Chapter Text
“C’mon man, you know I hate these places. It’s just ground coffee and water, why do they charge me $10 for a cup?”
Shane stopped, shook his head. Hands resting on his hips he half turned.
“You really have no idea what cosmopolitan means, do you, Rick?”
Rick stopped too, feeling mildly indignant. He’d never suspected a word like cosmopolitan even featured in Shane’s vocabulary. He half grinned, sighed, and carried on walking.
“All right, all right. As long as they don’t put anything in my coffee that tastes of vanilla. I hate vanilla.”
Shane grinned at him and clapped him on the back as he caught up. “Peasant.”
The store was pleasantly warm after the chill outside. The pervading smell of coffee reminded Rick just how many hours it had been since his last cup, that morning, at his desk in the station. He secretly agreed with Shane. It hadn’t been half a bad idea to come in here.
Shane was already at the counter, giving his order to a pretty blond girl behind the till. Rick looked at the board above her head with a frown. How could there be so many things you could do to coffee?
“What can I get you, officer?”
For a few seconds Rick didn’t clock it was him the guy was addressing, even though it should have been pretty obvious. Tearing his eyes away from the menu Rick was startled by the eyes that met his. They were of a clear, brilliant blue like he’d hardly ever seen before. The startling eyes belonged to a young man with tousled dark hair. Afterwards Rick never quite knew why, but he thought the eyes looked a bit sad and the young man oddly out of place, even though he was wearing the same dark green uniform as the girl who had served Shane.
“Err…”
The young man’s eyes remained on him steadily. He didn’t look impatient, but his gaze unsettled Rick nevertheless. It was hard enough not to come across as a complete idiot here, and these eyes were just not helping. As if reading his mind the young guy finally looked away, busying his hands with a dish towel. Rick mentally shook himself. He’d never found buying a cup of coffee quite this stressful.
“Uh, can I get a black coffee?”
“Filter or Americano?”
“Err… I don’t know? What’s Americano?”
The blue eyes were back on him, suspicious for just a second. But then the gaze softened as the man realized that Rick was not having him on but genuinely had no idea.
“Tell you what. Lemme make you an Americano, and if you don’t like it the filter’s on the house.”
Rick nodded, bemused. The young man cast him a quick smile, then set to work. Rick watched him deftly handling the large, gleaming machine. Rick was not usually one to stare at strangers for no reason, but somehow he found it hard to look away. Finally the young man handed him a paper cup.
“Try it.”
Rick took a careful sip of the hot liquid, and felt instantly better.
“Not bad!”
The smile on the other man’s face was hesitant, but definitely there. His eyes really were very blue.
“That’s $3.”
Rick turned to the blond girl by the till who was looking at him expectantly. He moved over towards her, not quite voluntarily, because a group of new customers crowded in behind him just that moment. As he handed the girl the money he glanced back at the man with the blue eyes. He was now busy taking the orders of several very excited teenage girls. Taking his change from the girl behind the till Rick followed Shane out the door.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it? Nobody tried to poison you with syrup, see?”
Rick aimed a small punch at Shane’s arm as he took another sip from his coffee. No, it hadn’t been nearly as horrible an experience as he’d expected, and this really was a nice cup of coffee.