chair and kept his arms extended on the table, unknowingly offering openness in his stance.

I rambled on for five minutes about the dreadful morning I'd had, leaving Kurt laughing in places when I mimicked my reaction to realizing that the hot water was out when I had attempted to shave this morning and thought I was being hit with ice first thing in the morning. Soon we found ourselves in a healthy and comfortable flow and every few minutes, one of us was keeled over in laughter.

Before long, I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 9:25. I had resigned myself to be late this morning since I wanted to optimize my time with Kurt, but I couldn't push it too much past 9:30 without making waves with Clark. Sure, the guy liked me, but he didn't put up with his direct reports being late to work on a regular basis. I groaned when I saw the time, earning a quirked eyebrow from Kurt.

"Looking to get away from me already?" he asked.

"Far from it," I mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, uh, nothing," I replied. "I'm sorry to cut and run, but I have to head to work now. I can only be late for one thing in any given day."

Kurt giggled. God, his laugh was infectious. "Not a problem. Where are you headed?"

"53rd and Broadway. Just up a few blocks."

He grabbed his keys from off the table and went to stand up. "I'll walk with you. I need to catch the E back to my place. And, lucky for you, that's the station I need to head toward anyway."

I beamed as I grabbed my bag from the ground and clutched the coffee in my hand. "Let's roll," I said, motioning toward the door.

Kurt walked a few paces ahead of me, leaving me to enjoy the...view, and he held the door open for me as we exited the coffee shop. "Thank you, kind sir," I said with a slight bow. This caused Kurt to laugh and brush past me as I maintained my bow. I quickly picked up the pace and caught up with him.

We walked side by side, our shoulder brushing occasionally from being forced into close proximity as commuters rushed past the tourists littering the sidewalks. We didn't talk for the three blocks we walked, but the silence felt... soothing in a way. We didn't need to fill the air with idle chatter. We were just being... Kurt and Blaine. And it was nice.

When we approached the corner where our paths were going to veer off, I turned to Kurt and lightly placed my hand on his shoulder. "Kurt."

"Blaine," he said and mimicked my action by placing his own hand on my shoulder.

"We look like we're doing some weird ritual right now," I noted, realizing that he and I were at an arm's length from each other and each clutching the opposite shoulder of the other; as if we were in some sort of circle or something. Kurt laughed at my interjection and I shook it off before continuing. "Kurt."

"Yes, Blaine."

"I really enjoyed coffee with you this morning," I said, lowering my hand from his shoulder and taking a half step closer to him. He, in turn, lowered his arm after our closeness forced his arm to a weird angle.

He smiled. "I enjoyed it too."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "I wasn't too sure at first."

He looked at me quizzically. "What do you mean? You weren't sure you were enjoying it?"

"No, no. Not at all," I said, quickly backpedaling "I wasn't sure you were having a good time since I was late."

"I'm pretty sure that raspberry cream cheese crumb cake eliminated any lingering thoughts of me being mad at you."

"Well that's a relief!" I said, feigning relief as I dramatically wiped my brow. Kurt giggled again and looked at me expectantly. "So, uh. Kurt."

"Blaine, I'm pretty sure I know my own name now that you've said it like five times," he joked.

"Sorry, sorry. Okay, Ku- okay." I took a breath. "What are you doing this Thursday night?"

His smile met his eyes, causing a smile to erupt on my own face, as he replied. "Whatever you have in mind."

Internally, my mind was having a house party. Externally, I managed to keep the smile plastered on my face - hoping my grin wasn't creepy - as I pulled Kurt in for a hug. Closing the gap between us was already the best decision I'd made today. As I wrapped my arms securely around his waist, I noticed how warm he was and how he smelled vaguely of coffee, cinnamon, and CK One and - damn, if he wasn't one of the best smelling men in all of Manhattan. I hoped that my own scent was equally as good, but he didn't seem to mind as he latched his arms around my shoulders and placed his cheek next to mine; feeling his breath tickle my ear in a way that made my heart flutter and my insides flip flop.

I pulled away first, realizing that though I wanted to stay here for awhile longer, I was already late enough. I looked at Kurt - who looked pleased with our hug - and I was still doing my best not to leap into another hug. "Well I'll see you Thursday, then," I said.

"That you will, good sir," he retorted.

"Now who's formal?" I chortled.

He rolled his eyes and backed away, walking backwards toward the train station. "Bye, Blaine."

I offered a small wave as he made his way down the sidewalk. "Bye."

With a wink, he turned around and I stood transfixed at the spot where he and I had just hugged. I intended to watch Kurt until he went missing in the sea of people but was startled with the feeling of someone poking me in the back after Kurt had crossed Broadway.

I yelped and turned around to come face-to-face with Santana. "Dammit, San. You scared me!"

She grinned as she pulled her purse up on her shoulder. "It's not hard to do when you're looking off into the distance like a total dweeb." I rolled my eyes as she motioned toward the direction of our office building. "What were you looking at anyway?"

Santana looked at me, expecting some kind of answer, but my morning with Kurt was not up for conversation; not today. The only sure way to not rush into things with Kurt was to keep things quiet for a little while - at least until I knew we were both interested in pursuing something further. Being able to discuss everything with Santana was only going to perpetuate my previous behavior and I wanted to get things started off on the right foot with Kurt. I needed to do this for his sake... and for my own. He was going to be the secret behind my smile for a little while before Hurricane Santana got involved. No need to scare the man off so soon.

I smiled, Kurt's scent lingering in my nose and his warm hug present in my mind, and swiftly walked past Santana toward our building. "Oh, nothing."