» 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖: there's an easter egg at the very beginning: i had a really cringey wip with my friend in middle school (which will be posted in hot garbage eventually, don't worry), and one of the middleground protags was obsessed with coffee. this scene is actually in that story, and idk it made me really nostalgic and happy to put it here.
» 𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖: 8 / 10 / 20
» 𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕪: the really cliche coffee shop au, but in travis' pov this time. straight fluff.
» 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕤: 1146
. . .
"Venti java-chip Frap to go for... Asia! Asia?"
I placed the triple-shot caffeine bomb on the counter, and a girl bounced up to me.
"Yup, that's me. Thanks, darlin'."
The guy with her widened his eyes. "That thing's huge."
"No it's not. It's microscopic. I could drink three of these in ten minutes."
People-watching in Starbucks was about as exciting as my job got.
Before the guy could respond, the girl stopped in her tracks to spin around and squeal at another group of people in the store, rushing off. The guy looked at me with true pain in his eyes and nodded.
I returned the gesture, and before I could people-watch any further, my phone's alarm went off. I checked the timer's title - Katie - and felt my heart patter.
Squeezing past the other two baristas behind the counter, I reached for a grande cup and a Sharpie. I took out three jade citrus teabags and laid them off to the side as I pondered what to write on her cup this morning.
Now, normally, I would've written something small. You look great today, or You can accomplish anything, I believe in you, or When are you ever going to try the coffee? That's kinda the point of Starbucks.
But today, I felt different. Today, I felt like writing a quote.
It wasn't occasional that I chose to pull a favorite quote of mine, but some days I felt bolder than others. Katie may have been just a customer, but we'd known each other for the year and a half she'd been coming. Every morning at nine, she'd walk in and ask for her jade citrus tea and blueberry scone. About a month in, I knew her order by heart and had it ready by the time she walked in. True, it shortened our interaction sometimes, but in our year of small talk I'd learned that she swung by on her way to the plant nursery she worked at. I didn't want to keep her longer than necessary.
Well, yes, I did.
But I was nothing if not a gentleman.
Once, I wrote an excerpt from one of my favorite poets, and I'd fretted that I went too far.
Were there a day without your smile, I would surely be lost. - A.R. Asher
Was that too much? She didn't think so.
Though I considered myself flirty in nature, Katie rendered me bumbling and lacking the right words. She walked into the shop, and I lost all sense of eloquence. That didn't mean I wasn't an irresistible master of wooing to her, but I couldn't form the words verbally.
So, I wrote on her cup.
"Katie almost here?" One of the newer baristas, Natalie, grinned at me as I checked my phone.
I shook my head. "Three minutes. That's enough time to steep the tea."
"You know how long she likes it steeped?" she laughed. "That's creepy."
Maybe.
I didn't care.
"What's creepy is that he pays for it," Evan pointed out, and Natalie gaped at me.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Has for the past two months."
The imagery of Katie's emerald eyes dwelt in my head as I shook my head at the two. I searched for the best-looking scone to put in the oven, and I then turned to prep the teabags. I had yet to write something on her cup.
I didn't know what I wanted to say today.
The clock on the wall read two past nine. Every tick of the second hand lead me closer to her soft brown curls, her gentle but goading smile. It was impossible for me to decipher what she thought of me, because sometimes she would quip sarcastically, and sometimes she would be blushing and silent.
They were all good signs, though.
My heart raced as I considered what to write. What if I... nah.
But what if?
Uncapping the Sharpie, I etched my neat handwriting into the top of the cup so it wouldn't be covered by the sleeve. I forced my hands to steady as I finished the last figure and, finally, poured hot water and the bags into it.
I could do this.
Ding!
The bell at the door sounded as the girl in mom jeans and double braids entered. Her eyes immediately found mine, and she beamed.
Wow.
"Order for... Kathleen?" I pretended to inspect the cup's name, pushing forward her scone in the process.
She giggled - a light, careless laugh that never ceased to make my mind swim - and propped her arms on the counter. Leaning in, she whispered, "Call me Kathleen again and I'll find a different Starbucks."
"You wouldn't."
"I would."
A grin broke across my face as I scoffed. "I make the best tea around. You wouldn't trade that for your pride."
"Watch me, Stoll." Her nose crinkled, and I thought in that moment that I may have just died.
"Besides, you wouldn't get my special messages on your cup somewhere else," I started, trying desperately to keep the nervous edge off my voice.
She raised an eyebrow and said, "Who says I like your special messages?" as she turned the cup in her hands.
In attempt to keep my mind from whirring anxiously, I muttered back, "You say."
"If you think these cup messages are good, then check out my morning texts..?" Katie's monotone reading of the note quickly formed into a question as she darted her eyes up.
Her eyes were ineffable; the air left my lungs when she looked at me.
"You gave me your number?"
"You aren't putting it in your phone yet?" I joked back, hoping it masked my fleeting hope.
Katie's rosy cheeks were normally lifted up, and her freckles normally danced across her cheeks with joy.
But today - oh, today.
Today, her vivacious energy showcased tenfold. A pinker tinge on her face, her lips formed the heart-stopping smile I'd grown to be so attached to.
"I'll do that."
I felt like I knew her so well. We'd chatted for brief moments each day, but I'd learned so much about her. I knew that she drove a ten-minute loop out of her way to come to this Starbucks, I knew that she grew up in southern New Hampshire, I knew that her life in New York had become her near-dream one.
And now, I knew that she liked me back.
Smirking, I nodded and motioned to the handful of people behind her. "Move along, I've got more important people to serve."
"Doubt it."
She got me there.
As she flourished out of the shop, my heart finally returned to a regular pace and my brain cleared. I had no clue where that sudden burst of confidence came from, because it always fled when she was around. But not today.
My phone buzzed.
I'll be waiting for that morning text.
