There's a whole host of better ways James could be spending his Saturday morning, if he's being honest.
The most appealing of those options involves his very comfortable bed – more specifically, not leaving said bed until at least noon, because he is absolutely exhausted. He's spent at least 60 hours in the office in the past week, and the concept of lie-in was never quite so appealing as it was this morning.
But James is a man of his word and an excellent friend, so he's spending his Saturday morning at Padfoot & Prongs Coffee Co., helping Sirius hire baristas for his newly-constructed coffee shop.
This place – artfully decorated with cozy dark brown couches, marble tables, and abstract art prints – is Sirius' dream brought to life. He's been talking about starting a coffee shop since they were both in college, and after inheriting a sizable sum of money from his uncle, he's finally made that a reality.
So really, James would've had to be some sort of asshole to turn down Sirius' request for help interviewing help.
He pushes open the door to the coffee shop, the warm air of the café a marked contrast to the frigid winter wind.
"So I've got ten interviews all lined up this morning," Sirius says by way of greeting, jumping over the counter with the sort of grace that makes it clear he's done this move a number of times. "I'm obviously going to ask them to make some sort of coffee, but you're better with the actual interview questions, what with all your fancy leadership training and all that lark."
"Ten? How many baristas do you need?"James replies, shocked. That's a lot of coffee to try.
"You should've seen the number of applications I got," Sirius brushes him off. "Ten was actually a pretty conservative number."
James takes off his coat, throwing it on the back of one of the couches. "I'm going to be on a caffeine high for the next week."
"You don't have to actually drink the entire coffee in every interview," Sirius replies, as if that should've been obvious. "Just sample it and make a note of what you think about it. We all know you're a bit of a coffee snob anyways."
James shrugs. He can't deny that – it's part of the reason he's so pleased that Sirius decided to open his shop just down the street from his flat. He's guaranteed a place with decent coffee on his way to work every morning; he no longer has to suck it up and buy from one of the chain stores that seem to exist on every corner of New York City.
Sirius hands a file to James. "Anyways, here's the resumé for the first interview."
The neat handwriting on the folder tab makes it clear that Remus was the one who assembled these; Sirius is intensely hardworking, but organization has never been his strong suit.
James flips it open, his eyes immediately falling on the name, displayed across the top of the page in a bold serif font: Lily Evans.
Her resumé's far above anything he'd expect from a potential barista: she's in the middle of her MPP at Columbia, and graduated from Oxford with a degree in International Relations.
He doesn't get a chance to read much further though, because the door to the shop opens and in walks what has to be one of the most gorgeous women he's ever seen in his entire life.
Her dark red hair is windswept, her pale cheeks are flushed pink from the wind, and her eyes are full of light. Somehow, everything about her is absolutely mesmerizing.
"Hi!" she says brightly, looking between the two men. "I'm here for an interview?"
And she's got a British accent. Holy fuck, James is well and truly done for.
"You must be Lily," Sirius says, suddenly assuming the role of proper business owner. "I'm Sirius, the owner – it's a pleasure to meet you."
She shakes Sirius' hand, before turning to look at James. And his brain has definitely short-circuited, because he just kind of stares at her for a moment, and then down at her hand, which she's holding out to him.
"I - er, James," he finally manages. He shakes her hand for the briefest of moments before dropping it abruptly.
God, way to be articulate, James, he chastises himself.
"Pleasure," she says to both of them, although her eyes linger on James a bit longer. She's probably wondering if he's all there in the head - he's already made a complete idiot of himself in the first minute of meeting her.
Sirius is completely oblivious to James' sudden inability to function; or else, he's ignoring it. "Right, so first things first: it says on your resumé that you worked at a café while you were at Oxford, right?"
"I did."
"Well then, care to prove your skills?" Sirius grins. "All the supplies are behind the counter and the machine's already warmed up – before I hire you, I just want to make sure I can trust you to make good coffee and uphold the good name of Padfoot & Prongs even when I'm not around."
