Cole Pendery absolutely did not have a crush on a certain barista. Sure, when he first walked into Beans & Caffeine, there was a slight attraction to the bleached blond. It wasn't Cole's fault that he couldn't resist those blue eyes you could spit from across the room, the smile the other boy gave the other customers when they thanked him, the way his hair would be perfect no matter the kind of weather it was outside. But that didn't matter, the coffee shop worker was either a dick or he was so clueless he couldn't even spell a name as simple as Cole.

"Alan, I am not going to indulge in your little crush right now. I'm with Will and you know that." David groaned as Cole ranted, "I swear, you're like those teenage girls in those dumb teen rom-coms."

"Shut up! And I do not have a crush on Dalton! Will is his best friend right? Ask him, he probably knows if Dalton knows my name or not!" Cole yelled loudly, he was in his apartment so nobody could shush him like they usually did.

"Dude, you don't think I have? He's refused to be a part of this dumb thing between you two. Honestly? I feel like I should go that way too!"

"Oh so you get a boyfriend and all of a sudden his way is better than your best friend of five years?"

"Don't pull that card Alan, that's not cool. I'm hanging up to enjoy my day off with said boyfriend, who you were on speaker with. Suck it up, don't call me until you've actually talked with this Dalton guy."

"Bye Cole!" Cole swore his face turned red when he heard David's boyfriend's slightly sad sounding farewell followed by the beeping of the dial tone.

Maybe Cole should go and see Dalton. Maybe the guy really didn't know how to spell his name and Cole had just been overreacting for weeks. Plus, it wasn't like Cole didn't go get coffee at that certain location and memorize the other blond's schedule just to check him out. Just because Cole hated the guy didn't mean he wasn't cute or easy on the eyes.

So Cole drove to Caffeine & Beans, he invited Gabe out with him since his friend had never been. Gabe's girlfriend, Alex, tagged along too since she was already at Gabe's house. They walked in together but Cole couldn't see the blond anywhere behind the counter. It was a little late, maybe his shift ended already. Sighing, Cole went to reserve a table while Gabe and Alex ordered.

Then Cole saw him, the tuff of almost white blond hair, the striking blue of the eyes. But he was talking to someone, a different guy. A guy who was tall and good looking. A guy with a smile as bright as the sun. Was this Dalton's boyfriend? Cole had heard Will mention to David that Dalton didn't have many friends that were their age. This guy was their age. Was he on a date?

But this guy looked familiar too, Cole couldn't place it. He knew he had seen him regularly, but from where? He did look very similar to the guy that actually gave him his coffee cup with the misspelled name on it but Will had said the only friends Will had at work were some high school students.

Cole's heart sank as he saw the two boys walk out of the shop together and getting in Dalton's car. Cole sucked it up, why was he sad? It wasn't like he was into Dalton. Maybe him dating whoever the other guy is would help give Cole a break from misspellings.

"Why do you look like you just broke up with a significant other of twenty years?" Alex asked, laughing. Cole laughed too, but not very enthusiastically, "Hey look, this place is just like Starbucks, they got my name totally wrong!"

Alex excitedly shoved her coffee cup in Cole's face. "Alecks" was written in black sharpie on the side of it. Cole laughed but felt a dread, deep down in his gut. A realization took over him. What if it was just a coffee shop thing? They misspelled everyone's name. What if it really wasn't on purpose?

"I think they spelled yours and Gabe's names right. No surprise, how else are you supposed to spell Cole and Gabe." Alex rolled her eyes as Gabe came over to join them, sliding a cup over to Cole's side of the table.

"You'd be surprised, really." Cole mumbled

"What would I be surprised about?" Gabe questioned, "What did I miss? What was the conversation about?"

"We were talking about how impossible it would be for someone to not spell Gabe or Cole correctly." Alex informed, showing off her incorrectly spelled name on the side of her cup.

"Actually Cole's having trouble with something like that. He keeps complaining about some guy who is spelling his name in ways that are just extremely wrong on so many levels if I recall."

The blond grumbled, just when he had started to mentally forgive Dalton, Gabe reminds him of how much of a dick the guy is.

"Some guy? You know, my friend used to work in a coffee shop. Danielle was literally a spelling champion. She told me that she only misspelled names on three occasions, their name was legitimately hard to spell, she was annoyed at something the customer did, or she was into them." Alex raised one of her eyebrows with a smirk. "And I would bet anything that with you and this guy, it's the last option, unless you were doing something really stupid while you were ordering. Then it might be the whole being annoyed at the customer thing. People do real stupid things sometimes."

Not Gabe's girlfriend too. Cole did not have a huge crush on Dalton, and the vice versa would probably work as well, "Can you give me an example of something annoying a customer could do?"

"Well I'm sure it wasn't that. It's not like you were talking on the phone while ordering your drink or anything, that would be the worst kind of rude." Alex laughed.

Cole swallowed, maybe he was the one to blame.