Archive of Our Own ^beta

Elle is hard to ignore in a coffee shop full of drab, dull-clothed New Yorkers, with her hair bouncing and clothes swishing as she weaves her way to a table in the corner. Her eyes catch Deb’s and she sets two cups down to shoot her hand up in the air, as if Deb could have missed her.

A self-conscious smile spreads across Deb’s face. “Hey. You got coffee already?”

“I was here early, and I remembered your order.” Elle presses a kiss to Deb’s cheek before settling down across from her. A manicured hand curls over her cup.

“Oh. Thank you.” She doesn’t know quite what to say to this—Warren is the only other person who knows her order, except he messes it up every time. Elle's job does sort of require her to memorize small details, but it still catches her off guard. “How’s the case going!”

Somehow, Elle’s already bright eyes light up even more. She takes a quick sip. “We’re doing great! Definitely making progress.” She launches into a detailed description of her coworker Zach’s amazing breakthrough, which Deb is perfectly content to just listen to with a soft smile. “I almost thought I’d miss our weekly coffee date, but I powered through.”

She shakes her head. 

“What?”

“It’s…nice, seeing all of your dreams coming true. You work so hard to achieve all these grand, lofty goals,” she says, gesturing with her cup for effect but being careful not to spill, “and meanwhile, my biggest dreams are like, nightmares about getting pushed in the way of an A train.”

Elle’s eyebrows knit together. “You have dreams.”

Her face must betray her doubt, because Elle protests, “No, really. Even if you don’t have your whole life plotted out, neither did I. Getting into Harvard was not something I envisioned until a couple months before. Just take your time, how does that sound?”

Deb can’t resist reaching out to brush Elle’s knuckles. “It sounds good. Thank you.” She pauses, letting the moment settle, before saying, “So, tell me how you met Zach in the first place.”

“Oh, yes. It’s a funny story, really…”