Geoff is intently watching his co-worker make coffee for the third time today. Today his job was to watch and learn, which sits with him pretty well. However, he also has to take orders and write names on cups. Now, Geoff is kinda awful at spelling in general and he's not sure how names will go. Since, it's a Sunday evening it's pretty slow and Geoff has the opportunity to settle into his new role.
He looks up as a pretty girl walks in. He's gay, but he can still appreciate the way skin stretches over bones to create beauty on women. He steps up to the counter and smiles at her.
"Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get ya?" Geoff relayed the script he was told earlier. He twisted the end because he thought that, as a tall grown man, saying 'what can I get you?' would sound a little threatening. He was sure that the whole 'welcome to Starbucks' thing would go out the window in a few days, too.
The girl smiles and asks, "Can I get a chai latte, please?" Her voice was kinda cute and imagined if she sang, it would kinda sound like Amy Winehouse.
"What size?" Geoff asks, hand hovering over the cups, then tapping them and making it into a slight drums beat.
"Large, please." She giggles.
Geoff grabs a cup and flips it into the air, catching it with one hand making the girl smile and laugh a little. Smiling, he writes her order on the cup. "Someone's staying up late studying." He remarks, earning a nod and a lopsided smile from the girl. "Can I take the name of the pretty girl?" He jests, pen ready to write.
"Kerenza." She grins. Nobody has ever spelled her name correctly before, she always has fun with it.
"Kerenza?" Geoff repeats. "That's a pretty, if not hard to spell, name." He laughs nervously. He spells it out in his head and decides to commit it to cup. He shows it to her, "Is that right?" He asks, a little nervous.
Her mouth opened slightly, "Yeah! No one ever gets it." Geoff offers a smile again, handing to cup to his co-worker, Keith.
She hands over the exact change without Geoff having to say anything. He puts it in the cash register. "Thank you, if you wait at the end, your coffee will be ready shortly." He smiles. She takes more money out of her purse, Geoff is about to say something, but she puts the money in the tip jar. That had to be like five dollars. "Thank you very much, have a nice night studying." He salutes her, she does it back and moves to the end.
He turns back around to see Keith looking at him in disbelief. "What?" Geoff asks. Apparently Keith has already made the drink and given it to the girl, as he hears the door shut and she is no longer waiting at the end.
"That." Keith motions to the counter where the scene had taken place. "That was amazing! You have to do that with every customer we have. If you do, you'll get so many tips." Keith lunges towards the tips jar excitedly, "That had to be, what? Five dollars?" He asks, shuffling up the money in it.
Jen, the manager, comes out of the work room, just as Keith is putting the jar down. She has her coat over her arm and a smile on her face. "Time to leave, boys." She declares. Geoff checks his watch: 10:00. Sweet. Geoff goes to shuffle past Jen into the back to retrieve his things, but Keith has grabbed his arm.
"Jen!" Keith exclaims excitedly. "Geoff is great at customers! He got a five dollar tip!" Geoff just stands there awkwardly, watching his arm go up and down with Keith's over enthusiastic jumps. "Quick, how do you spell Kerenza?"
Jen glances at Geoff and he just shrugs at her. She decides to go along with it. "C?"
"No!" Keith exclaims. "Geoff got it right without asking or anything and he can make great conversation and he's so charismatic." Geoff isn't entirely sure where this is going, but he's not sure he wants to see it, so he gently tugs his arm away.
"Okay, Geoff. You man the counter from now on. Have a good night you two." She smiles, but Geoff knows she only said that so she could leave. While Keith is an... Interesting character, he sees himself being great friends with him.
"You too." Geoff mutters, getting his things. "Good night Keith." He smiles, walking out the door and driving his truck to Jawn's.
"Hey, bud. How was it?" Jawn asks from the kitchen, where he's making something.
Geoff hangs his coat on the cloak rack on the back of the door and slipping his shoes off, before walking into the kitchen and smelling chocolate. "It was pretty good actually. My new co-worker Keith is very excitable and boasted to Jen about me, which is nice." He smiles to himself.
"Boasted about you? What did you do?" Jawn laughs, pulling a mug out of the microwave, stirring it and handing it to Geoff. "It's hot chocolate." Jawn moves to put his hot chocolate in the microwave and heat it up.
"Thanks, man. Yeah, apparently I can spell names." Geoff laughs, taking a sip of the delicious drink and setting it down on the counter.
"You?" Jawn smirks. "Spelling? But you're like... Dyslexic." He laughs. It's true, while he doesn't actually have dyslexia, he can't spell for shit.
"Maybe I just have a knack for names." Geoff suggests, a smile on his face. "Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing, though, because Keith just grabbed my arm and started shouting in Jen's face about me." He laughs a little. "But, yeah, now I'm doing the talking to people thing instead of the coffee making thing, which works for me just fine." Geoff remarks.
Jawn nods, taking his drink out of the microwave. Geoff walks to the living room, Jawn close behind. They sit down on the sofa, Geoff crossing his legs underneath him and Jawn just sitting relatively normally. "I never asked about your plants." Geoff states. Jawn's apartment, soon to be their shared apartment, had a lot of green plants covering the windowsill that overlooked the city and some hills. The white walls matched nicely with the amount of green everywhere, seriously, plants smothered shelves, tables, cupboards, there was even a plant that hanged down from the ceiling.
"Well, I used to garden with my grandma. I guess, ever since she died, the plants made me feel closer to her." Jawn replies with a nostalgic smile plastered onto his face.
Geoff was about to say something about how sweet that was, but there was a knock at the door; specifically four. They both frown slightly at each other. Jawn answers the door and Geoff sees his eyebrows raise in surprise.
He hears a familiar voice ask, "Is Geoff here?" But the voice is watery, like, crying watery. He stands up, putting his drink on the table next to a jade green plant, and goes over to the door.
Geoff sees Jawn simply open the door wider and the body tumbles in in tears. He opens his arms as Awsten falls into them, sobbing. "Hey, buddy, what's going on?" Geoff asks, holding Awsten close to him.
"I couldn't do it." Awsten wails into his chest. Geoff hadn't seen Awsten like this in a while.
"What do you mean you couldn't do it? Couldn't do what?" Geoff asks softly, trying to decipher why there was a sobbing boy in his arms.
"Break up with him." Awsten whimpers softly. "I couldn't do it." His tears quieten as Geoff threads his fingers through Awsten's hair. He honestly doesn't know what to say, he's upset for sure, but he couldn't be upset at Awsten. "It's just— I saw him and he smiled at me and I just remember everything I love about him when he's with me." Awsten cries.
Geoff kisses his hair and leads him over to the sofa, they lie down and Awsten hugs Geoff tightly. "It's okay, Aws, it's okay." But it isn't okay, not for Geoff. His heart is aching and he doesn't know how to stop it. It's like a sharp pain in his chest every time he repeats what Awsten said. It's not okay and Geoff isn't sure it ever will be.

YOU ARE READING
Best + Bitter = Better
FanfictionI'm gonna pull a John Green, but I promise no one dies. Awsten and Geoff were roommates last year, so being roommates this year made sense. But, Awsten has a boyfriend now and Geoff doesn't know how to feel. How will it turn out when a feeling bub...