Sunday, 3/1/15:

Anna was a popular enough barista to get shifts throughout the week, but her favourite days were Sundays. She liked having the time to connect with people or do a little something special for them. For instance, she had written the customer's name on the cup with a little flourish instead of the usual Monday-to-Saturday scrawl.

"Elsa. That's a pretty name."

"Thank you…" She read the name on the barista's tag. "…Anna."

"It's ah-na," she said, half under her breath, looking at the change on the counter.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. It's ah-na. Not ann-na." She smiled sheepishly, shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"It does matter, Anna. It sounds…it's a pretty name, too." Her blue eyes connected with Anna's blue-green ones. There was an intimate, awkward pause, then Elsa turned and left, her change still on the counter. Anna scooped it up and was about to dump it in the tip jar, then set it aside, under the counter. In case Elsa came back. For her change.

Sunday, 3/8/15:

She'd seen Elsa every shift that week, but was always too busy to share more than a warm "Hi!" and a nod of recognition. At least, she hoped it was recognition. Now it was Sunday again, the weather outside was cool but sunny, and everything felt…lighter.

"Hello, Anna." Elsa said her name with – not emphasis, more like attention. Like it was special.

"Hi! Elsa, right? Well, duh, of course." She held up the cup with Elsa's name on it, written in script and underlined with a swoop. She saw Elsa pull out a hand-crafted cloth wallet, woven with a vivid rainbow pattern. "Hey, that's a really pretty wallet. Did you get that at the world music festival? A couple years ago? Wow, I can't believe I remembered that." She shrugged. "My brain," she said, grinning, and pointed at her head.

Elsa looked thoughtful. "You're right. It was a couple of years ago. I went with someone." She closed the wallet, slid it into her back pocket. "She and I aren't together anymore."

Anna's face fell. "Oh, no. Oh, God. I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I'm so sorry." He hand flopped vaguely, trying to wave away the embarrassment.

Elsa put her hand on Anna's and stilled it. "It's all right, Anna. Like you said, it was a couple of years ago." She sighed, then held up her cup, warming her hands around it. "Anyway, thanks for the coffee. Bye." She nodded and left.
After Elsa left, Anna could finally move and speak. "Uh, you're welcome," she said to the memory of Elsa. "Any time." For the rest of the day she remembered the softness of Elsa's hand on hers, and wondered if together meant together or together-together.

Sunday, 3/15/15:

Anna was crouched down, straightening the supplies under the counter. When she stood up, she was startled to see Elsa was already standing in front of her.

"Oh, hi! Wow! You look pretty."

In place of her usual zip-up hoodie and jeans, Elsa was wearing a pale blue jacket over a silk t-shirt and slacks. She beamed at the compliment. "Thank you. So do you."

I do not, thought Anna as she wiped stray hair off her forehead with the back of her wrist. "Oh. 'Pretty.' Damn."

Elsa's brow furrowed. She leaned in, her voice lowered. "What is it?"

"Nothing. It's just the first time you came in, I said your name was pretty. Last week I said your wallet was pretty. Today, 'pretty' again."

"I don't think using the same word once a week is that bad."

"You look, um, some other word that means 'pretty', but different."

Elsa smiled again, looking Anna up and down and resting on her face. "Cute? Adorable? Charming? Sweet?"

Anna wrote Elsa's name on her cup, her tongue peeking out in concentration, using that as an excuse to look away. "Yeah. Sure. All of those, I guess." She filled it and slid it towards Elsa.

"Thank you," said Elsa. She picked up the coffee. "So do you." She nodded and left.

So do I? Was she saying it back, or did she mean it? What did she mean? Anna was so preoccupied re-running all the things they'd said that it took fifteen minutes to realize that she'd forgotten to charge Elsa for the coffee, and Elsa had forgotten to pay.

Sunday, 3/22/15:

Anna pretended she hadn't been waiting all day for Elsa to show up. "Hi. Elsa, right? Welcome back." She casually waved a hand in greeting.

"Hello, Anna." Elsa said the name like she was tasting it.

"The usual?" Elsa nodded. As Anna worked, she talked. "I work all different shifts, but I see you in here all the time. What sort of job do you have with those kinds of hours?"

Elsa looked away for a second, then back again. "Oh, it's no big deal. I do digital art and layout. Corporate newsletters by day, e-book covers by night. I just need to get out and clear my head now and then." She waved vaguely at the interior of the coffee shop.

"E-book covers?"

Elsa leaned her hip against the counter and told Anna about some of the stranger self-published books she'd done covers for, particularly the e-romances. Anna stood entranced, laughing and gazing into those beautiful blue eyes. She caught herself and looked away. "What would you say the weirdest one was?"

"I don't know about weird. Probably the toughest was a Scottish werewolf in space. Space werewolf is hard enough. But how do you make him Scottish?"

Anna giggled. "Tartan space suit?"

"Electronic sporran." She raised an eyebrow. "And nothing else." Elsa hid her giggles behind her hand. As Anna blushed, Elsa asked, "Do you do anything artistic? Besides calligraphy?" She pointed to her own name on the paper cup.

"I do a little sketching, but I'm no good at anything digital."

"I'm sure you could pick it right up if you had the right person to teach you."

Is she offering? She's offering. No, she's not offering. Is she offering? While Anna was trying to process, she blurted, "Oh God, I've just kept you here talking and talking."

"Yeah, I'd better drink my coffee while it's still hot. Thanks, bye." She smiled, made a small, awkward wave, and left.

Anna literally kicked herself behind the counter. Damn it! Why did I have to say that? She must think I was chasing her off. Damn.

Sunday, 3/29/15:

It was uncharacteristically busy that day because of a Sunday concert at a nearby church, so when Anna saw Elsa approach the counter, she barely had time to write Elsa's name on the cup with her usual care. She handed Elsa her order, said "Hi," and moved on to the next customer. She was afraid, especially after last week, that Elsa would think she was being standoffish. She hoped that Elsa understood.

Anna didn't usually resent her customers, but she felt frustrated at the crowd. It's probably all in my head, anyway. She's just a bored, friendly customer. I'm blowing this way up. Again. Later that morning, a customer stepped aside to reveal the next person in line.

It was Elsa. Instead of taking her coffee to go, she had stayed and finished it there. She handed her empty cup to Anna, said "Could you take this, please?" and left.

Anna was about to toss it into the trash. She turned it to look at Elsa's name one more time.

Underneath the name was a phone number.

Tuesday, 3/31/15:

When Elsa answered the door to her apartment, Anna was standing there holding that cup with the phone number and grinning awkwardly. Anna was afraid it'd look silly. But Elsa just smiled and put it with the two dozen other cups, all rinsed and dried, all with Elsa's name in Anna's handwriting.