And that Creamer Better Look Like a Pumpkin Too! (Mattie)

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Marie wandered down the streets of New Rome. Chris was busy with work and she had just gotten out of a late class, but she did not feeling going home to an empty, dark house quite yet. Her messenger bag over her shoulder with her school books and her light jacket on, she looked like a regular teenager out in the mortal world. But she was Marie Ashby, daughter of Janus, Fifth Cohort, Psychology student at the Academia, and – when she could – rookie intern psychologist in a camp chock full of emotionally beaten up people. It made her miss Robin, the one who had inspired her to become a psychologist. She worked in his studio now, as there was no one else to claim it. He had gone out into the warzones outside camp in the Titan War just to help people, and he’d died for it. Now she would do him justice by graduating and helping people just like he had.
But first, a latte. The way her brain was wired, for some reason, caffeine had precious little effect on her, so it really didn’t matter when she had it.

Currently it was 7:47 pm on a Friday. And she wanted a latte. And the best place for that was the Coffee Couch. So she walked in, letting the little bell on the door announce her to the surprisingly low-crowd evening. It was a Friday night. Anyone old enough for it wanted bars, not coffee. Oh well, she wasn’t like that even when she would turn that age. So she looked around. Ben had done a nice job decorating. She loved autumn, so the plethora of pumpkins was just her style. And the little table in the corner with the jar of candy corn with the big colorful sign that read Guess the Number – Win a Prize!. That made her smile. She walked over to investigate and leaned down, her messenger bag sliding so she shoved it back. Then she grabbed a slip of paper and wrote 150 on it for fun, followed by her name, then dropped it in the plastic pumpkin as her submission.

Straightening, she took a deep breath of the glorious coffee and baked good smell. She heard an older woman at the counter call to her,“What did you guess?” Marie smirked and tapped her nose. “The winning number,” she joked and both ladies laughed. That was when Marie caught a glimpse of a familiar face behind the counter. Her half-brother-in-law. She snagged another of the papers for guessing and the pen from the table and scribbled on it, then walked up to the counter as the first woman left, leaving no line behind her. She stuck her chin up like she was important. “I demand only the best barista.” Kara, the middle age woman behind the counter who was a little too good at intuition, smirked. Marie, though, she looked around, then waved her hand at Mathias. “Him! Bring him here.” Kara chortled and stepped aside, giving Mattie a look Marie couldn’t catch. Probably an inside joke since they did work together. Mathias came over and Marie had a feeling she had definitely not made his evening with her behavior. She intended to make up for it though. She leaned in, sliding the paper she’d written on to him and muttered “Pretend you’re taking my order, okay?” she said with a wink. Then she straightened and assumed her drama role again, spouting off all the important things needed to make a proper pumpkin spice latte.

The paper before Mathias was crammed with writing, seeing as it wasn’t bigger than a Post-It really. It said:

Mattie, you are invited to dinner tomorrow at 6pm. Don’t bring anything. Please tell me:
Food Allergies: ___________
Favorite Desserts: __________
Favorite Drinks: ________
Do you like turkey or ham? _______

TAG:
WORDS: 642
NOTES: Let the fun begin!

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Mattie was surprisingly busy with all that he was doing lately. Balancing the Legion and his job wasn’t exactly the easiest, but Mattie needed the extra cash more than anything. He would be leaving the LEgion in a few months, and he needed a foot of his own to stand on. In all honesty, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, he never gave much any forethought and the idea of committing to one thing for his entire life secretly frightened him. Mattie would put off decision making for as long as possible, and he wasn’t quite sure if school was for him. If there wasn’t the possibility of being shredded on arrival, he would have gone back to Denmark, but it just wasn’t safe enough for him to consider it a viable option. He was a pretty big target…

Mattie was wiping down the counters in the back, taking care of some of the more menial duties while the shop wasn’t too busy. He’d taken quite a few orders today, so the back was a bit messier than he, or his boss would’ve liked. Mattie cleaned it all up though, so it wasn’t much of a big deal to him.

Mattie looked down at the paper with a small smile, before doing as Marie said, pretending as though he was taking her order and scrawling down each individual ingredient, yet discreetly marking up the sheet. Food Allergies? Mattie had none, the only thing he could think of that he was allergic to was bees. Favorite desserts? Mattie pondered to himself, that was like picking between his favorite children. Mattie did have a specific though, cherry danishes. Those were his favorite, anything cherry flavored really would have been applicable, so he just wrote down anything with cherries in it. Mattie wasn’t picky for anything of the sort. Favorite drinks? Besides booze in any shape and form, Mattie would’ve had to say it was a toss up between orange juice and lemonade. He wrote both down, either or worked. Last but not least, he was more of a poultry guy. Mattie practically lived of chicken ramen or nuggets.

Mattie slid the paper back to Marie with a smile, before he went into the back, fixing her up a Pumpkin Spice Latte. It was the fall, best time of the year for these things, in Mattie’s opinion as well as most of his customers. He’d gotten pretty used to those things, and peppermint season was just around the corner! Mattie personally prefered iced summer coffees, he wasn’t exactly all a fan of the holiday season. To him, it hardly meant anything but he wasn’t the type of person to trash on what everyone else loved, he wasn’t going to roll his eyes or mutter under his breath anytime someone requested something Christmas themed.

Mattie finished up the Pumpkin Spice latte with a big swirl of creamy foam at the top, and a light dusting of cinnamon. Mattie dipped a toothpick into some dark syrup, and used it to draw into the top of the latte, doodling Marie a cute little happy face into the foam, before he set the coffee on the counter, sliding it over. “You’re the best you know that?”, Mattie said, a grin pulling at his face.

WORDS : 569
Notes : Sorry for the lateness on this one T-T School is not the friend of the RPer. 
Tag : Marie Ashby

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She knew he wasn’t listening, but that was the point. She only needed this pumpkin spice latte to get through the grocery trip after. So she just kept rattling off this and that and that and this. Then he slid the paper back to her and she pocketed it. The woman from before handled the payment and before long, Mattie brought over what smelled delicious and even had a cute little smiley on it. She clapped him on the shoulder, turning to the couple people in line behind her. “I declare this young barista amazing and wonderful. Today should be a day to tip him for his extraordinainess!” She pulled two denarii out of her purse and dropped on in the tip mug and the other in Mattie’s hand. "I declare a holiday! Tip your barista!” She winked at him, then took the mug, leaning in. “And you can be early if you want. I’ll just be cooking. So come any time. Thanks, Mattie.” She raised her mug to him and gingerly made her way to one of the tables with the sparkly pumpkin centerpieces.

She pulled her notepad out of her bag and got to work on a grocery list as she sipped her drink. She glanced up as they next few in line took it upon themselves to continue the trend of tipping whoever made their drink. That made Marie smile. Small acts done with kindness. She watched Mattie too. He seemed happier. That was good. He should be. He deserved it. Now back to the grocery list. She had a dinner to host.

TAG: @dennie
WORDS: 266
NOTES: Skip to next day? Unless you have another idea