Day One
It was a Monday morning when Zelina Vega first entered a coffee shop called Just In Time, in downtown Queens, New York. An author with two relatively successful books already published, she was looking for somewhere new to write.
Some people needed silence to work in. Others needed background noise. Zelina was of the latter category, but any old background noise wouldn't do. TV or music resulted in her concentrating more on them than on her writing. The ideal working conditions for her were with the background chatter and noises of a coffee shop. Unfortunately the one she had frequented while working on her first two books had closed down, leaving her in need of a new location to feel comfortable in. A couple of other shops had already failed to make the grade. Today was Just In Time's chance to make an impression.
The first impression was good. She was greeted by the ever delightful smell of fresh coffee. In front of her was a staircase with a sign saying more seating was available up there. No, Zelina decided, she would try to find a table downstairs where it was busier.
There were about ten tables downstairs, she discovered. Currently, only two were empty. One was a table for four near the window. The other was a table for two down at the far end, where she would be sat opposite the sales counter and small open plan kitchen. That was perfect. She liked places with open kitchens like this where you could see and smell orders being worked on.
Zelina went over to the table she wanted and hung her coat over the back of the chair that was facing the counter and kitchen. Before settling down to work, she needed coffee. She went up to the counter, where luckily no one else was currently being served.
"Morning. What can I get you?" asked a cute Latina with shoulder length hair and a nose ring. She was wearing a black polo shirt with a small version of the shop's yellow logo above the left breast.
"Cappuccino, please. I'm at the table just there," Zelina said, pointing.
The friendly barista processed the order and took payment, saying the drink would be brought over shortly.
With that, Zelina went back to her table and sat down. She took her laptop out of its carry case and booted it up. Once her drink arrived, it would be time to get on with writing. She was in the very early stages of her new book, and wasn't convinced that she liked what she had written so far.
While she waited for the drink, she took another look around the coffee shop. Over to her right, there was a grey haired Latino in the kitchen, working on someone's breakfast order, she assumed. He had the same kind of polo shirt on as the barista. Over to the left, at the end of counter, was the point of sale machine where she had just been served. The barista was now taking an order from someone else.
Two people surely wasn't enough staff for a busy coffee shop, Zelina was just thinking when she discovered that there was a third person working. A very tall, long haired Latina walked over from the direction of the stairs, carrying a tray of used cups and plates. Zelina was mesmerised instantly. The woman had to be over six feet tall. The polo shirt showed off muscular arms that wouldn't have looked out place on a wrestler or something. And she was absolutely gorgeous too, even with the very little makeup she had on. A real natural beauty.
Wow, Zelina thought, as the warrior queen-looking woman, if a warrior queen was even a thing, walked through the little door in the sales counter, which was kept propped open for ease of access. She didn't want to be caught staring at the woman, but she couldn't look away either. She had always had a thing for tall women. At only five feet herself, almost all women were taller than her. But she had never seen one as tall as this barista – easily over six feet. She wasn't just tall either, she was strong too. A big, strong woman was a real turn on for Zelina.
The warrior queen deposited the dirty crockery and cutlery into a large sink that was on the opposite side of the working area from the sales counter, also directly opposite where Zelina was sitting. With that done, she went over to a coffee machine and began fixing a drink. Likely mine, Zelina thought.
Unfortunately, when the drink was ready, the barista with the nose ring brought it over to the table while the warrior queen started fixing another. Nose ring woman was cute, but Zelina only had eyes for her colleague.
"Cappuccino," nose ring said pleasantly, setting it on the table.
"Thank you," Zelina said, adding a mental reminder to herself that it was time to get on with writing.
And so she did. Concentrating was difficult though because part of her brain was stuck on the warrior queen. Zelina listened to her and nose ring woman speaking to each other and familiarised herself with their voices. The man in the kitchen joined the conversation briefly. Nothing interesting was being discussed, just work stuff. Nose ring woman had a Queens accent, conforming she was a local like Zelina. The man and the warrior queen had Mexican accents. Definitely not locals. The Latino community in Queens was Puerto Rican not Mexican. That was interesting.
Zelina shook her head. If she wasn't going to be able to concentrate on working, she needed to leave and try elsewhere. This time needed to be used for writing, especially since her progress on the new book was already slow.
More than an hour flew by before Zelina looked up, resting her eyes from the screen. She had knocked back the cappuccino and made some progress on tinkering with her first chapter. She still wasn't happy with what she had written though. The whole vibe of the first chapter was off. In addition, she wasn't happy with the main character she had created.
The man in the kitchen dinged a bell. Zelina could see two plates of food standing ready to go out to customers. The bell was to alert one on the baristas to take them. She watched the warrior queen go over there and pick the plates up. When she walked through the opening in the sales counter, they made eye contact.
"Hey," warrior queen said, flashing a gorgeous smile.
"Morning," Zelina said with a fluttering sensation in her stomach. Jesus, get control of yourself, she thought with annoyance. She was acting like a sex starved teenager around her first crush. It was embarrassing.
The warrior queen soon came back, having delivered the food to the customers who had ordered it. She noticed Zelina's empty cup on the table and asked, "Can I get you something else?"
For the second time, Zelina had been thinking about leaving so that she could try and get work done elsewhere. But now she couldn't. She wanted to please the warrior queen, in some minor way. Ordering another coffee would do.
"I'll take another cappuccino. Thank you."
"Coming right up," the tall woman said with another smile. She took the used cup back behind the counter and put it in the sink with a growing number of other dirty items.