"Fair enough," Lily answers, as she shrugs off her winter coat and lays it on the back of a chair. "Mind if I ask what kind of ingredients you've got back there before I get started?"
"There's an inventory list on the counter."
When Lily turns her back to them to walk around to the other side of the counter, James looks at Sirius. "The inventory list was Remus' doing, I suppose?"
Sirius grins. "You know it. He pointed out that it'd be a bit unfair to chuck a barista back there with no idea what ingredients they're working with."
The espresso machine suddenly hums to life, and the smell of freshly ground coffee beans begins the fill the small café. James can't fight the contented smile that works its way onto his face as a result; there's something about the smell of coffee that feels like home to him.
A few minutes later, and Lily is placing two mugs on the table in front of James and Sirius. She's definitely got the aesthetic part of coffee-making down; there's art in the foam atop both their drinks.
But it's probably rubbish coffee, James finds himself thinking as he raises the cup to his lips. There's no way that this stunningly gorgeous and seemingly brilliant woman also makes good coffee. He's probably going to have to grimace through it and Sirius is going to have to politely tell her that they're hiring someone else instead and…
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
This is… quite possibly one of the best lattes James has ever had in his entire life.
He can't quite tell what the flavors Lily used in this are, but it's somehow spicy and tangy and sweet all at once, but not overwhelmingly so; James can still clearly taste the espresso underneath, smooth and full-bodied.
"Evans, what'd you put in this?" Sirius asks.
"It's an orange cardamom latte," she replies. "You never specified if you wanted something flavored or not, and this used to be my specialty."
"It's fantastic," James interjects. He can't help himself – he's just discovered that this stunning and apparently brilliant woman is also really fucking good at making coffee.
James may not believe in love at first sight, but he's beginning to think there may be some merit in love at first sip.
Lily sends a smile and a soft "thank you" in his direction as a response, and James hates the way his heart picks up pace a little when she looks at him.
"Now that we've proven that you've got the skills necessary for the position, James here is going to handle the actual interview portion," Sirius says, still sipping at his drink. "Have a seat."
Lily sits down in the chair opposite the two of them, folding her hands in her lap and looking at James expectantly. Up close, James realizes that her eyes are a stunning green, accessorized by the smattering of freckles along the tops of her cheekbones.
Shit. He's supposed to be interviewing her, not staring at her. That's what he's been brought in here for, after all.
James clears his throat, and somehow the action serves to snap him out of this weird fog that Lily has put him in. He's here as an interviewer – he's done this a million times when he was president of NYU's law review – and dammit, he's going to do this job well.
"So, Lily, what brings you to apply for a position at Padfoot and Prongs?"
"Well, as we've previously established, I was a barista for two years at university," Lily says, coming to life again. "I loved it – the busy environment, the care and attention to detail it takes to make a good cup of coffee, getting to know the regular customers, all of it. And I love how close this place is to where I go to school, and I love that it's locally owned and operated."
Sirius starts scribbling on his notepad, although James isn't necessarily sure he's actually writing anything all that important.
"We certainly like that it's locally owned and operated too," James jokes. "Now, can you tell us about a time where you faced a stressful situation and how you handled it?"
Lily laughs, a full-bodied sound that sends zips of electricity through James' veins. "Oh wow, can I ever."
She launches into a story about a particularly picky customer at her last job, and James is almost positive that he's going to be seeing a lot more of Lily Evans in the future.
After all ten interviews are finished and James is well and truly over-caffeinated – he may or may not have failed to take Sirius' advice and only take samples of the drinks each interviewee made – he and Sirius spread all 10 file folders out on the counter.
"So, thoughts?" Sirius asks.
"If we're going on coffee quality, I'm going with these three," James says, moving the files for 'McDonald, Mary,' 'Fenwick, Benjamin' and 'Evans, Lily' to one side of the table. "And if we're going on interview responses, I think these are your top two."
"And if we're going on which one you most want to fuck, we're going with this one," Sirius says, picking up Lily's folder and waving it.
