Coffee & (Clean Version)

~Coffee & Chaos~

"Alice!" Bill called to Alice at the bus stop.
"Dad!" Alice exclaimed, dragging her bag with her. She hugged Bill tightly. "Uncle Paul!"
"Hey, Al," Paul said, giving Alice a hug. They all piled into Paul's car to drive to the Woodward residence.
"So, Alice, how's Clivesdale?" Bill asked.
"Well, they closed down Martha's Coffee Shop, so now I can only get coffee at Starbucks©. Besides that, it's the same," Alice said.
"That's exciting," Bill said, "I was thinking we could go to Watcher World this weekend."
"That sounds fun," Alice said.
"Well, Al, I might have a coffee solution for you," Paul said.
"Oh, we just learned about this new place called Beanie's. You have to try it!" Bill exclaimed.
"I can take you tomorrow before work. We're still carpooling, right?" Paul asked Bill, who nodded, "Yeah, Al, we can go. The main barista looks kind of like you, except she is a brunette."
"That sounds great, Uncle Paul," Alice smiled as Paul dropped them off.
That night, instead of trying to go to bed early, Paul worked on looking through Alice's Instagram. He hadn't really been in her life for a while, but she was like a daughter to him. "Ah, she's a lesbian, very cool, very cool. Oh, and she has a girlfriend, who lives—oh!— she lives in Hatchetfield. I'm pretty sure Bill doesn't like that," Paul mumbled to himself as he scrolled through her small feed. It was common for kids these days to never have more than ten posts on their Instagram. With all that done, Paul decided to just location search Beanie's. Zoey seemed nice enough to follow on social media. Maybe her page was there.
"Bingo," Paul whispered, finding one of her posts. She appeared to have a coffee cup with a kiss imprint on it with bright red lipstick. CupofZoey: A very special coffee for my favorite girl in the world. Happy six months beautiful. @Carolyn_AbbotWriter #girlfriends #bipride #bisexual #Beanies #love #wlw
Paul scrolled through her feed. It was filled with pictures of fancy coffees she had made, and a few pictures of her with the other two baristas. The shorter one, Paul remembered her name was Emma, was a little cute. He shrugged it off as him just being delusional since it was getting late.
Paul put his phone away and turned off the lights. "Emma. Huh," he said to himself before falling asleep.
The next morning, Paul barely managed to get Bill and Alice out of the house a few minutes earlier. "Alice, are you excited?" Bill asked.
"I guess. This might become a new favorite, instead of Starbucks© the whole time I'm here," Alice said as Paul parked by CCRP Technical.
"It's a short walk," Bill explained, "I'd go, but I just realized I forgot to turn in my analysis."
"Don't worry about it, Dad. I'll see you after school," Alice said, hugging Bill.
"I'll walk you there, Al. Bill you want anything?" Paul asked.
"Um, yeah I'll have a coffee with milk. Thanks for going with Al," Bill said, waving goodbye to Paul as he entered.
"So what's the best part of Beanie's?" Alice asked.
"The coffee is cheap and it's pretty okay. Their other drinks are pretty good from what I've heard," Paul said, "They sing if you tip them, which is why I do it discreetly."
The two of them entered Beanie's, ringing the bells to enter. "Hi, welcome to Beanie's, how can I help you?" Emma asked. The cute, short one. Paul shook that thought from his head. He'd never date a barista. Emma looked up. "If your friend is here I have the right to refuse to serve him."
"Oh no, he's not here. And he's not my friend. I'm here with Alice. So we'll get a plain black coffee, a coffee with milk, and... Al, what do you want?" Paul asked.
"I'll have a tea with honey please," Alice said.
"So what are the names?" Emma asked.
"I'm Paul, P-A-U-L, this is Alice, A-L-I-C-E, and the other drink is for Bill, B-I-L-L," Paul said, spelling them all out.
"Alright, I'll get those started. Your total is $11.34," Emma said, leaving to work on the drinks. Paul snuck in a tip and sat with Alice at a table.
