"Here you go. Your latte machiatto with a double dash of caramel and whip cream." Tabitha still had days when she fumbled an order or let her grumpiness bleed through into what was supposed to be a customer-friendly, polite demeanor, but then some days she felt on top of it all, doing as well as any of the others. She was having a good day---until she saw Her. How? Of course she recognized Holly straight away---how could she not? She had spent the past few weeks looking at pictures of her almost every night, biting her lip or blushing or trying not to get carried away because of texts sent by the other, and -- fuck, what was she doing here?
What she did for a living, how she had ended up in such a dead-end job, the sheer amount of nobody that she was, all that she never shared with anyone she met online, least of alll someone so... so like Holly. And now Holly was seeing her in it, with her messy hair and her messy apron and her messy make-up. The cup slipped from her fingers before she realized she was losing grip. With furiously red cheeks she knelt to start cleaning up, while uttering profuse apologies from the floor, and promising to make a new drink stat, and oh fucking god. Holly was here.
There was no hiding, definitely not now, so after she helped the customer to a new drink and then made a few more for everyone between her and Holly, every drink handed over meaning less time for her to get herself together, she was faced with the woman who had monopolized her thoughts as of late. "Hey," she greeted lamely, hands smoothing out the front of her apron. "I... didn't expect you. Here. Today."