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It’s a slow day when She first comes in, and Chris is bored, which is what inspires him to try it.
The setup at Frogs’ Coffee and Tea is such that Nursey takes orders at the register and grabs pastries from the case before sending customers down to the other end of the counter where they can grab their drinks from Chris. (This arrangement is always the same- the one time they had switched jobs it had taken 3 hours to clean up the mess.)
When Frogs’ is busy, it’s all Chris can do to not spill scalding milk all over the floor, let alone make his lattes and mochas look elegant. However, the first day that he sees Her, it’s 2:00 on a Tuesday and for whatever reason they haven’t had a customer in over an hour. That, combined with the fact that his first thought when he sees Her is omg so pretty , is why he attempts swirl a delicate flower into the top of her hazelnut latte. He slides it across to the counter to Her and smiles proudly.
She smiles back, but when she looks down at the latte, her smile freezes and she cocks her head to the side confusedly. Chris looks down at the latte again and has to admit it looks more like a blobby sun than a flower. He cringes a little inwardly, but when he glances back up at her, he finds no hint of disdain or mocking on her face. She’s still smiling, a little softer now, and she simply says, “Thank you,” before taking her drink and heading out.
Chris gazes after her stupidly until Nursey comes down and pokes him.
+
Chris is finishing a drink for the last in a long line of customers, relieved to finally be getting a break, when he hears the jangle of the door opening once again and inwardly groans. However, when he glances up and sees Her again, this time surrounded by a few other people -all, including Her, wearing Samwell Volleyball sweatshirts- his annoyance transforms into butterflies in his stomach.
Instead of looking up at the menu, they are all looking straight at him.
“You’re right, Farmer, he is cu-” one of Her companions says in a loud whisper, cut off by Her elbow and dissolving into giggles.
She - Farmer - rolls her eyes and shoves her friends toward a table before striding up to the counter and placing her order: the same as before, hazelnut latte.
She clearly remembers him (??!!) but he doesn’t want her to forget or think he isn’t interested, so he tries the latte art again, this time just the fern-leaf pattern he’s seen on so many cups on the internet (simpler is better, right?).
It comes out looking like a tipping-over Christmas tree, but he smiles as he slides it over to her anyway. She grins big, knowing, when she sees it, but still only says, “Thank you”, and joins her friends at the table.
“What was that all about?” comes a voice from behind him, and Chris turns to see Dex, Frogs’ delivery guy leaning against the counter next to a box of espresso beans.
“Seriously,” adds Nursey as he wanders down and throws his arm around Dex’s shoulders and leans against him. (Chris doesn’t miss the way Dex slides his hand into the back pocket of Nursey’s jeans.)
Chris explains, which elicits awws from Nursey, self-proclaimed romantic (“but, like, a chill one, Chowder”), and eye rolls from Dex, who asks, “Why don’t you just write your number on the cup?”
Before he can answer, Nursey shoves his phone into Chris’ face. Chris pulls back enough to focus on the screen, which shows YouTube videos on how to do fancy latte art.
Chris glances over at Farmer, only to find her looking back. They both smile. Chris turns back to Nursey.
“Text me those links, will you?”
+
He practices during every shift, when it’s not busy, and he thinks he’s getting better, but it’s slow going. Farmer comes in a couple times a week and every time, he serves her the best he can do- flowers, faces, suns, bunnies.
+
“Hey, Chowder, man, come check this out,” Dex says one day. “I found it through a Buzzfeed article.”
He shows Chris his phone. It’s an Instagram account called cutebaristafails. The bio reads, “He’s cute and he’s trying”. The pictures, when Chris scrolls through them, are all undoubtedly his lattes, specifically the ones he’s made for Farmer.
His first thought is to be hurt, or embarrassed, but Nursey points out that Farmer doesn’t seem to be making of fun of him- she clearly thinks his tries at latte art are adorable and is charmed by the fact that he tries to make these creations for her. Her pictures never show him, his name, or the name of the shop, and are always zoomed in so that the shop can’t be identified by the background.
After thinking about basically nothing else for 24 hours, Chris decides that what he actually feels is excited - his crush thinks he’s cute and he’s impressed her enough that she made an instagram account!
This feeling increases when, one day, he sees that Dex has commented on cutebaristafails’ latest post. The picture is a wonky dog’s face that could also be the state of Texas, depending on how you look at it. The caption reads, “Don’t know exactly what it’s supposed to be, but #hearteyesemoji”.
Dex’s comment reads, “I think it’s supposed to be a way for the barista to get your attention because he likes you.” (Chris will shove Dex hard for that later.)
Best of all, cutebaristafails has replied, “haha if that’s true then it’s working!!”
+
Chris does worry, though. He needs to be seriously impressive, not just goofily impressive, or else when he does ask her out (which he will, he totally will), she might think it’s a joke.
So he picks up extra shifts so he can practice more. He takes a class at a coffee shop the next town over. Gradually, he’s able to do intricate designs- swans, human faces, dragons, classic works of art, and memorably, on Dex’s birthday, a penis.
(Nursey had laughed so hard that he’d knocked over a whole tray of danishes.)
He’s gratified to see that his hard work is paying off when cutebaristafails posts a picture of his latest creation for her, a fierce tiger, with the caption, “I don’t know if I can call these fails anymore, he’s getting really good!”
Dex comments, “just change the account to cutebaristaflirts because that’s what he’s doing,” and when Chris sees it, he throws a measuring cup at him.
(But the name of the account does change.)
+
When Chris realizes that Valentine’s Day falls on a Wednesday, one of the days Farmer regularly comes in, he starts working on his most intricate project yet.
When he slides the drink across the counter that day, there, swirled in milk and espresso, is his phone number. Farmer’s eyes light up and she grins bigger than she ever has before. This time, she doesn’t just say thank you and leave.
+
Later that night, a new post appears on cutebaristaflirts’ feed:
(If you can’t see the photo: A picture of a latte with an intricate heart swirled on the top and a caption that says, “first date” with a string of heart emojis after it.)