Encounters of the Unexpected Kind

By Sarah


~*~
Grace and Sarah opened the shop the next morning, both secretly hoping to see their new mystery guys from the day before, but that crucial waning period between six a.m. open and the seven-thirty morning rush passed by without incident. Sarah was wrist deep in biscotti dough when Grace wandered her way to the open back baking counter where they could both chat and get a full view of the shop.
“Coffee?” Grace asked, lifting up a hand-painted round mug that was solely reserved for her best friend.
“Well-yes, thank you but-“ Sarah lifted doughy fingers.
“I’ll just put it here, shall I?” Grace grinned and carefully set the cup on the shelf ledge.
“Well, that was quite a rush,” Sarah commented idly as she finished shaping the fresh-ground hazelnut and mocha rolls of dough for their first baking and set them on trays.
“Tell me about it! Did you see that one guy in the suit!”
“The one with that putrid green tie?” Sarah confirmed.
“YES! Argh! The nerve-It’s amazing how rude people are, I don’t care what time it is in the morning.”
“I know, really-you wonder how he ever managed to get out of bed and drive here in that state. I certainly hope he’s not married!” Sarah yelled over the running water.
“No kidding, I wouldn’t put up with that.” Grace agreed, tossing her a towel to dry her clean hands.
“Yes, I promise to honor and obey and put up with your grouchy idiocy, uninformed bigotry, and narrow-minded lack of creativity for as long as we both shall live.” Sarah joked, picking up the large mug.
“Maybe she didn’t plan on him living long.” Grace pointed out, a smirk hidden by her own sip of coffee.
“Oh¼” Sarah’s eyelashes fluttered close and she made an almost indecent sound as she savored the drink. “I so needed that.”
“You usually do.” Grace teased, and Sarah shot a mock glare at her over the steaming hot Breve, her drink of choice.
“Mmmhm, blackberry.”
“I thought you might enjoy that, considering yesterday.”
“AH! You make a very good point.” The two girls shared a smile. Sarah took an another sip and followed it up with a melancholy smile.
“What?”
“Oh nothing, I was just hoping¼”
“That we’d have two return visitors?” Grace smirked.
“Yes...” It was something between a whine and a sigh.
“Yeah, I know. Me too.” Grace admitted and they grinned at each other again.
“Daniel it’s such¼nice name.” Sarah started, not needing to start on one of their many ubiquitous inside jokes.
“Cameron’s not bad either.” Grace pondered, as the bell jangled over the front door.
“A—and back to real life.” Sarah sighed yet once again and led the way back out front.
The girls came around front to find two young women around their own age standing at the counter of an otherwise empty shop. The blonde, with bright blue eyes and an engaging smile was gesturing expressively around her to the leggier brunette with her hair in pigtails reminiscent of Sarah’s hairstyle the day before.
“Hey, Good morning, what can I get you?” Sarah asked as she strolled up, Grace on her heels.
“Morning!” The blonde said, obviously a morning person, “I’m Sam and this is Vala, this is a great place you’ve got here!” She said indicating the pig-tailed brunette who was wandering around the shop with much curiosity.
“Thanks!” Grace enthused, “It used to be the old firehouse you know? It’d been sitting vacant for a couple decades after the department moved across town.”
“Really?” Sam asked with interest, her intelligent eyes roving across the structure for architectural evidence.
“Yup,” Grace continued, “We bought up the bakery next door and took out the adjoining wall and did a whole LOT of cleaning, and well here we are.”
“How long have you guys been here?” Sam asked.
“Oh, about, what? A year?” Sarah looked to Grace for confirmation.
“Yeah, a little longer than that-it took us a while to get the thing up and running.”
“I bet.” Sam smiled and paused in her next sentence as Vala tugged on her sleeve in the manner of curious children everywhere.
“What’s a Americano?” She whispered sotte voce. “I was under the impression that it was an slang term for Americans used by the people of Latin countries-not a¼beverage?”
“You’ve been hanging out with Mitchell and Daniel too much.” Sam laughed. Now behind the counter, Sarah and Grace simeloutaneously kicked each other in the ankle in recognition of the familiar names. Was it even remotely possible that these two women knew the extremely enticing gentlemen from yesterday?
