Food Courting

Chapter 18: Co-Cooking

The Coup D'é-Tea was no longer. Somehow, at some point, the fight against the fruit transformed into an alliance. For the first time in beverage history, coffee and smoothies had joined together to combat their common enemies: unreasonable customers and closed-minded ex-girlfriends. Sure, Cora still despised the singing citrus, but if enduring spirited anthems and peppy battle cries was what it took for justice to prevail, then so be it.

Of course, she wouldn't mind if the fruit could be silenced once and for all.

"Wait, Angie?" After Farron waited a beat for Cora to retract her confession, they chuckled. "Is that why you hate Fruitastic so much? Because of a cartoon mascot? She's harmless."

As if on cue, the dancing orange kicked off another round of Fruitastic's jingle, and the upbeat notes taunted Cora's nerves. But after the visit from Farron's ex the day before, Cora supposed she preferred the annoying Angie over nasty Natalie.

"Tell that to my ears," Cora muttered, scowling at her rice porridge. "And it's not just her. It's—"

Your ability to hate your job while excelling at it, and how you look good doing it.

"We're clearly rivals," Cora said instead, stirring her porridge a little more vigorously than necessary. "Every customer that goes to you is one less customer for us. There's only so much liquid a person can consume during a single mall trip."

Farron raised their eyebrows. "First, don't think you can hide from me, coffee cake. I've seen you nodding along to our music on multiple occasions. I bet you have all of Angie's dance moves memorized too. Second, you really are obsessed with Cool Beans, aren't you? Management must love you."

Cora scoffed, possibly a little too bitterly, and she focused even harder on her porridge instead of the thought of Farron watching her. "Hardly. And can you really call me obsessed? You were competing with me too."

"Yeah, but not because I love my job, or whatever your reasoning is. It was just something to break the monotony—and your fake customer service personality."

Cora glared at Farron, but there wasn't much heat behind it. "I'll have you know that my personality is entirely genuine."

Farron smirked, but it didn't seem as strong as before, especially when it sat under their sunken, bloodshot eyes. "Whatever you say, coffee cake. Anyway, it was fun competing with you. Plus, I kind of liked having a cute girl stare at me all day."

Cora's mouth opened for a retort that never came, then closed so she could clear her throat. It was a few more seconds before she finally found her voice, along with words to go with it. "That's...that was... I wasn't staring."

As embarrassed as she was, Cora didn't mind her temporary discomfort at the sight of Farron's smile widening.

"Oh, really?" Farron rested their tattooed arm next to their instant noodles and propped up their chin. "Are you saying you didn't like what you saw?"

"I mean..." Cora's eyes darted towards Fruitastic's storefront. While the bright orange and green theme was blinding, the alternative view was Farron's toned bicep. "There...there are other things in the store too, you know."

"So there was another reason you would look at Fruitastic for extended periods of time?"

Cora's heart jumped in the middle of its racing. Had she been that obvious? "Of course. I was...surveying the enemy."

Farron hummed thoughtfully. "And since I was the enemy, is that just a fancy way of saying you were checking me out?"

"No!" Cora spun back towards Farron, as if facing them would prove her innocence. "Not that you're ugly or anything. Not at all. I mean—"