favorite transgressions

“i mean, you could be. some people like it that way,” she said. “am i just outlining or is this getting colored in?”

“I mean, I guess so. Still, you should get to have a say in it. I think letting go of control and being mindless are two different things, you know?” She had to remember she could shrug as she spoke. “Just outlining.”

Jonah chuckles and nods as she speaks, “Do you have a lot of late nights? Or just early mornings? Or neither of those two things?” he asks, laughing brightly at himself. His own coffee, arrives just a moment later, and he takes it with both hands, “If you have a moment, I’d love for you to join me. Though, if you don’t, I completely understand.”

“The earliest of mornings. Honestly, you don’t want to know what number coffee this already is,” she joked. It was only her second. Which was probably more than she should be having, but strung out on caffeine but happy was better than well-rested and bored. She perks up a little at the offer to join him, nodding. “That’d be wonderful, actually. Of course,” she gestured for him to lead the way.

hannah hadn’t been paying much attention when she’d grabbed the counter off of the coffee, not until another woman stopped her.  she blinked in surprise, glancing down at the label and realizing it wasn’t her name written across the cup.  “oh!  i’m so sorry.  i totally wasn’t paying attention.  here you go.  i take it you prefer your coffee strong?”

Jonah turns to look at the woman as she speaks, handing it back to her, “You’re probably right, darling, I’m really sorry,” he insists, “Do you take it that strong? Do they have extra strong coffee? I haven’t actually been here before,” he asks.

Astrid gratefully took the cup back, double checking the side just to make sure she hadn’t totally embarrassed herself by asking him. “Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us.” She shrugged, smirking as she took a sip. “I don’t know if they’re supposed to let me have this many shots of espresso in my coffee, but I tip them well and only order it when I’m desperate for anything to help me along.”

“With that description, I don’t know if it’s legal to hand it back to you” About mid-way to his lips, the smell of coffee wafted into his nostrils; that was definitely not peppermint tea. Simply chuckling, he hands the cup toward Astrid. “Promise I didn’t drink out of it, and if my mouth even remotely went close to it, I’m completely free of germs, or nasty ones anyway.” To say the least, he was having a day, and it wouldn’t have surprised him, if he had become a coffee thief in the four minutes it took to grab lunch for him and Luca. They were still remodeling, in fact, he probably had paint on every inch of his body for a lame prank gone absolutely wrong for him. Luca had painted a red streak down his arm in play and well…he blushes softly. “I apologize. My glasses are at home with my attention span today”

“Look, if anything bad happens, I promise not to come around to blaming you for not keeping my too many shots of espresso from me.” Astrid shrugged at his promises to be free from any sort of dangerous germs. “You ever get so burnt out at work, you’re wishing for a sick day? I think I’m nearly there. Which means it’s just a matter of time before I catch something all on my own.” She brought the cup up to her nose, taking in just the smell of coffee was enough to perk her up a little further. She tried to hide her smile at the appearance of her newfound company, knowing she was probably just as much of a mess when she grabbed a wrinkled shirt off her floor that now had a big stain on it from bumping into one of the makeup artists on set. “Normally, I’m the one walking off with a cup that’s not mine, so, really, don’t worry.”

“SHIT— ‘m sorry, mate.” Cleo quickly handed the paper coffee cup over to the other woman, returning the sheepish smile out of embarrassment. “got a bad habit of not reading the names on the side.” hazel eyes glanced to the cup, a softness settling in her features. “Astrid? lovely name.”

Astrid shook her head, double checking the cup to make sure she hadn’t just suspected the wrong person to have the wrong cup given over to her. But there was her name, with her order marked in some way she didn’t understand. “I have the same bad habit. Maybe this is karma coming for me.” She grinned. “Thanks. I think my parents were trying real hard to come up with something unique.”

Smiling sheepishly at the other, he taps her on the shoulder. “I do believe it was actually me who thieved your coffee, not this poor lady. Unless my mother changed my name to Astrid and didn’t bother to call”

She turned, her eyebrows raising when she felt someone try to get her attention. A smile quirked up on the corner of her mouth. “That would be awfully rude of her to do without telling you, but telling the coffee shop. Definitely would be an odd organization of priorities.”

