coffee breaks [ Charlie Barber ]

VII

"God, 'm hungry," you mumble quietly to yourself, nibbling on your bottom lip as you clean yet another messy table. 

Most of your clients bother to clean up after themselves, but every once in a while there's someone that could care less about your tired arms that get horribly sore because of all the cleaning you do. This is one of Alec's many reasons why he constantly urges you to hire more staff, because 'it can't just be mostly you and sometimes him'. You disagree, obviously. 

Sure, your mental and physical health are drastically deteriorating because of the unbalanced school-café life, but leaving your coffee shop in the hands of some stranger? No can do.  

The bell rings, making you look up from the dirty table to-- Charlie. The troubled look you had before melts away and gets swapped out with a gentle smile as you send him a small wave. His face visibly brightens, and he seemingly decides that your small wave was an invitation to join you as you acted like Cinderella before she got the magical dress and uncomfortable shoes.

Not that you mind, of course. Charlie's company is something you can't get enough of-- which has been an issue, now that you're thinking about it. You've become worryingly attached to the giant, raven-haired theater... man? Seriously, what the hell does he do in theater?

Before you can pick up your thought process where it left off, he's already next to you. "You need help?" he asks rather simply, hands already reaching to grab a cup or two. The Coven is almost empty-- it's quite late, so there's only one or two people using the free Wi-Fi as they take small sips of their now cold coffee. You wouldn't let Charlie help you carry the dirty plates to the staff room otherwise.

From the corner of your eye you can see him looking around curiously, taking in the small details. You don't bother making small-talk for now; cleaning is your main priority. "Just place them in the dishwasher, please and thank youuuu." You leave Charlie to load the dishes and hurry back to the dirty table, ignoring the feeling of guilt over accepting his help gnawing at your stomach.

Charlie leaves the staff room surprisingly quick, hovering around you as you spritz down and wipe the table clean. "It still baffles me that you run this place mostly by yourself." You shrug, though the kind sentiment does make your small smile grow. "I manage," you hum out as you finish cleaning the table, walking back to the counter with Charlie following close-by.

"Still, do you even have time to do other things outside of this?" 

Charlie's starting to adore you.

He walked into your coffee shop, as he always does, and the moment you waved at him so quietly, small smile tugging at your lips as you attempted to carry as many plates as possible, his heart soared. These days you've just been sending him into multiple cardiac arrests by the minute.

When you left him inside of the staff room he couldn't help but look around as he loaded the plates into the dishwasher. There were a few posters of artists he didn't recognize stuck on the wall, two beanbags in the corner with fairy lights and a desk with chair, which had an open laptop on top of it.

Next to the laptop there was a phone, most probably yours. He normally wouldn't care about something as usual as a phone, but the text message that came in right as he was glancing on it was... unusual.

(four unread messages)

[mr insistent]:

viktors great

why cant u jst accept new ppl omfg