i’m young and in love
for @reneewalkerx for the @tfcfemslashnet exchange; hope you like this little coffeeshop au! (title from lana del rey’s ‘love’)
As it turns out, excessive swearing is not a desirable trait in a barista. Neither is the tendency to make out with a customer against the counter.
Allison is not remotely surprised to hear this, but that doesn’t mean she likes it. It doesn’t mean she can’t find something else to blame her lack of a job on.
Namely, the pretty girl sitting by the window who sips tea for a half-hour every other morning while typing away on her laptop. Dan says she walked over there once while wiping down the others tables and it looked like some kind of messaging program was open. She says the pretty girl laughed to herself sometimes as she wrote, probably at whatever her friend just sent her.
Allison wonders what it’d be like to not have someone be sick of you after talking that often, week after week.
Allison bets it’s a boyfriend she’s talking to, long distance or something, because the pretty girls always have boyfriends.
“You don’t have a boyfriend,” Dan always points out when this sentiment is expressed, “and you’re pretty damn beautiful.”
“Fuck off. You’re a pretty girl with a boyfriend, you don’t get to talk,” is always Allison’s response, delivered with a smirk and met with a snort and raised eyebrows from Dan. Dan’s been with Matt for nearly two years now; she’s got a more solid relationship than Allison will ever have. Somehow they’ve come to an easy routine of what some would call flirting, but Allison and Dan both know it’s nothing but the binding friendship formed from the crappy job they’re stuck at.
Dan because she’s finishing her plans for the future. Allison because she’s inventing a whole new one for herself.
Dan has been working the coffee job six months longer than Allison, so only about seven in total. She and Matt have had their eye on a few different apartment complexes only blocks away, and they’re both working as hard as they can to scrape together the deposit for their favorite place.
Allison, on the other hand, has been cut off and is almost broke.
It turns out that rich people do have limits and will snap if you push enough. Which Allison apparently has.
Hence the crappy job.
In the first week Allison worked at the coffee shop, she’d earned the nickname Princess after wearing, and, Dan claims, flaunting designer brands each day.
It’s only after week number three that Allison gives Dan a slightly less poisonous smile and the name Princess becomes at all affectionate.
Allison would say she and Dan have had a pretty good relationship since then. Except, of course, when Dan doubles over laughing as Allison is being fired. That could put a strain in it for a day or two.
Though, it’s not Dan’s fault. It’s the pretty girl’s.
Allison learns her name during week two on the job.
“That’s Renee,” Dan says. “She’s a regular. Sweet girl. Always puts something in the jar.” She picks up the glass jar with TIPS ALWAYS APPRECIATED written on the label in pink marker.
Allison has always liked those who tip more than those who don’t. Anyone would. It’s not because Renee is pretty.
Though she is. But Allison doesn’t really notice it that often.
Not when Renee laughs at something on her laptop, not when she smiles at Allison and Dan while slipping a dollar into the tip jar every other morning, not when her fingers touch Allison’s when she hands over her tea. Not then. Or not that much.
Of course, Dan mentions later, this is Allison’s brain talking. Allison’s heart has other ideas.
Allison rolls her eyes at the notion of her heart having ideas, because really, how cliche can you get, and goes back to subtly staring at Renee.
Being gay becomes more difficult when work is flooded with pretty girls you can never have, Allison decides.
Dan sighs and arranges the pastries in the display case again. This has become her ‘Allison is pining pitifully and I can’t do anything to stop it’ activity, Allison has noticed.
The display case has never looked better than in these past weeks.
Renee has stopped typing from what Allison can see. She’s tilting her head to mess with a switch on the side of her laptop, and to Allison’s shock, pushes back her chair and carries her laptop to the counter. This isn’t part of her usual routine.
Allison will not blush when Renee smiles and tucks a pale strand of hair behind her ear before speaking. She will not.
“The wifi password hasn’t changed, has it?” Renee asks. Her voice definitely doesn’t make Allison’s lip almost twitch into a smile. It’s just a nice voice, sweet and soft.
Allison’s brain hasn’t quite caught up yet, because she’s just processing the question now. Wifi password. Changed.
“Shi-” she starts, then looks back at Renee’s smile. “Shoot,” she finishes abruptly, and Renee looks like she’s going to laugh. “Dan, we haven’t changed the password, right?”
Dan emerges from behind the display case, wiping her hands on her apron. “Not that I know of. Hi, Renee.” She nods to Renee, and Renee smiles back.
Allison’s brain is still behind.
“Dan, your coworker swears quite a bit. I hear her sometimes,” Renee says jokingly, looking back at Allison.
Dan laughs and turns it into a groan. “Yeah, tell me about it. Do you know how many times I’ve been told to fuck off? I kind of wish I kept a tally, but I can never remember, I’d bet—”
Allison kicks Dan’s foot from behind the counter. She’d tell her to shut the fuck up right now, if it weren’t for the exchange at hand.
