Guess who's back - back again?

Sorry, as always, for the wait. I've got to be honest, it's been a mother effer of a time dealing with pandemic depression. When I'm depressed I can't write for crap. Dx But I just got round one of the vaccine, and things are looking up. I'm trying to keep my head up and stay on top of writing projects - both stuff I post and stuff I do just for fun. At the end of this chapter (as promised!) the plot really starts to unravel. So enjoy, and please send me a review or two! I am craving human contact and communication more than ever before in my life, lmao.


"Ugh, what is the matter with this lasagne?" Téa muttered anxiously, glancing down into the game shop's oven for what had to be the fifth time in as many minutes. "It's been in there almost an hour, shouldn't the sauce be bubbling by now?"

"Don't look at me," Serenity replied from the kitchen table. "I can make a mean pot of mac n' cheese, but homemade lasagne is pretty far out of my league. We've got time, though, Yugi and Joey won't be here for another forty-five minutes at least."

As Téa sighed and fiddled with the knobs on the ancient oven, Serenity glanced down at her phone, which lay face up on the table beside her.

It wasn't like she really expected it to light up or chime, though. It had been seven days since she had last seen Kaiba, and six days since he had sent her a message - the longest since they had initially begun texting one another.

Well, okay, there had been one message. The day before, she had texted him to jokingly ask if he had sworn off caffeine forever, and he had responded with:

No, just busy. End of the fiscal year.

In her mind, that didn't exactly count.

Serenity was annoyed by how much his silence annoyed her, if she was being perfectly honest.

She had gone back and forth over the weeks before, deciding one day to give Kaiba a chance and the next that he wasn't worth it. There were days when she had reassured herself that he was charming, in his own way, and besides, it wasn't like she was committing to him or anything. She could enjoy his sarcastic humor when he was there and just ignore him if he wasn't.

It wasn't like they were married, or even dating.

However, the sudden and decisive absence of Kaiba from both the coffee shop and her life had forced Serenity to come face-to-face with the realization that the previous Saturday had gotten her hopes up a little more than she might have, well, hoped.

Had she gotten this attached to some stupid guy just because he had called her 'cute?' Was she really that desperate for attention?

When Serenity took the time to think about it rationally, she decided that it had to be more than just that. First of all, sitting in his car with him had certainly been more personal than sitting in patio chairs outside the place where she worked, and their conversation had gone deeper then than it had the time before. He had found out about her birth control alarm, for heaven's sake! Had it been that unreasonable to expect that this was a progression to a new "stage" of their relationship?

Maybe it had.

"I've got it!" Téa exclaimed, slapping the kitchen counter and jarring Serenity out of her thoughts and back down to earth. "I used that big, dumb ceramic dish instead of the glass one it shows here in the recipe book. It's thicker, so it takes longer to heat up."

"Glad you solved the mystery," Serenity replied. "Either way, it smells great. Is there anything I can help with?"

Téa's head was buried in the fridge, and her voice came out muffled.

"You know what, I'm glad you asked. I have some vegetables here you can help me chop for a salad."

"Oh. Okay."

Serenity hadn't expected Téa to actually surrender any of the cooking responsibilities, but she had to admit that she was happy for the distraction. Getting to her feet, she wandered across the kitchen and began accepting the carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes as Téa pulled them out of the crisper drawers in the refrigerator.

The two women had soon developed a system: Téa washing and peeling each vegetable, then passing it to Serenity who took over chopping.

There was a certain peacefulness in the rhythm of the knife against the old wooden chopping block, and Serenity felt herself begin to relax.

"You've been quiet lately," Téa observed. "Anything in particular going on?"

"Oh, I just - "

Serenity had to pause for a second. She didn't think she had been any quieter than usual, but maybe she wasn't a very good judge of her own behavior.

"Are you and Joey still getting along okay?" Téa prodded. "You can tell me if he's being a slob and giving you any trouble. When he told me that the two of you were getting a place together, I warned him that he was going to have to clean up his act."