"Shut it," James responds, shoving Sirius by the shoulder. "I made my decisions objectively; you can't deny that she's definitely the best candidate we interviewed."
Sirius grins impishly. "Oh, I know. I would've hired her anyway; I just wanted to get you to admit that you basically stopped functioning for a good ten minutes or so after Evans walked into the shop."
"Did not," James mutters in response, although he knows it's kind of pointless. He did kind of short-circuit for a little bit there.
"Well, let's hope you get over that reaction to her presence soon," Sirius replies. "Because she's going to be around quite a bit."
And so Lily Evans becomes one of the newest baristas at Padfoot and Prongs, and works the opening shift every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Not that James has it memorized or anything. He definitely didn't peek at Sirius' schedules last time he went over to his place.
He would've frequented the coffee shop most mornings anyway, he tells himself. It's important that he supports Sirius' new business, and it's only an added perk that he gets to chat up the lovely barista on some of those days.
The first day, when he comes in fully dressed in a suit and tie, she's a bit confused.
"What are you all dressed up for?" she asks when he walks up to the counter.
"Work," he answers. "Turns out law firms have surprisingly formal dress codes."
She crinkles her eyebrows at that. "You work at a law firm and run a coffee shop?"
James realizes that, in his moment of panic when they first met, he'd never actually explained that he didn't actually work there.
"Oh, no. I was only helping Sirius interview – I'm not at all associated with this place other than being friends with the guy who owns it."
"Oh, God bless," she mutters as she writes his name on a paper cup. She stops writing abruptly, her head snapping up to look at him with wide eyes, like she can't believe she just said that out loud.
I mean, it's fair enough for her to react like that – she probably thinks he'd be an incredibly incompetent boss, given the shit first impression he made.
James laughs awkwardly, attempting to pretend like he didn't hear her. "Right, so can I get one of those specialty drinks of yours? You know, since Sirius actually decided to add it to the menu and all."
Lily jots the order down on the cup next to his name and sets it on the counter. When she looks back up at him, James realizes that her cheeks are still tinged pink with embarrassment.
"So, since you don't own this place, I take it I'm supposed to charge you for the coffee?" she says, taking James' bait and also acting like she hadn't said anything.
"Yeah," James replies, reaching into his jacket to grab his wallet. "Best friend privilege only gets you so far, it seems, and Sirius has made it very clear that it doesn't apply to free drinks all the time."
That's a bit of a lie – Sirius had told James he could get everything half off – but James figures he might as well support his friend if he's got a little extra cash to blow.
"Well then, your total is $4.55," she reports, and James hands her his card.
A few minutes later, she's handing him a paper cup with the Padfoot & Prongs logo on the sleeve.
He thanks her and goes on his way, thanking his lucky stars that he managed to not completely botch this interaction again.
(He spills a little coffee on himself on the elevator to his office, but at least Lily wasn't around for that.)
James is pretty much a regular after that.
On days when it's not too busy, he'll hang around and chat for a little bit while he drinks his coffee, asking her questions about grad school and her opinions on current events (she is fervently opposed to Brexit and loathes the current U.S. president, as he quickly discovers, and has informed and passionate opinions on just about everything).
"So, I've never asked," she says one day, leaning against the counter as she talks to him, "what type of law do you practice, anyways? You always come in and out in those fancy suits, but I have no clue what you actually do."
"Oh," he replies, unconsciously reaching up to mess with his hair, "my firm does a whole host of things, but right now we're mostly focused on immigration-related things."
"Shit, you must have your hands full right about now then."
James laughs. "Yeah, you could say that."
"I ought to start adding an extra shot to your drinks," she grins.
He returns her grin with a smirk of his own. "I wouldn't say no to that."
James' next major dilemma comes on a random Saturday, as he's scrolling through his Instagram feed.
He's actually a bit blindsided by it – by the appearance of the barista he's been talking to three times a week on his timeline – but there she is.
It's a post on the padfootandprongscoffee Instagram account – a boomerang of her pouring the last bit of foam atop a flat white, then looking up at the camera with a bright smile at the very end.
