RP: One More Cup of Coffee

[marie_oshea]

Date: January 18, 2011
Characters: Marie O'Shea, Ava Byrne
Location: Starbucks on West 7th
Status: Private
Summary: Ava and Marie meet for coffee
Completion: Complete

Comments

[avabyrne]

Ava parked her bike in the rack outside of Starbucks just as she'd done last week and locked it, all the while humming to the music coming through her earbuds. Listening to an ipod while riding a bike wasn't the safest thing ever, but Ava often did it anyway. Music made the ride feel shorter, and today especially, it also helped her relax. She'd had an exhausting day being observed by the man who was her boss' direct superior. It was nerve-wracking trying to work with him around and evaluating her, and the most frustrating thing was that he hadn't even given her any feedback. He'd just... watched. Ominously.

A nice bike ride and some music had put her nerves at bay a little.

She checked the time on her phone as she went inside, pleased to see she wasn't quite late. Marie's hair was immediately noticeable; she was standing in line behind a bickering couple, which made Ava smile as she headed over, removing her earbuds.

"Hey," she said, hoping this didn't count as sneaking up on her or anything.

[marie_oshea]

Marie had been momentarily distracted by the sound of a girl whining in front of her. She supposed that the politically correct term would have been 'young woman' as the girl didn't look much younger than her, but she certainly sounded five with they way she was whining. The boyfriend got no sympathy from Marie either. He kept firing back with snarky comments that only made his girlfriend whine louder. For as much as she and Sean had fought towards the end of their relationship, at least they had kept it to themselves.

She was so involved in attempting not to glare at the bickering couple that she gave a little jump when she heard someone behind her. "Hey," she said happily when she turned around to find that Ava had been the source of the voice. "Sorry, I was distracted by the couple of the year," she said sarcastically in a quiet voice so that the couple in question would not overhear the comment.

[avabyrne]

Marie jumped at first, and Ava laughed a little. "I didn't mean to startle you," she said apologetically, then looked past Marie to the couple. "And I know, I spotted them when I came in. Pretty hard to miss."

Now she was closer, she could hear them better. They were certainly attracting attention. The guy had turned halfway away from the girl at this point, deliberately ignoring her (rude). The girl responded by hissing loudly at his shoulder, something like "well maybe you just take her this weekend". Ava looked at Marie and smiled bemusedly, lowering her voice. Not that they'd probably hear her anyway. "More like breakup of the year."

[marie_oshea]

"Yeah," Marie said blandly. "They're about as subtle as a flying brick." Marie's eyes widened when she heard the girl start to throw accusations about other women around. "This is worse than trashy daytime television."

As soon as Marie had said that she saw the girl bring her hand back in preparation. "Uh-oh," she said under her breath to Ava as the girl slapped the guy. From the looks of the angry red mark that was already showing on his face and the sound of the entire Starbucks going silent in shock, it had been a good one.

"FUCK YOU!" The girl screeched as she stormed past Marie and Ava and violently pushed open the doors. "I'm done with your shit!" Well, Marie thought, she definitely had her boyfriend's (or ex as of five seconds ago, if she wanted to be precise) attention now.

"Oooh my god," Marie said. She turned to look at Ava with wide eyes, mouth hanging slightly open in shock. "That really just happened. I can't even... just, wow."

[avabyrne]

"Or better, depending on how you look at it." By Ava's count, and she'd only been standing here for about a minute, there were two other women in the relationship who may or may not know about each other. This girl knew about them, though.

When the girl raised her arm, it was almost like slow motion. It felt like everyone in the shop was holding their breath. Next thing Ava saw was the guy clapping his hand to his cheek and the girl pushing past her and Marie.

"Wait -- shit!" The guy rushed out the door after her. "Wait! Goddammit, Becky!"

Adjusting her bag on her shoulder after the girl had knocked into it, Ava turned back to Marie in the hush of the shop. "Um." She barely stifled a laugh. "Uh, I guess they're not going to have coffee." Her shoulders shook as a giggle escaped. It had been one of the more interesting icebreakers Ava had experienced.

"So... how was your day?"

[marie_oshea]

Marie's shocked silence was quickly replaced by laughter. "Does it make me a bad person if I say that that made my day better," she asked between giggles. "What about you?" She quickly placed her order for a grande chai tea latte and stepped to the side to wait for Ava to order.

[avabyrne]

"I don't think that would make anyone a bad person," Ava said, noticing that the other customers in the shop were starting to pick back up with their conversations after the couple had stunned them into silence. "I know I feel better. Kind of puts things in perspective."

