Chapter Text
Avery was your average nine to five worker at Starbucks, he sometimes takes orders, sometimes makes the coffee and sometimes he's the cashier meeting some rude and down right annoying customers and in a really bad day, a Karen.
He's currently working the morning shift in front of the cash register and Its 9:00am, the flow of customers is slow.. Some people do walk in and Kevin, his co worker decided to take the role of the barista making the coffee.
He stands in front of the cash register, bored out of his mind.. his gaze drifted to the customers inside the store.. Some we're just sipping on coffee while reading the news.. some doing their business inside the store as they drank their ordered drinks. His gaze drifted again to the clock.. It reads 9:30am.. the ticking accompanying the moving hands were unhelpful to ease the boredom in his mind.. he looks for something to do or rather.. things he can recall.. The shared apartment needed a new lock as the old one was busted and rusted.. He'll need cat food to feed his hungry feline friend.. and-
"Hello, you there?"
A voice cuts his thoughts short before he could finish it
"O-oh.. I apologise sir what will be havi.."
Avery processed the man's face in front of him, sharp jawline, pretty face, nerdy glasses..
"Did.. you heard what i said?
"S-sorry sir could you say that again?"
"A plain regular cappuccino.. and some dark chocolate brownies"
Avery writes down his order
"And.. name sir?"
"Derek"
*"Derek.."*
Avery thought
*"Feels familliar but maybe its just deja vu.."*
Hands the order to kevin, forgetting to ask something to the customer
"Dine.. in or dine out.. sir?"
"Dine in"
Avery nods..
He grabs a clean tong and a small box grabbing the brownies from the display and placing 5 inside making sure to plate it nicely
A ding from the back confirms that the cappuccino is ready, so he grabs the cup and places it in front
"That'll be.. $28.22 Sir.."
The man pays for his breakfast and sits in a table near the corner of the window before coming back to his work occasionally drinking the coffee and eating some of the brownies
Avery can't help but stare at the man, the focused gaze, the sharp eyes.. the silent sigh when the coffee hits the spot, the sounds when he savours the brownies with each bite.. he's just.. so pretty.. he can't explain it..
"Hey, lover boy.. you've been staring at him for a good minute now"
Kevin stated at the back with a smug smirk
Avery averted his gaze at the man and gives Kevin an empty glare which made the other laugh
"Come on man, approach him.."
"Are you insane, kev?"
"I mean come on, when will be the last time he'll be here?"
That.. might be true.. some customers only came once a month or once every year but.. his name.. "Derek.." It felt familiar.. like he'd heard of it somewhere
Eventually Avery sighed and shook his head..
"Approaching him, he'll think Im a weirdo.."
...
"But.. fine maybe I should approach him someday.. maybe get to know him.."
"Atta boy!"
Kevin woops while getting a dry towel wiping some spills on the countertop
"What's his name again?"
He asks wiping his workstation cause he spilled some of the cappuccino on the countertop
"Derek.."
...
"Oh.. Derek.."
Kevin snaps his finger as he recalled a memory
"That guy comes back every week or so for the same old stuff.. cappuccino and brownies"
Makes sense.. Kevin has been in this Starbucks for quite a while.
Derek.. so it was a false deja vu.. He didn't know the guy but he'll find out a way how..
...
Derek sips his coffee with a sigh, looking at his code that someone commissioned him to do.. a simple program that listens to specific key presses and binds it to the command that opens a specific app.. just a simple automation tool.. yet he was still getting 5 errors.. five.. this was suppose to be simple..
He took another sip of his coffee and another bite of the brownies before locking in.
The first error was a typo, it was easily fixed.. the second was a loop error.. another sip of coffee.. the bitter taste was waking him up excellently.. he fixes the rest of the errors before running it..
The GUI popped up.. asking for a simple x + y + z key bind and picking an app to launch when the specified keys were pressed. The program confirms the operation was successful and the GUI closes.
Derek tries the recent key bind
Ctrl + shift C..
Which he binds to chrome
He waits..
Then the compiler spews out more errors.. how lucky he is.. he's gonna be here all day..
...
A couple minutes of trial and error later.. he tries again..
the GUI pops up.. asks for a key bind.. bind it to an app GUI closes. He tries the
Key bind and waits..
...
Chrome launched.
A tired sigh escapes his lips.. he just needs to optimise his code.. and it can be released..
His stares at the laptop.. the code stares back.. he thinks of ways to optimise code without breaking it..
He sips his coffee again and slumps into his chair.. allowing himself to relax after that hell of debugging
he lets his gaze wander..
he notices the majority of the customers are just here for a quick coffee run..
He then assumes that a small percentage of the customers were here to do their business in this Starbucks..
Interesting..
His gaze goes to the clock..
10:54am..
Customers were slowly piling up..
His gaze drifts to the line.. then to the cashier with the green tipped hair..
..?
He notices the man sneaking glances at him before averting his gaze to focus back to work.. he wasn't too subtle about it..
a quiet huff escapes his lips..
"idiot.."
Derek thought..
But he finds himself sneaking glances to the man as well.. wanting to examine his face.. maybe remember that idiot's pretty face for later..
...
what..?
pretty... face?
He froze..
He wasn't gay..
...
He glances back to the man.. "One last glance.." he thought..
but their eyes met for just a second before breaking contact
Fuck..
He feels his face warming up..
he tries to focus on his work again.. optimising the code so it can be published..
the blush doesn't leave his face...