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"Stu, can you go get me a coffee? I'd go myself, but I'm in the middle of a meeting and I have no idea when it's going to end."
"Sure, Nina."
"You need me to tell you what I want?"
"No, I got it memorized."
Why did you say that? You, in fact, do NOT have her order memorized. She's looking at you in surprise. You wonder if you look just as surprised as her, and you force a chuckle out. You always smile when you chuckle. That should cover it up. You take a few steps towards her to kiss her on top of her head, but then you stop. That would probably look unprofessional of her, and you don't need to be messing up her job. Nina's already focused back on her laptop, so she didn't even notice you walking towards her. That's a relief. You make your way to the door and head out.
You love the neighborhood Nina lives in. It has trees, but not too many trees, and it has nice sidewalks where every so often you see a small square of mosaic pet portraits. You think they're cute, and you always point them out to Nina whenever you two go walking somewhere. Thankfully, today is not too hot, so you won't be sweating in the hoodie you forgot to take off before you left. As you walk down the sidewalk, you try to play a game of looking for objects of the same color, but soon give up on it when you realize that the only thing you've been keeping track of is car colors. There isn't anything wrong with cars; it's just that it becomes boring when it's the only thing you're noticing. The color you had picked out was orange. You had no idea how many orange cars came through this neighborhood until now. Now, if there were orange cats thrown into the mix, then you would be entertained, but you would also be delighted, as then that meant that you could stop and try to pet the cats. You start to think that Nina's cats would become jealous of smelling another cat on you. Were cats capable of feeling jealous? Well, for the first week that you started living with Nina, two of the cats refused to enter the bedroom, and one seemed as if they went on a hunger strike. This may not have been jealousy but anger that their routine was disturbed, which is fair, if somebody all of a sudden moved into your house and slept in your bed with no warning, you too would be... Well, you wouldn't be pissed. You've had this scenario happen before when you and the others were on tour, and you always woke up from a night filled with drugs with random people in your hotel room. You can sympathize with the cats, though. You hear some honking and realize you're at the cross section that's in front of the coffee shop.
Right, Nina's order. The order that you said you have memorized.
Aren't coffee drinks all the same? You wouldn't really know because you much prefer tea, but if teas can be different, then you guessed coffees can be different as well. You look at the crosswalk sign, and it still says it's not time to walk yet, so you have some time to ponder this. Have you been to the coffee shop with Nina before? Yes, you have. Multiple times. Have you heard Nina order yours and hers drinks before? Maybe. That should be a yes or no question, but the reason it's a maybe was because every time she ordered, you zoned out and stared at the pastries that they had on display, wishing that you had told Nina that you wanted one. It would make for a good breakfast, a warm cup of tea, and a pastry. Breakfast, because that was the time of day you and Nina usually visited the coffee shop. You find yourself shaking your head in disbelief because if anybody had told you before that you would be waking up before afternoon and making a trek to the coffee shop, you would have thought that they were mistaking you for the wrong person. You're still not a morning person, though. Usually, you wake up because you feel Nina getting out of bed, and then the bed becomes too cold to your liking.
The crosswalk sign changed. You still have no idea what Nina's order is.
Your feet are walking you to your doom as you cross the street and enter the coffee shop. You look at the little whiteboard that's at the register, and it advertises their drink of the day, which is an Italian Wedding Cake coffee. You have no idea what it is and think it sounds like it'd be on the sweet side. Maybe Nina likes her coffee sweet. Sweet, just like her. Nina is probably the best thing that has ever come into your life. She's nice to you, she's providing a place for you to live in, she's easy on the eyes, and she's fantastic in bed. All you have to do in repayment is get her a coffee. A coffee order that you said you knew but actually don't. Maybe it's not that big of a deal. It's just coffee. It's not like she's going to take a sip of it, spit it out, and then dump the drink over your head. You mean she could, but she probably wouldn't (though would you be opposed to some humiliation?).
"Hi! What can I get for you?"
You snap your head towards the cashier. She sounds too perky to be working a customer service job, but you guess you have to put on the charm if you want to make your job easier (which you knew much too well about charming people). You start brushing your hair with your fingers, the nerves about ordering the wrong drink getting to you. You've remembered one thing: Nina takes a shot of espresso in her drink. That is your only saving grace.
"What drink do you recommend?" You pause before you quickly add, "It's not for me! It's for my girlfriend."
"Oh lucky you!" she gives you a wink, "Our signature drinks are The Golden Hour, which is our house latte made with oat milk, honey, hazelnut, and cinnamon house-made syrup, The Matcha Hour, which is kinda like the golden hour but replaces the espresso with matcha, and our Honey Lavender Latte, which is latte made with honey and house-made lavender syrup."
Your head feels like it's spinning from all the information the cashier gave you. You want to ask her if she can repeat it slowly, but there's a line building up behind you. If you're remembering right, The Golden Hour has espresso in it, so maybe that one is Nina's order. You can't stand here all day debating.
"I'll take The Golden Hour."
"Alrighty! That'll be six pounds."
You hand over the money and then sit at a table to wait. You kick yourself for not ordering something for yourself while you wait, but you're not about to wait in the back of the line. You look around the coffee shop and realize that it has a bee theme, with a wall featuring a honeycomb made of neon lights and the bulletin board decorated with a bumblebee in each corner. This makes you chuckle. Behind the cashier is a vestaboard that displays the menu and the time. It reminds you of the airport.
"One Golden Hour!"
You stand up and go pick up the drink, hoping that Nina likes it.
You enter the house and shut the door behind you. You hear Nina talking, and hearing her use her business voice sends a tingle down your back. You make your way to the living room, where she's sitting on the couch with the laptop on a folding table and her webcam looking like it could fall off with one wrong breeze its way. You place her drink next to her laptop, making sure to stay out of the frame, and then sit on the floor beside her legs. You can't play your keyboard or video games because it would cause too much noise for her meeting, so there isn't much for you to do. You let out a sigh as you use your fingertip to run it up and down her smooth leg.
"Yes, so to get the forums up and running, we'll need some moderators to make sure that the forums are, for one, not a house pit for any creeps, and for another, to make sure everybody is following the rules. Strayz is a big band, so they have fans all over the world. You saw their stats of how many tickets they sold outside of the UK, correct?"
At this, Nina paused and took a sip of her drink. You watched her expectantly and then felt your heart flutter as she grinned at you and ruffled your hair. You got Nina her drink, and she liked it. You did a job well done.