Chapter Text
Shauna was the one behind the counter the first day that Jackie entered the coffee shop. The moment she saw the blonde her eyes widened slightly in surprise. Although she didn’t know that yet, Jackie would never forget that first look of wonder that crossed Shauna’s eyes. It brought a feeling of butterflies in her stomach that she would always associate with the brunette.
“Hi!” Jackie greeted her cheerfully when she stepped up to the counter. It was a slow day, there were a few people on the booths by the wall and nobody in line.
“Coffee,” Shauna whispered.
“Uh, yeah,” Jackie chuckled, “I’d like one, please.”
“Um, sorry,” Shauna quickly shook her head and her cheeks caught a rosy color, “I mean, welcome to Yellowjackets Coffee, what can I get you?”
Jackie was quiet for a moment. She looked like she was trying to put together a very easy puzzle that she simply didn’t want to be done with. She wasn’t studying the menu either, she was staring straight at Shauna, her alert eyes and a nervous smile. “I’d like a caramel latte, please,” Jackie finally replied with a bright smile.
“Sure! Uh, can I get your name?” Shauna asked her, suddenly incapable of keeping eye contact.
“Jackie,” the blonde replied from across the counter.
“Okay, it’ll be just one minute.”
One minute was then spent in Shauna running to the small kitchen hiding behind a thin wall that separated it from the main space of the coffee shop and gave the employees an illusion of privacy to ignore or talk shit about the clients. Or, in this case, have an emotional breakdown about them.
“Help!” Shauna whisper-yelled to the best of her abilities as she grabbed Taissa’s apron desperately.
“Whoa, what happened?” the taller girl asked, genuinely worried. She was used to working with Shauna and this reaction was far from the norm.
“Girl,” Shauna said through gritted teeth as a way of explanation.
“Uh, good? Did you take her order?”
Shauna scoffed loudly, and Taissa had to place her hand on the other girl’s arms for fear she was about to genuinely break into tiny pieces in the kitchen and she’d have to be the one to pick up the broom.
“It’s not just any girl, Tai,” Shauna explained, “She has this blonde hair that falls in soft waves around her face like… and her eyes! Did you know eyes could be so pretty? And she smiled! Oh my God, Tai, she smiled at me. How am I supposed to make coffee now?!”
Taissa bit her lip hard to control her laughter. Shauna was one of the most level-headed people she has ever met. She was usually unphased by long hours, busy work, and rude clients. In fact, the worst clients were usually better in Shauna’s hands. Tai would actually bite back at them, but there was something unspeakable hiding deep in Shauna’s eyes that somehow helped her to handle assholes thirsty for coffee as if it were nothing. It could be terrifying. It was Taissa’s favorite thing about her.
But then there was Shauna’s usual panic when a pretty girl passed by the shop. This wasn’t new. Nothing special, Taissa was sure.
“Well, you better make her coffee, or else she’s just going to leave,” Taissa replied.
“Shit…” Shauna whispered, loosened her hold on Taissa’s apron, and went back to work in a little bit of a daze.
After Shauna somehow managed to make the best vanilla latte she could despite her trembling hands, Taissa’s mocking eyes in the back of her head, and Jackie’s perfectly smile waiting across the counter, she passed it with a small smile and said, “Here you go.”
“Thank you!” Jackie replied, accepted the cup of coffee, and started walking away with a spring in her step.
In an instant, Shauna closed her eyes tightly and searched her entire soul for the strength necessary for what she was about to do. She felt like she was on the edge of some precipice, like her next step could determine her entire life. She was, of course, being slightly more dramatic than necessary. “Have a nice day!” She called out after the blonde girl that stopped in her tracks by the door and turned around, charming smile still in place, “Come back soon.” Her voice, despite her best efforts, turned more sincere than intended on that last addition.
“I think I will,” Jackie replied. Her tone had softened accordingly and she nodded.
“Good!” Shauna blurted out. “I mean, that, um, that would be good for, um, the business…”
It must have taken a great effort for Jackie not to burst out laughing, but she managed to leave the establishment without giving Shauna another chance to embarrass herself. Though she did send a wink on her way out the door, something Shauna spent the rest of the morning talking to Taissa about while the other girl rolled her eyes and swore it would never happen to her.
