Who: Rapunzel and Caroline What: Random encounter When: Recent Where: Coffee shop Rating/Warnings: Low/none Status: Complete
Rapunzel was having a nice quiet day so far since it was the weekend and she was meeting up with Elsa later in the day. For now she was just trying to take the day to do some self-care and just relax. Relaxing also meant going to the coffee shop to grab a drink. She had an appointment to get a massage this afternoon and possibly spend some time outside to do some sketches. Ever since her powers kicked in she had been conscious to check her hair before leaving to make sure that she wasn’t accidentally glowing or anything. It had seemed under control lately, but she wasn’t going to get caught unaware.
She wandered into the local coffee shop and smiled at the chime above the door. She liked the more local places compared to the bigger corporate places because it felt more homey. She liked the mismatched chairs and lots of places for people to relax and hang out. She stepped up to the line, debating about what she wanted, and then noticed the woman in front of her dropped something. She bent down to pick up the pack of business cards and tapped her on the shoulder, “Hi, you dropped these.”
Caroline had been extremely busy lately. Not quite pulling of an extravagant party in four days busy, though that had taken a hell of a lot out of her. But still busy. She was getting a lot more bookings after that party, which good for business, it just left her less time to work with charities even though she had plenty of money for it now. She’d have to figure out how to balance it all at some point, but for now she was just trying to get by.
Which meant lots of coffee. While in line she went through her purse to get out her wallet instead of having to scramble for it at the counter, not realizing she had dropped some of her business cards in the process. Luckily the woman behind her saw and picked them up. “Oh my god,” Caroline said slightly embarrassed. “Thank you!” she added taking the cards back from the woman. “I have too much stuff in my purse, I swear.”
“Welcome, I totally know how that goes, it’s so easy to lose something important,” Rapunzel felt like sometimes she couldn’t find anything in her purse half the time. She was pretty sure she had lost numerous chapsticks and pens thanks to her purses, but she would never know, “Just happy to help when I can.”
She tucked some hair behind her ear and gave the woman an easy smile, “Hopefully nothing else falls out there today. I feel like sometimes that’s a sign to clean out my purse…. Then I promptly ignore that.” A chuckle was given because Rapunzel was constantly ignoring things like that.
Caroline usually liked to keep her purse super organized, just like every other aspect of her life. But work had been beyond crazy lately, she hadn’t had the time. “It’s so easy to let it get over cluttered,” Caroline agreed with a large smile. “I swear it’s like my whole life is in this thing sometimes.” At least everything she needed on the go. Phone, wallet, business cards, water, her planner, etc.
“I’m Caroline by the way.” Sure the situation didn’t really require exchanging names, but well it just felt rude to Caroline not to.
“Right? I tend to pull out a lot of random things sometimes. Once I found an empty box of mints that I apparently decided to fill with bobby pins and hair binders. I don’t remember doing that, but I had to give past me kudos for that. I definitely keep all sorts of things in there,” Rapunzel felt the same way about having everything she could possibly need inside of her purse. She had all sorts of little knick knacks in there just in case.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Rapunzel,” she gave the other woman a friendly smile before she noticed that it was time for her to order and she nodded her head at the counter, “Looks like you’re up.”
That wasn’t the worst idea. It was better than having hair ties all over your purse, though Caroline had a separate pouch for all her hair products. “Oh that’s a good idea,” Caroline replied. “Unless of course you really wanted a mint and ended up with a bobby pin,” she added with a laugh.
“Nice to meet you too!” Which of course she meant. Caroline always loved meeting new people. Even when it meant she wasn’t paying attention to the line. But luckily Rapunzel had noticed it for her. Caroline gave a quick thanks to Rapunzel before stepping up to place her order.
“Exactly, that’s usually how it goes for me,” Rapunzel definitely ended up forgetting that was what she had in the mint tin and then ended up grabbing it for a mint and was promptly disappointed. She tried to keep gum in her purse instead so she didn’t keep doing that.
She watched as Caroline went up and ordered and then followed behind her with her own order. Once her order was placed she wandered over to the pick up area, “So, what do you do?” She was curious since that was a very large stack of business cards.
Caroline smiled brightly when Rapunzel picked the conversation back up as they waited for their drinks. Not everyone kept up small talk with a stranger. But how else were you supposed to meet new people if you didn’t? At least that was Caroline’s thought.
“Event planner.” she replied. “I love it, Even though it can get bit chaotic at times.” Especially lately. She had more clients than she knew what to do with. But she wouldn’t change it. “What about you?”
“Oh fun! That’s definitely a great job to have. I should have gone into something like that, but I’m not always the most organized. I’m an animator instead,” Rapunzel grinned a little. She had no problem admitting some of her faults and while she did enjoy throwing together a party she definitely couldn’t do it as a career. Caroline did seem quite friendly, so she probably excelled and she seems organized from how she put those business cards together.
“It keeps me busy,” Caroline replied honestly. “But I love it.” It usually didn’t feel like work, except maybe when she had a difficult client. But she didn’t talk much about that part, it was unprofessional. “Really?” she asked unable to hide her awe. “I wish I could draw like that.” Of course she knew a lot of it was on computers these days but she had to assume there was some level of drawing involved still. “Anything I’ve heard of?
“That’s good. It’s important to love what you do,” Rapunzel always believed in that and she strived to make sure she enjoyed her job because it wasn’t worth staying there. Life was too short for something like that, “And everyone can draw, it just might look a little rough to you. And nah, nothing super important. Right now I work on children’s stuff, but maybe I’ll get on a big name show.” Or she would just do paintings if her art took off at the gallery. She liked having options.
Caroline had the exact same belief. Who wanted to do a job that just made them miserable? That didn’t seem like any way to live life if you asked her. “You say that, but you haven’t seen my drawings,” Caroline replied with a laugh. Though Rapunzel did make a good point. “That’s still super exciting though! Even if it’s kids stuff I want to check it out!”
“I’m not one to judge,” Rapunzel laughed and then dug through her purse for the few business cards she had in there. She finally found one and held it out for Caroline, “Here ya go. It has our website on it and there’s some stuff on there. I also show at a local gallery sometimes, so I’ll have to let you know when that’s happening.” She was never sure if people were art people or not, but it never hurt to let people know about it.
“I’ll definitely check it out,” Caroline said accepting the business card. She had a busy day ahead of her, but she wa s already planning to look up the website as soon as she was home that evening. “Oh really? I’d totally love to go sometime.” Caroline placed the business card in her purse, in the pouch where she kept other people’s business cards, then pulled out one of her own that Rapunzel had seen moments earlier along with a pen where she wrote down her cell number on it, since the card only had her business line. “You’ll definitely have to let me know!” she said handing over the card.
“I’ll definitely let you know the next showing. I honestly show up for the free hor d'oeuvres and the wine,” Rapunzel admitted with a playful smile as she took Caroline’s card and tucked it away in her purse, “And thank you. I’m glad you dropped your other business cards so then we could have a chance to talk. I’ll have to drop your name the next time the boss wants to put an event together.” She then heard both her and Caroline’s names called to grab their drinks from the pick up spot.
“Me too. I’m glad you were the one that picked them up.” Instead of some creep that could have used them to hit on her or something. But then their names were being called. Caroline grabbed her coffee before turning her attention back to Rapunzel. “I’d love to stay and chat more but I have to get to a meeting. Can’t wait to hear about your next showing!” She gave her one last smile and a wave before heading out the door. Smile still on her face, because Caroline was pretty sure she had just made a new friend.