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It was her third coffee of the day and Liv wasn’t planning on slowing down.
Normally, she would have gotten her drink, gone home, and spent the rest of her day with her cat Otto. But today was different. Today the barista working was adorable, and quite easy to fluster.
So, Liv stayed and flirted a bit.
And then she stayed even longer, and flirted a lot.
It started as a one off thing, a stupid little pun. A stupid little “if you were coffee, you’d be an espresso, because damn you’re fine,” just to see what your reaction would be.
In her defence, she hadn’t expected you to drop the pot of coffee you had been holding.
It turns out, watching you get all red and blushy while you sputtered out a reply was fun, and so, Liv decided to stay and relax for once.
Taking a seat at the counter, she watched you scramble to clean up the mess. She chuckled a bit, and gave you a unapologetic “Sorry sweetie,” and a tip for your troubles, but she couldn’t say she felt too bad about it.
For a while, she just sat and worked on her laptop, taking the occasional break to watch you work. It was fairly uneventful compared to her usual routine, but the way you moved around the familiar cafe was almost enchanting, and she couldn’t tear her eyes off of you.
It was obvious that you enjoyed your work, judging by the way you moved around the small shop. It was like you memorize the entire layout, and you moved with a certain grace that surprised Liv, based on the fact that you dropped a whole lot of coffee in response to her jokes.
Ok coffee number two Liv got your name. You weren’t wearing a nametag, so she decided to get creative.
“What would you recommend?”
You had glanced at her nervously. All of the other customers you had smiled at naturally, so she could tell something about her put you off.
“Personally, I like the iced pumpkin spice. But if you like hot drinks, you can’t go wrong with the flat white.”
You couldn’t seem to make eye contact with her, despite how hard she tried to catch your eye. Your eyes danced nervously around the coffee shop, and you fiddled with your hands in front of you.
“Alright!” She smiled and rested her elbows on the counter in front of the till. “I’ll get one large dark roast, for Liv, and one large iced pumpkin spice for, what’s your name, sweetie?”
You sputtered in front of her, mumbling something about how ‘she doesn’t have to’ and what not. But after some slight reassurance, she got your name. She grinned and told you how beautiful it was, but before she could continue you had quickly moved to make the drinks.
By the time you were done it was the lunch rush, so Liv let you do your work as she sat at the counter again. Everything was fine until half an out later, when someone seemingly didn’t like the fact that you were out of the Pumpkin spiced drink Liv had bought you before.
“What do you mean you’re out?! I can see one right there.”
The man gestured to the drink you had been sipping on when you could.
“I’m sorry sir, but like I said, we are out of the Iced Pumpkin spice for today. If I can interest you in a similar drink, we have-“
He was getting up in your face now. “No! I came here for the Pumpkin spice drink, and if you have enough to selfishly make one for yourself you have enough to make one for me. Actually, now that I think about it, you’re stealing! By making that drink for yourself you’re stealing from the company. I demand you give me that drink or I will call the police on you!!”
“Sir, this drink was bought and paid for by a friend of mine. I am in no way stealing, and I think you need to leave before you cause a further scene. You’re holding up the line, and unless you want to order something I’m going to need to ask you to go.”
“No! I have the right to be in here, and I demand you give me my goddamn drink or I swear to god I will call the cops on you!!!”
“Sir, I can’t serve you anymore. Please-“
Before you could finish your reply, the main raised his hand and screamed a final “no!” You didn’t have time to react as it made contact to your cheek with a harsh slap , knocking your head to the side.
Before you could process what just happened, a mess of brown curly hair was standing in between you and the counter.
Liv had the man's shirt in her grip, and despite a huge difference in height, she looked intimidating to the angry customer.
“I think you need to leave before someone who’s job isn’t on the line decides they’ve had enough with you.”
She spoke calmly, and made eye contact with the man. “Because some of us here aren’t emotionally invested in this situation, and some of us could stand to get in a little fist fight. Honestly, I would take joy in personally wiping that grin off your face myself, but this is a nice place and I would hate to get blood on the floors, it would be a bother to clean it all up. So, why don’t you listen to the barista and get out before I mess up your nose, alright honey?”
After seeing that he was in serious danger of an ass beating, and realizing that Liv didn’t have to stay and smile politely like you did, the man sputtered something about crazy ladies and left the shop.
You were standing dumbly at the counter, holding your cheek where he had slapped you when Liv turned around. There was a red spot forming, and it would probably bruise later.
You weren’t hurt per say, just shocked at what happened. After a couple seconds, you shook it off and gave the next person in line a shaky smile. “Sorry about the wait ma’am, what can I get you?”
The woman fretted over your cheek momentarily before ordering herself a drink, and she ended up tipping you ten dollars so you couldn’t complain in the end. The rest of the customers came and went without issue, and a hour later you and Liv were alone in the shop again.
Liv had stayed back to let you deal with the rest of the lineup, but the second the last person left she came up to the counter.
“Are you ok?? That dude was an asshole, I’m sorry I didn’t step in sooner… I know since you’re working and all you have to be polite, and you did a really good job keeping calm!! I didn’t want to intrude, especially since it isn’t my place since I don’t work here and all, and I didn’t mean for it to come off like I didn’t think you could handle it or anything I just didn’t want it to escalate more, and-“
You decided to cut her off there since her ramblings were getting quicker and quicker. It was obvious that she was nervous, and you appreciated her saving you anyways so there was really nothing to apologize for.
“Hey, slow down it’s ok, I appreciated the help.” You gave her an earnest smile then, and it seemed to reassure her. “I don’t know what I would have done if he didn’t leave, so thank you for the assistance. Technically I should ban you for threatening to start a fight in the cafe, but…” you gave a tiny half shrug. “I can’t see anyone complaining. So I’ll let it slide, this time.”
Liv gave a relieved grin, and sat back at her stool at the counter. You went over with her, tidying the counter as you went but moving forward to continue the conversation since you were alone in the shop anyways. Resting her elbow on the counter, Liv smiled at you.
“How about coffee number three? You don’t happen to have the iced pumpkin spice, do you?”
You stiffened up and turned to look at her, wondering how in all hell she managed to miss the fact that you were out for the day. Before you could stutter out a reply, you saw her teasing grin and let out a sigh of relief. “Well that’s just mean,” you said with a half laugh before reaching to make her another drink.
“And should you be drinking this much coffee anyways? I know I shouldn’t care, since I am making a living off of your bad choices. But you might want to get your heart rate checked before going home, this can’t be good for you.”
You were taking a chance, bantering with her, sure. But Liv seemed to have an interest in you and you were no longer unsure about her. Even though your heart felt like it was going to explode from the stress, you wanted to keep up a conversation with the pretty scientist, so you hoped to god you werent making a fool of yourself.
“Maybe I’m not here for the coffee anymore, maybe I’m just trying to force you to spend time with me.” She winked as you turned redder then the mark on your cheek and got back to work.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Maybe I want to see if you want to go on a date sometime?”
You gave her an earnest smile then, and handed her the drink. “That depends. Where were you thinking?”
“What about a coffee place?” She suggested, causing you to laugh and write your number on a napkin.
“Anywhere but a coffee house. I know a lovely little burger joint though, if you’re up for that?”
“It’s a date.”