#quembry

Quil liked to kid himself that the man who visited him, well - technically visited his shop, daily was genuinely interested in him.

Embry Call.

He’d learned his name around six months ago on the first day they met, and since then it’s been on repeat in the back of his mind. His brain was mashing their names together: Quil Call or Embry Ateara, either way he felt like he was back in middle school, scribbling those names surrounded by a heart in the corner of his journal. He felt ridiculous, but Embry visiting his bakery to buy lunch everyday did not help him shut his brain up.

The visits to the bakery during Embry’s lunchbreak didn’t seem like a normal case. He spent the entire time distracting Quil, he hoped this was Embry’s attempt at flirting and well, whatever it was, he wasn’t good at it; he often stumbled over his words and only over the past couple of months had he gotten confident enough around Quil to spend the whole time having a constant flow of conversation.

The bell on the door ringing as it opened snapped Quil out of his thoughts and he was met with the face he’d been dying to see all day. Embry was grinning, seemingly happy that the pair was alone in the shop for once.

“Slow day huh?” Embry said as he placed exact change on the counter. He knew the price off by heart and Quil knew his order, it was second nature to place it aside for when he came in by now.

“God, tell me about it, 7 customers in total and they were all before 10am” He stretched and was pretty sure his whole skeleton clicked, apparently leaning over the counter for 3 hours straight was not good for his joints.

Sliding Embry’s lunch over, he met his eyes, the glimmer of hope in them told Quil exactly what he was going to ask – Embry had been asking him to have lunch for the last 2 months and now there was really no way to say no. It’s not that he didn’t want to have lunch with the prettiest man he’d ever seen, it’s that having the counter between them really stopped Quil doing anything stupid out of gay impulses, he didn’t know what would happen if that insurance was lost.

He hesitated, but Embry had already opened his mouth to ask, looking flustered before he even got the words out. Quil decided to answer before he burst a blood vessel just trying to ask him.

“I’ll have lunch with you. Just this once” he said, fully aware that this would, in fact, become a habit, just like having Embry’s lunch prepared or daydreaming about him during the slow hours of the day.

The other man’s face lit up in an instant and Quil nearly lost his cool just looking at him being so happy.

“Really?! Well, um… Good! I actually made lunch for you… Y’know since you make mine everyday” He walked over to the far corner of the room and placed a box on a table there as Quil flipped the sign closed and locked the door.

Quil was certain that he was completely red as he walked over to a very nervous looking Embry. He didn’t care if this was awful, the fact that Embry had gone to the trouble of making lunch for him was possibly going to keep him happy for the entire year. He opened the box and gasped.

“Embry… How did you know?” inside the box was homemade banana bread, the type with an obscene amount of chocolate chips that Quil completely adored. Not only was it his favourite food, but it was possibly the only thing he’d eat if he had the chance.

Embry was practically beaming, “Well when you were sick a couple of weeks back, I asked Jared, and he uh... gave me this recipe and everything… It took me a while to get it fit for consumption” he started to look nervous again, “I… I really hope it tastes okay”

It was at this point that Quil knew he was absolutely fucked. This beautiful, funny, kind man had made his favourite food for him, asking for the recipe, just because. Quil was most definitely head over heels for this guy, but right now he’d decided that he wouldn’t have this any other way.

­Embry was fiddling with his fingers, anxiously watching him take a bite; Quil saw him relax back into his chair as he told him how good it was – though he didn’t think he could express how fucking good it was.

Settling back into conversation, they skimmed through a bunch of topics; like how Embry had moved there because his half brother Sam has contacted him and invited him to come to visit, which resulted in Embry falling in love with the area, and the fact his roommate and co-worker was Quil’s childhood best friend Jake. Quil couldn’t help but start thinking that they were destined to be together, they had so many connections, and yet they never saw each other outside of this one hour a day.

During Quil explaining how he got into baking, Embry’s phone buzzed, signalling that he had to head back to work. He sighed, standing up and looking frustrated that their time was over so soon. Quil hesitated before grabbing his hand, quickly scribbling his number on it before letting go and meeting the eyes of a very flustered Embry. “Quil… That’s your...?” “My number, yeah. Call me or text me or something.” Quil paused, “If you want to, that is”

Embry nodded, said his goodbyes and left the shop in what looked very much like a daze, which was confirmed less than 10 minutes later when Quil got a text from Jake claiming that he broke his best mechanic.