Pipin' Hot Crazy More Like {Lyndee}

[ELIZA BENJAMIN]

Tea. Tea. A hot cuppa. Tea. Tea. It was ingrained into her like a mantra. Over and over in her head, her stomach driving her. Since she got here, she hadn’t been able to find a decent cuppa. Starbucks was definitely out, as it should be with anyone who had taste-buds. She tried a few other coffee shops that also served tea. And what a pathetic tea it was. Just a teabag pulled out of a box, with boiling water poured over it. There was no class to it, there was no flavor. She had to dump pounds of sugar into the tea to give it any sort of flavor. Pipin’ Hot Tea was her last chance, before she would have to give herself over to coffee.

What happened instead, was that she was assaulted by the most feminine café she was pretty sure she had ever seen. Her brows raised up slightly as she warily wandered in. Her day had been full of studying, she felt tired, and she looked it. She didn’t even manage to get her order in before she sunk into a chair and lowered her head onto the table. It wouldn’t hurt if she just rested there for a moment. Even though the summer was hot, Eliza had an oversized sweater that hung down to the knees of her bright red jeans. Her long, wild hair had been tamed, pulled into a knot at the back of her head, a skinny headband holding her wispy bangs out of her face.

She was exhausted, and even so—she reached into her purse to pull out a book she had inside. She would order in a moment—she just needed to get off her feet for a moment. Strolling the campus was more than a headache, and she could only walk for so long. Her toes wiggled in her flats, before she edged forward, putting her elbows on the table and opening up her copy of His Majesty’s Dragon. Unfortunately, the poor girl would get so wrapped up in the words spinning off the page, that she tended to lose track of time.

And that’s exactly what happened. Eliza hadn’t realized that she hadn’t ordered yet, her large brown eyes scanning the page. Eliza read the words quickly, the tale of dragons spinning through her head. As though she were rolling down a hill, her eyes darted across the page faster. Her strong brows set firmly over those darting eyes, full lips were set tight. The height of the story was just a few pages down, and she couldn’t resist turning that page. Coming one step closer. Idly, her hand went down for the cup of tea she never ordered. Without thinking too much on it, her hand went back to her cheek. Completely unaware of time.

Outfit!

[LYNDEE PRIEST]

Slow days were the worst.

Lyndee almost just wanted to close up shop and go out to Times Square for a shopping spree or something equally much more fun than this. Currently, she was probably getting two customers every hour. She’d already asked her employees if they wanted to go home early. Two of them had. Which obviously just made the place more boring because there were less people to talk with. The girl who had been working here the longest always seemed to find things to do, whether it was cleaning or learning new shapes while folding napkins. She was especially good, though, at coming up with new teas. A lot of times, they sampled these off to see how well they were received. Usually very well.

While she did that, Lyndee had paperwork. It was the worst of the worst. Most of the time, she managed to get through. It may have been horribly boring, but there was something tranquil about it. If she focused on just that, it went by very quickly. When she finished, she realized an hour had passed. An hour without tea or a muffin or any interaction with customers. Completely and totally unacceptable. Standing and stretching, she meandered out back into the front of the shop. Still slow. There was a girl in a large sweater (Lyndee worried she might pass out from heat stroke if she went back outside like that), she looked exhausted, and she didn’t have a cup in front of her. … She hadn’t been served yet.

Squeaking in alarm, Lyndee hurriedly grabbed a menu and a notepad and rushed out to the table. She could only hope the girl hadn’t been there too long. She understand how into a book one could get, but how had her (remaining) employees (for the day) not have come to check on her? Lyndee could see it on the girl’s face, though, just how into this book she was. She wondered if she made faces like that while reading certain chapters or scenes. Hopefully not interrupting too intense a part, Lyndee cleared her throat so as not to startle her customer. Lyndee smiled when she got her attention. “I’m really very sorry for the wait. Is there anything I can get you?”

Maybe she’d tone down the shipping today. This girl looked like she had a very long day, and the last thing Lyndee wanted to do was make it any worse but interrogating her on her love life. Perhaps… perhaps once she’d gotten some tea to her. That might change things. And really, this is Lyndee. She could only resist for so long.

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