swan (savioring) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-04-20 22:25:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, emma swan, mary margaret blanchard (snow white) |
Who: Emma Swan & Mary Margaret Blanchard
Where: Coffee shop near MM's work
When: Early April; pre-body swap
What: Clumsy people cause spillages; Emma and Mary Margaret meet.
Warnings: None/Low (mild language)
Status: Complete.
Between her hunt for a decent job, settling in and getting to know the area, Emma had scored off a large chunk of her ‘To See’ list for the new location. It was a whole lot more than she’d seen of a lot of her previous places of residence, but that was mostly due to being a bit more selective in what jobs she took. She had some time right then to venture out and about and see what the area had to offer.
So far, the area had some great food and treats to offer and Emma was spoiled for choice when it came to coffee shops. She’d just hit up number five on her list of places to go, opting for an iced drink this time to chill out with, when someone walked into her as they were entering the coffee shop, knocking Emma’s drink all over her front.
“What the-- Walk much?” The guy didn’t even stop, leaving Emma dabbing at her top with a few napkins and a scowl on her face.
Ever since Ruby and Marguerite had started working at the shelter, Mary Margaret had been able to start taking a little time for herself instead of spending all of her time at the shelter without a break. Where before she would eat her lunch in her office or go hours without actually taking a break to go outside aside from the shelter’s yard, now Mary Margaret would go to the nearby diner for lunch or take a coffee break, because she knew that Ruby could handle most of the things that she used to do herself, which a personal assistant or secretary usually did and that Ruby now took care of, so Mary Margaret had a little time to herself, knowing that if anything went wrong, Ruby could just call her and she’d come right back.
Today Mary Margaret was taking a coffee break at the coffee shop down the street from the shelter and had been reading a book when she’d heard the commotion at the door, Looking up, she froze for a moment as she spotted the blond woman who now had coffee drink all over herself. Jumping to her feet, Mary Margaret grabbed the napkins she had on her own table and quickly moved over to Emma, “Here, you can use mine too. Are you alright.” She glanced over at the man who had walked into Emma, glaring only slightly as she suddenly felt the need to protect Emma.
It wasn’t an utter catastrophe, it was just pretty unfortunate that Emma no longer kept an extra everything in her car. And at least it was cold liquid rather than hot. Accepting the assistance, Emma just grumbled a little, because of course she’d have a light coloured top on, “I’m okay, yeah.” Just majorly annoyed at guys who couldn’t watch where they were going.
“I love wearing four dollars worth of coffee.” She’d really been looking forward to that. “Thanks,” dabbing a little more, Emma turned so that she wasn’t right in the doorway, stepping inside a little more to wait for some of the stain to dry. “Guess I’m not going job searching today.” Not with massive coffee stains and a frazzled nerve.
“Let me buy you another coffee.” Mary Margaret knew that that was going to sound extremely crazy, considering they were basically strangers, but as a result of the dreams, she already felt extremely close to Emma. She was her daughter after all. In the dreams anyways. In the waking world being mother and daughter wasn’t logical since they were more or less the same age. Besides, Mary Margaret would remember having a baby. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an extra shirt with me.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” Emma wasn’t exactly prone to wearing her food, she wasn’t really that un-coordinated at the best of times, but she hadn’t exactly been sleeping too great lately, which she’d use as her excuse to herself at the very least. But she had been looking forward to that coffee, and she had been trying to budget a little better until she got herself a job and actually had some money to waste on constantly buying caffeine in it’s numerous forms. So really…
“Well, I mean… If you don’t mind?” She could always return the gesture later, buy her a coffee or whatever she drank as a thanks. “I’d really appreciate that.” At the very least she wouldn’t be cranky and short tempered all day.
“What kind was that?” Mary Margaret asked, gesturing towards the stain on Emma’s shirt. As she stood there, with Emma, she tried not to stare, not wanting to weird her out. She’d already had coffee spilled on her today, she didn’t need Mary Margaret acting weird around her too.
“Iced caramel latte,” thank goodness it was an iced drink, she didn’t think she’d be half as dignified if it had been a hot drink right down her front. “Thanks, really I… Oh god, I’m Emma hi, sorry.” She usually wasn’t just as frazzled, but without the caffeine, lunch time usually brought at least three coffee’s for Emma, just the one was being good.
“I’m not usually this spazzy.” Was that offensive? Probably, but right then Emma was a little too flustered to actually consider that.
