Side Story: And now for something a little different. Coffee shop AU

The smell of the fresh sweet loaves bled into the aroma of the coffee filling the air as Ben pulled them out of the oven, carefully slicing them to put on display and feeling proud of what he’d made that day, needing only one thing to pull it together.

Some freaking customers.

Taking a seat, he flopped down on the front counter, head leaning against the till. Even if his boss was rich enough that he was comfortable running the place at a loss, keeping it for passion alone, as far as part-time jobs went, the fact that he’d only see two or three people a day on his after-school shifts couldn’t help but make it drag.

At least Falk’s chill about everything so long as the expected work gets done but-

The sounds of the door opening instantly raised his head, letting him see the flash of gold before anything else and instantly putting him on his feet, the girl who’d just come in giving him a small laugh.

“Not exactly the best look to walk in on, is it?”

“In my defense, the odds of anyone else seeing before you came was going to be basically negligible,” He told her as he started putting her usual order together, glancing at the bag on Thera’s shoulder as he did. “Studying here again?”

“Ah, I mean, it’s just a good environment to get some work done, right?” She said, the small blush on her cheeks painting a different story Ben wasn’t sure he should let himself believe. “It’s definitely quiet enough. Plus, the benefits of being related to the owner.”

“Ha, we already aren’t getting any sales and Falk’s favourite niece is just pushing us further in the red with her sweet tooth,” He teased while he filled a cup for her, with Thera happy to shoot back.

“I’m pretty sure hiring you on is going to be a lot worse for him. I cost him what? A few bucks every time I come? He actually has to pay you an hourly wage.”

“And yet, not only am I cute enough to be the cafe’s mascot but I’m responsible enough to close up by myself. Your uncle loves me.”

He grinned as he said it, handing her a cup and watched as she resisted the urge to giggle by taking a sip before responding.

“If you’re this place’s mascot then it’s no wonder there’s never anyone here.”

“Nah, it’s because your uncle is crazy and got the most out-of-the-way place he could find. Besides, not only do I remember all of the regular’s orders, I’m so good at making them. Look me in the eye and tell me you can get a better mocha with one pump vanilla and one pump caramel anywhere and then admit how lucky this place is to have me.”

“Mmh, well, it’s pretty good,” She gave in. “But I don’t think it’s better than what my uncle can do.”

“Ugh, that’s because the man’s some sort of coffee-savant,” Ben complained, hanging his head back. “It’s ridiculous how much work he puts into understanding all of this and getting the perfect beans and equipment without giving enough of a damn to do it in a place where he’d actually see customers. Come on Thera, we all know your family is rich, just slip up and tell me how Falk made his fortune. The guy doesn’t need to know you told me.”

“I’ve told you, he won’t tell me either. I didn’t even realize he was until you pointed it out.”

“Ugh, I guess the princess of your dad’s mining empire probably doesn’t have the best frame of reference for this sort of thing, huh?”

The comment was instantly rewarded with a flick to the forehead, leaving him rubbing it while she sighed. “Oh, don’t you start calling me that, I get it enough at school.”

“Alright, alright, my bad. I guess heiress is the correct word anyway.”

“I will flick you again.”

“Ha, alright, I’m done. Still, one day I’ll find out how the guy struck it rich. Honestly, if it ends up he just won the lottery or something like that I’m going to be heartbroken. All of this mystery, I’m hoping for something significantly more exciting, you know?”

“Yeah, like what?”

“I don’t know, war profiteer?”

“Pfff.”

She did her best to hold back the laugh, largely failing as she instead shook her head. “Alright, well if you ever figure it out then let me know too. For now though, you coming?”

“Yeah, just a minute.”

He grabbed a couple plates, topping them both with slices of the fresh loaves he’d just pulled out before reaching into his own bag sitting at the side to get both his sketchbook and pencils as he made his way to the window seat where she was waiting, sitting across from her and handing her a plate.

“Dig in.”

Only three slices on it, she still looked at them in blatant hesitation.

“And these are?”

“Experiments.”

“Yeah, obviously because everything you cook here is an experiment. I genuinely don’t understand how uncle’s given you such free range of the kitchen.”

“Ha, it’s because I’ve earned the trust. Now come on, you’re breaking my heart.”

While he’d never cooked before getting the job, he was quick to find both a passion and level of skill for it, letting him discover a new outlet for his creativity that, even if he didn’t want to make a career out of, he still enjoyed getting to explore and liked all the more for how every meal turned out, starting on his own pieces while Thera took her first bite.

