RP: Coffee makes everything better

[charisma79]

Date: January 5, 2012
Characters: Charisma Gibbons, Nellie O'Neill, Paul Tallman
Location: Starbucks on 8th, Fort Worth
Status: Public
Summary: The best way to start the day is with coffee.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[paul_tallman]

He'd gone for a run, a little longer than usual, dogs in happy tow. Evan was in for a all-hands meeting at work. His share of the chores was done, and Lucy had insisted she didn't need him to "babysit" her while she was visiting town. And sitting in front of the T.V. just didn't appeal, so he grabbed his keys and wallet and started out, scooping up the paper from the table by the door and tucking it onto the passenger seat as he started into town. Lucy'd taken over grocery shopping, much to her brother's dismay (a fight he'd let Evan do on his own, thank you), but there were a couple of errands he could still think up, maybe. But first, he thought as Puck rumbled into the Starbucks lot, coffee. The best way to keep from accidentally grabbing some of Lucy's gourmet mixes was to just head out to the coffee shop, though teasing her about it always got his wrist slapped, even if she smiled while she did it

[charisma79]

Charisma had finished her danish a while ago and somewhere over the course of her conversation will Nellie, Starbucks had got fairly busy, so much that she felt a little guilty about having a table all to herself. Her eyebrows shot up when a young man was jostled right over her table, dropping his paper. She slid from her chair and bent down to help him pick up the strewn newspaper, then smiled at him as she handed them to him.

"I'm just about done," she told him. "You're welcome to join me and have the table when I leave." With as busy as the coffee shop was, she couldn't imagine him turning down the offer, though she knew some people were weird about sitting with strangers.

[paul_tallman]

"Thanks," he muttered with a grin, glad she hadn't ripped into him for watching where he was going, and hoping she didn't think he was a total klutz, despite all the people around them. "Dangers of trying to get a seat, right?" Scooping the sports section under the art pages, he looked around for the want-ads, then looked up and saw them in her hand. Ah, good. Would have been a shame to lose them. "You sure?" Paul took them from her, and pushed himself up with one hand to his knee, then tucked the various random bits of newspaper under his arm, smiling at her gratefully. "'ppreciate that, thanks." He dropped into the chair across from her with a quiet whoosh, settling his coffee on the tabletop. "You probably did the smart thing and got here before the rush," he said cheerfully, the mild annoyance at the push-and-shove routine already fading. "It's what I get for deciding I'd be good and do the errands first."

[charisma79]

"Not a problem," Charisma said with a friendly smile. "So it would seem." Though Charisma really did think that people could probably do with being a little more considerate and not run into other patrons. What happened to those southern manners she heard so much about? She had to figure they just got a little lost in big cities. "Yes, I'm sure," she assured him. It wasn't a hardship to share the table with a stranger, especially as she'd be done and leaving shortly. She chuckled softly and nodded. "It seems I did, though I think it had more to do with being lucky than smart." Charisma grinned and tsked softly. "Don't you know that a coffee fix is the best start to a day before getting into errands?" And she hoped the stranger wouldn't mind the friendly teasing.

[paul_tallman]

Trying to at least neatly pile the pages of newspaper so they didn't take up the entire table, he leaned back in the chair after a moment, flipping his ponytail over his shoulder and taking a long drag of his coffee, relishing it the entire time. He'd worked for this cup, he teased himself, knowing he'd done more for coffee in the past, but amused at the thought anyway. "Well, then, I hope your luck rubs off," he joked back, taking it in stride. "I thought I'd give myself something to look forward to, but today's proven I probably shouldn't mess with the proper order of things." Giving the place a look-around, now that he was safely in a chair, he snorted softly and shook his head in amusement. "Message from the coffee gods, yeah? Don't think you can get by without us!He turned back to the redhead, eyebrow rising in curiosity. "So, in return, can I offer you part of the paper? The funnies, maybe? Everyone could use a laugh with their coffee, right?" His nose wrinkled as he chuckled. "Just not with their coffee already in

[charisma79]

Charisma couldn’t help but smile at that phrase: the proper order of things. It made her think about Miah, about how she wasn’t letting herself mess with the proper order of things with him even though she very much wanted to push things forward, but she was too scared that doing so would push him away. There was so much change in her life right now that a part of her felt like now would be the time for the dynamic of their relationship to change again, so that all the change could happen at once and be done with. That just wasn’t the way life worked, though, and no matter how much she wanted to get to that future she could see with Miah, she just had to be patient. “Oh, without a doubt. There’s just no getting anything done without coffee,” she quipped with a grin.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with a good laugh, but I really am almost done. Save them for the next poor soul who’ll need to share the table,” she suggested, appreciating the offer. She just wasn’t a newspaper person, preferring to watch the news or catch the highlights

