When Jessica woke up, her head was pounding. She laid in bed for a few painful minutes, before she finally rolled out of it and made the short trip to her kitchen. Not paying much attention, she got to making a morning coffee, only to realize half-way through that she was out of coffee.
She swore to herself, pulled on a pair of jeans, an old t-shirt, and a pair of dark sunglasses, and headed out the door to the nearby coffee shop. Her head was pounding and all she could think of now was a bit of coffee to help alleviate the hangover. Maybe with something greasy, though she didn’t think Baxter’s actually served greasy breakfast foods. Still, a coffee was a good first step. It felt like she’d been walking for miles when she finally made her way into the coffee shop and to the front counter. “Coffee,” she croaked.
“Yikes, sounds like you need it mate!” Rose punched in the order and had the good sense to look embarrassed. “Sorry, didn’t mean it like that...just...some people need it more than others, yeah?” She glanced at the girl, hoping she didn’t take it the wrong way. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s the best cuppa coffee you’ll have all week!” There, that should make it better, right?
“Anything to eat?”
“Gee, thanks,” Jessica said sarcastically, though she couldn’t help the corner of her mouth twitching up as the barista attempted to correct herself. It wasn’t like Jessica wasn’t aware of how rough she looked this morning. She glanced at the display case for the good, realizing she probably should buy a muffin or something, even if eating was the last thing on her mind right now. “What’s good?” she asked.
Rose gave her an apologetic smile, but she didn’t seem to offend the girl too much. Her smile came back when she asked what pastry was good and Rose went off. “Well, the raspberry scone is definitely my favorite! It’s nice and buttery, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside! But the croissants are soo good too!” Ok, so maybe she wasn’t a big help on the food side, but in Rose’s mind, everything Baxter’s made was fantastic!
It was way too early for anyone to be as perky as this barista was, especially with the headache that Jessica was nursing. Even if she had tried, Jessica was pretty sure there was no way she could even come close to matching her. “The raspberry scone sounds fine,” she said, not giving it much thought. The woman had at least managed to narrow it down by two, and she’d had a favourite, so that was plenty of help.
“One raspberry scone and a cuppa coffee!” Rose punched it into the register and read her total out loud. It may have seemed a little on the low side, but she still felt bad for her earlier remark. She thought of it as a ‘my bad’ discount. “Do ya want some room for cream in it?”
“Yeah, I’ll take some room,” Jessica said, though it was less for cream and more for some good old fashioned hair of the dog. She frowned a little at the price. It was less than she was expecting, and while a big part of her was tempted to just go with it and not say anything, her stupid nagging conscience wouldn’t let her. “You sure you rang all that in right?”
Rose made a show of looking down at the register as if carefully read each item. “Yeah, looks good on my end!” She looked up with a sly smile to Jessica. “Will that be with cash or on a card?”
Jessica shrugged to herself. Well, it wasn’t as if she was going to be upset for needing to pay less than she had originally thought she would. “Cash,” Jessica said, reaching into her jeans pockets to scrounge for change. She found the appropriate amount of crumpled up dollar bills and placed them on the counter.
Rose took the money and rang it in, giving Jessica her change back. “Lemme just grab everything for you and you’ll be all set! If you wanna have a seat, it may take a moment.” She grinned before scurrying off to fulfill the order. It really wouldn’t take that long, but she wanted to warm up the scone for her.
She wasn’t sure if Jessica wanted it to go or not and settled with the scone on a plate and the coffee in a to go cup. She figured if the girl didn’t want to hang around she could just pick up the danish and go. “Voila,” she said, setting it down in front of her. “Enjoy!”
Jessica looked over the cafe briefly before taking a seat not too far from the counter. She hadn’t intended to stick around for long, but this place didn’t seem so bad, really, and she’d brought her laptop with her, so sitting down to get some work done wasn’t a bad idea.
She pulled out her laptop, and when Rose returned with her things she thanked her, and asked for the wifi password.
“Lovelyscones,” she said with a smile, happy to see her staying for a bit. Baxter’s always had a special feel to it and Rose knew it was protected by magic. Maybe there were some other spells woven into the structure that would make people like Jessica feel better. Rose knew what it was like to have a rough day.
“Work?” She nodded towards her laptop.
She nearly rolled her eyes at the wifi password, but managed to stop herself. She nodded her thanks, and was glad when the wifi password worked on the first try. She opened up her browser. “Yeah,” she answered shortly.
It looked like her work would take up most of her time, so Rose wasn’t going to bother her much longer. “Well, holler if you need anything,” she said with a grin. “Any refills or things like that!”
“Yeah, thanks, I’ll do that,” Jessica responded, and dove into her work.