ex's & oh's

Rosalie laughed along with her, nodding. “Yeah, my Starbucks alter ego is Mary and she loves caramel lattes. It’s so much more fun being her, sometimes.” Half true - there was a Mary, but she preferred blow jobs and choking. Still, she could have a craving for a caramel latte after all of that.

“Only sometimes, though.” Karina quipped. “When you’re not Starbucks-Maniac-Mary, who are you?”

Yuri nodded at her words. In a way it made sense. If he thought about it, tracking targets with social media made things extremely easy. All he had to do was study their photo carefully and, boom. Done. “I have no preference. The type I drink isn’t exactly hard to make.” 

“Yet you still find yourself in a queue at Starbucks like everybody else?” She asked, a small chuckle coming from her lips. “Maybe we’re all just lazy.”

“It’s actually Rhys, and yes quite a long night. Why else do people end up here so late in the night?” He checked his watch, “Oh shit, it’s morning? Fuck me.” 

God, this man truly was tired. As if Karina was stupid enough to assume his name was actually Cups. She prevented from rolling her eyes at her failed joke and instead chuckled at his oblivion. “Yes, 5:17 AM to be exact.” She told him, checking the time on her phone. “A rough night too, I’m assuming?” She asked, hoping to delve in more.

“Yes, it’s Cups, Cups McArthur, pleasure’s mine.” He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands and finally turned to face the woman, unimpressed that he still didn’t have a coffee in his hands. 

“Lovely to meet you, I’m Karina Eriksen.” She told him, giving him a smile. From his actions down to his looks, she couldn’t help but notice how tired he seemed. “You had a long night, Cups?”

“I swear they put crack in these things or something… mind control man, I swear.” 

“They’d be losing a lot of money if they are doing that. I’m no expert, but I’m buy crack costs more than your average cup of coffee.”

At this point, Rhys was too tired to even know he was talking, let alone what he was saying or who it was being said to. 

“The amount of times I’ve been mistake for a chocolate peanut butter candy is inconceivable.” 

Karina chuckled at the man’s comment. “So, is that because you have a close resemblance to the snack or your name includes ‘Reese’s’, ‘Peanut’, ‘Butter’, or ‘Cups’? You do look like a Cups.” She teased. 

“Oh? If you don’t mind, would you try to explain the appeal to me. I don’t quite understand it. Why would someone like looking at another’s food? What’s the point of it?” It was weird how he was suddenly talkative. He didn’t know when it started but he found himself talking a lot more than usual. “So far I understand that Starbucks is for taking pictures, hangovers, and wasting money.”

“There’s a whole aesthetic to it. If it’s pretty, it’ll get likes. That’s the aim on Instagram, essentially. And people are nosy, they can see what people are up to without having to ask them.” She told him, explaining the best she could. Keeping updated on people was why Karina used it. “The coffee is’t bad either, I’ll give it that.”

“It’s addictive, isn’t it?” Rosalie lied, not caring for the franchise whatsoever. Still, her enthusiasm seemed genuine, delivered in a perfect American accent. “It just tastes different when you get it from here. Still, they mess up my name no matter how much I show my face.”

“I think it’s something about having someone else make it for you...That sounded better in my head.” Karina chuckled. “I can relate to that, though. Sometimes I’ve given up and said my name was Sarah, easier for them not to mess up.”

“A friend stop it helps when you go out the night before. Also said something about aesthetics, but I didn’t understand that part and didn’t want to ask.”

“I’m too old to be putting up pictures of my coffee with a pretty filter on Instagram, but I supposed I can understand why that would be appealing to those younger than me. I think I must just love wasting money.”

“Perhaps you also take pleasure in verbally abusing the poor art student baristas when they mispronounce the name hastily scribbled on the cup in their hands?” He ventured, eyes trained straight ahead as he waited for his quad espresso. “At least that seems to be what Sturgeon seems to enjoy about being here.” He titled his head towards the man currently in a row with a frightened looking employee.

“It must be that.” Karina chuckled, turning to see the fuss at the front of the queue. “Fortunately, I don’t take it as bad as Sturgeon over there. There are only so many ways you can butcher the spelling of ‘Karina’. Karen is a popular one, I’ve found myself almost answering to it when I hear someone shouting it on the street.”

“I have a perfectly fine coffee machine at home, so someone please tell me why do I keep buying drinks from Starbucks?”

“Psychology. I know it’s really basic but still.”

“That’s not basic at all. As long as you’re doing what you enjoy, that’s what matters. Do you want to do more than just modelling then?”

“I’m a model, but I really missed going to school so I told them I’d do a photo shoot here and there to keep my career going, but I really wanted to focus on school.”

“That’s cute,” She told her, trying to sound sincere enough. “What are you studying?”

“Yeah. My manager didn’t want me to go, but I convinced him that I could do work and school.”

Manager? Oh great, another famous kid to run around the place. Karina had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. “What do you do for work?” She asked, feigning interest.

“Back in school.” Georgina corrected. “I took time off after I graduated high school.”

“Oh, so you’re in college?”

“Is it too early in the school year to be done with school? I’m asking for a friend.”

“Are you still in school?”