Private Finished Coffee and a Chat Are a Brew-tiful Way to Start One's Day

It was a slow morning at the BB&C, but Verda was glad for it. She preferred the slow, chilly mornings where she got to chat with a few people before end of shift. Mornings like this brought the usual dull roar of a cafe down to a pleasant background babble, and she often found herself humming as she filled orders.

With only one other person on shift, Verda even had the space to relax her wings a bit behind the counter, rather than hunching her shoulders in every four seconds. Her good mood translated to fanciful little decorations on pastry orders, and attempts at foam art on in-house coffee. She wasn't very good at the foam art yet, so it was mostly just regular foam, but she was determined to learn.

A petite woman with a very put-together business look placed her order, and Verda couldn't help but watch out of the corner of her eye as she put it together. The woman had a whole extra belt on over her overcoat! What a weird, stylish City thing to do!

For such a beautiful lady on such a lovely brisk morning, she didn't seem particularly happy. She seemed pretty classically morose, actually. Staring out the window mournfully and tensing up and everything.

Verda hummed a little more thoughtfully and added a lemon square to the plate. She took a moment to pipe a little smiling cat onto the lemon square, stretched out as though the lemon curd was a big beam of sunlight.

Verda carefully gathered the order onto a plate and made her way from behind the counter over to the lady's table.

"Hi! Here's your order, one large dark roast coffee with cream and raw sugar, one carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting, and a side of mixed seasonal fruits." Verda placed her free hand against her mouth and side-whispered, "it's orange, apricot, and strawberries this week."

Verda placed the plate and coffee down, and added, "and a little something extra to put some sunshine in your morning, since the sky decided to be gloomy today! I'm Verda," she pointed to her nametag, "and I'm a new hire here, so don't be afraid to throw me hot tips or constructive criticism!"

Verda ended her little spiel with a toothy smile and a double thumbs-up.

@Zora

Verda's smile crossed the boundary from friendly-polite-barista to genuine enthusiasm, crinkling her cheeks, and she bounced a little on the balls of her feet, tail swishing.

"Thank you for saying so! I'm trying to get a feel for these things." She glanced around to make sure no one needed her, and then leaned in a little.

"I absolutely love your coat, by the way. It's super stylish and the color looks great with your hair. Do you have a cat? I kind of had a cat growing up, but she was more of a barn cat, so she was kind of everyone's cat, and so were her kittens. She was a big fluffy orange tabby, and she only had one and a half ears, on account of she fought a coyote once. Moggy took his eye out, and he never stuck his nose back in her haypile, I'll tell you that!"

Verda realized, a bit belatedly, that she was babbling at a customer trying to eat, and shifted her weight back and shoulders down in apology.

"Sorry if I'm being a bother, I'm a bit of a chatterbox."

Verda perked back up when she heard she hadn't been a bother. She took another quick look around the cafe. It was still slow on this early dreary morning, so Verda decided to take a chance at a nice conversation and slid into the second chair at the two-person table.

Verda hooked her wings over the back of the wood chair and propped an elbow on the table.

"Full of cattitude is one way to pun it," she said, "my aunt Carla called her 'furry fury, hairball of rage'."

Verda propped her chin up on her fist. "What's keeping you so busy you can't get a cat? They mostly take care of themselves. Are you not allowed to leave a window open for them in the city?" Her pointed ears perked slightly forward, towards the fashionable lady.

"You should definitely get a cat. They'll shed all over you, but it's a small price to pay." Verda watched her pick the lemon square over the cupcake and held the glee of making the right pastry choice in her chest.

"I do have pets! About-" Verda sat up and ticked four of her fingers, doing math in her head, "a hundred and twenty thousand of them." She looked down at her apron and pointed at her name tag, where next to her bubble-letter name there was a sticker of a cartoon bee. "A whole bunch of these little guys and gals. They don't shed, but if I forget to narrate what I'm doing they do try to fight me to the death."

For the first time this morning, Verda looked worried. "They don't like being cooped up in a dorm very much. I've got a room to myself, which is good, and I'm leaving the windows open so that they can feed themselves, but the poor dears miss being outside and I can't blame them. The move was pretty rough on the hives. I'm trying to figure out if there are any gardens on campus that need a beehive, but I'm still finding my feet here and I've got no idea who to ask." She looked contemplative. "My boss, Bjorn? Said that there are plenty of people out in the farmlands who would love a well-beehaved hive on their land, but that's a pretty big commute to check on them regularly, and you would not bee-lieve how heavy a hive gets when it's full of comb!"

Verda held her hands out to mime the dimensions of her hives, and her wings flared a bit behind her for emphasis.

"Oh my gosh!" Verda threw up her hands, elated. "Yes! That's perfect! A gardening club would be perfect! You should totally give them my number! Or give me theirs? Whatever works!"

She clapped her hands together and wriggled in her seat. "I can't believe it! What astoundingly good luck that I ran into you! I-"

Verda paused, and a strange expression came over her face. Then a hand came over her face, as she facepalmed. "I never asked your name," she mumbled into her hand, and then offered that hand over the table for a shake. "It is absolutely lovely to meet you," she said, "you've made my morning a thousand times better. What do I call you? Besides really-lovely-lady-with-a-cool-coat-who-likes-lemon-bars-and-cats."

Verda threw her a grin to go with the outstretched hand, a little sheepish about her social faux-pas.