That Barista Life

[Lavender Blake]

Lavender was having a brief moment of reprieve in her busy evening, the girl could feel the coffee grains within her nails, the little burns on her fingers and she knew that she would smell for coffee hours after she had finished up here, and what awaited her at home was just more school work. The teen did what she could to help around the family, and getting a job had been the easiest way of doing that especially since she wasn't at school or at an official school. She was doing this year through homeschooling and it was a lot of hard work, she had to learn almost all the material by herself and she struggled through some of it since without the instruction of a professor or tutor that her parents could afford it was entirely up to the girl and she sometimes just struggled with it. Lavender was in her OWLs year, and she felt like there would be no way she could take them in the same time that those her age would be able to.

With that filling most of her mornings the teenager spent her afternoon, evenings and sometimes nights working at the coffee shop, it was a little muggle place that had just taken it on face value when Lavender had said she was sixteen and she had begun working at the coffee shop following the rejection from the school, since if she wasn't away from the house she would be an extra unneeded financial burden upon her family. She worked close to every day, and she worked all the hours that she could get, but it was on evenings like this when everything had finally calmed down from the post-work, evening rush that she enjoyed work the most. She could wash her hands thoroughly, and usually have a little drink of her own. She was the only one at the counter, and the girl was just smiling to herself, the people she worked with didn't ask too many questions about who she was, or where she was from, just took her at face value.

Lavender yawned deeply, covering her mouth as she did so. The only issue as the evening gave way to night, was that the work did tend to slow down, which while good on one hand could be boring on the other, and she wasn't exactly able to do her school work there, given that it was magical.
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[Bob Masters]

Even though Bob Masters thoroughly enjoyed his time at Hogwarts New Zealand, and all of his classes, he, like many others, yearned for the holiday breaks. There was a lot for them to do outside of Hogwarts and on this particularly day he found himself at a cute little cafe in the heart of New Zealand. He didn't know if he really liked coffee, or tea, or any kind of caffeinated beverage, but the rain outside made it a good choice for him to come inside and escape it all. He approached the counter, noting that there was only one barista on duty and wondering if that meant that it was only a quiet little store. It wasn't too far from his place, so it would be a nice place for him to visit most days when he just needed to escape to somewhere quiet.

He smiled at the barista and looking at her name tag he committed the name to memory as he browsed the menu above her head. He didn't recognise many of the names but he knew what the important ones were. He spent a fairly long amount of time deciding what to order and he hoped that the girl wouldn't get annoyed at him for doing so. He didn't want to end up buying something that he didn't like, but at the same time he didn't want to discourage any other customers so every time someone entered he waved them in front of him as he made his own decision. "Hey, sorry for taking so long.. just a White Chocolate Mocha please." He said. "My name is Bob by the way." He told her, remembering that most placed asked for a name when they took your order.

 

[Lavender Blake]

Lavender had never minded when people took a while to order a coffee, she had thought it might bother her in the beginning when she was trying her best to keep up with the lunch or after school rush, but she didn't. She wanted to be sure that they had a drink they wanted, so she stood waiting for this boy in front of her to order. Not pushing him and since the place was very quiet currently that there was no reason at all to rush him. She was thinking of the work that she needed to complete when she got back home, her mind was on her day off which was coming up and what she might do on it, she had a lot of school work to complete but the weather was at long last nice, the days were longer and there was still so much of this city that she hadn't been able to explore. Lavender was brought back to the moment when the boy spoke. Her pale blue eyes met him and she smiled politely, "It's no problem," she replied quietly and politely, taking his order as he gave it, and the writing down the name with it.

The girl placed the drink note down and smiled, "You can go ahead and take a seat I will bring it right to you," she said politely, only saying exactly what she should thinking no more and no less about it. Lavender set about making the drink, since she was the only one currently on the front of house. She was going through the motions, having spent so much time making the different coffees that she could do them without thinking about it. Her mind easily went back to her plans for the day off, she had a slight dance to her step as she just got lost in her own satisfied world, the smile clear on her face. It didn't take long to do and she finished the drink and carried the drink over to the boy, "Here, Bob," she made sure to use his name to confirm this was the right person but given how few people were currently in the store it wasn't hard to have the right person.
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[Bob Masters]

Bob smiled when the barista told him to go and take a seat once he had successfully placed his order. "Thank you." He did as such and took in his surroundings while he waited for her to prepare his order. It was a cute little cafe, and he could certainly see himself spending time here while he had nothing else to do. Not that he would only go here for a last resort, but he didn't like dabbling too much in the muggle world because he found himself relying on magic a lot at Hogwarts and he knew it would only get worse when he was of age.

He looked up when she brought over his drink, and with a smile he accepted it and took his first sip after blowing to cool it down. It was delicious, and he could tell that this barista was quite good at her job. "Thank you, Lavender." Bob told her, his shyness seeping through when he said her name. "It's delicious." He told her with a smile on his face. He had a feeling that if he was easily able to get drinks as delicious as this that this would be the ideal place for him to spend his time. "You're welcome to join me if you want.. since it's not so busy.. that is." He told her, trying to be nice. He didn't really want her to be as bored as he imagined it would be waiting behind the counter.

 

[Lavender Blake]

It was easy for Lavender to forget the name tag she wore, since it was just a part of her uniform and she so easily just forgot about it, so much so that the fact, this customer, Bob had said it took her by surprise. She smiled at him shyly, ducking her head a little and avoiding meeting his gaze. The compliment about the drink made her smile too, she was used to making coffee but rarely did anyone ever compliment her on it. It was likely a good thing that Lavender actually really liked making the coffee, she took a certain amount of enjoyment over what she did. It wasn't the most glamorous of jobs, she had coffee stains all over her apron, and coffee grains within her nails. She always smelled faintly of coffee, but the end of her shift, the amount of time spent in front of the machine showed on her face. The girl had been about to walk away from him, to return to where she was stood at the counter, lose herself in her own world once more but he offered for her to sit with him. That didn't happen often, and certainly she didn't accept it, knowing that most would not enjoy her prolonged silence.

Today however, as she glanced at her watch she decided to, the place wasn't busy, and she was due a break, so what harm would it do. He appeared to be about her age, and she was always looking to try to make friends, this was after all a new country. Relatively new. She nodded but gave no other outward sign of what she was agreeing to. The girl walked back to the counter and made herself a small coffee with a little foamy milk before head back to the boy, sitting herself down with him. Silently blowing on the coffee before taking a light sip. It occurred to her to perhaps speak to him, to say something, but all she could really do was look at him and smiled slightly. Perhaps he would be the first to say something, he was maybe more of a conversationalist than she was, no matter how hard she tried.
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