WHO: Lyra and Henry WHEN: Friday 4 Feb WHERE: Starbucks WHAT: Free drinks! WARNINGS: TBA but unlikely
Lyra had leftover mac and cheese for breakfast, which was potentially a mistake, given just how many enormous lattes she was planning on drinking with Henry today. Still, the mistake factor was only something she considered when she was washing the breakfast dishes afterwards, when it was far too late to do anything about it. Oh well, not like today was going to involve swinging from any harnesses. Harnesses and swinging and mac and cheese and huge milky drinks might not be a great mix. Today was a solid, feet on the ground kinda day. Coffee with Henry then off to work when he went to uni and then after work she was gonna see if she could spend the night at Avery’s again.
Not that time with Avery was ever a solid feet-on-the-ground kinda time.
She smiled to herself and yanked her coat tighter around her body. It wasn’t her enormous fluffy coat today, since she was heading to work straight after and where, exactly, was that massive coat gonna fit out the back of Taco Bell? Also— it felt bad, wrong, wearing something to work that would have taken who knows how many shifts working there to afford. (Lyra didn’t know, she had no idea how much this coat had cost, and she didn’t want to know.)
This having money thing was weird. Good weird, mostly. Shopping for tools with no restrictions had been amazing and planning to go bouldering with Rosario and trapezing with internet strangers was wonderful and being able to give some money to Friar Tuck’s parsonage during the blizzard was an incredible feeling and not having to worry about rent for a little bit was so much of a relief it almost made her as giddy as the thought of trapezing. There was some awareness in the back of her mind that it all wasn’t gonna last – she was more than half way through the fraction of the money she’d kept for herself – but the awareness wasn’t enough to stop her spending it.
Also, having money meant she didn’t feel like some kinda charity case when meeting up with Henry for free drinks, which was nice, shedding that layer of silent awkwardness so it wouldn’t cast any shadow over a good time.
She spotted him waiting outside the Starbucks through the crowd of people heading past, stretching herself up on her toes to see if that was him. “Henry!” she called, sticking her hand up to wave his attention in her direction. “Hi!”