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Aria - Buying a coffee
Aria used her hip to push through the door of the coffee shop, focused on texting away one handed while she blindly dug through the tote on her shoulder for her wallet. She ignored the first faint whispers of realization that she elicited from a table by the door, thumb still furiously moving across her phone screen. How dare Nami make her come in here and buy her own coffee! Sure, she had been late to the Stage Society meeting earlier, but that shouldn't warrant punishment like this!
Just as she gets her manicured nails into the top corner of her wallet (finally!), Aria runs face first into the broad back of the man in front of her. She looses her grip on the wallet (not a- fucking-gain!), and has to play hot potato with her phone to not drop it to the floor.
"Oh shoot! I'm so sorry!" The apology is out of her mouth even before she looks up at the tall man in front of her. She throws on her kilowatt smile, hoping that this guy wasn't one to explode at the drop of a hat. "That was my bad. I totally wasn't looking!"
The man turned, brow already furrowed to probably start yelling, but when he finally saw her, that tension eased out into a look of shock and awe. Oh how those acting lessons and PR training prep talks still came in handy now that she was older. The man stammered an acknowledgement, and she kicked up the corner of her mouth with a well timed once over of the horribly average man in return. Always good to feed an ego to ease a mistake her mom's PR rep had always said. Still yet to fail!
Luckily the line wasn't long, and it was only another awkward minute of waiting and finally giving up and staring owlishly into her tote to locate the god damn wallet before she made it to the counter.
"Can I get a caffé mocha with oak milk and brown sugar on top?" Aria smiled at the barista, not as bright on the wattage as it had been for the man. She set it to a more comforting level with less teeth, adding a little tilt to her head. While she couldn't imagine working at a retail job like this, anyone doing it here in Gotham deserved what respect they could get. As she went to slip her card back in her wallet, she pulled a quick $50 bill from what little she carried with her and slipped it around the tip jar to the barista. At their startled look, she raised a finger to her lips in a conspiratorial shushing gesture. Again, all the respect they could get.
And also just reassurance that she'd still get her drink in case some madman of the week came busting the door down before she could get out of here. Priorities.
Aria didn't bother finding a seat, she just found a relatively non-stick spot near the register to wait. She'd have to ask Mrs. Henderson to clean her shoes again; twice in a month what was the world coming to! As she waited, she continued furiously texting Nami. Nami's responses were slower than her own rapid fire barrage, but Aria was making no headway at getting her friend to relent on her 'pick up your own damn coffee for a week' punishment. What was the world coming to when your assistant was ordering you around?
Aria was just about to just give up and call Nami when the barista from the register slid her drink across the counter, already in a doubled up cup sleeve. She rewarded the courtesy of not announcing her presence further with another award winning smile, and with a swift slide of her hand across the counter, another $50. No matter what Nami liked to say, Aria knew to tip the service staff well and repeatedly for good service.
It hadn't escaped her notice that the barista had made Aria's drink before the one for the man she'd bumped into. So as she moved to leave, she intentionally caught his gaze and gave him another dazzling smile, that he met once again with that doughy look back at her. Hopefully that would stun him long enough for his drink to get done and leave him trailing after the memory of her rather than growling at the workers. Whatever happened next really wasn't up to her at this point.
As she reached the door and pulled it open, Aria was already punching Nami's speed dial, ready to talk her ear off for the 2 minute walk she had to her next meeting stop. Hopefully she'd make it before the rain started up again. Here was to hoping!
Aria and Ace - Buying a Coffee
Aria adjusted the earbud to seat it better, jingling her long dangling earrings along the way. The tiny tinkling of the metal made her crack a tiny smile. She'd need to put up the new wind chime that had come in last night when she got home.
"Where are you even going to put that one? You barely have any more space on your little balcony?" Ace's thoughts whispered to Aria.
"Oh hush! You love my wind chimes. I caught you playing with them like a cat just yesterday!" Aria laughed, using her hip to push through the coffee shop door, head already dipped to search through her tote for her wallet. She had had Mrs. Henderson sew in new pockets on this bag and still she could never find her god damned wallet!
