1 S'mores and Cookies&Cream
EspressoIV posted:
It's August! That means we've changed the menu again! S'mores and Cookies & Cream stuff. Stop by #CoffeeandSadness. #coffee #advertising #EvanstonIL #smallbusiness #givememyURL #givememybusinessnametoo
Ulquiorra posted this message on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr on August 1st. By the end of August, on the 29th at ten am, the coffee shop was packed and there was a line starting out the door. "C'mon! Let's do this, people. We've got thirsty people waiting for things," the green-eyed, black haired man said as he moved behind the drink counter to get to the register.
There were six people working today, including himself. They shouldn't be this behind.
"Yeah, can I, uh, get, uh..." The blonde customer looked up at the menu board and squinted. Her train of thought seemed to derail, or maybe her brain just stopped working.
Ulquiorra blinked, then sighed. "Hey, can you speed up your order a bit, or stand to the side to let someone who knows what they want order?"
There was a dirty glance. "Do you know who I am? I should speak to your manager!"
His face remained a passive expression. His manager? Ha. "What do you want?"
"Uh… An iced latte with a shot of vanilla and oatmilk. Extra ice and a sweetner."
His pale fingers tapped the screen to input the order and then said as the sticker printed out. "That will be five dollars. Name?"
"God this place is expensive but if it wasn't good I wouldn't come here because the customer service sucks," the woman said.
"That's nice. Name?"
"Kim."
Ulquiorra took the credit card and swiped it. Kim was written on the cup. He passed it to an underling who started making the order. "Next!"
On and on it went until around one o'clock when one of his favorite ladies walked in. "Opal! Black coffee with one sweetener. Two dollars." It was the only time he showed inflection in his voice. Opal Walker was an old lady who reminded him of his mother's mother before she passed. She had a cane and a sharp tongue. She had whacked Ulquiorra with the cane a couple of times. She handed over those two dollars and Ulquiorra gave her a smirk before he handed over the drink. The woman was like clockwork. Everyday at one she'd walk in.
Usually after his afternoon break in would trickle high schoolers with some cash to burn and college students. There would be the office zombies or the gofers who needed fresh refills for their bosses. When he sat down and sipped on his cup, the owner of Coffee & Sadness sighed. Rangiku and Izuru should be here soon to pitch in. His eyes scanned the shop floor before his eyes landed on a certain person who always came in.
She was quiet. She never ordered the same thing. Ulquiorra didn't particularly like this woman, but she was okay. She never gave him complicated orders like that redhead who would barge into the place and give him a laundry list of cups to make.
He couldn't remember the first one's name exactly, but he knew he had slept with her when he was in college. It had been before the incident. Oh well. She probably didn't remember him, and that was a good thing.
Ulquiorra Cifer didn't want people to notice him. He didn't want to be remembered or anything. Being remembered for something meant his demons came to light or that people would find out his big secret.
As soon as the clock hit 2:15, he was back behind the counter making drinks and taking orders. Today was just a normal day.
"Hey, Noob, go around and grab everybody's order and then run it across the street, will ya? We've got a conference room full of people and some important clients, so make sure you smile pretty for them and don't fuck up their coffee. Here's the office credit card," a no-nonsense woman with a somewhat sloppy up-do and glasses said. Orihime Inoue had been working for Rotten Brand Management for almost three months as an intern; she started between her junior and senior years as an art student at Northwestern. She was supposed to be learning about the world of commercial illustration and graphic arts, but so far she was mostly learning how to order coffee, dodge unwanted sexual advances, and figure out how to make it look like she hadn't just gotten fucked in the supply room.
She closed her eyes and breathed. He was in that conference room. Usually he was fine, but sometimes he would give her lewd comments under his breath or just be a dick to her. Still other times he was rather friendly and would talk to her like an actual human being instead of a peon like everyone else here.
Right. She had a job to do. Into the conference room she went. "Can I get you some coffee? There is an excellent place across the street and they do everything. I'll start on this side," she said, purposely choosing the person as far away from Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez as she could.
