When she walks in, Dirk compares her to some actress he knows. You're not paying attention, in fact your back is turned to the door as you fiddle with the expresso machine. Dirk smacks you in the ass with a towel and leaves for the back of the store, saying something about inventory.
You roll your eyes and turn around to actually do your job as a barista. Your eyebrows quirk up at her sight. She is quite gorgeous. And apparently quite tired.
She is inspecting the pastry shelves, bright blue eyes scanning each individual muffin.
"Can I help you." You drawl.
Her eyes jump up to look at you and her jaw slacks slightly. She coughs and regains her composure.
"One large coffee to go, please."
"Anything else?"
The corners of her mouth tighten and she shakes her head loosely. By the way she was drooling over the donuts, you were sure she wanted one. You tilt your head to the side, holding back a sigh.
"We're having a promotion right now, buy one large coffee, get a pastry of your choice free."
Her eyes light up and you smile inside.
"Oh, well then, I guess I'll take a cupcake. May I…"
"Yeah, the counter opens-No the other way, yeah."
Dirk comes back with a smirk on his face but you don't notice.
You're too busy looking at her hips as she saunters away.
She comes back the very next morning, looking even more tired. Dirk leans against the counter. Anyone else would say he seemed inattentive, bored even, however, you knew him far too well. He was watching your every move.
She reaches the counter and smiles wearily.
"A large skinny latte please."
"Would you like an extra shot of espresso." You ask "It's only 20 cents more."
Her eyebrows rise up and her mouth opens, only to close again as she hears the price. She shakes her head, a defeated expression on her face.
You can see the dark marks under her eyes, the way she slouches over.
You throw in an extra shot of espresso, free of charge.
Your routine continues for a whole month. She walks in, asks for a caffeinated beverage. Sometimes you give her something for free (you didn't use your employee discount for yourself anyway) when she looks especially weary or discontent.
You make conversation, it's only natural. Sometimes she sits on the table by the counter for an hour, sometimes she has to rush out the door as soon as she has her coffee.
She's an office worker, she tells you, but her dream is to open a small bakery. She once entertained wild dreams of being a private investigator but decided to go on a route of work that wouldn't routinely involve the possibility of getting shot or other dangerous situations.
You tell her long tales of being the daughter of a famous writer, running away with your high school sweetheart, a girl by the name of Calliope, who tragically had to return to England because she couldn't be apart from her brother. You tell her about meeting Dirk and trying to start a rock band only to get conned by a fake agent. You tell her about how you crashed your bike and almost died and everything else that got you here.
Sometimes she believes you, sometimes she doesn't.
You get comfortable around her. You show her your programming on your tiny pink laptop, you talk about makeup (she scoffs at you for wearing so much but you don't care), you prod her to talk about boys but she just looks at you and shakes her head, she has no time for such nonsense.
One day she stops coming.
You sit with Dirk in the back room when you have just closed for the night.
"She's not coming back." You say, taking a swig of whiskey and stretching your legs awkwardly. You're sitting against the wall with your legs resting on boxes of coffee bean bags, Dirk is sitting on a refrigerator swinging his legs. He looks at you and shakes your head.
"Please Rox, she likes you. Plus it's not like you can't ever, never see her again."
You quirk a finely plucked brow and he smirks like the Cheshire cat. He's never this emotive around anyone else. Actually, you're not sure if it's just you picking up on the tiny things.
"Well, you know where she works."
Your jaw falls comically.
"Are you seriously advising me to stalk her."
"No, I'm telling you to go woo her. Woo her Roxy."
"Woo her."
"Woo her with the force of a thousand suns."
You laugh and jump up.
"What day and time is it?"
"Tuesday, 8:35 pm."
"She gets out of work at 9 pm on Tuesdays, I can do this Dirk."
"You go girl."
You rush to get out of the store and run until you get to her building. Just as you are about to leave, you turn around, make a hot cocoa and grab her favorite muffins.
It is now 8:45 and you rush out, the building is well within walking distance but you run there anyway.
Unfortunately, you didn't count on it being game night. The streets are flooded with cars and people, dressed in amusingly bright clothes and prideful team wear.
You mentally curse the NFL forever.
It's 8:55 when you finally cross Main Street. The building is still pretty far away. You give it your all, running as fast as your legs can go.
You can hear the big clock on the nearby plaza striking 9 when you're about halfway there and you scream at the night yet you don't stop running.
You skid to a halt in front of the shiny office building. There are people still leaving, it is 9:03, maybe you can still catch her. You plop down in a bench and wait elated.
She doesn't show. It is now 9:30, you drop your head between your legs and sigh.
It slowly dawns on you that you fell for this girl hard as fuck.
The hardest of falls.
There is a hesitant tap on your shoulder.
"Roxy? What are you doing here?"
It's a waterfall of relief flooding over you.
"I thought you left at 9."
"I got held up with paperwork. Roxy, what is even going on?" she asks, her mouth agape and her eyes wide. She's hugging herself and you realize it's actually cold as balls. You jump up and take off your coat, handing it to her. She stares at the coat, the same zany expression on her face.
"No seriously, what are you doing."
"I'm wooing you."
She looked up from the coat at you and back at the coat, her expression growing wider.
"Oh dear."
"I got you muffins and hot cocoa. Though it's kinda room temperature cocoa now."
She looks like she's about to run and you start to think coming here was a bad idea but then her neck is on your nose, and her arms are around your neck, your coat squished awkwardly between you.
She's essentially monologuing about how she really liked you but was afraid you'd turn her down and she couldn't go back to the coffee shop anymore because it hurt her too bad to see you every day.
Eventually you use your free arm to hug her back and rock her a little, promising her it will be okay, the muffin and cocoa forgotten on the bench. She calms down enough and she's all grins and light touches on you and you go back to the coffee shop. Dirk is gone, but there's a hot pot of mint tea and fresh lasagna on a table bathed by candlelight and you wonder if he saw you coming and jumped out the back window.
It was a very good night.
Though you made Jane promise she'd start believing your life stories more.