golden (mileven au)

you caught me

↬ 24 ↫

Nearly a month had gone by since El had first received the news of her potential summer internship and each day since had felt like a rollercoaster. One day she was fine with the idea of going to Chicago, the next she was completely against it.

She just wanted to know already because at this point, not knowing was driving her crazy.

Luckily, as the semester neared it's end, she had plenty of distractions to get her through it. Of course her schoolwork was always taking up her time, as was all the studying she had to prepare for with her final exams. She was also working more hours than usual, just in case she did have to leave for the summer. She figured it would be smart to save up as much money as she could, that way she would benefit no matter which scenario played out.

Then, there was Mike. He served as her best distraction, always filling her with nothing but sheer happiness whenever he was around. That is, until the dreaded thoughts of being away from him eventually forced their way back in.

She had those thoughts less and less lately though, all thanks to him. Mike knew how stressed all this was making her and it was obvious just how much effort he put into trying to get her mind off of it. Somehow, he always knew the perfect ways to distract her.

Even now, as she made coffee for the hoards of college students that came through the line, Mike was still the one who had all her attention. This time though, it was completely unintentional.

He was sitting at a table across the small room, cramming for the exam he had in his next class. Throughout the two hours he'd been there, El found herself eyeing him every second she could, wishing that she could go sit down with him.

She thought he looked rather cute over there, with his bottom lip between his teeth and his brows slightly scrunched as he read over the pages laid out in front of him. It was a wonder how she hadn't completely messed up all the orders that had come through, with what little attention she was paying to the task at hand.

Just as she got started on making another iced coffee, she glanced up to see Mike stand from his table and join the line. She perked right up then, rushing to finish the drink so she could get to the register in time to take his order. She hadn't gotten to talk to him any while he was there, for obvious reasons, so this was the perfect chance.

And she would've gotten that chance too, if it weren't for Annie, her snobby coworker, snatching up the register before she could make it back over there. El had a feeling that she had done it on purpose, knowing that the girl had seen him in there enough times to know that he was her boyfriend.

El huffed as she stood off to the side, listening as Mike ordered a chocolate croissant. She then rushed over to the other counter, getting his food ready before someone else could. Once it was heated up, she put it in a bag, deciding she would just take it to him herself.

"Here, let me have it." Annie insisted, taking the bag right from El's hand as she walked by.

"Nope, I got this one!" El snatched it back from the blonde, flashing her a quick smile before continuing on right past her.

They usually don't take the customers their food, but this one would just have to be an exception because El really needed to talk to him. She had been tortured having to stare at him from across the room for long enough.