The afternoon shift was nothing short of an adventure for Lottie. Every minute she’d spent working at Yellowjackets Coffee had been an interesting experiment, and she had no way to measure if it was for better or for worse. There were pros and cons to every decision she took. Getting a job to just upset her parents? Good. Actually having to work and wear the apron with the obnoxiously cute bee logo? Not so much. Quitting her troubled mind with the warm embrace of an endless supply of coffee? Great. Feeling so restless her soul might burst out of her body if a new client doesn’t walk through the door at any moment due to a, possible, excess in caffeine? Probably not that good. Luckily, a blonde girl with a very polite smile stepped through the door right before Lottie’s soul could do anything too aggressive.
“Good afternoon,” Laura Lee said while walking up to the counter.
“Hi, what can I get you?” Lottie asked and drummed her fingers on the counter while she waited for an answer.
“I’ll have an iced tea, please.”
All at once, Lottie’s finger’s stilled, and they hovered over the counter while her mind processed the word. “But this is a coffee shop,” she blurted out.
“Oh? You don’t… you don’t have iced tea?”
“No. I mean, yes, we do,” Lottie frowned and shook her head trying to focus, “but why not coffee?” She hadn’t even noticed she had lowered her voice almost to a whisper. She didn’t love her job but she didn’t want to lose it for judging the client’s coffee order… but what if someone didn’t order coffee at all?
Laura Lee leaned in closer to the counter and also talked in a hushed tone, as if she was revealing a great secret. “You know, technically, coffee is a drug,” she said.
“Is it?” Lottie replied.
She had instinctively also leaned over the closer to better listen to that very shocking secret from the other girl. Part of her wanted, more than anything, to laugh in this stranger’s face. But a much bigger part of her couldn’t help but feel fascinated. There was not a hint of playfulness on the blonde’s voice, she was completely serious but, for someone standing inside a drug store according to her standards, she was surprisingly free of judgment. There was just so much to unravel there that made Lottie feel a little dizzy. Though, on second thought, it might have been the fact that without noticing the two of them had moved a little too close for two women meeting for the first time.
“Yeah,” Laura Lee sighed and moved a step back from the counter as discreetly as possible.
“Okay…” Lottie imitated her movements and tried to shake herself out of the unexpected daze this unpredictable client got her in. “I’ll get you your iced tea. Can I get your name?”
“Laura Lee, and yours?”
Once again Lottie was thrown off by this girl. It was perhaps one too many things throwing her off balance coming from a single girl in such a short period of time. “Lottie,” she replied as confidently as she could, but…
“Thank you very much, Lottie,” Laura Lee called after her.
Lottie worked on the iced tea more carefully than with any other drink she had prepared since she worked at the coffee shop, all three days she had been there. She did her best, despite feeling like her legs were trembling for some strange reason that she guessed wasn’t just the increased levels of caffeine in her blood. When she was done, she watched entranced as Laura Lee walked out of the shop, not without waving at her goodbye.
“Hey Lottie,” a different voice called out from right beside her.
“Jesus! Misty! You scared me,” Lottie exclaimed and put a hand over her heart.
Misty observed all her actions carefully and grinned happily. “Oh you look smitten!” she said, standing on her tiptoes to look Lottie in the eyes.
“Nobody says that, Misty,” Lottie scoffed and avoided meeting Misty’s eyes. Smitten? She couldn’t be smitten.
“Did you notice a cute girl?” Misty asked, trailing after Lottie across the coffee shop.
Her words made Lottie stop in her tracks, so suddenly Misty crashed against her, but she barely noticed. “I think she noticed me, actually,” Lottie mumbled. She spent the rest of the day so lost in her thoughts she barely noticed Misty gushing about the mysterious pretty girl, but she was thankful for the energetic blonde that gladly picked up for her lack, which was well justified, for once. Kind of.
It was actually a busy morning. There hasn’t been a lull in the traffic of new clients since they opened up pretty much. Tai was just about ready to quit her entire job and first enjoy the dream of insulting every person there in the coffee with her. It was just one of those days where she had given up being polite and the rest of the world had to deal with her doing the bare minimum of staying civil enough to keep her job. Though she was convinced the manager would forgive her a little murderous rampage or two, just because the entire establishment would fall down to pieces without her there. She wasn’t the best at dealing with people, but the fact that they weren’t entirely bankrupt was in great part thanks to her.
Taissa was just not in the mood to deal with any clients that arrived thinking they were special for some reason or another. The attitude of the next person in line was almost enough to make her want to rip her head off, but it also turned out that Van’s words had an innate ability to throw her off her rhythm.
“Hey Tai, what’s up?” the red-head girl smiled warmly and rested her forearms on the counters, one of Tai’s pet peeves nonetheless.
