Work Text:
“So, you’re the new guy?” Sam asks after his boss introduced him to a new co-worker.
“I guess so,” the guy replies, shrugging his shoulders.
“What’s your name?” Sam asks curiously as he leads the way out to the front. There’s already someone working at the counter. There’s only a couple customers in the shop, but it’s still early on a Saturday, so it’s not super busy right now, but Sam knows better. They’ll be slammed in just a couple of hours.
“Peter, uh- Peter Quill,” the guy introduces himself, rather shyly. “Uh, just so you know- I’ve never worked at a coffee shop before so I literally don’t have any experience. I’m pretty sure I was hired out of pity.”
Sam snorts. “Well, thanks for the warning, I guess. Uh- it’s fairly easy. I’ll just let you shadow today, so you can learn how we do things around here. Then tomorrow, we’ll get down to the nitty gritty.”
“The nitty gritty ?” Peter asks, raising his eyebrows. “It’s a coffee shop. How difficult can it be?”
“Oh man, you shouldn’t have said that.”
Peter blinks and looks up at the other co-worker, who’s making a customer their coffee. “Uhm-”
“Excuse me. It’s not just a coffee shop,” Sam argues. “There’s a lot of hard work put into it. You don’t understand how much work we put into making those stupid coffees for our customers. But, I guess you’ll find out soon enough, and maybe your opinion will change.”
“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean anything negative by it,” Peter says. “I’m sure you do work hard.”
Sam rolls his eyes, already finding himself annoyed at his new co-worker, and he really hopes Peter’s attitude isn’t always like this, because he doesn’t need to deal with another hot headed co-worker, when he already has to deal with Bucky. “Just follow my instructions, and try to stay out of my way.”
Luckily, Peter does a pretty good job at following instructions, and Sam’s impressed with how fast he’s picking up on things, which means Sam won’t have to waste a lot of his time training him.
“Why don’t you take your first break now while we don’t have any customers?” Sam says after they finish their last customer’s order. Sam looks up at Peter.
“Oh, I mean… I’m fine. I don’t-”
“Dude, trust me. You say you don’t need it now but it’s still early in the day on a Saturday, and we’re going to get slammed later. You’re going to want that break now while you can get it. Besides, if I need help, then I can just yell for Buck and he’ll come out to help me,” Sam says. “Go take your break.”
Peter hesitates, before nodding. “Cool, I’ll be back in fifteen.”
Sam nods, and watches as Peter heads to the back to clock out. He looks over and frowns when he sees Bucky staring at him with an amused look on his face. “What? What’s your problem, Buck?”
Bucky snorts. “Nothing. It’s just… you seem to like Peter a little more now,” he points out, as he grabs a paper towel to clean the counter a little while he has free time.
Sam scoffs. “What are you implying, Buck?”
“Nothing,” Bucky replies quickly. “I’m just pointing out that you acted like you were so annoyed with the new worker earlier, and now you’re making sure he gets a break.”
“I’d do the same with you,” Sam argues.
“You didn’t not like me when I first started,” Bucky adds.
“Because you weren’t annoying, although things have definitely changed,” Sam says, his tone playful. “Peter came in hotheaded, and you know how much I hate hotheads.”
“He may have been a little hotheaded in the beginning, but he’s a good worker. I think he’ll work out,” Bucky says. “Hopefully I didn’t just jinx anything for us. We really need the extra help.”
Sam snorts, and shakes his head, and he hears the familiar ding sound from the door, alerting them of some new customers. “Get back to work, we’ve got some customers.”
Things are pretty smooth for a while. Sam is even able to leave Peter on his own for about an hour while he goes to the back to clean up and restock some of their items.
It’s not until he hears some loud yelling from the front.
“What the hell?” Sam groans, and places the box he was holding down on the ground. He quickly wipes his hands off his jeans before walking out of the backroom. He frowns at the sight he sees, a customer yelling at Peter, who looks like he’s about to have a panic attack. Sam won’t have this behavior. “Shit. Excuse me.” Sam marches over to the counter. “What’s going on here?”
“I-” Peter begins, but Sam shakes his head.
“Ma’am, is there a reason why you’re screaming at my co-worker?” Sam asks.
“He gave me the wrong coffee!” She shouts.
“Okay, then we can fix it and get you the right coffee,” Sam says calmly, and he pulls up the last order. “Peter, can you get started on that coffee, please?”
“Y- Yeah-”
“No, I don’t want him to make the coffee,” she says.
Sam rolls his eyes, growing more annoyed with the customer, but he just wants her to leave, so he’ll do anything to get her out of his shop at this point. “ Fine ,” he replies snappily. “Watch the register, please.” He walks around Peter, making sure to be gentle with him. He feels bad that Peter had to deal with a Karen on his first day. At least Peter knows now that it’s not so easy working at a coffee shop.
Sam makes the coffee in record timing. He turns around and places it on the coffee.
The customer looks up at Sam before scoffing when he doesn’t say anything to her, she grabs the coffee angrily. “Worst customer service ever! I’m never coming back again!”
“Have a nice day, ma’am!” Sam shouts as she storms out of the coffee shop, earning a few laughs from the customers who had been watching the whole thing.
Sam turns to look at Peter, gently placing a hand on Peter’ shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I’m- I’m fine. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I must have-”
“Hey, relax. It’s okay, Peter. Mistakes are made sometimes. Not everyone’s perfect. It’s your first day,” Sam says softly. “Besides, we deal with customers like that all the time. I just hate that you had to experience that on your first day. Now, come on. Let’s get some of these customers out.”
Between Peter and Sam, the two get all the remaining customers out in twenty minutes.
Peter is relieved when the last customer leaves. “That was a rush!”
Sam chuckles. “Glad you took that break earlier now, huh?”
Peter blushes, and then he turns to look at Sam. “Uhm, thanks. For earlier, I mean. That customer-”
Sam waves him off, shaking his head. “Any co-worker would do it for each other,” he says, shrugging. “Besides, it was your first day. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Well, thanks anyways,” Peter mumbles. He bites his lip, before looking over at Sam hopefully. “Hey, uhm, are you busy tomorrow, by any chance?”
Sam blinks, and looks over at Peter with surprise. “I’m opening tomorrow. But I have no plans after that.”
“Well, uh-” Peter clears his throat. “You wanna hang out? I mean, I know we just met like today. But, uh- you seem cool, and if you’re not doing anything. Maybe we could hang out?”
Sam chuckles. “Are you asking me out on a date, Peter?”
“I mean, if you want it to be a date… I certainly wouldn’t complain,” Peter says, grinning shyly.
“Yeah, okay,” Sam says. “But I get to pick where we’re going.”
Peter huffs out a laugh. “Alright. That sounds fair enough,” he says.
“Awesome. Uh, we should start closing. We still have some cleaning, and I don’t want to deal with that in the morning. So, come on. I’ll show you what to do for closing time,” Sam says, trying to hide the blush on his cheeks. He hasn’t been on a date in months, but Peter seems nice. Sam starts walking to the back, but he stops and turns, and he looks up at Peter. “Bucky can absolutely not find out about this date.”
Peter frowns, and goes to open his mouth to argue, but Sam shakes his head.
“It’s not because I’m ashamed of going out with you or anything. But, it’s just because I really don’t want to hear Bucky say I told you so . I would never hear the end of it,” Sam says.
Peter lets out a surprise laugh. “Okay, that’s fair. I promise not to say anything to him,” he says.
Sam grins, before clearing his throat. “Right. Uh… closing. Let’s do that.”