[paul_tallman]

She had a nice smile, Paul thought idly to himself as he took another sip of his coffee. Lucky he'd stumbled into someone who didn't mind crowds sometimes knocking you around, and then even offered him a seat while she finished up whatever she'd come here to do. As she tossed another comeback at him, he smiled above the rim of his cup. Angie'd done that with him when they were deployed together - kept him humble, she said - and he'd missed it, even though he and Angie had known each other well enough to really get rowdy sometimes, and this lady was someone randomly sharing a table with him. But it was nice, and he smiled a little wider as he nodded in agreement

[charisma79]

Charisma’s eyebrows rose at that comment, finding it interesting and kind of ironic that apparently he was looking for a job as well. “I was just talking with someone else who’s also looking for a job,” she commented before taking another sip of her coffee. She did wish Nellie luck in finding a job, and she hoped it wouldn’t be too difficult or long of a process for her to find one she would be happy at. At least she had her list and was able to see these firms first hand this time around.

Charisma was the friendly sort, she always had been, so when he introduced himself, she shook his hand that he held out and said, “Charisma. It’s good to meet you.” She really hadn’t gotten out enough since moving here, and she did think it would do her good to make some connections outside of Miah, friends, a social circle of sorts. It was a thought, anyway, though she really did miss having close friends, even if she did still keep in touch with a couple of her oldest friends in Portland.

[paul_tallman]

"Not surprising," he murmured, thinking of half a dozen friends doing much the same song-and-dance he was right now, then smiled again, to take away from what probably sounded gloomy and defeatist. "Hope they have good luck, though. I'm hoping on getting ahead of the game before all the college kids and grad students are out of classes, though I s'pose in some fields, that's not as much of a worry." He set his cup down and shrugged faintly. "I figure there'll always be a need for medics and EMTs, though I may have to work my way back in by going through a volunteer fire department or something." Something to get him into the swing of things down here.

The eyebrow rose a little higher in interest as he clasped her hand for a moment. "Pretty name. Stands out in a crowd, I'll bet." He grinned, sitting back comfortably again. "More unique than Paul, anyway."

[charisma79]

Charisma didn’t see the point in admitting that she was job hunting as well, as there were plenty of people out of a job and looking right now. “Smart plan,” she commented with a small smile, agreeing that it was good to get into a job before the students were out of classes and flooding the work force, thus increasing the competition. It was something she was keeping in mind. “Oh, I’m sure there are, and I don’t doubt that fire departments are always looking for volunteers, either.” It was a good thing to do, she thought, if you could afford to just volunteer for a bit to get your foot in the door for something else.

“Thank you, it can, yes.” She grinned and took a sip of her coffee, frowning at the way it had cooled down, though there wasn’t much left anyway, so it wasn’t worth getting too disappointed. “It is, though hopefully not as oddly unique as some of the names celebrities are coming up for their kids these days,” she said with a soft laugh.

[paul_tallman]

He smiled, a memory slowly poking at the back of his brain, though he wasn't going to think too hard on it. "Friend of mine liked to keep a list of all the really out-there names movie people give their kids," he agreed, "though I think she never managed to top Moon Unit." Amber had loved to do it because it gave her a good laugh, she said, and made her better about liking slightly less "strange" names like Tristan. She'd picked that one up in a college course, he was pretty sure. Shaking his head with a smaller smile and taking another drink, he eyed the crowd, and sighed silently. The crowd had a lot of energy, most of it rushed, and that didn't bode well for trying to sit and weed through ads. Might be it'd be better to take himself somewhere else to avoid the rest of the rush, though he didn't like to be rude to Miss Charisma and make her think he was rushing off after she was nice enough to let him have a seat.

[charisma79]

Charisma laughed lightly. “Oh, I’m sure that was a long list,” she commented with some amusement. It really was ridiculous some of the names that some people liked to come up with. She went to take another drink of her coffee, only to realize that it was empty now. “Oh, looks like I’m out,” she said, lifting her empty cup and shaking it briefly. “I suppose I should get going and make room for someone else. You have a good day, and good luck with the job search,” she said as she stood up from her chair.

[paul_tallman]

"You too; was nice meeting you. Have a good one." He saluted her slightly with two fingers to his temple, then took a long pull at his drink before deciding he'd head out too, after all. Well, that'd been nice; he hoped she kept having a good day. Meeting eyes with a woman trying to herd her small children out of line, he smiled and stood up, motioning to his chair.