Reid closed the binder. Everyone had already left the office long ago.
"Doesn't add up," he muttered under his breath.
Reid looked at his watch. It was 7 pm. He was trying to determine if it was an acceptable time to still get a coffee.
"Yesterday we were in Los Angeles. Only 3 pm there. Yeah, acceptable," Reid decided.
He usually got coffee on his way to work in the morning, always at the same stand, at the same time… Provided they weren't out of town, of course. And then there was the trusted coffee machine in their kitchen at BAU…
But now he decided to change locations, to just go in one direction and find a café that would catch his attention. Maybe this change would refresh his mind and bring him some ideas about the case.
He saw an inconspicuous small place, warm yellow bulbs shining invitingly through the old-fashioned windows. Just few people were sitting here and there at the tables. Reid went in.
When he entered he smelled an interesting mix of coffee and limes.
x-x-x
Reid was on his way to a table but then again he suddenly changed his mind and sat down to the counter.
The barista briefly looked at Reid. "Hi," he said.
Reid guessed that the barista was a few years younger then him, had expressive brown eyes and short brown hair.
Reid cleared his throat. "Uhm… I'd like a coffee."
"Sure," the barista smiled. "We are in a café here so…" he added a bit playfully and looked at Reid how he'd react.
"Uhm… yes, yeah, of course, we are in a café," Reid said.
"Café latté, cappuccino, flat white, espresso or something more fancy?" the barista suggested.
"I'll take latté."
The barista quickly prepared café latté for Reid and then returned to peeling off a handful of limes.
Reid was about to take the file out of his bag but then realized that the barista could accidently see the photos and that would be quite a shock to him. To mask his awkwardness Reid asked: "That's quite a lot of limes for a café… Or are you serving lemonade here too?"
The barista looked up. "Oh, that's a special project."
"Something like mixing espresso and orange juice?"
"You are up to date with the trends!" the barista exclaimed.
"I've never tried it, though," Reid said and nervously adjusted a strand of hair. "I've just read about it."
"Cool! Though this is a bit different then just espresso with orange juice. As I said it's a special project. A bit time-consuming. We are just trying this recipe… Lime syrup, mango puree, orange blossom water, egg white, jasmine green tea… And well of course, espresso."
Reid grimaced while the barista was enumerating the ingredients.
"You'd still call it a coffee?" he asked with a small smile.
"It's been quite successful among the coffee connoisseurs."
"Well, on the other hand, the chemical reactions, if you add it in the right order, if you take only the oleo saccharum from the limes…" Reid pondered.
"What? Are you a chemist?"
"Nonono, not at all," Reid spluttered. "I've just… yeah read some books about chemistry. But just nothing major."
"If you say so," the barista shrugged.
Reid took a sip of his coffee. "Uhm, sorry… I didn't want to disturb you. With the chemistry."
"First, you are a client here so you are not disturbing me and second, really you are not disturbing me. I can peel off the limes and have a conversation with you. Or I can peel them in silence. But since you've sat down here at the counter…"
"Yeah, I've sat down at the counter," Reid repeated as if he was fascinated by this fact, by his own behaviour. And then he fell silent. He occasionally took a sip of the beverage or played with the spoon a bit and under the counter, out of the barista's field of vision, quickly went through the file again and stored it in his memory. Now he didn't need the file anymore and could work on possible leads and hypotheses in his mind.
x-x-x
Reid tried to shut down all the noise: clattering of the dishes, talking of the guests, then he heard the barista mumbling: "… Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen."
"All Shakespeare's plays in chronological order, impressive," Reid said and with the cup he indicated a toast for congratulation. "Well, just The Merchant of Venice was after King John."
"Oh, damn. Exams are getting closer. Closer that I'd like, you know, so I'm kinda using every opportunity to study and revise and review…" the barista explained.
"Studying English literature?"
"Yeah, people say that it's useless though I can at least make a decent coffee so hopefully I won't end up jobless," the barista laughed.
"I'd say it's always useful to know Shakespeare's plays in chronological order."
The barista eyed Reid with suspicion but Reid didn't seem to be mocking him.
"Should I understand it that you are a fellow English literature student?"
"Nonono, I just read. Read a lot and heard a lot about English literature from my mom, she used to be a teacher. Mainly medieval literature."
"That's so interesting! But what are you studying if it's not literature?"
"I'm not studying anymore," Reid said cautiously but then he made a sudden decision and added: "I have B.A.s in psychology, sociology and philosophy and Ph.D.s in chemistry, engineering and mathematics…"
The barista took a huge sip of espresso. "I don't think I've ever met a genius."
"I wouldn't call it-" Reid was about to start his explaining monologue but then winked shyly and said: "Well, I've never met a better barista with Shakespeare knowledge."
"You really liked the café latte?"
"Yes! I usually take coffee to go and don't have time to enjoy it somewhere inside, in a café, in a good company…"
"Hmm, busy man," the barista said, carefully avoiding the comment about a good company.
"Cannot deny it. But you also must be busy, English literature, the barista job…"
The barista lowered his voice: "Yeah, but still I can sometimes find the time to… you know enjoy some company. With an interesting person," the barista shrugged. "Matthew, by the way," he said and extended his hand towards Reid.
Initially Reid leant slightly back on his chair but then he accepted the hand. "Spencer."
"I mean… it might seem weird and I don't want you to think that I do it all the time…"
"Yes. This wouldn't fit your behaviour patterns at least based on the in person observation in the last 90 minutes or so," Reid said absent-mindedly and took a look at his watch.
Matthew laughed nervously. "So I just thought that we might go somewhere to a café together. As in I wouldn't be the barista then. We both would go to a café together," Matthew gestured wildly. "Yeah, I've already said that, I know."
"And you know a café we could in? I mean I would like to go together with you," Reid said at staggering speed.
AN: I know that some people don't want too precise descriptions of OCs or they have their own mind images. But in case you are interested Matthew is a combination of two youtubers who I love.
The barista job and especially the description of the coffee with lime syrup is taken from "Morgan drinks coffee" youtube channel: /9HYoVyJvY44
And the personality, looks and passion for English literature is taken from Jack Edwards and his amazing channels: c/thejackexperience
and channel/UC0dx1Fa4nt3FRWWG5IcdOEQ