The Perk; Thursday Morning [02/15].

[died8yearsago]

Sure, Rosa was in a relationship right now, but did she seem like the kind of person to do Valentine's Day? In fact, she resolutely refused to do anything romantic yesterday out of principle alone. If she was going to bone down with her SO, it was going to be on her own terms, not because Hallmark told her to.

So she did what she did every February 14th, whether she was attached or not, and that was make out with a bottle (or two) of cheap ass whiskey and watch a marathon of Nancy Meyers movies. What? You had your traditions, she had hers.

That was the reason for the extra large black coffee before she headed into the station. The reason for lingering around and smirking at the barista dealing with increasingly more difficult customers was just good old schadenfreude.

[[the fog is definitely bringing in the crazies. open!]]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot swung by on his usual morning circuit of the island. The baristas, who by now knew him pretty well, already had his coffee ready (also black, if a bit smaller than Rosa's), and a treat for Val.

"Thanks," Eliot said, sticking a large tip into the jar on the counter. "Y'all are good eggs." He turned and saluted Rosa with his cup. "Morning, officer."

[died8yearsago]

If someone looked really closely, they'd have seen that Rosa's chin went up a tick.

"Yup," she agreed, "it's a morning."

And to hide the fact that her smirk sharpened a little as more-ice, too-much-ice lady went up for round three, she took a sip.

[vdistinctive]

She was a cop; Eliot was absolutely watching her very closely. His eyebrow went up a tick in response.

"Settlin' in alright?"

[died8yearsago]

"Alright, I guess," Rosa murmured. But she snorted slightly, her attention focused on something just over Eliot's shoulder before she smirked his way. "Hey. You a betting man?"

[vdistinctive]

Oh sure, look over his shoulder when he was busy trying to keep an eye on you because you're a cop, Rosa. That's fair. Eliot tuned in on whatever it was with one ear and almost wished he had an earbud in and Hardison running surveillance.

On a coffee run.

He shrugged, playing it off like he wasn't paying that much attention, and took another sip of his coffee. "Sometimes. Depends on the bet."

If this was entrapment, he was going to be very disappointed in Rosa.

[died8yearsago]

Rosa's intentions were way more innocent.

...which was a weird sentence to be strung together with her name.

"That dingbat over there," she said, plenty loud enough for said dingbat to hear her, "corner table, has gone up and complained about her drink four times in the..." She glanced down at her watch, "ten minutes I've been here. I've got twenty bucks that says the barista completely snaps on complaint number five. Which I'd guess is probably going to happen any minute now."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot turned to look, then grabbed a seat at the table next to Diaz's. "Ah, her." He may or may not have gotten the same dingbat in at Luke's a time or two. "Sure, I'll take that action. Staff here is way more passive-aggressive than that." He held up a finger. "But: spittin' in her drink doesn't count snapping."

[died8yearsago]

"Oh," Rose snorted again, "spitting in drinks is pretty much expected. Honestly, I'm impressed she's held out this long. There was this teenager in front of me when I got here, her order was pretty much a mile long and I don't even think it involved coffee. I swear, the barista wanted to kiss me when all I wanted was," she lifted up her cup, "black coffee."

And she might not have minded; girl was cute.

"But no, snapping classifies raised voice, an insult, a drink that was very clearly and intentionally spilled, preferably on the offender, and possibly throwing punches."

And she sounded way to excited for any of those things to happen.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot chuckled at that tone. Other than being a cop, Rosa was actually pretty cool. "Lady after my own heart. You got a deal. I'd pay twenty bucks to watch all that anyway."

[died8yearsago]

"Extra five to whoever can guess exactly what the complaint is?" Rosa offered when the woman had given her a bit of a false-start, looking like she was about to get up and huff over to the counter, but she just wanted to throw away a wrapper before plopping back into her seat.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot pulled a twenty and a five from his wallet and held them up between two fingers. "I'm gonna go with . . . hell, let's make it a classic. She'll think she spotted something in her drink."

[1000yearstoolate]

The only thing that had made Seivarden notice Valentine's Day was the amount of flower orders at work. She had spent yesterday as she usually did, which was watching Radchaai entertainments with Issa the cat.

Now she was stopping by the Perk to have tea before heading to the animal shelter to buy more cat food. The staff glared at her. She ignored them and ordered, making sure they followed her instructions.

"Are you sure the water is the right temperature?" she asked, and got an intensified glare in response.

"It's the same temperature as always."

"It would be better if..." She made a gesture with her hand. "Never mind."

[died8yearsago]

"Ha!"

Rosa couldn't help it. When she overheard that gem coming from yet another persnickety customer, her bark of a laugh couldn't be held back any more.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden turned around, raising an eyebrow as she noticed the stranger.

"Is something funny?"

[died8yearsago]

Rosa shrugged a shoulder. "It's just water, dude," she said. "Chill out."

[1000yearstoolate]

"It's tea," Seivarden said dryly, as the barista placed her mug on the counter with a thud.

[died8yearsago]

"Fine," Rosa amended. "It's just water with leaves in it. Chill out."

[1000yearstoolate]

Water with leaves in it? Seivarden offered her most condescending smile.

"Is this where you proudly announce that whatever swamp water is being served on your uncivilized part of the universe should be good enough for everyone?"

She took a sip of her tea.

[died8yearsago]

"Wooooow," Rosa's eyes got wide as she laughed, because out of all the crazy things coming out of people's mouths around here, that one...this one...this one was wild. "You do realize that's what tea is, right? It's just leaves in water. And my part of the universe might be uncivilized, buddy, but at least we can cut a little slack to the people making the swamp water that we can literally make in our own homes just as easily."

Let the record show that half of the baristas in Brooklyn were terrified of Rosa because Rosa and civil were rarely words they'd put together, but it was a fact she was happy to brush aside if she was trying to prove a point.

[1000yearstoolate]

"If anyone can make it, doesn't that mean you can expect it to be made properly?"

Seivarden was never going to forget the 'water with leaves in it'. It was such a perfect example of what lack of civilization meant. She didn't know whether to be amused or horrified.