Katniss Everdeen was not much of a coffee drinker, but sometimes she just needed a jolt of caffeine in the late afternoon to get her through her evening class. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she usually had to kill some time between her mandatory office hours and the evening class anyway, so she started walking over to the coffee shop just off campus. There was one on campus, of course, but the walk in the fresh air helped clear her head, and besides, the Tribute Street Coffee House was nicer and much quieter.
At first she tried drinking just plain black coffee, but even with an unhealthy number of sugar packets and enough cream to make it more like flavored milk than coffee, she just couldn't stomach the bitter taste, despite the fact that it was the cheapest thing on the menu. She ordered her first vanilla latte with trepidation, both at the frothy texture and the $3.45 she paid for the smallest size offered. After that she worked her way through all the lattes on the menu, from hazelnut to mocha and then back to vanilla again. Still, she never landed on a favorite.
Soon she found herself stopping in on Monday mornings, as well, just to ease into the workweek, she reasoned. Then sometimes on a Saturday she'd stop by and get herself a treat after running errands, as a sort of reward. The week she found herself in the coffee shop 6 out of the 7 days, she knew she had officially become an addict.
Spending all that time and money at the coffee house, Katniss naturally began to know the different baristas. Most were friendly, some more talkative than others, but as Katniss was not much of a talker, she kept mostly to herself. But still she paid attention to who made her drinks the way she liked-not too sweet, not too bitter and always with non-fat milk, but never with the sugar free syrup because that tasted totally fake.
Who knows how long she could have gone on happily sucking down 500 calorie lattes pumped full of sugar if he hadn't come along. It was a Tuesday evening and she had just finished her office hours as a teaching assistant at the University where she was finishing her doctorate in environmental science. The line was unusually long that night and she wouldn't have even noticed the new barista except that he was the root of the long line problem. It seemed that he insisted on learning the life story of every single person that stepped up to the counter. She huffed in annoyance and shifted her weight in her tall boots, frowning as she folded her arms across her chest and tried to decide between a salted caramel latte and a peppermint chocolate latte.
By the time it was her turn to order the scowl on her face was practically etched in stone and she glared at the counter where she placed her frequent customer card while mumbling that she wanted a small peppermint latte. "Peppermint, huh?" the new barista said in a friendly voice. She finally looked up and was immediately stunned silent by the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen. "uh..." she stuttered, while he stood there grinning at her. "That will be $3.67," he chirped, taking her 'Frequent Bean' card and swiping it before handing it back to her. "I'll have it right up! Can I get a name for your cup?" He was still smiling at her, holding the felt tipped marker poised near the paper cup, and it was almost irritating how happy he seemed to be doing his job.
"Katniss?," she finally responded, although it came out as more of a question. She gathered her wits about her and managed to step from her place in front of the cash register to the row of other people patiently waiting for their espressos near the coffee bar. The new, friendly barista switched places with the drink maker at that time and started on the next drink in the line of waiting paper cups.
Katniss took the time to study him more closely now. She didn't like to be caught off guard, and that is exactly what he had done to her, with his overly friendly banter and those startling blue eyes, that she now saw were offset by an abundance of golden curls, some of which hung carelessly over his forehead. It wasn't that he was the most attractive man she had ever laid eyes on; he was certainly good looking, almost too pretty, really. But as she watched him put together the specialty drinks behind the counter, chatting happily with other customers, she realized that what drew people in was that he seemed to personify happiness.
It wasn't until she was tossing her empty cup into a trash can halfway across campus that she saw he had drawn a smiley face under her name. She rolled her eyes but could not suppress the smile that turned her lips upward on their own accord.