“Is this… Mango and chili?”

“Chili powder more specifically but I’d still give that guess the mark. Next?”

“Okay, this one is a chocolate loaf with… Potato chips in it? I mean, I guess that’s a bit more normal.”

“Correct again! Final point, can she get all three though?” He asked, grinning broadly while playing the role of announcer and watching as her brow scrunched up at the next bite, a look of horror touching her face even as she kept eating.

“I… Soy sauce. You made a soy sauce-flavoured dessert.”

“And she gets the three for three!”

“You know, maybe the reason there aren’t more customers is exactly because my uncle hasn’t properly leashed you,” She sighed. “What’s anyone supposed to think if they come here and see that you’re selling things like this to go with their coffee?”

“Tasty though, weren’t they?”

“Everything you make is tasty, that’s not the point.”

“Ha, it’s fine. He likes it too and appreciates the creativity and I’ll have you know, the few other regulars I’ve gotten to try them have become addicted. Another couple months of making new ones and finding the best options and I’m putting them together and publishing a recipe book. Hell, I’ll even sign your copy.”

“With how often you get me to taste test, you better,” She told him, leaving the rest for later as she began pulling out notes to study, Ben glancing at them briefly while he opened his sketchbook and began drawing, the empty cafe and his boss’s lenience giving him the leeway to work on his own passions, speaking up to redirect the conversation as he did.

“So, another day focusing on biology instead of business then?”

“Mmh, well, yeah.”

She looked embarrassed to admit it but it had clearly been on her mind for a while, with her studying sessions there leaning more and more in that direction in the time he’d gotten to know her since starting the job.

“Then do you want to talk about it?”

“Ugh, I don’t know. I’d been planning on working at my dad’s company my whole life but, well, compared to my aunt, doesn’t it seem a bit… I don’t know, impactless? Insubstantial? Something?”

“I guess compared to being a doctor, yeah,” He admitted. “But on the other hand, your dad never looks like he’s being worked to death when he stops in. Sonya however, looks like she’s being kept alive by coffee and Falk’s pretty face alone.”

“Yeah, which is where I’m at but I can’t just put off figuring this out forever when we’re going to need to start applying for universities soon,” She groaned. “An easy, meaningless life or a hard, meaningful one? What’s going to be better for me to look back on in another forty or fifty years?”

“I feel like calling your dad’s career meaningless is a bit harsh.”

“You know what I mean. Maybe he can look back on what he’s built and feel proud but I’d just be continuing it because it’s easy and expected of me but I don’t want to pick my future so carelessly. What about you.”

He saw her eyes flicker away from her work, the deep interest they held a sign of how much more the answer was going to matter to her compared to the early days when they’d only begun to talk, filling his head with questions and curiosities he did his best to ignore in favour of focusing on a response, trying to hide any other thoughts he held.

“What, me? Easy. Art school all of the way, followed by a life of poverty for that choice if anyone who’s ever reacted to that answer is going to be believed.”

“Ha, if it looks like you’re going to starve then I’ll do you a favour and buy an occasional print from you,” She teased. “Might be enough to keep you from eating out of the trash too often.”

“Well, it’s not like there’s no other way to avoid that dreadful fate.”

“Like giving up your dreams to try and find something a bit more financially stable?”

“Or I could just marry rich,” He teased back and was rewarded with the sight of her blushing all the harder, her eyes locking onto her work and avoiding his entirely, leaving him with a harder and harder time of avoiding what he thought the things he was seeing from her meant.

Cold and standoffish, that was his first impression of her from school and had only started to change after her uncle had gotten them to start talking, leading him to realize he liked her as a person and from there, finding that he in fact liked her far more than he’d ever planned or been prepared for, with all of the worries that entailed.

He didn’t think he was particularly dumb when it came to people, one just needed to bother paying attention to others for the most part to know what they were feeling but there was always the chance he was just seeing what he’d wanted to, a problem that left him struggling to act with the fear that he was wrong nagging at him each time he tried.

But no matter how worried he was and how obvious she felt, he knew he was giving it away plenty too. Already there were plenty of comments about it from friends seeing right through him, if word hadn’t gotten to her already it was sure to happen soon, leaving only the question of whether the reveal would be in his hands or not, the thought of it leaving him staring at his page before turning to a new one, just who he was feeling inspired to draw as inescapable as how stressed it was making him.

