Chapter Text
“Cheers, man.”
“No worries, enjoy.”
As I carefully take my coffee from the barista I turn around and begin scanning the café for a good spot to set up and work. It's reasonably busy for a Tuesday afternoon, and someone's sat in my usual place by the window, but I'm not that bothered. I'm not one of those weirdos who has “their” seat and freaks out when they can't sit there. So I quickly move instead to a large, communal table towards the back corner of the café. The only other occupants are two girls on the end of the table, sat opposite each other, and both engrossed in their laptops.
Only one of them looks up as I clumsily place my coffee down, spilling a little into the saucer.
“shit, fuck-”
I grab a couple of napkins from a nearby counter, and when I look back the redhead is no longer looking in my direction but instead is peering over her laptop at the stranger opposite her- a girl with excessively large headphones on and a frown on her face as she stares intently at whatever she's working on, fingers poised over the keyboard but unmoving.
The redhead is still staring when the girl opposite her suddenly breaks concentration and stretches dramatically, her eyes scanning across the room absently, flicking over the the red haired girl at least twice in the process. I notice that the redhead is suddenly paying large amounts of attention to her screen again, lip held in her teeth in faux-concentration. I smile briefly as I pull out my own laptop. I love people watching, it's part of why I come here to work. Other people's stories are my best inspiration when I need a burst of it, and I've got a killer creative writing project that I've not been able to crack for weeks now. But the assignment's due Friday, so I've decided to settle in here, where the coffee and people watching are both excellent. And I'm pretty pleased I seem to have picked a good table for it, happy in the knowledge that many years of covert people watching has made me apparently much more adept at it than my table-mates.
I'm halfway through what will probably be the first of many coffees, and a tiny fraction into my work when I hear a voice closer to me than the rest of the general café hubbub. I look up from my screen briefly to work out where it's coming from.
“What are you listening to?”
The small brunette girl roughly pulls her headphones away from one ear, pushing a strange tangle of hair up the side of her head.
“Huh?”
“What are you listening to? Your head was bobbing around and you looked kind of into it, you got me all intrigued” the redhead says with a friendly smile on a face, leaning forward slightly.
“Uh, it's, uh nothing,” the brown haired girl says, pushing her headphones the whole way off, “I uh, I mean, I'm working on...a thing. A track. I make, um, mixes. It's kind of my...thing,” she trails off.
“Are you a DJ?”
“Not yet,” she adds a small, shy smile. There's an awkward pause whilst the redhead just stares, smiling. “I should uh, get back to it. This one's kinda kicking my ass.”
“Sure, sorry to interrupt,” says the redhead, smile still firmly in place. “I'm Chloe by the way” she points needlessly at herself as she says it and then looks vaguely embarrassed by the gesture as she returns her hands to her coffee mug.
“Uh, Beca.”
“Nice to meet you, DJ Beca,” Chloe says with a wide grin that looks almost impossibly cheerful.
“Yeah. I mean. You too.” Beca has a blush growing up her cheeks as she pulls her headphones back over her ears.
I think briefly about adding “And I'm Liam,” as a joke but they clearly have no interest in my presence at the table and I get the impression it wouldn't go down well.
Over the next half an hour the rate of sneaked looks goes up rapidly, both trying not to get caught but failing to an almost hilarious degree.
“Ugh” Chloe pushes the textbook next to her laptop closed with a thud, and shoves all her fingers into her hair, dragging it back from her face with frustration. Beca's looking over her as she does it, the expression on her face suggesting that the feeling's mutual. Chloe snaps her eyes to Beca's, and mimes pushing the headphones off. The brown haired girl obeys immediately.
“I need more caffeine if this essay is going to happen, can I get you anything while I'm there?” She gestures towards the counter with a hopeful look on her face.
“Uh, no it's okay, I mean. I was going to go up myself in a minute. So it's...cool. But thanks.”
“Well, duh, in that case you should let me get it. Now that you've told me that you want one, I insist.”
“Um. Okay. Sure, then I guess. Thank you.”
“Same again? Just black right?”
“Yeah, just black.”
Chloe jumps up.
“Alright. Back in a mo.” She grins at Beca before bouncing over to the counter, purse in hand.
When Chloe comes back with two coffees on a tray, I've all but given up on work. Apparently there's such a thing as getting TOO into people watching, though it's not really something I've experienced before. Yet somehow these two are more entertaining than the scenario I'm attempting to hash out, so I stare at the blinking cursor marking the 912 word mark in my at-least-2500-word assignment, and listen.
“Thanks.”
“No problem, Beca.”
“Here, I'll, uh, pay you back.”
“No, no, no I insisted, remember?”
“Right. Thanks.”
“Besides, this means you have to get the next one.” I sneak a look up and take in Chloe's ridiculous grin as she holds her cup part way to her face.
“Dude, are you trying to kill me? If I drink that much caffeine in one day I won't sleep until next week. I'm already twitchy” She holds out a slight shaky hand to prove it.
“Well. I didn't say it had to be today.”
Beca's mouth falls open and she looks anywhere but Chloe for a short while before looking intently into her eyes, a smirk working its way onto her face. “You're very forward, you know. It's kinda unnerving.”
“Thanks!” Chloe smiles widely, looking like she genuinely believes it was meant as a compliment of the highest order. “So are you going to let me listen to that mix?”
“Um. No?”
