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Steph put her book down as her favorite customer walked in. While she wouldn’t say it was the four-letter word that begins with an “s” (some things you just didn’t say out loud, regardless of where you worked. And she had been a nursing student long enough to know that the four-letter beginning with “s” and the five-letter word beginning with “q” were close enough to be considered actual curses, like real life magical curses, that she didn’t dare to even say think them), but there were few people inside the coffee shop.
It was that odd liminal time during the semester where it wasn’t quite mid-terms, but it wasn’t finals or the season of projects or major tests or grades either. So, while the shop, Gotham’s Cauldron, still saw its share of early business folks rushing into Wayne Enterprises or the still barely functioning Drake Industries, the midday hours were sparser in people coming in. Steph liked it that way. It gave her time to work on her homework or other daily assignments. It also gave her the time to flirt with Danny.
With just a few words, she could have him turning the cutest shade of pink. It went all the way up to his ears. And he had the cutest stammering stutter when he got flustered. When she told Tim about Danny, Tim said that Danny likely had a competency king. That Danny had seemed the type to like women who could kick his ass. Cass had enthusiastically agreed.
“Hiya, Steph. I’d like a white chocolate mocha latte with a quadruple shot of espresso. Please and thank you,” Danny said while rubbing the back of his neck.
That was something else that Steph loved about Danny. While some people, cough Tim, had “their” orders, Danny’s order was rarely the same twice. At this point, he’d tried nearly the whole menu, and he was usually up for trying either the daily special or the weekly special, depending on his mood, although his caffeine addiction was certainly memorable. Tim was a caffeine fiend, but he preferred Zesti to coffee whereas Danny preferred coffees to energy drinks. And his coffees could come in any form: hot, iced, frozen, ice cream, even the rare dessert cake. He didn’t care.
Steph efficiently and quickly made Danny’s chosen drink while also making the engineering student blush furiously. Steph was still trying to work up the courage to ask him out, seeing as how the other was too shy to ask her. She looked over to Cass who nodded to her encouragingly.
“Hey, so Danny. I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go to the Planetarium with me. They just opened a new exhibit on Mars, and I’d love to take you to go see it,” Steph murmured softly.
Danny looked at her stunned. And then stammered out a yes. He pulled out his phone so that they could exchange numbers. The alarm on his phone went off, reminding him that he had to be back on campus for his next class before he could turn any redder. He shouted that he would text her later as he snapped up his drink and ran out the door.
Tim came up to the counter with a smirk on his lips. “That was almost painful to watch.”
“Don’t make me punch you,” Steph said as she wiped down the counter. Tim chuckled before walking out so that he could make it back to Wayne Enterprises for his next meeting.
“Good for you,” Cass said simply as she followed her brother out.
“Thanks,” Steph said with a goofy smile.
Over the next few days, Danny texted constantly. She didn’t/couldn't always reply. With her nursing classes, her shift at the coffee shop, and her nighttime duties as Batgirl, she occasionally couldn’t text him back for a few hours, but Danny never seemed to mind. In fact, he seemed to take her excuses with a grain of salt. And always accepted them with an easy smile.
The day came when they were supposed to go to the Planetarium. They had agreed that Danny would pick Steph up from coffee shop, and then together they would get a ride share to the Planetarium. Danny walked in, and Steph’s whole face lit up.
Unfortunately for them, Mr. Walsh-Meyers walked in right behind Danny and boomed out. “It sure is quiet and slow up in here.”
Steph’s eyes went wide, and her face went pale. As a nursing student, she’d done several clinicals in various clinics and in Gotham General Hospital. And even as a student, it had been drilled into her, to NEVER, EVER say those two words, ESPECIALLY not in conjunction with each other.
Because it happened.
Not even three minutes later, a school bus stopped right in front of the Cauldron, and at least fifty high school students came pouring out of the doors of the bus. The Cauldron wasn’t staffed for that many patrons to come in at the same time. The only thing that kept Steph from panicking was her training as Batgirl.
And then, her saving grace appeared almost like a knight in shining armor, Danny stepped behind the counter and put on an apron and began helping where he could. He said that as an engineering student, he could at least figure out how to work the cash register while Steph and the other barista worked on pumping out the drinks and pastries.
It wasn’t a perfect system, and Steph was silently cursing Mr. Walsh-Meyers every step of the way, but it worked. As expected, Danny managed to pick up the POS system for the register rather quickly, especially since most of the payments were made by credit card.
Roughly four hours later, both Danny and Steph were hot, sticky, sweaty messes. Danny was somehow covered in syrup, which no one knew how that happened, since he didn’t even touch the drink station. Steph was covered in god-knows-what, which included flour, several spilt drinks, and at least one exploded blended drink because the lid on the blender hadn’t been put on right before she turned the blender on.
Fortunately, there was a small washing station at the back of the shop so that both of them could clean up. Sometime during the last hour, the general manager had walked in. He’d seen Danny in the apron, gave him an appraising once over, and then without a word, pulled on his own apron, and stepped behind the counter so that he could help make drinks.
As Danny and Steph were cleaning themselves off, the general manager, Marcus, counted out some cash to pay Danny for his time. Steph muttered about putting a protection detail on Marcus since no one else would have paid Danny as corrupt as Gotham was.
But they finally got to leave for their date, as few hours later than planned. It was a good thing that the Planetarium was open late on this specific day.
As they left, she once again saw Tim smirking at her from his preferred corner booth. She flipped him off as they left. She faintly heard him cackling as the door closed behind them.