Erasmus

a new friend

The café quickly became Lili's favourite place in almost the entire city. She would come by every single day when she finished class to work. It didn't take long to realise that the same group of guys was there almost every day as well. 

They were five and seemed pretty much around her age. They spent afternoons talking and laughing together. They seemed nice but the girl would never approach them. Not that she was afraid but she thought it would be weird to just stand in front of them and say "Hey, I see you a lot and I wanted to get to know you". 

Yet today was different. Instead of the entire band being in the same spot, the table in the back surrounded by a couch and two seats, only the tall blond guy was there. He was sitting at her usual table, a coffee cup in front of him and his phone in hand. 

🃟🃟🃟

The café was busier than usual, to the point where Lili couldn't find a table for herself. Like the universe was sending her a message, the only available seat in the entire establishment was in front of the blond guy. 

"I'm so sorry to bother you, but can I seat here, there is no other spot," she asked him in English since she wasn't confident in her Slovenian level, her own coffee cup in hand. 

He lifted his head to look at her, his blue eyes staring at hers. He smiled at her. "Sure" he said before putting his phone on the table. "I'm Kris by the way" he introduced himself to the girl he had been staring at almost every time he saw her in the café - not to sound creepy obviously. 

"Cécilia, but you can call me Lili" she smiled back. 

"I think I've seen you here before right ?" he tried to act like he only spotted her a couple of times. 

"Yeah, I come here every day after uni. You come here a lot too right ? With your friends, I think ?" she immediately regretted saying the last sentence, scared he would see her as a creep. 

"Yeah exactly, we sit in the back" he smiled at her. Thank god he didn't make it awkward. "So what do you study here ? I'm guessing you're not Slovenian since you're speaking in English" asked the blond boy on the other side of the table.

"Yeah no I'm Belgian, I'm here in Erasmus for the last year of my Master's degree in Engineering. Well, I'm specializing in automotive engineering" she explained while waiting for her coffee to cool down. 

"Wow ! That's amazing !" he sounded genuinely impressed. 

"Yeah..." she replied with a stiff smile.

"I sense this isn't really what you wanted to do is it ?" it was pretty easy to read right through her. 

"Genuinely, I'm doing this to please my parents" she truthfully answered, earning a confused look from Kris in front of her. "My father's a doctor, my mother's a lawyer. Truth be told, I wanted to study photography, but any artistic career I could wish for isn't considered a real job for them". 

Usually, Lili wasn't one to open up so easily to someone. She had no idea how she was able to do it at that exact moment. There was something about him she trusted, she had no idea what it was but it was there. 

Kris quickly understood it wasn't something she wasn't too prone to talk about so he changed the subject pretty fast. 

"Wait you said you're Belgian right ?" she nodded at his question. "Spreek je Nederlands ?" [Do you speak Dutch ?] he asked her in a perfect Dutch accent.