Love and Leather

Chapter 1 - Vanilla Coffee (Brenna)

"Brenna!"

The barista calls out my name, and I whip my head around to see her smiling at the room as she holds a coffee tray with two coffees on it. It's surprisingly fast, given I only ordered a couple of minutes ago and the shop is packed, but I shrug and walk over to the counter.

"That's me, thanks," I say as I take the coffees from her.

I leave the shop and walk half a block to the office space I share with Claire and Ally. Claire and I have an interior design business. Meanwhile, Ally is a fashion show director. She's off at a model casting today with a client, so I only have two coffees.

I hold a coffee out in front of Claire. "Who's the best interior designer you know?"

"Myself," she teases me with a grin.

I pull the coffee away from her and shake my head. "Wrong answer, my friend. I guess I'm having two coffees today."

I take a sip and almost spit the coffee out on the floor in front of me. It's black, bitter, and absolutely not one of the two lattes I ordered.

"Why do you look like you just swallowed a mouthful of cum?" Claire asks with a laugh.

I force the vile liquid down my throat and scrunch my nose up at her. "Cum tastes like liquid gold compared to this shit." I frown at the cup in my hand and double-check that the name 'Brenna' is written there. "They've fucking given me the wrong coffees, I swear to god. I mean, they were busy as hell, but still."

I pick up the other coffee, and it's milky and sweet. Way too sweet. Several pumps of vanilla kind of sweet.

I roll my eyes at Claire. "I'll be back. We can't drink this shit. I'll get them to fix it."

I stride back to the coffee shop and force myself to take several deep breaths on the way there. I don't see any point in raging at the shop staff as much as I might need my caffeine fix, and they've given me undrinkable coffees.

I ignore the queue and move toward the counter, holding my coffee order ahead of myself to prevent anyone from thinking I just want to jump the queue to be a dick. I hover to the side as a woman who must be in her early twenties stands at the counter and sniffs loudly.

"I need it to be fixed immediately. My boss is an asshole, and he said he's going to fire me if I'm not back in ten minutes." She wipes a tear from her face. "I need the right coffees. I can't give him a latte, or he'll kill me. He only ever drinks it black."

"Of course." The barista smiles at her. "I'm so sorry. We'll get it fixed immediately."

My ears perk up, and I frown at the woman. "Is your name Brenna by any chance?"

"Huh? Yes, it is." She turns to look at me as she nods.
"I'm Brenna, too. I think I have your coffee order. One caramel latte and one godawful coffee that's as black as your boss's soul." I hold the order out to her.

"Oh my god, thank you!" She holds two coffees out to me. "Two lattes."

We switch coffees, thank the barista, and apologize to the other customers as we leave the store. Brenna looks harried as she checks her phone.

"Fuck. My boss said he would fire me if I wasn't back in the office in two more minutes. It's two blocks that way." She points in the direction of my office with the coffees as she begins to walk. "I'm so fucked."

I feel terrible for this poor woman. I had a few personal assistant jobs before I went into business for myself, and I remember having some terrible bosses.

"He sounds like a complete asshole. I'll come with you and explain the situation," I promise. "I just need to drop this coffee to my business partner on the way, but I'm not going to let him fire you. It's my fault I took your coffee order. I did think it was made too quickly, but Brenna's such an uncommon name that I didn't think twice."