Chapter Text
Delia sat at her desk tapping her pen mindlessly against her notebook. It was no use. She had seven days until her last final exam, and four days until her massive term paper was due, and she just…couldn’t concentrate. Her room, her whole flat, actually, felt like an endless pit of distractions.
She’d spent two hours this morning making breakfast, then cleaning up after breakfast, then deciding that now was a great time to reorganize the spice drawer because she hadn’t been able to find the garlic powder for breakfast, then researching a spice Val had bought that she’d never heard of, then looking up recipes using that spice because it sounded delicious, then planning a dinner from the recipes she’d found. All of which was infinitely more pleasant than sitting and doing the work she had to do, and none of which she had time for.
This was the one time this week she had the entire day off. She needed to make the most of it.
She sighed as she stared at her closet, feeling her palms start to itch with a desire to re-organize all of her clothing by colour. Why couldn’t she ever be motivated to do things around the house when she didn’t have any work to do?
No, there was nothing else for it. She needed to get out of here. She ran through the options in her head. Campus was too far away. The local library never had any tables available. She’d be just as distracted at friends’ houses. Maybe she should just go to Libby’s.
She’d holed herself up in the small local coffee shop & bakery for the week before her mid term exams, finding it a cosy, welcoming, well-lit space to work. She’d been remarkably productive there. The problem with Libby’s was that, while it lacked distractions, it had an endless array of financial temptations…none of which she could afford. Sitting there and smelling the delectable baked goods and knowing that she couldn’t buy any of them was a form of light torture.
But she needed to work, so she’d just have to order her usual tea and then exercise self-control.
As she packed up her bag to take with her, her mind wandered to Patsy, the redheaded barista that had been at Libby’s during her mid term studying. She’d been so nice to chat with at the end of a long day of memorization. She wondered if she still worked there. Maybe she’d be interested in chatting some more?
She shook her head. She didn’t have time for daydreams about unattainably attractive women who were probably straight anyway. The baked goods were temptation enough. She was going to Libby’s to get away from distractions and nothing was going to disturb her focus.
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Patsy turned to help the latest customer who’d appeared at the counter and almost dropped the cup she was holding.
She was back.
Dressed in jeans, a puffy jacket and an adorable beanie was the brunette who’d come and spent a week holed up in the shop several months ago. Delia.
Patsy gulped. They’d had such nice conversations over those seven days, and Patsy had become a bit...smitten. Once or twice she’d thought about asking if Delia wanted to perhaps chat more somewhere, but then she’d always been too nervous and scared. Delia seemed so unattainably cool and confident, and was probably straight anyway.
But then the brunette had simply…disappeared, and that gave Patsy the freedom to daydream a little. She’d imagine Delia coming back in one day and asking her out. Or, in her wilder dreams, she’d imagine confidently asking Delia out when the brunette stopped by to grab a tea one afternoon. All of these musings felt completely harmless because Patsy had honestly never expected to see her again. But now, Delia was here, in the flesh, standing across the counter looking expectantly at her. She watched as Delia’s brow furrowed slightly.
‘Ummm…are you alright?’
Snapping out of her stupor, Patsy realized that she’d just been standing there staring. Shit. Shit shit shit. This wasn’t how her daydreams had gone at all.
‘Yes. Sorry. I’m fine. I just…phased out for a moment.’ She placed the coffee she’d been holding down near the espresso machine and approached the counter. ‘I suppose I should say Welcome Back. I trust that your mid term exams went well.’
Delia’s eyebrows shot up and a brief look of shock shot through her eyes and for just a moment Patsy worried she’d said something wrong. But then a broad, beaming smile broke out across her face, and it was so beautiful Patsy couldn’t breathe for a moment.
‘Yes, they went very well, thank you for asking. I’m surprised you remembered. Now it’s final and term paper time, though, so I’m afraid I’m back for more.’
Patsy smiled, ‘Well, hopefully this can be just as productive a space for you as it was before. Would you like your usual? Earl Grey, heavy on the milk?’
Delia nodded happily.
‘Anything else?’
The brunette’s eyes flicked briefly to the case of baked goods, lingering for several seconds on the éclairs before she looked back up with a slightly sad smile and shook her head, ‘No. Just the tea.’
‘Why don’t you go get settled and I’ll bring it over to you once it’s steeped?’
Once Delia had walked over to one of the tables in the corner, Patsy set the tea steeping and ducked into the tiny kitchen to text Trixie.
SOS, Trix…she’s back!
Several moments later, the response came buzzing back.
Who?
Delia. The brunette from several months ago.
Good. Now you can stop being such a scaredy-cat and ask her out
What? No. I’ve already buggered everything up by being too awkward when she came in.
I’m sure you were just your normal self
I stared at her with my mouth open for 30 solid seconds
See? Normal.
Very funny. I need to go bring her her tea.
Ask her out while you’re at it.
Patsy rolled her eyes and slid her phone back in her pocket. That definitely wouldn’t be happening. Not today, at least.
She smiled and added a good portion of steamed milk to the tea. She remembered that Delia liked a very milky brew. Picking up the mug, she took a deep breath as she prepared to carry it over to where the brunette was working. Alright Patience, she thought to herself, be smooth.
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Delia watched Patsy walking back to the counter with a small smile. She knew she needed to focus. That was the entire point of being here. But as she sipped her tea and stared at her notes one thought kept running through her head over and over again. Patsy had remembered her.
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