Renee must notice Allison’s movement, because she laughs and Allison’s brain has no hope of catching up now. “It’s just funny, is all.” She taps her laptop. “So no change?”
Dan nods. “Wish I could help.” She bumps Allison’s hip ever so slightly as she asks, “Talking to your boyfriend?”
Allison can’t even pretend she’s not holding her breath right now.
Renee shakes her head. “No, no. Just an old friend. He’s visiting France for a while and he likes to tell me about what’s happening there. I like listening.”
Dan squeezes Allison’s hand behind the counter in a clear not all pretty girls have boyfriends way. Allison is surprised she’s alive to feel it.
“Nice,” Dan says, “Well, I’d just try shutting it off and trying again. Always works for me.”
Renee nods and begins to walk away, turning around once, and Allison would swear it on her life, to look back at Allison frozen behind the counter.
Dan steps away, sighs, and returns to rearranging the pastries.
“So I went to high school with her,” Dan says the next morning.
It takes Allison a moment to figure out what she’s talking about.
“You what? And you didn’t tell me?” Allison says, nearly dropping the latte she’s making for a woman at Renee’s usual table by the window. It’s one of the days she’s not here, probably working herself.
Dan is trying not to laugh at her face, Allison can tell. She must look ridiculous, all incredulous like this, but it’s fucking important information that Dan’s been holding back.
“I didn’t remember at first, really—”
Allison leans closer. “Yeah, and then? You just forgot to tell me?”
Dan is laughing now. “This is adorable. See, this is why I didn’t tell you.”
Allison scowls as Dan sniggers next to her. She’ll stay mad for another ten minutes, then it’ll get boring not speaking and they’ll go back to gossiping and complaining in between customers.
The bell at the door jingles softly as someone comes inside, and Allison decides that ten minutes is too long a time without Dan and that the next half-second it takes for her to process what’s happening will do instead.
“Dan,” Allison says, grabbing her wrist. “She’s here.”
Dan looks up just as Renee is making her way to the counter. “She’s not normally here two days in a row, that’s new.” She tries to pry Allison’s hand off her wrist, but her grip is unexpectedly strong. “Let go, you’re acting like an idiot.”
Allison knows that she’s being dramatic. She can embrace it.
Renee is at the counter, nodding to Dan when she suggests the usual tea.
Dan finally escapes Allison’s grip, rolling her eyes as she goes to make the drink. “Just a minute,” she tells Renee.
A minute is all Allison needs to finish off her dramatics.
She pushes all the jittery what-ifs out of her mind and focuses on this pretty girl standing in front of her, Renee, the one she’s had an embarrassingly large crush on for almost a month now.
And then she opens her mouth.
Allison has a little bit of an impulsive streak to go along with the dramatics.
“Look, I know this could be weird, and honestly you should stop me at any time if it’s not going to work out, it’s just that you're—” Allison needs to pause to take a breath, and Renee’s smile convinces her to continue, “—you’re really fu— really pretty, and I, um,” Allison brings a hand up to her hair, losing her direction, except this isn’t a problem because then—
“Would you like to go out sometime, Allison?” Renee says quietly, smiling in a way that makes her eyes sparkle and her hair glow and Allison’s mouth open a little in shock.
“I’d suggest we grab coffee, but you know,” Renee glances around the shop. “Maybe lunch would be better.”
Allison thinks she’s dreaming.
It’s only Dan’s muffled laugh from behind them that jars Allison’s thoughts to a start again, except now everything in her head feels light and bright and a little on its side because what the hell just happened?
She’s just been asked out. By Renee.
Who is standing here, waiting for an answer.
“Oh! Oh, yeah,” Allison says too loudly, and Dan is really laughing now. She slows down a little, or she might start laughing too out of nerves. “I would love that.”
Renee’s smile grows. “Friday, when you’re off? D'you want to meet at that Chinese place next street over?”
It’s only a few days away, but suddenly Allison would give up almost anything to have Friday come right now.
So she does something a little more impulsive. She leans over the counter just a bit, and Renee is leaning in too, she thinks, and then: “I know it’s early but—”
Renee smiles, and Allison’s heart aches a little in the nicest way possible.
And then Renee kisses her, and it’s even better than nice.
Allison pushes herself up on the counter with one hand, bringing the other up to place at Renee’s neck, feeling the brush of her hair just barely.
It doesn’t go on much longer, but it’s perfect. Allison lets out her breath quietly as she pulls back, and her eyes are locked with Renee’s. They’re both grinning in blushing, knowing ways, and Allison thinks she might be in love.
Which is good, considering she’s now unemployed. It’s not appropriate, it seems, to kiss a customer at the counter as your coworker bursts into giggles behind you. It also is not appropriate to swear loud enough so that other customers can hear, and, apparently, file complaints.
It’s a pretty formal coffee shop, as it turns out.
Allison can’t really bring herself to care. She’ll see Dan when she’s got hours off, she’ll find another annoying job, and she’ll be seeing Renee.
After all, they’ve got a date this Friday.