The tired barista smiled sadly. "Wish I could but I've got class today. Trust me, you have no idea how much I'd love to skip but I can't. They're important for graduation so I kinda need to be there. The joys of being a double major."
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Gwendolyn gave a smile of understanding then nodded swiftly.
"Its alright love, nothing to apologise for." She said in a meanful tone.
She pulled a small leather covered journal out of her pocket and handed it to Carson.
"I know you've mentioned how much you like writing, so I got you this–" She said smiling.
He took the journal with a soft gasp, near in awe as he ran his hands over the cover. "Gwen! Come on, you didn't have to do that. I'm no one special to you, I'm just your barista." Carson hid his face under his hat, hoping to hide his rapidly increasing blush along with it.
Gwendolyn waved her hand in the air as if to say c'mon, you know me better than that. And chuckled softly, putting a hand to her heart in mock offense.
"Carson! is that really all you think of me as? a customer, and here I was thinking we were friends." She said in pretend pout, jutting out her lower lip.
"Well-" she said with a smile.
"Well I'm not saying we're not friends it's just-you know what I mean!" He spluttered, tripping over his words like he always did with Gwen. For some reason, she had a way to always make him tongue tied.
Gwendolyn held her hands up in surrender, her smile upturning the corners of her her mouth, she took something else out of her basket; it was a dream catcher, woven around it was red, yellow and blue colored string.
She laid it on the counter in front of Carson and turned around, walking away. When she got to the door, she craned her neck around to look at him and said.
"If you ever want to talk, outside of here– i'm in the cottage a little to the east of here." And with that she opened the door, and walked away, the cold and bitter air hitting her stockings, she quickly bundled up her coat, and set for her home.
Carson waved goodbye before picking up the dreamcatcher and twirling it in his hand. It was very pretty, definitely something that took a lot of time to make. He smiled a bit, turning to hang it on the handle of one of the cabinets behind his head. "Lord knows we need the bad vibes taken out of here."
Aki saw all of the interactions between Gwen and Carson, and he was smiling to himself. He was happy seeing them interact. He walked over to Carson and decided to talk to him, seeing as he wasn't busy at the moment. He was still smiling as he did so.
"I see she gave you a dreamcatcher," he said. "That's nice of her. She seems to care a lot about you, and you seem to care a lot about her, given your interactions. Hopefully things stay that way." He wasn't making it incredibly obvious that he thought Carson and Gwen may make a cute couple, but those who knew him well knew that he did.
(I'm just kinda projecting my thoughts into this through Aki lol)
"Of course I care about her. She's a very loyal customer and quite the sweet one. I know what you're implying Aki, stop it." Carson chuckled with a roll of his eyes. "You have too much free time."
"I'm not implying anything." Aki jokingly denied his own words. "I'm just saying that I'm happy that you're close to her. Seeing you happy makes me happy. However, if things do change, and you end up dating her, I will definitely set up a date for you, free food and everything."
Carson once again blushed bright red at the idea of dating Gwen, pulling his hat down to hide it. "Oh please, that's ridiculous. Besides, I've only known her for six months."
"You're blushing. That's adorable." Aki smiled at his friend. "I know you like her, and I bet she likes you, too. I'm not exactly a matchmaker, but I would love to help you get together if the time ever comes. Anything for you to be happy."
Gwendolyn then went home, took the rye bread out of the packaging, and brought a single slice out, she pulled the butter out, smearing some on top of the bread, and sprinkled some Oregano on top, and started eating it, she then sat down on the couch, propping her feet on the coffee table, and pulling her lilac colored laptop onto her lap and opened it.
She scrolled through her email, stopping on one from Euthoria community college. There were two colleges close to her, the community college, and the college where money was the only promise of admission.
She clicked on the email, chewing as she read it, the email contained the schedules of the classes she had signed up for this semester. Each class had two different times, on in the morning, one at night to fit people's schedules better.
Phycology: 8:00AM to 9:00AM / 5:00PM to 6:00PM
Sociology: 10:00AM to 11:00AM / 7:30PM to 8:30PM
the email stated simply, she smiled to herself and finished the bread in a quick, single bite.
She then pulled out her phones, because although she was into antique things, she still stayed connected to the world like a normal human, she scrolled through instagram, she then saw a picture of Carson pop up, she added him quickly, then went back to scrolling through her instagram feed.
"You're blushing. That's adorable." Aki smiled at his friend. "I know you like her, and I bet she likes you, too. I'm not exactly a matchmaker, but I would love to help you get together if the time ever comes. Anything for you to be happy."
"I-It's not like that. I don't like her like that." Carson protested, mentally kicking himself for stuttering. Of course Aki could see through him but he still tried.
"You can't hide it that easily. You're only making it obvious, but luckily, I just find this adorable. I'm not gonna do anything stupid, but if you need help, I'll try my best." Aki was still smiling at Carson, knowing that he'd do anything to make his friends happy. "Just let me know."
"…thanks." He mumbled, grumpy that he'd been found out and still blushing wildly from the accusations but at least he was grateful for Aki's help.
Aki could tell that he had slightly upset his friend. "I didn't mean to upset you when I brought this up. Well, I need to get back to making food. Talk to you later." He walked away, sighing. He knew Carson was grateful for the help, but even so.
"Wait, Aki-I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry." He sighed softly. Carson hated seeing Aki upset, it made him feel bad.
Aki looked at Carson. "No, it's okay. I shouldn't have mentioned it to begin with. It's not really my business. I'd love to help you, though, and don't feel bad. I just thought I upset you."
Gwendolyn got up and strided to her bedroom, where she uncapped a black sharpie, and wrote
'phyc' and 'socio' everyday tuesdays and thursday, starting with the next tuesday from now, which was approximately two days.
She exhaled shakily, it would be the first time she would see people in a long time, unless you counted her visits to the bakery.
She then went into the living room, picked up her still open laptop, brought it into her room, sat on her bed, and was swallowed by episodes of Anne with an E.
"…you really think you can help me? I mean, you know how I am and how…abrasive I can be. I don't want to scare her by showing a part of myself she's not expecting." Carson fidgeted as he spoke, never being able to look Aki in the eye.
"Of course I can help you," Aki told him. "It's not hopeless, that's for sure. Even with everything you've mentioned, I know I can help you. Besides, I just want to see you happy, and I know you'd be happy with her. I'm never going to give up on this, I promise."
"You're far too kind to be working under me of all people." Carson chuckled. "I'm an asshole, everyone else here is an angel. Yet somehow I'm the manager. By pure magic."
"Hey, don't say that about yourself. You're not like that. If you ask me, and just about anyone, really, you're a great person. Remember that, okay? Everyone has their bad traits, but that doesn't make them a bad person."
After Gwendolyn finished about 3 episodes she sat up abruptly "oh shit." she muttered to herself.
She remembered the email had google classroom codes for both her classes at the bottom.
She reopened the email, and google classroom pasting each code and entering the classroom, she then admired them, the phycology one had a background picture of books, pens and glasses, while the sociology one was purple.
She then clicked her mouse over to the people part of the classroom, and started scrolling through the names slowly, starting at the top.