---

“Alright, I guess you need to close up so I’ll head out,” She said as she stood up, stretching after the few long hours of study. “See you monday then?”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Just hold on one sec.”

Quickly scribbling on the piece he’d been drawing that entire time, he ripped in from the book and ran back to where he knew his boss kept some envelopes, sealing it away before handing it off to her, Thera looking at it curiously while he did his best to not instantly regret that decision.

“A Ben Heph original,” He told her. “Signed, just in case one day I do strike it rich. When you get home later, give it a look and let me know what you think, okay?”

“Or I could just do it now?”

“No, no no, nope. I made that piece specifically for you, you know how embarrassing it would be to watch you react to it?”

The way her face lit up when he said he’d made it specifically for her was enough to leave him to hope he hadn’t made a terrible mistake as she held it, looking back at him.

“Alright, I’ll wait to look at it and tell you what I think then.”

“Cool, in that case, See you later Thera.”

“Later, Ben.”

As she left he locked up, putting up chairs to sweep and mop before packing up anything that wouldn’t be fit to eat the next day to take home to his family to snack on, only throwing out garbage at the very end and letting himself out, freezing in place for who he saw waiting. Thera there, leaning against a wall with his picture clearly in hand as she stared at it with a blush on her face, only looking away when she heard the door close behind him.

“Uh-”

“I like it,” She told him before anything else, the picture of herself he’d spent their time together working on getting a high evaluation. “You made me look beautiful.”

“I mean, I only drew what was there,” He told her honestly, feeling his chest tighten as he brought up the part of it he really hadn’t wanted to get an immediate response to. “And the note on it?”

“Read it to me,” She said as she handed it over, not meeting his eyes as she did.

“...I think this counts as bullying.”

“I just have so much eye strain from studying for so long so you don’t get a choice. Come on, read it.”

Well, I guess she wouldn’t be telling me to do this if it was going to be negative.

Still, he had to muster his courage, taking a small, calming breath before he could face her to say what he knew he should have from the beginning. “Thera, getting to know you has been one of the best benefits of taking this job. I know you have your own feelings about this sort of thing but I want to be honest. I like you, so if there’s any chance you feel the same way, would you want to go on a date with me?”

“Yes! ” She said, coming off far more excited than she’d meant to and immediately trying to reel it back a bit out of her own embarrassment. “Ahem, yes. Um, you have tomorrow off, right?”

“Yeah, yep, I totally do. One hundred percent free for anything.”

“Okay, cool. Um, me too. In that case, why don’t you walk me home and then we can maybe talk about what we’re going to do? If you don’t need to head off, that is. I mean, if you do then I could message you later?”

“I’m happy to walk you home,” He told her, not bothering to try and suppress the smile on his face even as she did her best to try and cover the blush on hers, both of them excited for whatever the next day would hold.

Author’s note

So, that was probably pretty unexpected compared to my regular side stories, huh? Hope you didn’t hate it but if you did then don’t worry, this won’t be a common thing if you ever choose to let me decide what I want to surprise you with again in the future. So, to give some rambly context, I get a bit of a kick out of the idea of putting familiar characters into unfamiliar settings, something you might see happening in fanfiction with what I’d personally consider to be three of the more common ways this is done to either be throwing the characters into a coffee shop, a school, or the mafia and while I’d come up with ways it would be fun to do it for all of those options, coffee shop won out in the end. While only Thera and Ben were present, reinterpreting Falk as a passionate coffee shop owner, Sonya as a doctor and Abrus as the owner of a mining company was fun, as was looking at how Thera and Ben would fit into it.

And I’m not going to lie, writing another confession chapter was great, I love doing them. In the main story, I’ve only gotten to do both Thera and Ben, as well as Sonya and Falk but since I don’t just want to force new romances for the sake of being able to write them, I thought it would be fun to do it for me beautiful, alternate universe Ben and Thera and honestly it really was. At least for me. Hopefully you guys got a bit of a kick out of it but if not, don’t worry, there will be something slightly more regular for the next one.

Anyway, aside from that I just wanted to add that this chapter is how I discovered how chili is spelt changes in british and american english. I had nowhere else to fit this little comment in but it surprised me so I wanted to mention it because even after all of these years I’m still shocked by how spelling can vary. Now, that’s it from me, hope you guys have a great one and make sure to vote in the next poll coming out soon!