"Bottom left corner, under your water bottle," Ace puts in helpfully. Aria immediately dives for it, smiling to herself as it elicits a couple of giggles from the small table of teens near the entrance. As she gets a grip on the slippery little thing, she feels Ace's arm around her waist stop her trek to the counter short. As she looks up to see why, she's greeted with the back of an absolute wall of man in front of her. "You're welcome." Ace intones, a rye lilt to her voice.
"Well, then thank you on two fronts!" Aria giggles. The man glances over his shoulder, and then shuffles forward a bit to give her some more room. They exchange apologetic looks.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" The man says, brow furrowed in concern.
"Oh, no! I was totally not looking where I was going!" Aria placates, turning on the smile she's been training for her newer public appearances at the Stage Society
Scholarship ceremonies. Still bright enough to blind, but with a kinder tilt of her lips and less teeth. It was a smile she wanted to comfort people, not completely blow them away.
"I'd give it a six out of ten. He still looks a little too star struck." Ace hummed, her form appearing above Aria's head, observing the man more closely. The man did need to blink a few times, before he gave her a sheepish smile of his own and moved to place his order at the counter.
"Oh come on, I thought I was doing pretty good today." Aria grumped, adjusting the earbud again with a bit of exaggerated motion. She had to make sure that the ever present eyes of the public didn't think she was talking to herself. That would be a PR nightmare.
"Aria, you are always a PR nightmare. They deserved the raise I made you give them after the last incident."
"Oh come on! It wasn't that bad!"
"You used your powers to nearly throw a man off a balcony while you were the only two out there. How could it have been worse?"
"Well he wasn't actually hurt. And he kind of deserved it." Aria said the last part under her breath. Sure the man had been trying to get handsy with her while she was out on the balcony; but in her defense, she was in the middle of trying to concentrate on clearing a cloud of fear toxin that had been wafting up the skyline from a bank nearby to the gala they'd been at. She hadn't meant to scoop the man up in a gust of wind when she turned to back hand him, it just kinda happened. She'd immediately called for help and used her powers to stabilize his footing until someone arrived to help haul him up. That had to count for something, right?
"Yeah, yeah. Spin it again, see if that changes anything." Ace scoffed. "Now go buy your ridiculously sugared caffeine and get to flouncing out of here."
"I don't flounce!" Aria grumbled under her breath, but quickly exchanged her pout for her cheerful smile for the barista behind the register. "Can I get-"
"Caffé mocha with oak milk and brown sugar on top?" The barista broke in, a little smile on their own face. At Aria's look of shock, the barista scrubbed the back of their neck. "You've been coming in kinda regularly the last few months. A-and you almost always get the same thing..." Now the poor barista looked nervous. Abashed, Ace's mind supplied to Aria.
"O. M. G!!" Aria squealed, making a show of stamping her feet in excitement. Carefully, of course, these heels were designer and needed to be treated well. "I finally made it to coffee shop 'regular' status! Oh my god, I have to tell my mom, she is going to be so proud!" Aria's little act sent a ripple of laughter through the shop, and the barista's expression turned into one of joy.
As she paid, Aria made a show of pulling out her phone and furiously tapping away at it. That way the barista hopefully wouldn't notice the amount of the custom tip she typed into the payment pad until later. She just had to make their day since they had made hers.
"You know, you really don't have to exaggerate all your actions so much?" Ace said, leaning over Aria's shoulder to read the gushing review she was writing for the coffee shop. "You are allowed to be average some of the time."
Aria hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't reply. They'd been having this conversation a lot recently, so it wasn't worth rehashing here and now. While they waited for her coffee, Aria wrote her glowing review and Ace hovered and spell checked her. By the time the barista slid her coffee across the counter to her, Aria had the review up on at least 3 sites, and in the process of uploading to 3 more.
She exchanged a smile and a brief wave to all the staff behind the counter, and purposely 'flounced' out the door, the long skirt of her dress swaying beautifully. Nami was already stopped out front, and opened the back door for her to smoothly slide into the seat. At Nami's raised brow, Aria just beamed her crooked, real smile up at her. She couldn't wait to fill the short drive to her next appointment gushing about her new status here at the coffee shop.