Work Text:
There was a tiny coffee shop on the corner down the street from her office. Most people didn’t know about it as it was tucked away between two much bigger stores, both built up with name-brands and sleek and modern store fronts, meanwhile, the coffee shop kept its old coziness. It only had a few tables and was run by an elderly woman that Katya had known for years. Her father owned a florist shop a block away which Katya took over when he died a few years back, but she was always helping him even before then and visited the coffee shop frequently, so she’d known the old woman for a while. His death was sudden and her brother and sister both had jobs which kept them further from home, so it was natural that she took over the flower shop. She already knew how the business was run and she always had an eye for color and design.
It was a sunny and clear day when Katya found herself walking down the street towards the coffee shop – she was on her lunch break and her old friend Matthew who also had worked alongside her father, kept watch of the store, taking orders and such. Katya walked into the café and saw one person huddled in a corner table, headphones plugged into the laptop they were typing away at.
“Hello Tanya!” Katya called out when she walked into the shop, expecting to see the old woman sitting in here usual spot at the counter in the front of the store, but this time it seemed she was in the back in the kitchen. Katya walked up to the counter and dug through her purse for some change to order her coffee.
Small coffee with cream, no sugar. The same thing she had been getting for months now, every day. Everything in the store was great but Katya was a creature of habit.
She heard footsteps approaching her, but when she looked up, she was not greeted with a shock of wild, white hair and the deeply wrinkled face of Tanya, but a young woman with long brown hair and sparkling green eyes. Definitely not Tanya. Katya felt her heart flutter a little bit and her cheeks go pink.
The woman smiled at her and asked for her order, but Katya was completely tongue-tied. Recognition sparked in the other woman’s eyes though.
“Oh! Are you Katya?” she asked, and Katya nodded her head. “My great-aunt told me your order.”
With that she grabbed an old mug and went to work on her coffee. Katya watched her as she started up the coffee machine to make a fresh pot and grabbed a small jug of cream from the little refrigerator they had built into the counter. She did it quickly and Katya’s eyes followed her as she bopped around the little area, her hair and dress flouncing as she went.
“Small coffee, cream, no sugar,” the woman beamed at Katya as she handed her the cup. Katya dug out her money and handed it to the woman, her hands shaking a little bit it as she did. Oh she could barely even look at the woman, she hadn’t been this nervous in years.
Katya took her cup and ran off before the woman could give her the change. The woman tried to call out to her but she was out the door too soon. She walked down the street and back to her shop, the bell ringing as she opened the front door. Matthew stepped out from the back ready to greet a customer when he saw her instead.
“You’re back already? Don’t you usually stay in the coffee shop for lunch?” Matthew asked her. He was always so soft spoken and polite, Katya always figured if she were ever going to fall in love with a man, it would probably be Matthew, but seeing as how that was never going to happen, he remained a cherished friend.
Katya’s face got even redder at his comment and she looked down, noticing she held in her hands a mug.
Oh no, I’m going to have to return that, you’re not supposed to leave the coffee shops with mugs, she thought. Just when she thought she couldn’t get more embarrassed.
“I panicked,” Katya said to Matthew, looking around the shop quickly to make sure there were no customers listening in. She then told Matthew all about the beautiful woman she encountered at the coffee shop. He listened closely with a small smile on his face. Katya knew he wanted to laugh at her ridiculousness but was too nice not to.
The next day around the same time Katya took a deep breath. She had cleaned the mug she accidentally stole and knew she was going to have to return it or the guilt would eat her alive. So instead she was going to have to run the risk of running into the beautiful young woman again and making a fool of herself even more. She waved goodbye to Matthew who was currently helping a man pick out flowers for an anniversary and made her way back down the street.
She took a deep breath and pushed open the familiar door to the coffee shop. She spotted the young woman from yesterday leaning on the counter. The shop was empty and she had a bored expression on her face as she stared at seemingly nothing. Her hair was tied up today in a bun and wore a plaid flannel to match the chillier weather of the day. Next to the counter Katya noticed the little blackboard which Tanya usually wrote the days’ special or cryptic little fortunes, but today it said something else. “Your barista today is: Gay and Single. We recommend: You give her your number.”
Katya couldn’t help the giggle that fell from her lips and the woman turned her head to her, her face brightening immediately. Katya met her gaze and her blush returned in full force as she stepped up to the counter.
“Um, sorry I took this yesterday,” Katya said, holding out the mug from yesterday. The woman grabbed it, finally breaking eye contact.
“Oh don’t worry about it, people do that all the time,” she said hurriedly shoving it onto a nearby shelf with all the other ones. Katya’s eye caught on the blackboard again and when the woman turned back around she noticed where Katya was looking. She blushed and laughed a little.
“My aunt was in here earlier and seems to think I’ve been single for a little too long. I guess she’s given up on subtle hints,” the woman said. They two women looked at each other again and Katya still couldn’t find the words but hoped the other woman understood what she wanted to say when the woman spoke again.
“Erzsébet,” she blurted out, taking Katya by surprise. “That - that’s my name.”
Katya’s face softened and smiled.
“That’s a very pretty name,” she said softly, their eyes still locked. The other woman blushed even more and looked away.
“One small coffee, cream, no sugar?” she asked.
“Make that two, for here,” Katya responded. Erzsébet looked confused for a second then understood. Katya started to look into her purse to pay for the coffees when Erzsébet stopped her.
“It’s on the house,” she said. “Go take a seat.”
Katya walked to a table in the corner and waited a few moments for the barista to join her. Erzsébet came over a few minutes later, laden with a tray of two mugs of coffee and some scones from the display case. She placed the tray down on the table and handed Katya her coffee and sat down opposite of her.
“So, why’d you start working here?” Katya started and Erzsébet looked at her a little guilty.
“Well I just moved in with my aunt a few months ago and she kept mentioning a pretty young woman that stops by every day, and well, I had to see for myself,” Erzsébet said. Katya laughed at that.
“And is she as pretty as Tanya said?” Katya asked, trying to sound innocent.
“More,” Erzsébet said simply.
When Katya returned to the shop two hours later than usual and a dreamy look on her face, Matthew couldn’t bring himself to complain and simply greeted her with a soft chuckle.
And three years later, just an hour after Katya and Erzsébet exchanged their wedding vows, Tanya would tell anyone that listened, that this was all her doing.