Work Text:
Rose has a preferred spot for her drafting. It’s quite simple, really—to write creatively, one must be in a new environment, but not so foreign as to distract the mind or throw the brain so off-balance that writing cannot happen. Therefore, packing up her things to walk three blocks down the street to the newly-renovated coffee shop is ideal. The location is familiar, yet the interior is new. Rose can order her favourite drink and sit in her favourite spot, and then watch people filter in and out of the building, eavesdropping on their conversations or simply allowing the ambient noise to filter through her ears. She finds her writing flows easiest with this set up, and so she finds herself returning day after day when she’s hit roadblocks in her novel or needs some new ideas.
Rose also has a favourite barista.
She’s tall with shaggy black hair in what could generously be called a wolf cut and wears the thickest black-frame glasses that could possibly fit on her face. She’s got a wide, goofy smile and buck teeth, and whenever she works the register Rose can’t help but notice that she’s always added another sticker to her name tag. Her name, if that name tag was to be any indication, was “JUNE!!!” in big block letters. Rose often wonders if it needs to be spoken aloud with the same amount of enthusiasm it was written with.
June likes puns, or maybe just likes seeing if she can get away with making all her customers groan. Every cup Rose receives while June is working has some variety of bad joke on it. When she switched to asking for the real mugs she knows the coffee shop sometimes uses, June starts writing them on napkins or in erasable markers directly on the cup itself. Her boss can’t be awfully happy about that, since Rose knows from experience that the letters don’t wipe off as easily as one might wish, which might be why June prefers to use disposable napkins instead. Rose, for her part, prefers to keep them in a binder where she slides the delicate napkins into card sleeves to save them forever. June’s writing is messy and sometimes it takes Rose a second to decipher what she wants to say, which never fails to make her forget the punchline that’s coming. She does not snort when she rereads them in private. That would be unbecoming.
She does not snort when she reads them in public either, because that would be extra unbecoming. June, seemingly, has been taking this as a challenge recently. It starts when the coffee shop is busy enough that Rose actually finds herself arguing about what drink belongs to who and ends up firmly stating her name to prove that, yes, the London fog does belong to her. June watches the bickering as she sets out saucers and cups, and upon arriving back at her table, Rose finds yet another pun scribbled on her napkin.
“You rose to the occasion to avoid a thorny situation! Nice work.” Next to it is a drawing of a smiling sunflower. Rose raises a brow and looks back at the drink counter. June is grinning at her excitedly, wiggling her eyebrows. She smiles politely and June pouts, mouthing something like “maybe next time” as she returns to the rush of customers. Rose hides her smile behind her hand and opens her laptop where her draft awaits her, cursor blinking at her in accusation. She titles the newest chapter “A Rose By Any Other Name” and gets back to work on guiding her protagonists through their next roadblock.
The next time she visits, Rose wears a sweater she knit herself (and is quite proud of, for that matter) with a purple octopus on it. June isn’t the cashier that time, but she catches a glimpse at Rose from behind the gadgets of the drink making area and waves, the latte in front of her nearly overflowing as she stops working on it. Rose smiles back, beelining to her preferred table before some other undeserving patron claimed the spot. They wouldn’t even appreciate how close it was to the outlets. They likely wouldn’t notice the objectively superior cushions on the chairs. They would utterly destroy Rose’s plot to achieve foreign familiarity. She’s in such a rush that she nearly drops the pun napkin when June signals that her drink is ready in favour of claiming the aforementioned wall outlet, and only when June gasps in horror does she realize that she’s nearly thrown away her favourite barista’s gift to her.
“Ink-credible sweater! A brilliant choice, and I’m not squidding.” This one makes Rose roll her eyes, and when she looks back up, June looks hopeful. She mouths “nice try” and watches June throw her hands up in mock (or perhaps real) frustration. Still, the compliment on her work makes her chest puff out with pride, despite the fact June couldn’t have possibly known how much work Rose had put into making the piece. She puts down one point towards June in her mental tally and loses herself in her writing.
The third time, it’s almost Halloween and Rose has brought a book with her to read when she inevitably needs a break from thinking about her looming deadline. She reads it in the queue as she waits for the orders in front of her to be taken, and when she reaches the front she finds herself face to face with June. The barista gives her a bright smile, already punching in her usual.
“Neat book! Is it any good?”
“I would recommend it, yes.”
“Just recommend it?” June pouts. Rose sighs but can’t find it in herself to be embarrassed that she’s holding up the line.
“It’s one of my favourites. It’s a grand epic about an intricate wizard war.”
“Is it fun?”
“Great fun.” She gives June a small smile and June gives her the widest grin that might possibly form on her face. Someone behind Rose coughs and she fights the urge to turn around and see whoever it is. “Well, have a good day.”
“Yeah, you too,” June says with disappointment that is far too evident. Rose goes off to her usual spot and waits for her name to be called, and June nearly shoves the napkin into her hand this time. Rose raises a brow as the other girl closes her hand around it, still smiling. Her hands are warm and there’s slight calluses on them, and Rose pauses. She’s restrained. She wouldn’t try to hold a stranger’s hand in public, even if that stranger is her favourite stranger in the world as of seven months ago. She will wait for June to let go of her, and then she will walk back to her table and read the napkin as she always does, and she will catalogue it in her three-ring binder when she gets home.
June holds on for what feels like a long time. Rose, to her embarrassment, allows her to. People have to be staring at them, but it all seems so distant at the moment.
June lets go of her hand. “Tell me what you think of this one, alright?”
“Certainly,” she says with the small smile that seems to be driving June up the wall as of late. She walks back to her table, feeling June staring at her back the entire time, and fights the urge to look over her shoulder. She instead walks all the way back to her seat with her most neutral expression, takes a calming sip of her drink, and unfolds the wrinkled napkin.
“Your smile has cast a spell on me! I think you’re quite hex-trodinary, and I owl-ways look forward to seeing you. I’d love to make you a drink when we can actually talk more?” Underneath was a phone number and a doodle of Rose in a wizard hat sitting atop a flying squid. She blinks and wills her cheeks not to flush. No. She is in public. She will not swoon like some romance novel protagonist. She doesn’t even like romance novels. It would be ridiculous to blush like a schoolgirl confessing to a crush or whatever happens in those anime that the entirety of the internet seems to love.
She writes a few more sentences on her draft. She sips her London fog. She does not look up from her laptop screen as she pulls out her phone. She inputs the number and drafts a text.
“I’d love to share a drink with you. Whenever you might be free.” She hits send and then reconsiders. “So long as, conventionally speaking, that is soon.”
A cup shatters behind the counter. Rose glances up to find June fumbling with her own phone, hands shaking. Or perhaps she’s just typing fast. The answer comes with Rose’s phone vibrating in her hands.
“ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! it will be super soon!!! do not worry!!!!” Rose bites her lip, watching June do a happy dance from across the room even as her boss approaches her menacingly from the back room.
This coffee shop is better for her than she could’ve possibly thought.