“Aw come on. I bought you coffee and I'm so bored of this essay. The least you can do is entertain me,” practically singing the end of the sentence and raising her eyebrows in a hopeful manner.
“I thought I was buying you more coffee to pay you back for the coffee?” She gestures across the various cups littering the table.
“Well, you can do this instead, if you want.”
“But then you don't have an excuse to meet me here again.” Beca raises her own eyebrows and leans back in her chair, taking a sip of her drink and trying not to look minorly horrified by what she just said.
Chloe lets out a burst of laughter. “That is a problem.” Chloe nods her head gravely. “You'll just have to let me listen out of the goodness of your own heart then.”
Beca laughs herself at this, looking genuinely carefree for a brief moment before she looks straight at Chloe, bites her lip and pushes the headphones slowly across the table. Chloe literally wriggles in her seat with excitement as she takes hold of them, and Beca looks about as bemused by this as I am entertained.
It's at this point that I realise I am unabashedly staring. I'm still on 912 words, and my coffee's been empty for at least ten minutes. But I'm not moving right now. What if I miss something good? I pull up a copy of the assignment brief, and pretend to be studying it intently, eyes flicking over the top of the computer screen every few seconds.
Chloe has slipped the headphones over her ears and is looking at Beca expectantly. I can tell the instant the song starts, because Chloe's face fills with a sudden joy and Beca's simultaneously with unguarded apprehension.
Realising the song is probably at least 3 minutes long, I quickly grab my chance to run over to the counter to get a top-up of my coffee. I literally run, before realising this is the least subtle thing I've done in a whole string of worryingly unsubtle behaviours, and slow down suddenly part way across the floor. The man at the counter looks vaguely amused as I fight a blush and croak out my order. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me today.
I peer around a pillar to glance over to the table as the barista works on my drink. The back of Chloe's head is moving around enthusiastically to whatever beat she can hear, and Beca looks like she's trying not to stare at her, and failing.
As I sit down, Chloe's pulling the headphones off again.
“That was amazing! Wow. I love those songs, they sound so good together. Who knew? That's the one you've been working on today?”
“No, that was one of...my favourites, I guess. Today's one is still shit.” She lets out a huff of laughter.
“I'm sure that's not true. You're like really good. I'm sure you'll be super successful someday and I can tell people I got to listen to one of your songs in a coffee shop.” Chloe looks utterly thrilled at the thought. Beca just looks bashful.
“Thanks. I'm glad you like it, I guess.”
They stare at each other smiling for a brief moment.
“So...you've had your entertainment, now you should get back to work, procrastinator. That essay's not going to write itself. And I've got to, uh, un-shit-ify this mix.” She waves a hand at her computer screen and grimaces.
“Yes ma'am,” Chloe salutes at Beca and immediately positions her hands back at the keyboard.
Another quiet twenty minutes passes, though this time when the two of them glance up at each other they actually make eye contact and smile. I find myself thinking it's unbearably cute, and then wondering again what the hell is wrong with me today.
Chloe's just drained the last of her coffee when she shuts her laptop slowly and gazes over at Beca, who obediently slips off the headphones. Chloe smiles over at her sweetly.
“I'm all done. So I'm gonna head off home before I get a headache from staring at this screen too long” She waves a thumb towards the door as if Beca wouldn't know that was how you came in and out of the building.
“Oh, uh, sure. Well done. You did better than me. My mix is a goner I think. Irredeemable. Probably one for the recycle bin.” She shakes her head despondently.
“You should at least let me listen to it first?” Chloe pulls her best wide-eyed expression, and it seems to do the trick.
“Maybe tomorrow,” Beca smiles.
“Tomorrow, huh? I'm coming back so soon? What if I don't have anything I need to work on tomorrow?” Chloe pulls the most flirtatious smile I've ever seen anyone give, and once again Beca responds in exactly the way I assume Chloe intends.
“Well, you'll just have to endure the pleasure of my company instead.” The way Chloe's smile quickly switches from flirtatious to comically wide seems to alert Beca that she said something she wasn't really expecting too. “I mean...if you want to, of course. I, uh, will probably be here anyway, so...” she taps her hands on the edge of the table and avoids eye contact for a moment. Chloe laughs gently.
“I'll see you tomorrow Beca,” she says as she neatly tucks her belonging back into her bag and shrugs on her coat.
“Here-” Chloe suddenly gets up, leans right across the table and quickly scrawls across the notepad Beca has open next to her. When she leans back I can see it's a number, followed by a smiley face, extremely large and overlapping some of the scribbled notes on the page. Beca looks simultaneously thrilled and horrified by the gesture, red rising in her cheeks.
“I'll be here tomorrow anyway, same time, but you know. Just in case you needed it.” Chloe gestures towards the number as she throws her bag over her shoulder and tucks the textbook under her arm. Then she smiles at Beca one last time and vanishes out the door.
Beca's still red, and staring at the upside-down number on her notebook, trying and failing to suppress a grin even larger than any of the ones I've seen Chloe sport this afternoon.
It's at this moment that she suddenly notices that I'm staring and her expression quickly turns to murderous.
“What are you looking at, weirdo?”
I just grin back at her briefly, before shutting my laptop, shoving it in my backpack and moving quickly towards the door without a word. I've done plenty of work for today. Besides, I need an excuse to come back tomorrow now anyway.