Work Text:
Just another boring shift of another boring day. What horrible people will harass me today?
Tasha clocked in for work. After meticulously tying her apron and pinning up her hair, she put on her best smile and headed out to the counter, where the hordes already awaited her.
“Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you?”
“A venti Pink Drink.” “A tall vanilla bean crème Frappuccino.” “A grande iced mocha and a chocolate cake pop.” Customer after customer, she made drink after drink.
Huh, I haven’t encountered any exceptionally rude ones yet! Maybe today is my day.
Right as Tasha thought this, another customer came to the counter.
“Hi, welcome to Starbucks, what can I-” Her welcome was interrupted by the customer’s loud sigh. “get for you…?”
“Ugh,” the customer said, clearly upset, “now I know why the line was so long! You waste all this time with you ‘welcome’ this and ‘welcome’ that!”
“It’s just common courtesy?”
“I’m in too much of a rush for common courtesy.”
“Yeah, I can tell…”
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing.” Phew, that could’ve been bad.
“Just hurry up and get me my usual!”
“Your usual?”
“Yes, my usual! I come here every day, and order the exact same thing! Get me my usual!”
While internally screaming, Tasha kept her cool.
“Well, I must not have served you often enough to remember. Could you remind me?”
“You people can’t do anything right! An iced caramel macchiato, and remember, I’m in a rush!”
“See, was that so hard? I’ll get that ready for you.” Tasha started on the drink, and as soon as the rude customer walked away, she let out an exasperated sigh.
Do people not know common decency anymore? Why is a simple interaction so hard for everyone?
She watched the other barista taking another order. She also took a look at the customer.
Oh, this guy’s kinda cute…
She finished up the drink and went to the other end of the counter. The customer immediately came up and snatched the drink.
“Finally! Your service was terrible! You just lost a customer!”
The other barista handed her another drink, presumably for the guy that ordered right after the rude customer.
“For Aiden?”
Sure enough, it was him. Their eyes locked for just a split second, but long enough for both to notice. Her hand lingered a moment too long on the drink as she handed it to him. They both flushed bright red.
“Oh, uh, by the way, my name’s Tasha!” she called as he walked away.
~~~~~
The next day, she saw him again. And the day after that. Day after day, he came in and ordered the same drink. Some days she would get to serve him, other days both would be disappointed. Until one day, he did something completely out of the blue.
He burst through the door with a gun. “This is a robbery!” All the customers fled, and Tasha put her hands up. What a great time for the other barista to be in the bathroom.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” He immediately put the gun away and stood like a toddler getting reprimanded. “I had no idea you were on shift right now.”
“I thought you were a nice guy! Why are you doing this?”
“Um, I had been planning to rob this place for a while, I really need the money and you guys get so many customers. I scouted it out a few weeks ago, but every day I tried to come in and get it over with, you were on shift. I couldn’t do it with you here. I didn’t think you were working yet today. And even if you were, I knew it would be an excuse to talk to you without holding up a line. See? Nobody’s here now!”
“Well, there’s much better ways to go about the last bit.”
“There are?”
“I clock out in an hour, if you wanna go somewhere?”
“That…that would be nice.”
“As for needing money, we’re hiring right now, actually!”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind working with a guy who tried to rob you?”
“Not at all, if dinner goes well.”
He blushed. Then he waved and left. At this moment the other barista came out of the bathroom. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, nothing,” Tasha responded. “Nothing at all.”
The End :3