“Actually, it’s espresso topped with water.” Sarah explained
“Espresso?” Vala still looked slightly confused.
“Vala’s never been in a coffeehouse,” Sam explained. Two of our friends came in here yesterday and were talking about it at work, so we figured we’d stop in on our way to work today.”
“Yeah, they said it was a place-“ This time both Grace and Sam surreptitiously kicked their friend’s ankles. “that was really interesting.” Vala changed tact blatantly.
“Oh really?” Sarah asked, wondering if however much subltely wasn’t her strong point, she could get by asking without looking too desperate.
“They didn’t happen to be two gentleman similarly garbed as yourself, complete with their own comedy routine?” She waved at the girls’ BDU’s¼Sam at least, seemed military, either that, or the Army-Surplus was doing rousing business.
“Look like they possibly came from the same basic gene pool?” Vala asked peering through the nearby window case at the various baked goods.” Grace snickered and Sarah tried not to snort coffee out her nose.
“Vala!” Sam admonished.
“Well, Daniel does wear glasses.” Vala ammedned.
“Yup, sounds about right.” Grace gave Sarah yet another look, one which Sam caught and smiled at the two with a slightly puzzled expression-trying to figure out what she was missing.
“So Vala-new to the coffee experience are we?” Sarah covered, noticing Sam’s strange look. “Game for trying a few things?”
“Are they free?”
“I like how this one thinks.” Grace grinned.
“Oh trust me, it gets old once in a while.” Sam frowned good naturedly.
“Well, pull up a couple of chairs and we’ll start you out easy, huh?” Sarah said, turning towards the espresso grinder.
“Oh no, give me the strongest stuff you’ve got!” Vala argued.
“Are you sure?” Sam and Grace said together, their dubious looks having no effect what-so-ever on Vala.
“Yup, set me up Sparky!” Vala tilted back on two chair legs and put her feet on an aptly named “coffee table.”
“Now I know you know Cameron Mitchell.” Grace said. “So, do you guys work with them up at the mountain?” While Sarah started brewing a shot of espresso (to Vala’s great interest-she jumped up from her perch and ran around the counter to watch the whole process) Sam briefly and diplomatically explained her job of “deep-space telemetry” up at Cheyenne Mountain to Grace.
“Here you go.” Sarah handed the miniature ceramic mug of espresso to Vala who sniffed curiously at the strong smell. Grace and Sam stopped chatting and looked on in interest.
“So, what, do I like¼chug it or something?” Vala asked.
“Ummm, well I guess you could-“ Sarah looked doubtful. “It’s a bit hot for that.”
“Okay-“ There was a brief pause as the other three watched her reaction. Vala’s doe eyes widened even more for a moment and then upon swallowing her nose crinkled and her face scrunched inwards.
“Whoa! That was fun.” She paused a moment. “Do you have anything with more sugar?” Sarah grinned wide.
“Now you’re talking my language!” She bent down to pull out a couple of canisters and a thing of whipped cream.
“So you met Daniel and Cameron yesterday?” Sam started out innocently, a seed of thought breeding in her mind.
“Yup, they came in practically before we opened up.” Grace said as Sarah started whipping up something with caramel and foamed milk.
“Really? Sam tried to think how to approach the subject without being embarrassing or blatantly insulting¼after all, IF these two girls where in fact the girls that guys had gone on so long about the day before, then things were about to get just a tad bit more interesting. After all, Sam (though she’d never admit it) was a bit of closet matchmaker. She’d thought that perhaps Daniel and Vala had something going after all those long and tumultuous years after Sha’re’s death. But that had gone from challenge to comfortable friendship in Vala’s department and Daniel was back to square one on the romance board; and Sam thought, Mitchell could benefit from a broadside in the romance department as well.
But because she was also “big sister” as well, Sam felt obligated to everything short of a background check (unless that eventually became necessary...) On anyone who might express an interest in “her guys.” Jack would no doubt approve of her mild paranoia. In fact, she could probably talk him into using his high-ranking general status to do a little check-up...Hmm...
“Yeah, they’re a real riot.” Grace replied, wondering where this was going.
