The middle of the afternoon wasn’t really when most people were looking for a caffeine fix. People who needed their morning wake up had been at work for hours already and the student element wouldn’t be in until much later, when they needed the extra jolt to keep their neurons firing while they studied. Been there. Done that. Macie Knox bounded into the coffee shop with all of the overtired energy of an ADHD squirrel on meth. She had been awake for upwards of thirty-six hours but Macie was a creature of habit, even when she was sleep deprived.

This was coffee time.

A few people were already in the shop, sipping their drinks. Macie blew past them all without so much as a second glance. She was on a mission. A very important one. There was a massive, 20 ounce coffee mug empty and clutched to her chest as she fidgeted in front of the counter with a needy look on her pretty face. Her big baby blues were tired. There was grease smeared over her hands and her coveralls were stained. Macie looked like she felt, exhausted and hard working, and now she was rewarding herself with a seriously massive caffeine jolt.

Macie slid her beloved mug across the counter. “Fill? Please? Coffee?” Such a simple request. Or a pathetic one. That line was a fine one and Macie was no longer functioning well enough to know which side of that line she fell on.

Having retained her job at this coffee shop for almost a year now, Margo had learned by now the ebbs and flows of caffeine traffic and how to work them. She was certain to be kept busy in the mornings and then at the lunch break, and then not until much later in the evening when the studiers came in. It was with that knowledge in mind that she'd picked a relatively quiet period to report in this afternoon, having confirmed that calculus would just be a review day today.

She'd been reading in the back, undisturbed for a good half hour as no more than a few customers drifted in and out. Reading and rereading, then rereading again. The title was one she'd seen in Richard's collection and picked up at the Mansion library for that reason only; as it turned out it was the journal of some biomedical engineer and completely unintelligible for all parties without some sort of degree in the sort of thing, as Margo soon discovered.

So much for that. Another seven minutes in she'd struggled her way through the first chapter with a vague notion of understanding and a frustrated headache, so she tucked the book under her arm and swung around to the front to see if she could be of any help- just in time to see the stunning young woman with oversized coffee mug sweep in.

>> "Fill? Coffee? Please?"

Said lady was smeared all over with grease and by all appearances needed the caffeine, well, now. Neither was she being helped now. So Margo snagged the classy mug by its handle and did so, giving her a quick smile. "Will do. How would you like it?"

“You are my absolute new favorite person!” Macie surrendered her mug with a look of relief. Time was totally relative. It might have been the middle of the afternoon, but after pulling an all nighter...and an all dayer... Macie needed a bit of chemical assistance if she was going to make it another minute. “Since directly into my bloodstream isn’t an option, I’ll take it strong and sweet.” There was a ‘like I take my men’ comment bouncing around her brain, but thankfully it didn’t find its way to her tongue.

Instead Macie was looking at the book tucked under the barista’s arm. “Whatcha readin’?” She asked curiously. The book was unfamiliar but the title was screaming “I AM A SCIENCE NERD” and the compulsion to be nosey was impossible to keep in check. “Not exactly for the faint of heart, huh? Are you into biochemistry? Or are you strictly looking to build prosthetics or MRIs or that kinda thing?” Macie jittered while she waited for her caffeine fix. “Or is this just for light reading?”

"What, have I not always been?" Margo shook her head in mock disapproval before she realized that this was probably not the way she should be acting like a respectable barista- no way, even as contagious as this customer's way-too-hype-for-more-caffeine might have been. Despite herself, though, she grinned as she prepared said coffee.

Then flushed as the woman asked about her book, because of all times...

"Oh, light reading of a sort," replied the girl. She fished the infernal thing up with her free hand and pretended it had nothing to with the fact that she couldn't recall the title. "My brother's an engineer and into all of this, but I just thought I'd give it a go. It's, uh... I think it would be interesting if it wasn't so hard."

Her smile was sheepish. In true nice-coffee-shop-employee fashion, "So can I get you anything else with that?"