That was when Zelina had a lightbulb moment. She could use the warrior queen as an inspiration for the main character in her new story. She would need to come up with a new name if she did that. Currently the main was called Liv Morgan, but that obviously wasn't a Latina name.
She typed out a few ideas on the laptop. Victoria Gonzalez was one of them. She looked over at the warrior queen and thought she looked like a Victoria Gonzalez. That would work. She decided to re-write the first chapter with the new name and character and see if it felt any better.
The warrior queen returned with the Cappuccino and a card reader to take payment.
"Thank you," Zelina said when the drink was set down on the table. She used her phone to pay via contactless. She noted the woman's large but still feminine hands, wonder what those hands might be able to do to her. It was her right hand that was holding the reader. One of the fingers had a Texas longhorn tattooed on it.
"You're from Texas?" Zelina asked, glad of an excuse to make some sort on conversation.
"Oh, yes," the warrior queen said, looking at the tattoo herself for a second in recognition of where the question had come from. "Grew up there, on the border. Moved to New York when I was fifteen. I miss it back home, but I like New York too. Apart from the weather obviously," she added with another of those smiles that Zelina was already smitten with.
"Obviously," she repeated with a smile of her own. Winter was rapidly setting in. For some reason, outsiders imagined New York in the snow to be some kind of winter wonderland. In reality it was hell.
The bell on the kitchen counter dinged again. Nose ring woman was busy serving someone, so warrior queen had to go get the food, to Zelina's annoyance.
"Enjoy," she said to Zelina before heading back through the sales counter.
I know what I'd like to enjoy, Zelina thought, imagining herself being held down by those big, strong arms and forcefully kissed.
Enough of that, she told herself, redirecting her attention to the laptop. She got back to work, re-writing her first chapter with Victoria Gonzalez as the main character. She was at it for nearly half an hour before she looked up, enjoying finishing her second coffee and resting her eyes for a moment.
Nose ring woman was serving a customer again, she saw. Meanwhile, the warrior queen was filling the sink with water. Zelina watched her put on some heavy duty black rubber gloves, ready to wash up the dirty items. That turned her on immediately. She had a thing for women wearing smooth, shiny materials. Leather, latex, PVC, or in this case rubber, they pushed all the right buttons for her.
Zelina did her best not to be obvious about staring, trying to act like she was resting her eyes and thinking about her work. The truth was she watched as intently as possible while the warrior queen washed the dishes, so grateful for the propped open door in the sales counter that allowed her to see through to the sink. If it had been closed, she would have had to stand up to get a look and that would clearly not have been possible for any length of time.
Her mind was running wild, conjuring up fantasies of what the warrior queen could do to her with those shiny, smooth, wet gloves on. They would feel incredible against her skin, even with the grips on the palms and fingers. She imagined herself being caressed by them. Groped by them. Fingered by them. Dominated by them.
Suddenly, the warrior queen turned around. Zelina was glad she didn't embarrass easily, which allowed her not to react as if she had been busted doing something, which of course she had. Instead, she casually rubbed one of her eyes as her heartbeat quickened yet again. The warrior queen was coming over to her, still wearing the sexy gloves.
"Can I take this?" the tall woman asked, with a slight, endearing smile on her face and one of her hands on the empty cup.
"Sure," Zelina said, fighting hard to maintain eye contact and not look at the gloved hand while it was right there in front of her.
"Thanks," the warrior queen said, then moved off to another table where there was a plate and a cup needing to be collected.
Zelina forced herself to look back at her laptop and write for a couple of minutes, keeping up the pretence that she was only interested in her work, not eyeballing the staff. It was one of the hardest tasks she had ever had to accomplish.
Once the warrior queen was back at the sink, and nose ring woman had gone upstairs, Zelina was free to watch the rest of the dish washing process. The fantasies she was having about this spellbinding woman were so strong, she knew they were going to live long in her head. Even better, she knew this didn't have to be a one off. She could come back to this coffee shop whenever she wanted. She might even get to know the warrior queen. Might even ask her out for a drink. Might find out she liked women too, and was interested. Might get to take her home. Might get to live out every fantasy she could possibly come up with. Talk about living in hope, she thought, well aware of how unlikely all of that was. Knowing her luck, the warrior queen was straight and had a boyfriend. Maybe even a kid or two. That would really suck.
The warrior queen finished the dishes right when nose ring woman came back downstairs, and the bell dinged again. The kitchen sure was busy, keeping the warrior queen busy.
Enough was enough, Zelina thought. She wasn't concentrating on her work at all. It was time to head home and try to write there instead. Now that she had fresh inspiration, she liked her chances of making some progress. She quickly packed away her laptop, then started putting her coat on.
Returning from delivering the latest food to the relevant table, the warrior queen made eye contact again. "Thanks for stopping by. Come back again?"
"I will, maybe tomorrow. Places like this are where I like to come to write. Sorry, what's your name?"
"Raquel."
"I'm Zelina. Thanks for the service with a smile."
"You're welcome. Enjoy your day," Raquel said, heading back behind the counter once more.
Zelina was cringing so hard at herself that she felt ready to curl up into a ball and die. 'Thanks for the service with a smile.' What the hell was that? At least she now had a name for the warrior queen. Raquel. She liked it, unsurprisingly.
A/N: I've been playing around with this as a one shot for some time. I'm considering writing more though, so let me know if you'd like to see that happen.
