The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

[sampippy]

The unthinkable had happened:

Xanthippe was being told the funds she had with her weren't enough to pay for the extra special coffee order she'd just made. Look, she'd forgotten her cards at the dorms but like, the change she'd somehow managed to scrounge up from the pockets of her fashionably careless flannel had to be enough to pay for it, right

Comments

[got_hijacked]

Rhys was more than ready to go with a firm 'not my problem' but something about the situation almost made him homesick for Hyperion.

"How much more is it?"

[sampippy]

The barista, looking like he did not want to be here for any of this, rattled off how much was missing. It wasn't much, but still enough that he'd probably get in trouble if he just let it slide.

"God, how poor can this place be that you can't just, like, overlook that," Xanthippe exclaimed. Not having figured out yet that maybe she should start cooling it down, now.

[got_hijacked]

"Oh... kay," Rhys said, fishing out money he totally found in a dumpster to just pay for it.

[sampippy]

The barista thanked him with the deepest sincerity. If also a lot dryly.

Meanwhile Xanthippe, still in I will fight this injustice mood, considered the merits of refusing to let him pay, on principle. But... she also really just wanted that freaking coffee.

"Thanks, I guess."

[got_hijacked]

"You were holding up the line." Rhys' charm was amazing. And he could totally fake apathetic rich attitude after so many years in corporate hell.

[sampippy]

Maybe that was not the smartest thing to be faking around Xanthippe. It could have Consequences.

The barista shoved her drink at her. She picked it up, making a face. "Well maybe I wouldn't have if they'd been reasonable."

[got_hijacked]

This was Rhys. Poor decision making that leads to dire consequences was his modus operandi.

"Yeah," he blustered. "So unreasonable with their payment."

[sampippy]

"I know, right?" Xanthippe replied, 100 per cent sincere. You could tell by how high her eyebrows climbed. "They should totally have a more relaxed system."

[got_hijacked]

And that was why Rhys' eyebrows going on up too. Because oh god, he'd gotten himself into this.

"Right?" he agreed, trying to catch the barista's eye for his own coffee only to be ignored. Shunned.

[sampippy]

Kind of rude, really, when he'd just saved the barista from the entitled hipster. Oh well.

"I mean I know only, like, old people pay cash anymore," she continued, with the kind of tone like this was common knowledge. "But shouldn't that mean they should be more lenient with the cash thing? 'Cause old people don't remember to bring enough money."

[got_hijacked]

Really, Rhys made his bed. Also, he was a terrible tipper, so.

"I... had cash." And was actually old. So, her point was a valid one.

[sampippy]

"We all make mistakes?"

That was less for him and more just because she'd realized she had implied herself to be like old people and therefore not cool. Since she'd paid cash too.

Or you know. Tried to. Maybe the lack of succeeding saved her street cred.

[got_hijacked]

A comment like that put her way ahead of half the people he used to work with. And managed to get him to smile a little in relief. "I haven't figured out how to transfer my credit here anyway."

Something something, everyone thought he was dead. But on the plus side, he was avoiding his student loans. By being a student again. The irony was not lost on him.

[sampippy]

"It's like a total hastle, right?" Xanthippe said, like she knew at all how that worked. "Fandom's such a pain in the ass just in general."

She hadn't decided what to make of him, yet.

[got_hijacked]

"My roommate is a llama," Rhys replied. "I'm not going to disagree with you on that."

[sampippy]

"... Seriously?" Xanthippe asked. "Is he related to the moose in the office?"

That was not how animals worked.

She knew that, but the urge to be cool via not knowing things was strong.