James has double-tapped the picture before he's even read the caption. When he reads the caption, he discovers that Lily's been tagged in the picture on her personal account.
He clicks the link – lily_evans – before he even really thinks about it. Her feed is exactly what he'd expect, a carefully curated collection of aesthetically pleasing spots in New York, famous feminist quotes, the occasional coffee cup, and, rarely, a picture of her.
His favorite is one where she looks to be in the middle of spinning – a blur of auburn hair and a flared skirt and that same smile that seems to light up a room.
After he scrolls through a few months' worth of her pictures, being incredibly careful to not accidentally like any of them, he finds himself at the top of the page again, finger lingering over that blue 'Follow' button.
Would that be creepy? Do people just follow their baristas on Instagram? James likes to think that they're pretty friendly, but what if she's just like that with all her customers? Would this make things awkward next time he goes in for coffee?
He's saved from this dilemma, however, by the notification that pops up on the top of his screen: 'Lily Evans ( lily_evans) started following you.'
James releases a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. If she's followed him first, that makes his quandary that much simpler; he taps the blue button to reciprocate the gesture.
He and Lily are now mutuals on Instagram, and he feels like a dumb teenage boy again for being as excited as he is about that.
James doesn't just go to the coffee shop when Lily's working – he visits Sirius all the time as well. He's usually got cases and legal briefs to pore over on the weekends, so his Saturday mornings are often spent at one of the tables there, with all sorts of papers spread out around him and an extra-strong americano.
It's one such Saturday, and James is a bit shocked when he opens the door to the shop and realizes that the barista behind the counter has red hair instead of black.
"Where's Sirius?" he blurts out as soon as he gets to the register, in lieu of a proper greeting.
"He's doing financial stuff in the back today, so he asked me to come in and work the counter," she replies. "Sorry to disappoint if you were coming in to see him – I can go grab him if you'd like."
James is very much the opposite of disappointed by this turn of events, if he's being honest.
"Not disappointed at all, actually. Sirius can't make that orange cardamom drink like you can, and I could use something on the sweeter side to get through all of this." He holds up a binder full of papers as evidence.
Lily looks up at him again. "No one can do it quite like I can," she says, and James is definitely imagining it, but he swears there's a flirtatious undertone to that.
"No one could even try," he answers, his mouth suddenly feeling a little dry.
She plugs in the order without him even having to say anything, takes his card, and is half a second from tapping it when Sirius walks out of the back room.
"James!"
"Sirius!" James returns. "What's up?"
He can't decide whether he's grateful for Sirius' interruption of that awkward yet flirty moment, or annoyed by it.
"Not much, just working on shitty tax stuff," comes Sirius' answer. "Oh, Evans, don't forget to take the 50% off before you tap his card."
A confused look flutters across Lily's features, and James suddenly feels incredibly uncomfortable for being caught in a lie. But for some reason, Lily doesn't say anything about it, and just takes off half the total price before tapping his card against the contactless reader.
It's not until Sirius disappears to the back of the shop again that Lily looks up at James, eyebrows raised. "I thought you said Sirius didn't do discounts for you?"
James finds himself running a hand through his hair nervously. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to get you in trouble – although Sirius adores you so I doubt you're actually in trouble – but I just… he worked so hard on this place, and I feel weird getting stuff for a discount, you know? I'd rather just actually pay full price if I can afford it – I would've bought full-priced coffee somewhere else, anyways."
Lily studies him for a moment. "That's… really sweet of you."
He feels heat rush to his cheeks, his hand frozen at the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess."
"It is," she repeats again, before turning her back to him to prepare his drink.
Part of James wants to linger at the counter and talk with her while she makes his drink, but he goes and finds a seat at one of the larger tables instead. He's only just spread the papers out in an order that makes sense to him when Lily appears and places a large mug on the one spot of the wooden table not obscured by paper.
He looks up at her, slightly startled. "I could've come and gotten that myself, you know. You didn't have to bring it all the way over."