After Marie ordered, Ava stepped up and asked for a hazlenut latte. She loved the smell. "But seriously, how are you?"

[marie_oshea]

"Oh, I'm ok," Marie said as she scanned the room for a free table. "I started both my internship and classes this week. Neither of them are really keeping me that busy though. What have you been up to this week?" When she spotted a small table in the front corner of the store as she asked Ava, "Is over there ok?"

[avabyrne]

"Sounds like a full schedule," Ava commented, reaching for one of the little cardboard sleeves to put her coffee in. "Or maybe not so full, if you're still not that busy. Are they just not challenging you yet?"

Ava followed Marie's line of sight and nodded when she asked about the table. "Working a lot," she said when they sat down. "Things are a little nerve-wracking at work. I've been there a few weeks now and they're sort of evaluating my performance." She wrinkled her nose and set her bag down at her feet.

[marie_oshea]

"You would think so," Marie said as she and Ava walked to the table. "NBC just has me filing stuff right now. And as far as classes go, I'm getting credit for the internship, one of my classes is online, and the other one is just a dance class. Maybe it'll get more challenging as the semester goes on though," she said with a shrug.

She wrinkled her nose at Ava's comment about evaluation. "That has to be weird. Do they just st there and stare at you or do they actually give you feedback on the spot?" Marie wasn't sure what would be worse.

[avabyrne]

"Filing, ouch," Ava commiserated. "I guess everyone has to put in their dues, though. In undergrad I did this internship in a hospital medical lab, and I basically tested various bodily fluids all day." Which was perfect light conversation to have with a new friend over coffee, Ava thought with a wince. "Um. What I mean is, starting out is always the worst but... things'll get better over time. And you might even miss having a light schedule."

She sipped her coffee once it had cooled slightly and nodded. "Yeah, there's this guy who my boss works for -- and I guess that obviously means I work for him too, and today he was just in there watching me work. He didn't even say a word but I knew he was evaluating me. I kept wanting to ask him what he thought, but something told me it would be a bad idea." She laughed a little and opened the lid of her latte to get at some of the whipped cream.

[marie_oshea]

"Yeah," Marie said with an over exaggerated sigh. "I kinda knew it would be like this. I think it's just bugging me so much because my brother moved in with me temporarily." She paused for a second. The realization of how that sounded made her cringe a little. "I don't mean it like, 'ahh, i hate my brother!' It's more like I just hate how crowded my apartment is now. It's made for one person and all of his boxes are just attacking any free space I once had. It's really just making me more whiny than usual."

She took a sip of her coffee while listening to Ava talk about work. "You mean he just stood there the whole time? I can see how that would be nerve-wracking. And slightly creepy. When do you find out the results?"

[avabyrne]

"No, I know what you mean," she said, "I mean, not that I have any siblings myself, but just, the extra stress can't be helping. Plus, I don't know, I hear siblings were made to bug each other."

Ava shook her head. "Creepier than he probably intended, yeah," she said. "I get it, and it's not like I don't know what I'm doing -- I'm just not great with that sort of thing. I don't even know when I'm getting the results, or if the results will just me keeping my job." She laughed. "But I'm sure I'm fine. Just a very uncomfortable day."

[marie_oshea]

"Yeah," Marie agreed with Ava's statement. "Ryan can definitely be annoying. But, when he decides that he doesn't want to tease me anymore he is pretty much my best friend."

"Well" Marie laughed a little before continuing. "At least the worst part is over, right?"

[avabyrne]

"That sounds really nice," Ava said with a smile, replacing the lid on her coffee so she could sip properly. "Built-in best friends."

She reached down to move her bag before the giggling toddler running by their table could trip over it. "Yeah, it's over. Things could be a lot worse. My mind's already halfway off off it between the bike ride, which came with some good accompanying music, and the 90210 episode that played out right in front of us." She smiled. "I'm glad we decided to meet up again."

[marie_oshea]

"Yeah," Marie said with a smile. "It is kinda nice."

That was nice, Maire thought when she saw Ava move her bag aside so a toddle wouldn't trip over it. She supposed she could also say that maybe Ava was more concerned about the well being of her bag than the kid, but she didn't seem the type. "Yeah, it still feels a little surreal to me. I've never seen anyone actually slap someone in public before." She smiled back at Ava when she said that she was glad they met up again. "Me too. If you're not busy next week, maybe we could do it again?"