“I took your coffee?” Julian asked, more to himself, as he looked down at the cup. Searching for a name written, he gave a small chuckle. “Well, my names certainly not…Astrid…” He wondered if he was reading it right. “Luckily, I haven’t taken a sip yet so it’s not tainted with my cooties,” Julian mused before passing the girl’s order back to her. “Sorry about that.”

Astrid pressed her lips together, relieved when he saw her name on the side of the cup, shrugging. “Hey, you never know. But Astrid does tend to be a rarer name than most.” She gratefully took the cup, its warmth comforting in her hands. “Ah, perfect. A girl can never been too careful looking out for those cooties,” she giggled, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. “Honestly, I’m just glad it wasn’t me walking off with someone else’s coffee this time.”

Augustine didn’t drink much coffee, but he did enjoy the occasional tea when he went to the shop, picking up the drinks for the office. It was the one relief of his morning, other than having to go to the dreadful place at all. He reached for his cup and just as he grabbed, heard someone stopping him. “You sure?” he asked, pointing to the side with his name. He popped the top and showed her, “It’s just tea.”

elise grabbed the coffee that she could’ve sworn the barista called her name for. before she could even bring the cup to her lips, she felt a tap on her shoulder. the woman turned, seeing another woman asking for the coffee. “oh…” she looked down, embarrassed. “so sorry about that, love. here you go.” she handed the coffee over to the woman willingly, not wanting to inconvenience the other girl.

A small, relieved sigh escaped past her lips as she gratefully took the offered cup, raising it in a small gesture of thanks. “No worries. I don’t want to think about how many times I’ve gone for the wrong drink because I’m just on autopilot and clearly need the caffeine I’m waiting on sooner rather than later.”

“Or I can just get an Uber.” She tucked her phone into her dance bag and shrugged. “Honestly, I’m just going home so I have no idea why I’m rushing so badly. It’s just been a horribly long day. Why am I spilling my guts to a stranger? Honestly. You must think I’m insane.”

“Yeah, but when you wanna get home, you wanna get home. When I’m waiting for the bus, I’d definitely rather would be curled up on my couch already, even if that’s where I’m heading.” She shook her head. “I’m a very reasonable stranger. Feel free to spill your guts if you need it. You wouldn’t believe what the people I work for tell me, and they barely remember my name half the time.”

as curious as he was about her being here, in the very same city as him, colton fought his urge to question her. surely she hadn’t decided to move across the country on a whim. but then again, he remembered her being quite impulsive. hearing her call his name, he merely shook his head and continued walking towards the exit until he was outside. he didn’t want to deal with this. her persistence made him roll his eyes, however. turning towards her, colton noticed the lack of coffee in her hand and briefly paused. that stuff was way too expensive to just leave behind. shaking that thought away, he sighed heavily. ❝ why ?? you made things pretty clear. so, what else is there to say ?? ❞

She crossed her arms, swallowing hard against a lump that had appeared in her throat when he finally turned to confront her. “I don’t think I got to make much of anything clear, actually.” When she had left school, she didn’t even have that much of a plan, and then her mother had put her through legal hell to try and get to the money her father had left her. “I didn’t even know how long I was going to be gone for, and by the time I got everything sorted out – “ Her words abruptly stopped, because by the time she had everything settled, she thought he wouldn’t want anything to do with her. She sighed, looking away. “Look, I know I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

“if you say so,” she said, turning the gun on and starting to run the needle over the outline. “i don’t let anybody talk me in or out of anything. i do what i want.”

She drew in a breath through her nose, slowly letting it out through her mouth as she felt the needles of the tattoo gun hit her skin. “Exactly. If you let someone else control your life, you won’t ever be happy.”

“Oh yeah, I get it. It’s not my morning for the run, but still, I had to get extra today,” she said with a sigh. “Very early and very late. My neighbors are in a bit of a spat.”

“I swear, I need more and more every day and soon enough, my veins will just be filled with coffee,’ she laughed, gratefully taking a sip of her returned coffee. “Yikes. Both loud and concerning. Always a good time.”