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“Taki-chan, I don’t know about this…”
Taki’s tongue lashed against her teeth with a click . “Soyo. I need this. You can’t deny a customer.”
“I… can, in fact.” A retail grin spread across Soyo’s face. “We’re actually encouraged to cut people off if things are starting to look dangerous. Liability and all that.”
Taki’s jaw snapped open. “Okay. okay.” She bit at a fingernail. “Okay. Can I please have another red eye? Please.”
Soyo’s eyes widened. “Twice, huh… that’s pretty compelling. But still, no. You’re my friend and I am not going to WATCH as you develop an arrhythmia in real time on the floor of my cafe.”
“So don’t watch then?? You don’t have to watch. Just hand over the beans. I can brew them myself! You sell Aeropresses here, right? Easy. I can just use the tea water.”
A long pause. Her own retail experiences kicking in, Taki frantically looked behind her to see if anyone was queuing, only to find the cafe nearly deserted - shockingly enough - at 8PM on a Tuesday. Satisfied that she would not be disrupting things, she refocused her glare on Soyo.
“Soyo. I need this. I NEED this.” Taki frantically reached across the counter and grabbed Soyo’s hands.
Soyo had never seen Taki plead before. She gleefully burned the scene into her brain for future reference.
“Taki-chan. I NEED you to understand that your hands are literally shaking right now.”
“I’m not-”
“Taki.”
“That’s not beca- tch. ” She flushed scarlet.
“No razor-fine repartee, hm? In that case, I’m for sure cutt-” Taki’s sudden short-circuit caught up with Soyo all at once. “Wait. Oh. Ohhhh~”
“No. Nononono. No way.”
“Taki, could you be shaken because you’re holding hands with your dear friend Soyo~”
“NO. No. If this -whatever it is - is going to be the alternative, I’ll admit that I’m shaking from the coffee, fine. You win.” Taki extracted her hands from Soyo’s grip, palms clammy. She huffed and turned towards the door.
“I can give you decaf.”
Taki’s boot screeched on the tiles. Her shoulders lifted, held for a moment, then fell as she pivoted and returned to the counter, a mask of placid focus tenuously forming across her face in an attempt to cover the desperation.
Soyo bit her lip thoughtfully. “There’s probably… 10mg of caffeine in a large? Maybe a little more? And all of the wonderful psychological qualities that will make your brain think you’re getting another hit. Fair enough?”
“Fine.” Taki gritted her teeth and tried to relax her brow. “Hand it over.”
A brief silence fell as Soyo tapped the POS tablet, before a smirk broke out on her face. “Today aside… if you do want to, say, get coffee with me this weekend - I would be interested, so long as, well.. You wanted to…?” She looked up from the screen with faux-puppy dog eyes.
“Are you going to make me say it?”
Soyo smiled. Taki clicked her tongue and nearly dropped both her own credit card and the decaf as both items exchanged hands during the transaction.
“You’ll get nothing from me. Later.” She took off at a near sprint from the counter and vaulted onto a stool on the far side of the cafe where she had left her laptop and a nest of notebook pages and sheet music.
Soyo’s phone buzzed the second Taki sat down at her table.
Okay. I lied. Are you free Saturday? Do you want to do here, or...?
Soyo beamed and waved cheerily at Taki, who promptly slammed her head into her keyboard with enough force to make the scattered customers at the nearest 3 tables jump.
Soyo gleefully burned the scene into her brain for future reference.