Of course these people took their time and made a show about the ridiculous orders they wanted. There is no such thing as a latte without coffee. That is just scalded milk, Susan. Own it. You're an adult who wants warm milk at a business meeting.
Orihime was good at keeping her opinions to herself. The tiny eyerolls and other expressions of judgment were not easy to pick up, and flew under most people's radars. It made her good in this position. Not that she wanted to stay here.
"And for you, Mr. Jaegerjaquez?" she said when she finally got to his end of the conference table.
"You going to the place across the street?" Grimmjow asked, smirking at her and then returning his gaze to the folder in front of him. "Coffee, black, with a shot of bourbon flavor, and put a shot of espresso in it. Tell the dick behind the counter to put it in a large cup."
"Large cup. You got it," she said, straightening up and writing it down. She flipped her long red hair that had fallen forward back behind her shoulders and turned big brown eyes back to the group. "I didn't miss anyone, did I?"
Heads shook. She was dismissed.
"Alright I'll be right ba-" before she finished speaking they had started talking amongst themselves.
Whatever. She grabbed her purse and the company card and took the list across the street to Coffee & Sadness. She had long since stopped chuckling to herself about the name; it just so happened to be the same name as the blog she ran. One she had run since she was a junior in high school and won an award for her illustration by the same name. At one point in time she got a series of emails from someone who wanted to buy the URL from her, but she was attached to it. She wasn't giving it up.
As she walked across the windy street, her skirt fluttered around her thighs and her blouse blew tight around her body. She saw her reflection as she walked up to the black glass facade of the coffee shop and pursed her lips. It didn't matter how she dressed herself. She didn't have the money for expensive clothes and her body was what it was. She always felt like she looked just a little trashy.
Probably because she was trash, but that wasn't the point.
The door was hard to pull open because of the breeze, and she had to really yank at it before she was able to go in. Her hair blew out behind her as she did, showing how the naturally dark red strands under the blond highlights she had done awhile back were growing out on her. Another thing she thought made her look cheap.
Ah. There it was. The glance. The glance and the silent sigh. They all knew what was coming when she walked in alone and dressed in a skirt. She got into line and waited behind a pair of young woman taking their time to order. When they left, she gave the man behind the counter a very practiced apologetic face.
"Hi, sorry again. Another conference order," she murmured.
Ulquiorra pressed his lips together and shook his head. "List this time, or are you going to tell me each order?" he asked as his underlings got some drink carriers ready. They all recognized this woman. She had been here almost everyday to get coffee, and massive amounts of it.
"Um, I tried writing neatly this time, so you can have the list. I'll wait here in case you can't read it, sorry," she said, handing him the list that was done on Rotten Brand Management stationary and looking off to the side after he took it, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone else.
These were ridiculous. He scoffed as he punched in each order. "Does this say a shot of lemon in the tea or did they want a lemon slice?"
"A shot of lemon," she answered him with a small smile, then under her breath muttered, "Not like Karen needs to be any more sour than she already is."
Ulquiorra nodded and then continued until he got to the latte with no coffee and raw sugar. He had to rub his eyes to dispel the headache that was trying to creep in. "Can you inform… Susan… of course it's Susan and Karen who want-she wants milk. That's all she has to order is scalded milk."
"You would think she would understand this after hearing it fourteen thousand times, but apparently we're all wrong. Susan knows. Susan and Karen have some kind of Facebook knitting circle and false knowledge consortium that told them so," she muttered, still looking off to the side, but slowly looking back at the man.
He was looking her dead in the eye. Had she said that out loud? She had. Shit. She cringed and her face turned red. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" She should just stop now.
Ulquiorra would have busted out laughing, if laughing was something he did. He had noticed this same woman in his shop before. She was the infamous redhead who gave him a headache, but she was also the mousy wallflower who let people take over and walk all over her. He heard her make these kinds of comments before. It was humorous. "Well of course they know everything," he said in his monotone voice. "They're on Facebook. Grimmjow… Large cup. Anything for you?"