Lily looks back at the bar. "It wasn't a problem. It's not like I'm exactly busy, right now, anyways." She looks back at him and his piles of paper. "You, on the other hand, look like you've got your hands full."
James just shrugs. "This is what McGonagall and Dumbledore pay me the big bucks for."
She fixes him with a skeptical look. "You work for a public interest law firm."
"Okay," he revises, "this is what they pay me the decent-enough-to-cover-the-cost-of-living bucks for."
She laughs at that – god, he loves that sound. "Well, I suppose I'll leave you to it – just holler if you need anything else, yeah?"
"Will do," he replies.
She turns to walk back to the counter, and James swears she's swinging her hips just a little bit more than normal. And then he realizes how inappropriate it is that he's basically watching her ass as she walks away, and quickly averts his attention to the work ahead of him.
The coffee is just as good as it always is. Better, even – and James is partially convinced that Lily tried something different with this particular cup. Whatever it is, it tastes amazing – and he didn't even know this drink was something that could be improved upon.
He ends up staying there and working for a long time; so long, in fact, that Remus ends up bringing dinner for him as well as Sirius and Lily.
It's only when the shop is about to close and James realizes that he's the only person left that he starts to pack up his things.
Lily's sitting on the counter when he gets up, scrolling through her phone. She looks justifiably bored – he's pretty sure she's already finished closing up, and is only waiting for the official end of her shift.
"Did you do something different with my drink today?"
She looks up from her phone, a small smile spreading across her features. "I threw a little chocolate in there – it's just a touch sweeter, and I figured you needed that with the amount of work you brought with you. At my last job, we always called that one the naughty version."
She's definitely smirking at him by the end of that last sentence.
"Well, I have to say, I think I might like the naughty version even better," he replies, playing along with her game.
"Everyone does." She pauses for a moment, as if contemplating something, before continuing. "You know, you look damn good in a suit and tie, but I really think this whole flannel-and-Converse hipster vibe suits you even better."
Okay, she's definitely flirting with him. James can't be imagining this anymore, can he?
He wishes there was something stronger than caffeine in his veins right now to make him stop overthinking this whole thing so much.
But he's still got some of his normal boldness – even though something about Lily keeps managing to turn him into the most awkward human there ever was – so he sits on the counter as well, turning to face her.
"I'll have to petition McGonagall for a change in the dress code then," he replies, sounding way smoother out loud than he feels in his head. Finally, the disconnect between his brain and his mouth is doing him some good.
Lily hums. "I suppose that's one solution."
"It sounds like you have another idea in mind."
Somehow, he and Lily have gradually shifted closer – from this perspective, James can trace the constellations in the freckles on her cheeks and all but drown in the gravitational pull of her eyes.
"I was thinking more along the lines of seeing you more outside of just your morning coffee runs."
James swallows, and resists the urge to mess with his hair – his default nervous habit. "Are you asking me out?"
He's half-joking, but every bone in his body is hoping that the answer is yes.
"Well, I was more so trying to hint that you should do that, but I suppose I can do it if that's what it comes to," she quips back.
Oh shit. She actually does like him.
That fact – and the look in her eyes – is what gives him the confidence to say what he does next. "Lily Evans, can I take you out to dinner sometime?"
She smiles at him, and James' heart swells because he knows that he's the reason for that smile. "Not a coffee date?"
"I figure we see enough of each other at coffee shops as is."
"Fair enough," she replies, putting her hand on top of his.
"You didn't answer the question, you know," he says, a smirk finding its way onto his face. Now that he knows she feels the same way about him as he does about her, he's suddenly a lot more confident.
"I asked you to ask me out – I feel like that should qualify as sufficient proof that my answer is yes."
"Well then," he answers, "I'll need your number to set this whole thing up. You know, get my people in touch with your people about a time and a place."
She raises an eyebrow at him. "Your people?"
"Oh yes," he replies dramatically. "The life of a public interest lawyer is incredibly glamorous, didn't you know? I've obviously got people."
"Well, my only 'people' are Sirius and Benjy, really, and I don't suppose you want your 'people' texting your best mate to set up a date with his barista." She hands him her phone anyways.