"Uncle Paul, what's up with you and that barista?" Alice asked.
"What?" Paul asked.
"You and Emma."
"Nothing!" Paul exclaimed, "This is my first actual interaction with her."
"It's okay if you want something with her. I can see it," Alice said, "I'm a lesbian, you know that right?"
"Yes," Paul said, "And I want to let you know I fully support you and I'm really proud of you."
"Thanks," Alice said, "Now about her, her name's Emma and—"
"Al, I'd really prefer not to discuss this," Paul said, his expression pained. At that moment, Emma approached the counter.
"Drinks for Paul, Alice, and Bill!" Emma called, watching the drinks to make sure no one took them.
"Thanks," Paul said.
"Anytime," Emma replied as she handed Alice her tea and they headed off to CCRP. They found Ted entering the building.
"Al, do me a favor and pretend that we ran into each other and you bought me and Bill drinks," Paul said, almost shoving the drink try at Alice.
"I gotcha. I'm in the school musical," she said, winking at Paul. Alice noticeably raised her voice. "Uncle Paul, catching up with you has been great, but I have to go to school. Before I go, I got you and Dad coffee from this new place called Beanie's. Figured you two would enjoy it."
"Thanks, Al. I'll talk to Bill about picking you up today. Have a good day at school," Paul said, taking the coffees and winking at Alice. He ran into Ted.
"I didn't know you and Alice talked," Ted said.
"I carpool with Bill," Paul said shortly, getting in the elevator with Ted.
"How come your car is here but you were coming from Beanie's with Alice and coffees for you and Bill," Ted said, "Were you flirting with the barista?"
Paul didn't answer. "Ah, I knew it! I knew it! You want to steal her from me!" Ted exclaimed. They entered their floor together.
"No, she has a girlfriend. And I was taking a walk since Bill needed to be here to turn in his analysis and I happened to run into Alice," Paul said.
"I know you're lying," Ted said as they parted ways. Paul entered Bill's cubicle.
"Hey, Bill. Here's your coffee," Paul said.
"Thanks, Paul," Bill smiled gratefully.
"And, um, if Ted asks, tell him you were here early to do your analysis and I decided to take a walk and I ran into Alice coming from Beanie's," Paul whispered.
"Alright. Don't see why he'd be talking to me, though," Bill said. Paul smiled and started on his work. Nothing like bitter coffee to help him out. He worked for about half an hour before taking a short break. He checked his phone. @CupofZoey followed you. Paul nervously looked at the other notifications. @CupofZoey: How the heck did you find me? He nervously responded. Location searching Beanie's. I was looking at a friend's daughter and fell down the rabbit hole.
@CupofZoey: That's sweet. Why'd you follow me?
@MattPaul: Eh you seemed nice enough. Also, if Ted stalks me, he'll get pissed. That's part of the reason. Block @TedSpankoffee . That's Ted's account.
@CupofZoey: Thanks. I'll be at Beanie's this afternoon at around 4-8ish. You should come by and we can get to know each other
@MattPaul: As friends
@CupofZoey: Of course, I'm not dumping Carolyn any time soon.
Paul smiled and pocketed his phone before returning to work. He had a lot of it to do before the end of the day. His lunch break was uneventful and the afternoon wasn't too different from the morning. After saving everything and powering off his computer, he found Bill.
"Paul, Al is with her girlfriend tonight, so I think I'll just walk home today. See if we can plan anything," Bill said sadly.
"Well, Bill, I'm going to Beanie's if you want to come," Paul whispered. Bill nodded morosely and followed Paul to his car.
"Why are we in your car? Tt's a really short walk," Bill pointed out.
"If we walk, Ted's gonna want to come and I can't do it with him," Paul said. He looked out his window. "And he's gone. I'll just park us nearby. It's not that far out there."
They jingled the bells at Beanie's just in time to see Ted arguing at the counter. "Listen here, it's my constitutional right! Freedom of speech!" Ted yelled, slamming his hand on the counter, causing a few cups on the barista's neat stack to fall.