"Oh, me? I'm not on the coffee perks payroll. I'll take a black coffee with some skim milk but put it separate. I have cash."
"We only have two percent," Ulquiorra said as he rang up the sixteen orders. "Ninety-six dollars for the coffee. Ethan! Can you help carry the coffee over to RBM?"
"Sure!" came a voice from behind him.
"Two dollars for you," Ulquiorra stated, looking at her.
Orihime smiled nervously and pulled her wallet out of her purse, opening it and simultaneously dumping a handful of change on the counter. "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry," she panicked, trying to stop the coins from rolling all over the place, and ending up throwing herself halfway over the counter to catch a quarter. "Sorry," she said again as she corralled it all and finally just dumped it into the tip jar. She got two bills out of her wallet and couldn't even look at the man as she handed them over.
He sighed as he watched several pennies fall on his side of the counter. He blinked slowly, then sighed again. Every week it was something. Last week an unused tampon flew out of her purse and hit him in the chest. This week it was errant change. Ulquiorra scanned the card and then handed it back before ringing up this woman's order and taking the money.
Ulquiorra made her order personally. He filled up a medium cup with coffee before measuring out an eighth of a cup of milk and then filling the cup with some water. He didn't cater to a lot of people. It was enough he carried three milk alternatives. He wasn't carrying three different kinds of milk when he felt that skim milk was just watered down milk. He fit the lid on the top of the black paper cup, put the paper sleeve on and then handed it to her before helping to make the rest of the orders.
Ten minutes later, they were done.
"Ethan, Finn, Jake; help this woman."
"Thanks," she said, almost bowing her head as she got her cup and made her way to the door, holding it open for the three guys bringing the coffee to pass through first. She felt particularly guilty this time, and looked back at the counter, nodding to the green-eyed man behind it with a small smile. Then she was gone.
Ulquiorra sighed with relief as he saw the two blond people walk into the shop. Rangiku Matsumoto and Izuru Kira were knowledgeable about coffee and music, that's the only reason he kept them around. He sighed in relief again as his three workers came back into the building. "Come on, we have tables to clear and a lobby to wipe down," he said as he straightened his tie and vest. He was the only one who wore the vest, everyone else was required to wear the white shirt, teal tie and black dress pants with black shoes.
"So has it been one of those days?" Izuru asked as he tied on a black apron. Rangiku was busy putting her hair up in a bun before she walked behind the counter and washed her hands. "You seem overly tired today, Ulq."
"The coffee girl came in today. That makes twice today that RBM needed coffee. Today it was change," Ulquiorra muttered. It was true though. He was tired today. Probably from the lack of sleep. He never slept much.
"Better than lady products," Rangiku chirped with a laugh. She had been there when the tampon incident happened.
Ulquiorra scowled at her and then frowned. "Honestly, her coffee orders are horrible. The people over in that business must be intellectually challenged. Susan wants hot milk. Karen wanted lemon syrup instead of a lemon slice. I know we have a lot of syrups, and the only reason I have bourbon syrup is because Grimmjow orders it-"
"You're ranting," Izuru said as he looked over a list of things that needed to be done before close.
"I am not ranting."
"You're ranting, Ulquiorra. Just go back into the kitchen and start getting food stuff ready for tomorrow. We've got the front house covered."
Another dirty glance was given to Rangiku, but Ulquiorra did as she said and went back to the workroom so that he could start on the dough and batter for the food items they sold. Being back here alone was a good thing. He could think of what needed to be done. He could center himself and refocus.
Orihime was relieved as she packed up for the night that tomorrow was her last day working full-time for Rotten. It was a decent income for an intern, though she could probably make more at Costco or something.
She would continue her internship on a part time basis in September, but school was starting up again soon and she needed to focus on that. She would miss the money. She had squirreled it away over the summer to supplement her student loan and scholarship lifestyle. It afforded her little in the way of luxuries. She lived in a tiny studio apartment. When she went out with her girlfriends she borrowed their clothes and only drank if someone else was buying. She wore fast fashion. She only got her hair done once every four months. Nails she did herself.
