Some girl's latte (skinny with extra foam and whip)
A/N Much like my story 'Every Girl' that I did for Patsy and Delia (Call the Midwife), this will be a trilogy of AU meet cutes for Dansen. This is kind of a: Alex is in college and she's working as a barista to earn some extra money, but she's already dated Maggie kind of vibe. I'm a firm believer in that Alex needed to meet Maggie to learn a lot about herself, otherwise her and Kelly would never have happened.
National City, Earth-38 - 2009
Kelly strolled through the swinging doors of SuperCoffee™ - coined after Superman made his breakthrough in Metropolis and a great deal of merchandise had begun to come on sale. Walking down the street alone, she'd passed three different stands selling Superman baseball caps. It was the start of a boom in the 'load of crap' and 'rip-off' areas in the department stores. The door swung closed behind and a small bell alerted her arrival to the cute barista behind the counter. She was wearing all black with a small apron tied around her waist, her hair was just above her shoulders and she looked somewhat perky, and somewhat downtrodden. Kelly smiled and then put all thoughts of biting her lip to the back of her mind as she walked up to the rather large display of cakes and cookies in the glass cabinet.
Alex looked up slowly, her eyes dragging themselves up from focussing on the beige grains of the wood countertop. "What can I get you, today?" She reeled off automatically before really looking at the woman in front of her. Then for the next minute of Kelly talking through her order all she did was stare at the women's lips; it was like she was transfixed - an undetectable force came over her and couldn't help but stare downwards. Only when the words stopped flowing and her lips stopped moving did Alex realise she hadn't a clue what to start making. But this was her college job, she wasn't supposed to be an expert or anything. She was a perky twenty-year old training to become a doctor, she could handle making up a coffee order. In her mind there was something cute about just making something random and hoping she liked it.
So like the professional she was, Alex picked herself up off the counter and gave a nervous smile, a nod and turned around towards the coffee machine. A few button pushes and fiddling around the takeaway cup she was sure she'd heard the woman say she wanted, there was soft, warm brown liquid pouring out into it. The freshly ground coffee smell was filling their nostrils in the small space between them and Alex felt the heat rising up her back as she awkwardly moved around avoiding the woman's eager hungry gaze.
Kelly amused herself for the two and a half minutes of awkward silence that preceded receiving her coffee; all whilst trying desperately to list the things she was supposed to be working on today to avoid staring at the barista. Then Kelly noticed she was actually humming along to the sound of the coffee machine as she worked, so there was a further thirty seconds of trying to work out which song it was. When suddenly the taller woman turned back to her dropped the cup of coffee on the counter, skidded a little on the floor and attempted a smile. "What's your name?" She started, then realised how creepy that sounded. "So I can write it on the cup," she explained, pointing to the thing and picking up a Sharpie from the pot behind the till.
"Um, Kelly." Kelly replied, a little confused as to why the barista needed to write her name on the cup when the shop was almost entirely empty and she was standing right in front of her. "But I'm kind of the only one here so can I-" She was cut off when Alex began writing 'Kellie' on the cup and interrupted her without even looking up. Spelling it wrong on purpose so she could put a little heart over the 'I.'
"And your phone number?" She asked, it wasn't exactly the smoothest move she could've made but considering she'd made Kelly's entire coffee order wrong, she thought it was better to ask before she tasted it. Then she decided she couldn't hold it back anymore and went full throttle with biting her bottom lip, mainly to hold back the nerves. This wasn't usually Alex's style but since she'd only been with one girl before she hadn't leant herself to flirting very often. Kelly tried to hold back her own smile but it was difficult, her lips kept curling at the corners as she watched the barista awkwardly crouching behind the counter, not making eye contact so she could make sure the loyalty sticker on the back was lined up.
When Alex finally put the Sharpie back on the counter and had given up all hope of ever seeing this woman again because of her own awkwardness, Kelly scooped it up and delicately clutched Alex's hand. She straightened herself up and looked back at Kelly with utter disbelief as she watched her write number after number on the back of her hand. She bit down on her lip again and tucked the asymmetrical edge of her hair behind her ear, letting the tingle of Kelly's warm fingers stretch up the length of her arm and across her collar bone. Kelly smiled back and dropped the pen, finally picking up the coffee for a sip as there was no one else around and she thought maybe staying around for a while. Then she noticed something off about her drink.
"Um Alex?" She said, reading Alex's nametag and having another look at her coffee cup to see if Alex had ticked anything specific. "What is this?" She asked, tapping her fingertips against the counter and suddenly noticing there was something actually written on the cup.
"Oh, that." Alex started, looking down at Kelly's hands and wishing they were wrapped up in her own, "when you came in I was distracted and I suddenly looked up and was a little too mesmerised to remember what you ordered, so I just made you my favourite. I was too embarrassed to ask." She replied honestly and broke Kelly's gaze. "It's totally on the house for me being a massive screwup." She continued, trying to remedy the situation as best as she could. Then she suddenly found that she couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth, "it's a latte with honey instead of sweet-n-low. I always drink my coffee with honey." She said shyly before telling her brain to shut up and let Kelly either reply or throw the drink in her face. A quick flash of her depressingly having to wash the numbers in permanent marker off her hand later in the sink if Kelly did storm out right at that moment.
Kelly didn't storm out. In fact she let out a chuckle, the coffee was delicious, not something she'd ever tasted but she was a definite convert after today. A small fantasy floated over her, that maybe they could drink coffee out of the mugs she had in her kitchen and share a pot of honey between them. She reckoned Alex would still manage to look this good first thing in the morning. Then she remembered something, "um, you didn't put hazelnuts in this did you? I'm allergic." She asked, her face suddenly contorting into concern.
"No, but that's good to know, seeing as I work in a coffee shop, do you like it?" Alex replied.
"I actually really like it." She said, she wasn't exactly sure why she was still hedging her bets and flirting with her eyes, because somehow her number was inked onto the back of Alex's hand. She felt her hand reaching across the counter and covering the other woman's lightly, until there was a gentle hush and a squeeze between them as Kelly took another sip.