Chapter Text
Avery Mayers was a young, 19 year old college student. He worked at a small, local owned coffee shop on campus for decent pay.
Working in any form of customer service, he was bound to meet people through his job, but the shifts were typically one person in the front and one person in the back that hardly interacted. So Avery was confined to talking to only the customers that bothered to look up at him.
It was around mid sunset, a warm glow of orange cast a calming light in the building. The cafe was completely empty, save for Avery. So be was catching up on some biology work, then he heard the signature bell from the door.
In walked a man in his early 20s if Avery could guess. He had dark skin, square glasses and mid length dreadlocks. Avery noticed the tired look in his eyes and silently sympathized with him.
“Hey, what can I get for ya?” Avery asked in a lighter version of his customer service voice.
“How much does it cost to get a venti filled with 90% of a 30 ounce cup filled with espresso and the 10% with vanilla.” The man replied without a stutter in a serious tone.
“Uhm, let, let me ch-check for you.” Avery stumbled out.
He thought silently while doing the math for how many shots he needed to put in. “Holy shit, is this man trying to die.”
“It’s eighteen shots of espresso and three ounces of vanilla.”
Avery turned his head up, the man’s eyes were staring directly at him.
“Oh right, sorry it’s just, didn’t know a human body could take that much caffeine.” Avery chuckled out awkwardly.
“Heh well, I’m tall enough so that it won’t kill me.” The man replied back.
“Fairs, Fairs.” Avery agreed as he prepared the man’s drink on the register.
“That would be uh, 22.79 dollars, cash or card?” He asked.
“Card, Huh, it’s cheaper here, I’ll have to come back.” The man remarked.
“Yeah, even without my discount this place is pretty decent compared to a starbucks lowkey. Oh yeah and what’s the name for your order?”
“Derek.” The man, Derek replied as he passed over a card.
“Alright, I’ll have that out in a jiffy.”
Derek sat himself down by a table next to the counter and pulled out a beatup laptop.
“Yoo bro, that looks legit the exact same model as my laptop.” Avery chuckled from the back as he pumped eighteen shots of espresso into a cup.
“Hm, it’s uhh, a HP Pavilon.” Derek responded, rubbing his finger on the crack in the shell from when he dropped it a couple months ago.
“Yeah, dude can you believe it, the exact same thing I have.” Avery said as he brought over Derek’s drink.
Avery’s eyes perked up to the crack on the laptop, his vision tracing the line across from it.
“Dude, what the-“ He stuttered out in surprise. “I have the same crack on mine.” He finished.
“Where’d you get it from, I just bought mine at a best buy on sale.” Derek asked, his eyes raising.
“Nah I found it in a storage locker at my old job, brought it to my manager and he said I could
keep it. The crack was there when I found it.” Avery added.
“Hm, odd.” Derek mumbled as he sipped his drink.
“Anyway bro I gota be closed in like half an hour so I’m gonna wipe the tables around you and stack chairs if that’s alright.” Avery asked, he probably should do it anyway but he wanted to be courteous.
Derek nodded as he booted up minecraft and logged into spotify.
Avery got to work as he wiped off some spills he didn’t see and brought in the chairs from outside.
He looked over and saw Derek shiver a bit so he turned up the heat just a tad.
Avery finished up closing fairly quickly, gaining control of the speakers and changing it to some calmer music he preferred.
Derek was writing some form of code when he looked over again, then panned to minecraft, probably testing mods.
“Ayo bro, you want a refill of your heart attack juice or no?” Avery asked. He didn’t know why but he felt the urge to talk to him.
“Uhh, maybe a hot chocolate to go?” Derek replied sheepishly.
“K’ I’ll ring you up.”
Derek packed up his things into his backpack and pulled out a couple bills, walking over he placed a tip in the tip jar.
“Oh the tips don’t go to me, don’t tip you are paying my boss more money and he’s a jerk.” Avery muttered loudly as he prepared the final drink for the night.
Derek dipped his hand in the jar, retrieved his money and passed it to Avery.
“You were pretty cool.” He said as he collected his drink and left the cafe.
Avery counted out the money and noticed a small slip of paper stashed in between the bills.
“You strike me as a bar guy, want a drink? 551-***-****
-Derek H”
Does this guy just hand out his number to anyone?