Jenlisa Oneshots

latte digits

Jennie looks up from her book as the door opens and Lisa walks in. Lisa gives her a nod and a smile as she walks by and sits in her usual spot in the corner, by the window. She takes out her sketchbook and pencil and starts to look out the window for something to sketch today.

Jennie watches Lisa situate herself before she turns around and starts to prepare Lisa's latte.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lisa sees that Jennie has turned around so it's safe to look back at the barista and watch her work as she starts to prepare the latte that she orders everyday.

Well now, it's just unspoken that it's her order. She comes here everyday at the same time to just sit and sketch for fifteen minutes before her stretch of classes. If she says that she comes to this particular coffee shop when there are three others on her way here that are much closer to campus just because of the lattes, she's definitely lying. She looks back towards the window once she recognizes that Jennie is pouring the milk to form a perfectly shaped leaf on the top of her latte, which means she is about to bring over her drink.

It's nice in the mornings just right after the rush of those coming in on their way to work or to drop their kids off at school. It's a little far from campus which means there aren't as many college students who come in, so by the time nine-thirty rolls around, it's calm. Most of the time, it's just a couple of people so Jennie will opt to serve the customers at their tables instead of having them come pick it up, just for some movement on slow mornings.

Last semester, Jennie only worked the morning shifts three times a week. When Lisa came in, they would have friendly exchanges over the counter until one day, Jennie told Lisa to just go and sit down and she would bring her latte over to her.

This is when Jennie got her first glimpse of Lisa's art. Normally, Jennie would hand Lisa her latte at the counter and Lisa would go to her table and just start sketching until she eventually got up about fifteen minutes later and left with a quick wave to Jennie. There was really no reason for Jennie to approach Lisa any time in between and their conversations were limited to the time that Lisa was at the counter.

When she first delivered Lisa's coffee to her table, she caught a glimpse of her sketchbook. It was of a man on his phone jammed between his ear and shoulder, trying to hold his briefcase in one hand that was also trying to open his car door, while the other hand was fixing his tie. Obviously he was in a hurry. Lisa sees Jennie sneaking a look at her drawing and just simply nods her head towards the blue house across the street with an empty driveway, "You just missed him."

And that's how it started. Lisa would come in, Jennie would prepare her latte. When Jennie came over, they would talk about whatever scene Lisa was sketching or whatever abstract art Lisa was creating that day.

Sometimes they would talk about things other than what was in Lisa's sketchbook. Lisa learned that Jennie is a student at the university as well, majoring in business. Jennie learns that Lisa is an architecture major, but she likes to take time to just enjoy creating art that isn't just building structures.

This semester, Jennie signed up for classes that allowed her to take the morning shift every day and Lisa came in every day. And honestly, neither of them can figure out if the other is just being friendly or not, so neither of them have ever pushed it.

But today, Jennie decided to try something different. She was putting the finishing touches on the latte, which took her longer than usual. She looks at it one last time, trying to get over her nerves.

She realizes that she's been staring at the finished latte for a full minute now and that she's made Lisa wait long enough. She shakes out her hands and grabs the cup and plate and finally pushes herself to head over to Lisa's table before she talks herself out of this like she did the last time, when she had to remake the whole drink.