“How do you know my name?” Taissa blurted out with a frown, instead of all the other thoughts running through her mind, some purely professional, some purely rude.
Van nodded at her and answered, “Nametag.”
“Right… what do you want?”
“Are you always this grumpy?” Van said, her words dancing as she laughed.
“Are you always this annoying?” Taissa rolled her eyes. She hated when clients thought they were being so friendly and special and were only wasting her time. And yet…
“Only to pretty girls,” Van replied, lowering her voice slightly and leaning forward just a little more.
“Bad technique,” Tai told her in a whisper that was meant to be mocking.
“Then why are you smiling, Tai?”
Caught red-handed, Tai strengthened her posture and frowned. “Your order?” she asked coldly.
“I’ll take a plain latte, thank you,” Van said with an easy smile, and she finally pushed herself off the counter. “Oh, and my name is Van, as I’m sure you were dying to know.”
Taissa’s scoff was heard on every corner of the coffee shop. The fact that she messed up once while making Van’s coffee, and twice on the next orders, that was just a mere coincidence. But nothing could have stopped Shauna from finding a moment to slide beside her while Taissa prepared a new order and asked, “So? Who was that?”
“Who?” Taissa groaned, pretending she had no idea what her friend was talking about.
“You know!” Shauna smiled, “The redhead that made you all blushy.”
Tai rolled her eyes profusely and chose to ignore the last comment. “Van,” she replied.
“Oh… and who’s Van?”
“Just Van,” Tai replied, “Now shut up, I’m making coffee.” But Shauna, obviously, did not shut up about it.
“Hi! Welcome to Yellowjackets Coffee! What can I get you today?” Misty’s cheerful voice was the first thing that greeted the clients of the afternoon shift as soon as they stepped inside the coffee shop, and Natalie wasn’t the exception. Misty acted like her soul depended on giving the best service to all the clients, and she did it all with a genuine smile on her face. Natalie, on the other hand, just wanted a coffee and as little inconvenience as possible. Though, if she were to be honest with herself, she should have been accustomed to expecting the complete opposite from what she wanted.
“Hey, um,” she awkwardly greeted the blonde employee with a big smile and slowly approached the counter.
“Oh! Let me guess,” Misty interrupted her, “Mocha frappuccino, right?”
“What?”
“No? Then what about a caramel macchiato? I highly recommend it,” Misty nodded enthusiastically.
“Uh, it’s okay, I just-”
“A tea latte? You don’t seem the type but I’ll make it for you, no problem.”
“Oh my God, can you stop?” Natalie snapped, even if an impressed chuckle escaped her lips. “Do you sample every drink you make?”
“I’m working on it. The manager, Ben, told me I should be kept on one drink per shift. Lottie gets a tiny little edgy when she has too much coffee and he’s a little concerned about me. He really cares, you know? He says he doesn’t want to find out how I am with too much caffeine on me. I think he just has a sweet spot for me. So, I’ve kept my word! I always do, you know?”
The answer took Natalie by surprise. She frowned, and tried to make sense of it, which wasn’t an easy task considering the amount of information that was just dropped on her lap from a girl she has never met before. She had been trying to make fun of this girl and instead ended up more intrigued than she wished she was.
“Can you… can I get just one black coffee?” Natalie sighed, wishing more than anything that this girl would just take her money without having to exchange any more words.
“Really?” Misty scrunched up her nose in distaste. “Is that how you choose to live your life?”
“Um, fucking excuse me?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’ll get you your dead people’s coffee, I don’t mind,” Misty said. “Now, what’s your name, my sour and bitter friend?”
Natalie rubbed her face with her hand and wondered how a single girl in a coffee shop stole most of the energy she had for the day in a single conversation. “Nat,” she replied with a sigh. She had a feeling she was going to regret this.
“Well, my name is Misty, and it is so nice to meet you! I’ll get you your coffee and then my full schedule for when you can find me again here, okay?”
Misty left Natalie waiting by the counter with an expression of great concern. Then she passed by Lottie, who was engrossed in her phone, but managed to say, “Misty, behave.”
“I’m behaving!” Misty whispered, scandalized by the ridiculous suggestion that she would do anything her job didn’t require from her. Though, if improving a client’s taste was her mission in this world, who was Misty to resist her own fate. The fact that Natalie grimaces and nearly gagged when she received what was definitely not just a black coffee, well that was just the first step in the right direction!