“Mary Margaret.” She said before she turned towards the counter and ordered Emma’s drink. She wondered if she should mention the dreams, but right now Emma seemed like the last thing she needed was to be told that she was her mother in some strange dream world. As the drink was finished, Mary Margaret turned back to Emma and brought it over, “Here. And that’s completely understandable. Who wouldn’t be a little frazzled after that.”
Emma’d been fully prepared to have her drink on the go, heading out and continuing her job search. But now she was definitely taking a little time to sit down and actually drink her coffee. Nodding towards the seat that Mary Margaret had been sitting at, she thought that maybe some company wouldn’t be unwelcome since the other woman had offered to buy her the coffee.
“Weird morning.” She’d had the weirdest dream that morning about a baby, and it’d left her a little confused and off centre. “But thank you, you didn’t need to.”
Mary Margaret moved along with Emma and sat back down in her seat, still staring just a little bit. She really hoped that Emma hadn’t noticed cause she didn’t want creep her out, “I wanted to though. It’s a whole good samaritan thing. I can’t help it.” She gave Emma a little smile, “And that guy clearly wasn’t about to offer to buy you a new coffee after spilling it all over you.” She couldn’t help but glance over to where the guy was adding sugar to his coffee, unaware that she was talking about him.
Good samaritan, did anyone around here know how uncommon that was? Or maybe it was just a common thing around here and the rest of the world was a little out of sync. Emma couldn’t really tell at this point. “Well, clearly he was far too busy being up his own… backside.” It was probably better to keep things PG in public, Emma could curse out a storm later.
“This your regular coffee place?” Emma hadn’t really picked a regular spot yet, just stopping when she saw somewhere that looked good and trying them out. So far, she’d only really disliked two. Because apparently Orange County had amazing everything when it was new.
“I don’t know if I’d say this was my regular place, but it’s close to where I work, so it’s easy to stop in when I take a break.” Mary Margaret had mentioned the shelter to Emma on Valarnet not too long ago, but it didn’t appear that Emma realized that they’d spoken before. “There’s another good coffee shop a few blocks the other way, but it’s a little smaller, so sometimes it’s pretty crowded in there. Harder to get a table if you’re not getting your coffee to go.”
Part of the good thing about coffee shops was the atmosphere, Emma liked sitting in when she could, she enjoyed some people watching for the half hour it took her to just enjoy her coffee before heading out. It was relaxing in a way too. “Yeah, there’s nothing worse than wanting to sit in and having to stand around for a table.” She hadn’t yet attached Mary Margaret to the Valarnet discussion, still getting used to having used the device for talking to people.
“Where do you work?” It felt like she was constantly surveying people on their profession too.
“I run a women and children’s shelter,” Mary Margaret said, wondering if she should mention that they had spoken on Valarnet not too long ago or if she should wait for Emma to realize it. She was also wondering if she should say something about the dreams, but that might weird her out.
“Oh,” it did click there, who Mary Margaret was and that they’d already spoken. It didn’t seem too much like random stranger buying coffee now. Score one for Valarnet, Emma was making friends before she realised it. “I remember yeah, I can totally understand just needing to sit down and think for a few minutes.”
It seemed like it could be a really stressful job, probably exceptionally rewarding, but stressful. “I’m not keeping you from anything right?” She had sort of just assumed when she’d sat down, not considering that maybe Mary Margaret was just being nice.
“Until recently I ran the whole thing on my own. I mean, we have employees and volunteers, but I was always afraid that something would go wrong so I did a lot by myself. Then I finally hired an assistant and loosened up about certain things, so now I take some time out for myself when I can,” Mary Margaret took a sip of her drink as she spoke then reached out to press the on button on her iphone to check the time, “I still have some time before I need to get back.”
“Oh God, yeah. Something as important as that?” She would assume that there was a lot of people to take care of, otherwise there wouldn’t really be a need. And it was sad just how needed things like that were. “You must be really good with people. I… blather and ramble about sixty percent of the time and … it’s just not pretty for a first impression.” Emma’d always had some problems with her brain to mouth filter, her mother had always said she just spoke her mind, because she was strong like that. Emma was pretty sure she was just tactless. “Kind of like wearing a cup of coffee, that’s a solid first impression.” At least she could laugh at herself though.
“Being outspoken isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I wish I were a little more outspoken.” Mary Margaret could be outspoken when she needed to be, but she was nowhere near as outspoken as she was as Snow White. “It is one way to make an impression, I’ll give you that.” In a way, Mary Margaret was glad that that guy had caused Emma to spill the coffee, otherwise she didn’t know when she would have gotten the chance to properly meet her.