Chapter Text
Amy felt a bit panicked. She was ten minutes into her internship when she was was sent on her first coffee run, one with no instructions beyond “find coffee” and a list of orders. The consequences of choosing a bad café could be huge - news people did not mess around when it came to caffeine, everyone knew that. And the list Sonya handed her had three different orders on it, three too many people to possibly piss off. She frantically scrolled through Yelp reviews as she walked outside, praying to find a nearby shop with five stars.
“Hah!” she said as she landed on Ninety-Nine Grinds. Five stars, only two blocks away. Score.
She walked in and made a beeline for the counter, behind which a barista was trying (and failing) to spin a whipped cream can around his finger. She reached the counter right about the time the canister crashed to the floor and the whipped cream went flying.
Amy stepped back as fast as she could, narrowly avoiding a blob of cream that had managed to land over the counter. Of course, she thought, of course I’d come when there’s a new guy to mess everything up.
“Sorry about that!” he said, straightening up and grinning sheepishly at her. “Welcome to Ninety-Nine Grinds, what can I get for you?”
He seemed unfazed about the whipped cream splattered all over him.
“Um,” Amy said, pulling out her order list. “I need a large iced soy chai, a large decaf drip with an add shot and milk, and a large cappuccino.”
“You know that adding a shot to a decaf kind of defeats the purpose, right?” He smirked at her.
“I know, but it’s not for me. I just do what I’m told.” She waved her list at him and shrugged.
“Ahh, you’re the runner. And which one of these is yours, then?” he asked as he labeled the cups.
“Oh, none of them. It’s my first day at the new job, it seems weird to get my own drink.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why would it be weird?”
“I...don’t know? I just prefer to play it safe.”
“Safe? They’re sending you out for coffee, I think it’ll be fine if you get one yourself,” he said, giving her a questioning look as he typed the orders in. “But if you’re sure…”
“Fine! Add a large iced vanilla latte. With a little bit of cinnamon, please.”
“Sounds delicious. And a name for those?”
“Amy.”
“That’ll be $13.49, Amy.” He grinned at her.
“No, that can’t be right, not with my drink - ”
He put up a hand to stop her. “Yours is on the house, since I pushed you into it. Happy first day.”
“Oh! Well, thank you, if you’re sure, but…” She bit her lip, hesitating for a moment before handing him her card.
“No worries, now go kick ass wherever it is you work,” he said, still grinning.
She found herself wanting to keep the conversation going, but knew there was a line forming behind her.
“Thank you,” she said, giving him an uncertain smile as she walked to the pick up counter. As she waited for the drinks, her eyes kept drifting back to him. He was kind of cute, for a slightly impertinent barista.
Before she knew it, the drinks were ready and she was hauling them back to the waiting editors. Balancing a full drink carrier while avoiding collisions was a challenge, but she managed. She was back in the office within twenty minutes of having left.
She handed the cappuccino to Sonya, who looked at it with suspicion. “And where is this from?”
“Ninety-Nine Grinds, it’s a couple of blocks away and the Yelp reviews were good and - ” She froze as Sonya took a sip and looked startled.
“That is a damn fine cup of coffee, Santiago, good job,” she said, giving Amy a curt nod and walking away.
After receiving approval from the other editors, she finally tried her own, and oh my god Sonya was right. That was delicious.
----
The next four hours were a blur of intense note taking, making copies, and doing whatever it was the editors saw fit for an intern. With all of the running around she was doing, she was sure she’d have the building memorized by the end of the day.
“Santiago!” Sonya called. “We need more coffee, take the list, go back to wherever it was that you went earlier.”
Amy grabbed the paper and booked it to the elevators. She was glad to be on the top floor of the building, as the time it took to get downstairs was a much needed rest. Of course, the rest ended all too soon and she was once again rushing to Ninety-Nine Grinds.
“Welcome to-” the same barista from that morning began before breaking out into a grin. “Or, welcome back, I should say. What can I get for you, Amy?”
“Oh!” She was surprised he remembered her name. “Um, let me see, I think it’s the same as before, not that I expect you to remember, though you remembered my name, but that’s different than several orders, and I....”
She bit her lip, forcibly stopping herself from rambling. Good lord, what was her problem?
“A large iced soy chai, a large decaf drip with an add shot and milk, a large cappuccino, and, um…”
“Vanilla latte with a little bit of cinnamon?” he asked, looking smug. It wasn’t a bad look on him.
She laughed. “Impressive. You’re pretty good at this barista business.”
“Well, I ought to be, otherwise buying this place would have been a big mistake. Not that I haven’t made plenty of those, but this has worked out alright for me so far.”
“Oh! You’re the owner? Well, you should know, my colleagues and I all really loved the coffee earlier. It’s nice to meet you, um….” she trailed off, realizing she still hadn’t actually met him.
“Jake Peralta,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand.
“Amy Santiago,” she said. She was pleased to find that he had a firm handshake, and fleetingly wondered if he had taken the same seminar she had.
Realizing that the handshake may have gone on a bit too long, she pulled her hand back to tuck her hair behind her ears.