"I don't care! We're allowed to ban people from our establishments and refuse service," the barista from the morning—Emma—said.
"Sir, I think it's best you leave," a customer said, getting up from his table.
"Get off of me!" Ted exclaimed, wrenching his hand from the man who attempted to lead Ted out. "I just want to flirt with her. She's open!"
Finally, a police officer in civilian clothing stood up. They appeared a little weakened as they flashed their badge at Emma. "Sir, you have to leave right now before they press additional charges," the officer said. Emma finally saw Paul and Bill and pointed her head towards the opposite side of the counter, where they could get and hide from Ted.
"Who are you, head of HFPD?" Ted sneered at the officer.
"Officer Doug of HFPD. You can leave of your free will or you can be forced out. They have the right to press additional charges, although there aren't enough charges to arrest you," Doug said. Ted took a deep breath and let it out sharply.
"Fine. Fine! I'll leave, but I know how to find people on Instagram," Ted said, waving his middle finger high in the air for everyone to see. Everyone in the shop watched him angrily drive away. Emma let out a deep breath.
"Officer Doug, thank you so much," Emma said.
"Anytime. I would've arrested him right then and there, but I had an operation a few days ago and I'm not cleared to do any work yet. But he's definitely annoying and you guys don't deserve that," Doug responded.
"Here, I wish I could give you more, but here's a complimentary cake pop as a thank you," Emma said. She smiled as Doug left. "Guy that came this morning and friend, you can come on out."
"I'm so sorry about him," Paul said as Emma traded out with Zoey, who was a little off.
"Eh, he's hopefully gone for good. Also, what's his handle so I can block him?" Emma asked.
"It's @TedSpankoffee. S-P-A-N-K-O-F-F-E-E," Paul said as Emma typed it into her search bar.
"Thanks," Emma responded, "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow, maybe not. We'll see."
"Sure thing," Bill responded. The two men turned their attention to Zoey. She had her phone in one hand and Paul took advantage of his resources.
@MattPaul: You okay?
Zoey looked at her phone as Bill finished ordering and gave a sad smile.
@CupofZoey: eh. Turns out, Carolyn was the one doing the dumping like half an hour ago. I got Nora to cover me, but it's another half hour.
Paul was shocked. As Bill went out of the way, Paul and Zoey were able to whisper. "I'm so sorry," Paul said, "I feel kinda bad ordering something."
"It's fine. Wish she did it later because that creep Ted thought it meant he could flirt with me. It went downhill from there. Luckily, Emma hates him too and she was able to cover for me while I had a mental breakdown in the break room," Zoey said, "Black coffee?"
"Yeah. And if it's any consolation, I can stay here until you're done and make sure you're okay," Paul offered. He wanted to repay Zoey for returning his phone.
"That'd be nice. And with a discount, your total comes to $1.86," Zoey said, leaving Paul to pay and tip. He did both and sat by Bill.
"What's going on with you and the barista?" Bill asked.
"I can't even get coffee today without a Woodward asking about me and a barista," Paul said. Bill grinned.
"Al did in the morning?"
"She sure did," Paul added. Bill laughed.
"C'mon Paul, you've been single for too long," Bill said.
"So have you," Paul made sure to point out.
"Actually, we hadn't agreed to tell anyone, but I'll tell you. You can't tell anyone, it's a secret. Sylvia and I have been seeing each other outside of work. Romantically," Bill said as he and Paul grabbed their coffees.
"Congrats, Bill," Paul said. They somehow continued talking until Bill decided that he wanted to walk home to clear his head. Zoey went to find Paul after her half hour was over, after Beanie's had started to fill up.

Hi, friends! This is a bit of a longer chapter, but I figured a good one to let y'all have for 2-3 weeks because I have finals and then I'm heading back home for the holidays and that's when MCAT prep will sky rocket. Thanks for reading!
— Luna :D