"No, it's nothing like that," Serenity said, laughing a little. "I mean, it's not just nothing like that, it's really nothing. Sorry if I haven't seemed like myself. I've just been tired from this new job. I have to get there super early, and I guess my sleeping schedule is still pretty weird."

Yeah, weird from waiting up until midnight every night staring at a phone screen.

"Well, just let me know if you need me to talk to that boy," Téa said. "I can only imagine how he lives, if it's anything like he did in high school. Eating ramen noodles for every meal, playing video games until the wee hours of the morning, leaving beer cans on every flat surface…"

"Thanks, but it's really fine," Serenity insisted. "He keeps things pretty acceptable. I guess he's grown up a little."

At that moment, her phone chimed on the table. Before she even realized it, she had put down the knife and half-cucumber she had been holding and jogged across the kitchen to pick it up.

A text message flashed on the screen:

Hey sis - Yugis driving but he says ask Téa if she found the right casarole (sp?) dish.

Serenity felt her heart sink. When she looked up, Téa was giving her a look of confusion that verged on suspicion.

"Just Joey," she said quickly. "Yugi wants to know if you found the right dish."

Téa rolled her eyes, mercifully distracted.

"Great, now he asks me!"


As Serenity shuffled around the coffee shop in silence a few days later helping Marianne follow the procedures to open up, she came to a grudging yet firm conclusion:

It had been ten days since she had heard a peep out of him, and she was officially done with stupid Seto Kaiba.

There had been no visits to the coffee shop, no texts with orders or even polite conversation, and certainly no mention of meeting up for coffee.

Fine.

He had clearly moved on, and it was time she did too.

After all, she insisted to herself, over the course of the previous month, she had been given a genuine Burberry scarf, a chance to sit in a car that cost more than the house where she grew up, and she had learned what the phrase "pret-à-porter" meant. So in spite of the disappointingly premature ending to the relationship (if that was even the right word for what it was) it had probably been worth it.

Most of the time, she managed to convince herself.

Unfortunately, the process of "moving on" also meant that Serenity would have to confront the reality of how boring her job actually was when her time wasn't occupied by secretly checking her phone under the counter for text messages and shutting down constant interrogations from curious co-workers.

Pour coffee, ring up, pour coffee, restock straws, pour coffee, ring up.

And so on, and so on.

As though in response to her thoughts, the register dinged. Marianne had finished counting the till and shut the drawer.

"You've got your head in the clouds this morning," she observed. "But you know what? I think I have a piece of news that you might be interested in hearing."

Serenity raised an eyebrow.

"What, is corporate extending the double-stamp promo on the pumpkin pie lattes?"

Marianne laughed.

"Even more exciting than that, if you can believe it. We have a catering event coming up."

"Oh really? When?"

Serenity had been told during her interview that CoffeeWorks periodically catered local events, and from what she had overheard of a few conversations between Karin and Ben, they were typically cash-only events and often resulted in the motherload of tips for whoever was lucky enough to get serving duty.

She definitely wouldn't say no to a little bit of extra pocket money headed into the holidays.

"It's two weeks from now: Friday, December 19th," Marianne replied. "And it's the annual Domino InovaTech Gala."

Her eyes gleamed as she looked up at Serenity, and the latter realized there must be something she wasn't getting.

"Come on, you're not making the connection?" Marianne demanded, confirming her suspicions. "InovaTech is that big software company who has their headquarters downtown. Every year, they invite all of their clients to a huge black tie event at the convention center. They serve coffee and cocktails, and we've done the coffee for the last, like, five years. Every single corporate CEO in the city is there."

Marianne raised her eyebrows and grinned.

"And get this: just because you're my favorite co-worker and all the regulars like you so much, I put in a good word for you. You're going to get to spend the whole night hanging out with your favorite VIP customer and making big money, too! Tell me I'm the best shift manager ever."

"The very best," Serenity mumbled back, mustering up the best smile she could. "I can't wait."