Who: TJ Jung & Danica Chae Where: Brewed Awakening When: Thursday, July 23; morning What: A reunion to one, an unfamiliar face to the other Warnings:N/A
“Alright, so I’ve got an iced chai latte with a shot of vanilla,” TJ reiterated, a habit his coworkers taught him just in case he ever misheard or if the customer needed an opening to change their mind. He grabbed a sharpie and poised it over the side of the cup, glancing up at her with a friendly smile. “Can I get a name?”
Dani blinked at the familiar voice, and looked up to see the bright smiling face of one TJ Jung. With everything that had happened lately, Dani hadn’t had a chance to really see or talk to him. It wasn’t like she was actively avoiding him, but they’d kind of drifted. She wasn’t sure if this was his cutesy way of calling her out, but she played along, “Yeah that’s Dani, with an I.”
"Cute," he commented and tossed the sharpie back onto the counter. "It'll just be a minute." With that he stepped away, pouring ice into the cup. "I think I usually see you around with your kid," TJ said over his shoulder, and held out his hand to roughly where he thought the boy's height was, give or take a foot. "Is he not a fan of coffee either?"
“He’s ten. You know that.” She frowned, concerned with the fact that TJ genuinely didn’t recognize her. “TJ, what’s up with you. Are you okay? You seem off.”
TJ paused, arm slowly lowering back to his side. He averted his gaze. That look never meant anything good. Eventually he met her eyes though, shuffling through what memories he could to place her face, but she existed only in fragments and in backdrops. He knew she was an operative and that she had a kid, probably a younger brother, and that was pretty much it. Where had they met before?
He forced a sheepish, quiet laugh. "I'm sorry, I'm not that great with faces." Assuming they only met a few times before, this excuse worked well enough. "Mind if we start over? I'm TJ."
Dani felt her heart drop, she should have known it wasn’t a joke. There was no point in pushing it if he didn’t remember, this was fine. She lowered her gaze to her hands and took a deep breath before looking up again.
“Yeah,” She forced a weak smile, “Nice to meet you, TJ. I’m Dani, with an I.”
He handed over the iced chai latte with a complimentary grin. "Nice to meet you too, Dani with an I. I wrote down my number, in case you don't have it." TJ pointed to the string of digits underneath her name on the cup's side. "Text me later so I have yours too?"
“Sure,” Dani gave him another sad smile, “Thanks. Take care, TJ.”
As she walked away, she wondered if he still had her number in his phone, and pulled out her own to send him a quick text.
Dani with an I :) popped up on his phone and TJ swiped through the lock screen, staring at the old texts in their chat history and the my forever girl <3 at the top.
"Shit," he murmured, and set down his phone to press the heels of his palms against his eyes. "I knew it."