tell me something i dont already know

She nodded at the woman’s explanation, “It’s nothing — I understand the importance of caffeine.” It was partly true; Rowan enjoyed the rush she got, how quickly she focused and could get through the morning until her mood dropped by lunch, just in time for her to relax and stuff her face. And, if she were honest, it was nice to have an excuse to escape the office some days.

She chuckled at Emelia’s words, hands moving to cross under her breasts as she listened. “Yeah,” she inched forward, couldn’t help herself. “We definitely went to school together.” A small grin appeared on her face, hands moving to smooth over the pencil skirt that stopped just below her knee. It was rare she wore anything lower than mid thigh in school, even in winter where she’d throw on some stockings, enjoying how people gaped at the garters that appeared when she sat a certain way. “Don’t worry, they still allow for easy access.” 

emelia smirked, raising her eyebrow slightly at rowan, knowing that the brunette was reliving the same memories as her. Her eyes followed the movement of rowan’s hands, watching as she smoothed down her skirt, gaze lingering before catching the other’s eyes again. She definitely had aged well, just as sexy in mature business clothes as she was in short skirts and crop tops 13 years ago. “I bet they do” she replied, smirking.

“if I remember correctly, you shot outta this place even faster than i did.” she said, in place of an actual question about what rowan had been doing. “made your nice little valedictorian speech and nobody heard from you ever again” she chuckled lowly “there was a rumour you were a playboy bunny for some reason” she chuckled. “but looks like we all end up back at luxbourne at some point, huh.”

Rowan’s eyes were in her phone, as usual. She had confirmation emails to send, phone calls to make, and a meeting at two for one of the richer couples she’d came by in the new job. Her eyes flickered to the corner of the phone screen, registering the time clicking closer and closer to one. She wanted to be back in the office by half past so she had time to lay out the design books and boards she had made from their initial requests, back ups ready if they wanted something a little different. Scowling, she glanced up. There was one woman in front of her, clad in a uniform, who had been there way too long now. 

She listened to what she was saying, rolling her eyes at the woman’s words. “That’s what you get with capitalism,” she remarked, stepping forward to slam twenty dollars onto the counter, throwing out her order with it. “And what she wants.” The barista looked relieved, quickly passing Rowan her change, smiling gratefully when she slipped a few dollars into the tip jar and the rest in the purse she had grabbed for the coffee run. 

Walking around the woman, she waited at the other end of the counter, hip leaning against it. Her eyes trailed up the woman’s form, finally reaching her face. It didn’t take long for the smirk to appear on her lips, recalling her and the girl messing around a few times back in school; she hadn’t changed much. Her name wasn’t coming to Rowan, so she didn’t bother with it, “Thank you for your service.” It was playful, nothing to do with the uniform she wore.

it wasnt that she enjoyed holding up lines and making peoples days harder, but emelia was stressed out, and coffee was one of the few things she trusted herself to have these days. her struggle was thankfully cut short by the woman behind her paying for her drink without any faff or hassle, and without so much as a look in her direction, still on her phone.

Thanking the barista, emelia moved down the counter, to wait with the woman who had paid for her drink. Smiling as she heard her speak, Emelia glanced at her. At first, she had not known what to do when people expressed their thanks for her time in the force, but it had gotten easier over the years. “you’re welcome, thanks for the coffee, I left my debit card at home” she explained, shooting the woman a smile, before frowning slightly, trying to place her face.

“I think we went to school together.” she said, leaning against the counter, smirking as she remembered just what they did at school together, although most of her senior year was a drug and alcohol fuelled haze, there were some things that stuck out to emelia. “yeah, rowan southern. your skirts a little longer than I remember.”

Davey was already running late for work when he walked into the Starbucks, but he knew damn well that after not sleeping the night before he’d be useless today without a coffee. And just like God had fated him to be late, there was a lady, yelling at a probably just as tired barista. His air of professionalism slipped on with ease as he stepped towards her. “Let me get this one.” He gave the woman a kind smile and an almost apologetic one to the barista. “The usual please.” He said to the boy behind the counter, pulling out his wallet. “My grandfather was in the military, he basically lived off of diner’s with discounts for veterans.” He turned back to her, handing over a wad of cash to whichever worker was closest. 

she hated being like this, the high strung woman yelling at service industry workers about the price of things, but the move had been stressful on emelia, coming back to her hometown, seeing her family again, it had brought up a lot of emotions she wasn’t quite well equipped enough to process without coffee. She looked over at the man next to her thankfully “thank you so much, i’m not usually like this, but i left my purse at home, and i only had like 4 dollars in change, but I thought, maybe with military discount, i’d be able to get some caffeine in me” she explained, also thanking the barista “i’ve been in germany for the past 18 months, so I guess I forgot about starbucks not doing discounts...or paying their taxes”