CROSSPOSTS |FROM MY AO3|

FOUR TIMES ALEX NOTICED ELIZA AND ONE TIME SHE NOTICED HIM | HAMILTON

1)

"Alexander, where are you?" Alex checks his phone to recieve a harried voice-mail from his ever-infuritating roommate, Aaron Burr. Seeing as he's studying law while Alex is majoring in English with an American History minor, it's a given that they have little patience for each others' interests. And the legalistic Aaron would most definately not approve of the fact that Alexander is currently on the roof of a dorm room reading a book instead of studying. He's not supposed to be on the dorm room roof, but then again, nobody's supposed to do anything around here.

He texts Aaron the location of the first coffee place that pops into his mind- a locally owned, ethically sourced (says his best friend and lab partner Angelica), cafe called the Musain. He's never actually been there, just knows that Angelica has a friend- Ep something- who goes there for a social justice club that Alexander would look into, except for the fact that he has literally no spare time. Hopefully this will alleviate any suspicion on Burr's part, and he can go back to reading his book in peace.

It goes south when Aaron texts him back telling him that he's been asked to pick him up from wherever he is. Probably some professor found out about the seventeen overdue library books or something. Which means that Alexander has to get moving right now, or else Burr will arrive at the Musain to discover absolutely no Alexander. And probably call the cops. Or the university security. Or Angelica's friend's friend's boyfriend, who's a little famous in these parts for punching a teacher in the face after said teacher made a sexist comment or something. Okay, maybe that's a little too far. Burr probably has no idea who that even is, but Alex's mind has a tendancy to jump to the worst-case scenario.

The sign read Musain and it seems to be a regular coffee shop full of regular students catching up with friends or working. Alex steps inside and goes to the front to order the most caffeinated item he can see, and

Oh crap.

In Alexander's nineteen years of life, which included one very awkward crush on Angelica (that was a long time ago, back in high school), and one very awkward relationship with his good friend John Laurens (that was also a long time ago, back in freshman year), nobody has ever captured Alex's attention the way the cafe barista did.

She's short (still taller than him, but he's aware that he's absolutely tiny), with long black hair, brown eyes, and a smile that lights up the entire room. Alex's brain takes one second to realize that he's acting like somebody in the dumb romance novels that Angelica's little sister's girlfriend- geez, everyone he knows he seems to know by way of Angelica- likes to read.

Then his brain continues the monologue of oh-crap-she's-hot. He doesn't even notice that he's at the front of the line, and said barista- the nametag reads Eliza- is asking him worriedly what he would like, and is he okay?

"Espresso?" He replies, brain frazzled.

"Um," she replies, looking a little uncomfortable. How long has Alex been standing there? "That'll be 5 dollars." He wordlessly pulls a bill out of his purse (she gives it back, pointing out that that was a ten dollar bill, which further embarasses Alexander, who has to search through his wallet for the correct amount of money) and stumbles over to a table to wait for his coffee (and his insufferable roommate/friend/archnemesis).

2)

Alex finds himself coming back to the Musain. The coffee was really good, the atmosphere was nice, it had working heating (unlike some other coffee places he could mention), it wasn't usually too loud, and a million other reasons he'd think of later.

It wasn't because of the cute barista, Eliza. No, definately not. No way.

He walks up to the register, manages not to freeze when Eliza smiles at him and takes his order (espresso, as per usual), and sits down at a little table, turning on his earbuds to block out the sound of a large group of students at the corner table muttering and yelling at each other. He pulls out his laptop to work on his essay, but he's distracted yet again by Eliza, who is really really pretty.