She did splurge on eating out, though. She didn't have space to cook. She didn't go anywhere fancy; to-go places or little diners mostly. She paid for her own drinks at Starrk's when she wanted to drink alone. She paid for her own coffee. It didn't leave a lot left over. Usually there was nothing left over.
Tonight, being the end of the month and a day before payday, and having donated her spare change in shame to the good people at Coffee & Sadness, she decided that something very cheap was the way to go. She got up from her desk at five-thirty and stretched before she turned around.
"Inoue," Grimmjow said. He had been standing behind her for a minute. "Going somewhere?"
"Uh, I'm thinking about going to grab a sandwich. Why do you ask?" she said. She opened her face to him with a sweet smile. He had been acting more friendly to her lately and less lecherous. Maybe he wanted to chat? She would like that.
The man with dyed blue hair smirked. "Got a special project I need help with. Figured since it's your last day, you might want to help."
"I'm working tomorrow too," she muttered, looking at the ground. Of course that's what he wanted.
"Nah, Byakuya has you on the schedule for something else tomorrow. I'll buy you dinner if you help me. I'll even give you some computer time to help you learn the program," Grimmjow said in a business like tone as some people walked by.
"What kind of project?" she asked, slightly more enthusiastic.
The man looked down at her and flashed his eyebrows. "A friend of mine is thinking about having a logo designed. He's not going to purchase the media package though, so it's going to get passed down to one of you interns. And maybe," Grimmjow leaned down so that he could whisper in her ear. "You can clean yourself off of me from earlier."
Lord. What a creep. A decent looking one. And he sometimes got her off, the handful of times she found herself alone with him. Those times were stressful times at work, usually. She had wanted relief as much as he did. This, though… He was dangling an opportunity she had waited her entire internship to get. What was one more time? It's not like she had anybody to be loyal to. "Sounds like a plan, then," she said, looking at his face briefly.
"Give it thirty minutes and then meet me in my office," Grimmjow said. "You like curry?"
"Love it," she admitted with a warm smile. She wasn't lying.
Twenty-five minutes later, Grimmjow paid the delivery driver and took the bags to his office. He came out and whistled at Orihime. "Ready Inoue?"
"Coming!" she called back to him, putting her computer on hibernation mode and trotting toward the smell of spices.
As soon as the door was closed, Grimmjow grinned at her. "You should apply to Rotten so you can have a position here when you graduate," he said as he motioned for her to sit at the small table in his office.
"Maybe. I don't really know how to do what needs to be done here, yet. Nobody lets me do anything but errands," she said.
He shook his head. "Just because I'm going to fuck you doesn't mean I'm not going to teach you how to do this. I do need the logo done and I don't want to do it, but I don't want to give it to one of the other interns. You've gone above and beyond to please people."
"Just you," she muttered quietly. "Although I do entertain the absurdity of Karen and Susan from time to time," she added with a chuckle.
Raising an eyebrow, Grimmjow walked over to the woman. It was nothing to pick her up and make her legs wrap around him. "Food first, then fun then a quick lesson on how to make a logo? Or would you like to have fun first?"
She thought about it for a minute. The food sounded so good, but she knew she wouldn't be up to whatever he had in mind right after eating. A deep breath in and out. "Fun first. Need to work up an appetite," she said, blushing hard. He was only the second man she'd ever had sex with, so this wasn't something she did all the time.
"Heh," Grimmjow smirked. He carried her over to the armchair and sat down with her in his lap now. "You need to stick around. I can make you my personal secretary."
Her eyes narrowed at him and the blush on her cheeks faded a bit. "I am not a secretary," she growled in a kittenish little voice. She hated it when he made cracks about that. She was an artist . She wasn't going to spend any significant amount of time doing filing and typing up correspondence.
Grimmjow grabbed her chin and kissed her, then pulled away. "You're cute when you get mad," he stated before he began his seduction of her.
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