Anna was more awake for her second shift, though that's not saying much; anything was a step above walking dead. After her long shift the day before, she took an even longer nap. She awoke in a daze, a nap haze, and thought she'd missed her first day of class— forgetting it didn't start until next week. Waking up wasn't any easier. She bumbled to her car- then was caught off guard by the chirp of another car unlocking. Anna was surprised to see someone else in the parking lot, though they were too far away for her to make out any details. Still, another person awake right now? At this ungodly hour?

There's nothing good about 3:30 in the morning.

Perhaps it was the coffee she downed before she left or perhaps it was that she had about 16 hours of sleep under her belt, but by the time she made it to the store, she was nearly awake enough to "serve up smiles", as Kristoff lovingly deadpanned.

That was until her third, maybe fourth person had gone in the drive-through.

"Hey! Good morning," Anna changed her greeting under Kristoff's suggestion- he had the misguided hope that she could stop telling people to have a good night (it hadn't worked yet), "...and welcome to Sven's Den. What can I get for you today?"

A delayed answer came through. "I'm not entirely sure."

"Uh, well, what do you like?"

"... I'm, mm, not entirely sure."

Anna's face fell, annoyed.

"Can you recommend me something?"

Usually Anna would "recommend" that someone like this in the drive-through should suck it and leave. It took her a moment to come up with an actual reply.

"A recommendation? How much time do you have?" A joke.

"Honestly, I don't have to be anywhere soon." Not taken as a joke.

"Okay. There's, uh..." she was used to this. She had automatic responses set aside exactly for moments like this. Literal tons of ideas popped into her head that she couldn't quite iterate and instead, for whatever ridiculous reason, said "it would be a little easier if you came inside."

Anna of course hadn't meant to say it out loud and rushed out some damage control.

"I mean, okay, it might sound a little unorthodox, but would you like to come inside the building? Like, if you've got time, I've got time, I've also got hand gestures up the wazoo-"

A polite laugh into her headset signaled the end of her verbal hole-digging, "yes, I can do that."

Anna waited for the car to pull around before reaching for her headset. "Why did I say that? Wha-, I've never asked that before. I've literally never said that combination of words before, and I've literally, literally, never said the word wazoo."

Kristoff buzzed in, "yeah, I didn't stop you because you were on such a roll there."

Helpful.

"If it makes you feel better, when I first started opening, I'd had my fair share of disappointingly idiotic moments here. It was so hard to adjust to the time that I would flip drinks upside down in front of the customers before handing it to them, as if I still worked at that Snow Queen Ice Cream place." Anna laughed, he continued. "There's a guy who can't go in the drive through if I'm working because he thinks I'll wreck the outside of his car again. I think what you said is fine, she didn't seem to hate you, at least."

Anna had a sneaking suspicion that this was the same woman from yesterday, the same woman whose note was in her pocket. Though that thought left her when the woman walked in the door. As did all thoughts. She was very striking, yes, as all of Anna's gay years in her gay existence could attest to. No, what truly grabbed Anna's attention was the woman's demeanor; like she didn't know it was five in the morning. Like instead of 5 AM, it was 5 PM and she'd been up for hours. She didn't even look like she needed the caffeine. Anna was almost jealous of that, since her whole reality sadly revolved around the stuff.

Plus, she herself had actually been up for hours and still looked and felt like a rag-tag sack of dusty potatoes.

Kristoff was still rambling in the headset, going on about "making the moment right, etcetera". A car dinged through, "Kristoff, can you answer that", and Anna took the device off her head, onto the counter.

When Anna looked up, the woman was in front of her, hands clasping the purse strap on her shoulder.

"Hi," she said with a soft smile.

"Hi," Anna parroted, smile growing slowly before remembering her role and throwing on her Customer Service Voice, "So, what kind of flavors do you like—"

"Sorry for being a disaster to talk to. I don't do this kind of..." she motioned to the entirety of the bar and register, "...thing much."

"Oh, uh," Anna looked around; Kristoff was busy at the drive through window and wouldn't be able to hear. She leaned in really close and talked beside the back of her hand in a hushed, secretive tone.

"Honestly, there's so much stuff, I'm glad I work here and get paid to understand it, instead of being on that side of this counter," Anna tapped it with her free hand, "I swear, only like five things actually taste good."

The woman leaned in, curiosity sparkled in her eyes.

"What kind of things?"

"Well," Anna took on a confident air, "they're usually kept a secret by the head honchos buuut I know some stuff. For instance, something for someone who's kind of easing their way into coffee, I'm assuming," A lilt in her voice punctuated with raised eyebrows made it a question that the woman nodded along with. "I would suggest something sweet, something yummy, and something with a buttload of whipped cream. How does a white chocolate mocha sound to you?"

"I mean, it does have the word 'chocolate' in it." The woman cupped her chin, pretending to ponder, "yep, I'm sold."

"At least you aren't very picky." Anna typed the order into the register. "Are you sure you don't want a large iced white mocha, quad, long shot, half almond- half coconut milk, with extra extra whip... Shaken?"

"One day, with your help, I just might. Today I want to live." To that, Anna chuckled and sent the order through.

"This one's on me." She pointed. "You go sit, do whatcha gotta do. I'll have this out in a sec."

The woman looked surprised, perplexed. "Really?"

Anna's head bobbed. "Yep! You just have to promise to tell me if it sucks or not." A dismissive wave of her hand, "shoo, go sit," and she herself went to the espresso machine.


Anna set two drinks on the table that the woman so patiently waited at; one hot white chocolate mocha (temperature lessened for an easy taste test), and one large iced quad long shot white mocha, almond- and coconut-milk hybrid, somehow shaken, an ample pile of whipped cream— straight from the depths of hell.

It looked awful and overflowed thusly.

"Ready to try it?"

Their eyes playfully met.

"I'll drink it if you do."

They both smiled. Anna braved the drink first, subdued a reaction, no no it's good it's good, then offered it to the woman. She was justifiably cautious, eyes darting between Anna and the offending object. She didn't mind sharing the straw.

It was-

"Oh my god!"

"Terrible!"

"Truly awful, I can't believe you held it in that long."

It was really appalling, and they really, really enjoyed themselves. The woman took a sip of her (good) drink and hummed in satisfaction. She looked to Anna.

"Thank you so much for this... Kristoff?"

Anna briefly panicked, and the woman pointed to her name tag. "What? Oh! I uh, no no, this is my coworker's name tag. We swapped and we- I- I'm-" Anna thrust out a hand as a pause on her word vomit. "I'm Anna."

Their hands meet with a light grip.

"I'm Elsa."