“Yeah, I’ve known them for years,” Sam said off-handedly, in the casual manner of one woman telling the other to tread carefully.
“Oh?” Grace was eager to learn more, despite the non-verbal communication.
“Yeah, actually Cameron and I met in flight school, and we’ve worked together several times in the past before he came to Colorado. And Daniel, well, he’s practically family.”
“Wow...so you’re used to the antics we saw yesterday?” Grace asked.
“Pretty much-“ Sam found herself warming up to the friendly young woman, regardless and realized, that despite the juvenile behavior of her guys yesterday, that didn’t mean that the girls in question were floozies. It seemed quite the opposite, actually, as Grace elaborated on how she and Sarah had met in college, some of their other friends, and running the business-which despite its bohemian appeal, was run like a tight ship. While Sam and Vala were there, several other customers stopped in-many whom Sarah and Grace knew by name and coffee preference, and managed to serve everyone in an efficient and yet completely relaxed manner-all the while, Sarah piled Vala with various drink samples.
“Ooh, this is good, but I don’t like it as much as the one with the foamy stuff on top.” Vala held up a small cup of the house coffee, a bright clean blend infused with the bitter peels of Sevilla oranges.
“The Cappuccino?” Sarah asked pointing to the mixture of espresso and extra foamy steamed milk. “Yeah, my secret is adding a bit of caramel-I think it adds to it. A lot of places will make you a cheap-ass Cappuccino, with like, sugar free vanilla.” She made a face.
“Cheap-ass?’ Vala tried out the word, no doubt she’d heard it plenty on the base, usually in reference to accommodations or supplies.
‘Yup.’ Sarah answered, amused, Vala reminded her of someone, she just wasn’t yet sure who.
“So...what did you think of your two gentlemen customers yesterday?"
"Gentlemen custo-oh you mean Daniel and Cameron?” Sarah asked.
“The very ones.”
“They’re a lot of fun.” Sarah said diplomatically, red flags going up in respect to spilling any possible beans to Vala. “They seem like really nice guys.”
“Those two? Please, they’re a handful of trouble and you’d probably be better off with limited exposure, but they seemed fond enough of you two.” Vala said glibly and took a hearty gulp of espresso and chocolate. She seemed to settle on the strong brew straight up, just with plenty of sugar.
“Er-really?” Sarah asked, surprised. Friendly flirting was one thing but the last thing she was expecting was an actual interest-she tended to be a bit silly that way.
“YUP. Spent the whole afternoon talking about you two.”
“They DID?”
“Yup-that’s how I heard about this whole coffeehouse business-Samantha had to convince me that it wasn’t just a place to meet women.”
“Er-ah, yes, that’s a good thing-cause usually that’s not the case.” Sarah managed, not sure whether she was stunned, or to just laugh.
“Hey we really should get going.” Sam came over to them. “We probably should try not to miss the briefing.”
“Oh” Vala said “I thought you said miss the briefing.”
“Sadly, no.”
“What, Daniel lecturing again?” Grace asked.
“Sadly no,” Vala echoed her team member, “At least Daniel occasionally mentions something interesting-like treasure.” Sam shot her a friendly warning look and Vala made an “Oops!” face.
“Treasure eh? And what’s today’s topic?” Grace asked.
“Budget Meeting.” Sam looked less than thrilled. “We’re going to be briefed on how we might use less of the government’s precious resources.
“Does this employ the use of government issue toilet seats and mass produced fichus trees?” Sarah asked.
“It’s very possible. Hey, thanks for the free coffee, and it was great to meet you. We’ll have to stop in again sometime.” Sam smiled at the two.
“Hey, you don’t happen to be open at hours other than the crack of dawn, do you?” Vala asked in curiosity.
“Yeah, actually,” Grace said, “we usually open cause it’s rare to find college help that’s dependable enough to get here before noon.”
“Not surprising. Thanks again-see you!” Sam politely made their excuses and backed out the door with a wave. The girls heard the two continue as they walked to the car,
“What exactly is a fichus?”
“It’s a tree-a plant, usually in a pot-sometimes fake.”
“And these are considered acceptable decoration?”
“By some people.”