James shrugs, unable to fight the grin on his face, as he plugs his number into her phone. "He did set up your interview here though, so in all honesty, he's got a pretty solid track record."
He sends himself a smiley face emoji, so that he'll be able to save her number later, before handing her phone back to her.
"You know," she says, looking up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "I was very concerned when I first interviewed for this job that you were going to be one of my bosses, and I was having all sorts of thoughts about you that weren't professional in the slightest."
Of all the things James might've been expecting her to say, that definitely wasn't on the list.
But she's looking up at him through long lashes and her face is only a few inches from his, and the resulting combination of all of that drives James do something just a little bit reckless: he kisses her.
She tastes like her signature drink – spicy, sweet, and a little bit perfect.
When he pulls back, he breaks into a grin so bright he couldn't fight it if he tried. "I've thought about doing that since the moment you walked in that door."
Lily looks stunned at that fact – perhaps James wasn't as obvious about his feelings as he'd thought. "You know, for someone who's fancied me for that long, you've done a shit job of showing it," she says. "I never would've known if Sirius hadn't pulled me aside during my break and basically told me you fancied the pants off me."
James shoots a glare in the direction of the door leading to the back of the shop. "That fucker."
Lily laughs, before reaching up to straighten James' slightly-crooked glasses. "I mean, we never would've gotten to this without his interference… because you certainly weren't going to make the first move."
James gets a bit flustered at that, a faint pink coloring his cheeks. "I didn't want to be one of those creeps who hits on an employee when they're not allowed to walk away!"
"And you're a much better man than most for that," Lily replies, her hand lingering on the side of his face. "But really, you ought to thank Sirius instead of hurting him – you've been about as obvious as this countertop about your feelings."
"And here I thought I was too obvious," James says, chuckling. "I guess I own him one, then."
She thinks on that for a moment. "I think with all the full-priced coffees, you're probably about even now."
James shrugs and goes to answer, but his train of thought is entirely derailed because Lily's kissing him again, and somehow, it's even better than the first one.
Her hand fists in his hair, pulling him closer, and one of his hands finds its way to her cheek, the other settling on her thigh.
James is beginning to think this is something out of his fantasies. I mean, honestly, who even needs caffeine when you've got Lily Evans' kisses to flood your senses?
"Oi, James, stop feeling up my star barista."
James instantly pulls away, still breathing hard, to look over at Sirius, who's standing and watching them with a knowing grin.
"Shouldn't you be getting onto your employee for flirting with a customer, not the other way around?" he retorts.
Sirius shrugs. "Well, someone had to do it, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be you, with your whole awkward pining thing."
James suddenly wishes he had a way to smack Sirius upside the head from the other side of the room. But Sirius' comment makes Lily snicker and look at him fondly, so he supposes it's not that bad after all.
"I'm heading out now, so Lily, you're good to lock up whenever," Sirius adds. "Just do me a favor and don't fuck on the coffee bar – I'd like this place to at least maintain a semblance of civility."
James feels himself flush for what has to be the millionth time tonight, while Lily bursts into peals of laughter.
"This place lost civility the moment you tried writing deer puns on all the paper cups," she replies. "But fine, we'll behave ourselves."
Sirius is halfway out the door before turning around and addressing them again. "Goodnight, then, you two romantically-incompetent weirdos."
James lets out a cry of protest, while Lily calls out, "Oi, that's just James!"
He briefly considers arguing with her over that, before accepting that she is actually kind of right. They've already established that fact at least once tonight.
So instead, he settles for an offer. "What do you say to going and getting a drink of the non-caffeinated variety?"
Lily looks back to him, smiling. "I say yes, please."
James continues to visit Padfoot & Prongs Coffee Co. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – sometimes, he even gets there right when it opens, on account of accompanying the pretty barista who works there on her walk from his flat to the shop.
He still gets the same drink, but now, it's almost always accompanied by a kiss – and it makes his already-sweet morning coffee that much sweeter.