Chapter 24

It was your turn for the coffee run that morning, so you weren’t in quite as bright and early as you had the day before. Just the difference in the last twenty-four hours had you staring off into space while you were in line at the coffee shop down the street from the office.

“Excuse me? Sir?”

You shook your head, waking yourself up. “Sorry, sorry,” you mumbled, stepping up to the counter and thumbing open your phone to read off the orders. “I need three black coffees extra large, plus an almond macchiato large, a french vanilla large, two cold brews medium aaaand can I get one of those chocolate pastry things?” You asked.

“Sure,” the girl behind the counter said. She was a pretty girl who took care of herself, but she’d applied more makeup than she needed - probably wanting to distract from the fact that she was a little overweight. That didn’t stop her from showing off a significant amount of cleavage crammed into her uniform shirt, and just noticing that made you think of Gemma and the first time you’d ever seen her not buttoned up, prim and proper, yesterday after hours.

“Actually, can I get three of those?” you asked.

“Yeah, of course,” she chirped, but you could immediately tell you’d annoyed her since she’d almost finished packing the first one up in a little box that wouldn’t fit the others.

Oops, you thought. Is this the same thing as the secretary whispering?

And now that you’d thought of that...

“And could you add one more black coffee, medium to that please?” you asked.

She sighed and started adding it to your order.

“Thanks,” you tried to smile politely, and got nothing back.

Giving up on making this interaction any better, you paid and tucked the receipt away so that you could submit it as an expense. Rather than issuing out a bunch of company cards for the interns, the firm did expense reports - hopefully whoever processed them wouldn’t look twice at the three pastries, but you’d seen Garrison order three dozen donuts for a six person deposition before so you weren’t exactly worried.

For the next fifteen minutes you set aside all your daydreaming and mild panic at what the day was going to bring, and focused on balancing eight drinks and a box of pastries in your arms while managing your messenger bag as well.

You made it, barely. A biker had hopped the curb to avoid an uber driver suddenly pulling over in front of him to drop his fare, and you’d almost been the feature of a bicycle-meets-pedestrian YouTube clip. Thankfully, you only dropped the pastry box and it hadn’t opened, and a kind woman had picked it up and set it back on your tower of drinks for you.

Inside the building, you walked up to the counter and for the only time since your very first time in the building, instead of walking by the reception desk you stopped. “Good morning, Becks,” you said.

Becks - you had to assume her full name was Rebecca - looked up from her computer screen. “Oh, hey. You’re um, Sabrina’s coworker, right? John?”

“Yes,” you said. “I’m on coffee duty today, but I didn’t know your order so I grabbed you a medium black.”

“Finally, one of you boys thinks to ask me,” Becks said with a smirk, reaching out and taking the coffee you ordered.