Chapter Text
If Alex was to be expected to get through the rest of this day without committing a crime, for which he would then have to hire the firm to represent him, then he needed some goddamn coffee. And not the sludge the office provided—which looked more like goo and tasted like swamp water (what he assumed swamp water would taste like, not that he made a habit of visiting swamps and drinking the water there)—the good stuff.
As Alex stood up, contemplating just how far he would have to travel to procure his life source—shouldn’t it be a law that when opening a law firm, one must also make sure there is adequate caffeine within a five-mile radius? But he digressed—he felt eyes on him. Of course said eyes were attached to his all-around dickbag of a deskmate: Henry My-Name-Is-A-Volcano or something like that. It was too long and too unimportant to take up space in his brain when there were other, much more important matters at hand. Alex recognized the hypocrisy of himself, Alexander Claremont-Diaz, having something to say about long names, but he’s elected to own that hypocrisy about anything and everything regarding Henry.
“Something to say?” Alex stared Henry down. Usually, his staredowns caused the most fearless of foes to look away and sometimes even cower in fear, but no such luck with Henry. He didn’t even appear fazed. Damn.
“I thought perhaps you were in search of coffee,” Henry said in his smug voice. That was the problem with Henry, he was always so smug, always so sure of himself, thinking he was better than everyone around him and making sure everyone knew it too. And every time he talked to Alex, it almost seemed like he was having to force the words from his lips like maybe he had been sucking on something sour.
These words—like most words that escaped from Henry’s lips— made Alex’s hackles rise. If he were a cat, his fur would definitely be raised up and he’d be hissing.
“Oh wow, look at that! You got one right. What, do you want a trophy or something?”
Henry looked a bit like Alex had just slapped him across the face which Alex felt a sort of twisted pride about. He loved getting one over on his annoying coworker. It always brought him such great joy. Like, yes, the two of them were seated near each other and would be for the foreseeable future, but that didn’t mean Alex had to be happy about it or make things easy on him. This was a battle, a war, and Alex had every intention of winning.
“No,” Henry replied, not fighting back. That was another problem with him, he never used words to fight back. In fact, he never really fought back at all. Which he probably knew would annoy Alex as an easy victory is not nearly as satisfying as one you had to fight for. “I just happen to know that my sister recently opened a coffee shop right down the street. I thought maybe you’d appreciate the knowledge.”
Alex would typically start mocking everything he was saying in his head, but he refrained this time as this was actually helpful information.
“Ah,” Alex started, wanting to be thankful, but not wanting to let on just how life-saving this information was. He didn’t exactly need anything else for Henry to be able to lord over his head. “Well. Thanks. Maybe I’ll check it out.”
Henry nodded but said nothing further, and Alex shot out of the building like a bat out of hell. He hated feeling like he now owed Henry, but he’d wait until he’d tried Henry’s sister’s coffee before he’d let himself feel too much in debt to him. For all he knew, Henry had made the whole thing up and was secretly laughing at him right now.
Much to his relief, it was a real place. And it really was close to his work. He really hoped Henry’s sister knew what she was doing because this could truly be a godsend if so.
The door jingled as he entered the building, clearly indicating there was some kind of bell installed to let the workers know someone had entered. It was a nice sound, not loud and grating like some stores had.
He took in his surroundings. It was a cute little shop. There were tables and chairs set up with tablecloths and matching seat covers on them. Which seemed a bit fancy for a coffee shop, but what did Alex know? He just hoped people wouldn’t spill their coffee on them, ruining them.
Realizing he had spaced out worrying about something as trivial as tablecloths getting messy, Alex turned his attention to the giant menu board behind the cash register where he noticed a young woman watching him. This woman was clearly Henry’s sister, he could see the resemblance. Hopefully, she was a bit easier to get along with than Henry. For the sake of getting his caffeine fix, Alex elected to play nice and definitely omit the fact that he worked with her brother and wasn’t a huge fan.
“Oh, hello,” Alex said, finally meeting her gaze.
“Hello. I’m Bea. Welcome to Beawitched.”
“Thanks. This is a nice place you’ve got here,” Alex said, gesturing all around him. “When did you open?”
“A few days ago. This part of town was sorely lacking a coffee shop so my co-owner and I decided to fix that.”
“Well trust me, those of us who work around here are greatly indebted to you.”
Fuck. The one thing he had definitely not wanted to do was draw attention to the fact that he worked around here and what was the first thing he had done? Opened up the conversation for questions regarding that very thing.
“Ah. Are you a banker, in retail, or from the law office?”
Alex decided to tell the truth, but keep it vague.
“The law office.”
Bea perked up a bit upon hearing that. “Any chance you know Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor?”
Alex tried to keep his facial expression neutral as she asked this question, but he wasn’t sure how successful he had been. God, even the man’s name was pretentious.
“We may have crossed paths a time or two, yes, although I don’t know him all that well.”
Bea’s eyes twinkled a bit and she looked amused at that statement, but Alex had no idea what he had said that could cause such a reaction.
“He’s my brother.”
“Oh, is he? That’s so nice that you get to work close to each other, that is, assuming you have a good relationship?” Alex hadn’t even had a chance to process the fact that that question had popped out of his mouth before it already had. His brain-to-mouth filter was nonexistent today so it would seem. He wasn’t even entirely sure why he had asked it except maybe Bea and Henry didn’t have a good relationship and Alex could possibly get more dirt on the man. Although why would Henry have sent him here if that were the case?
“Yes, it’s quite nice. We’re really rather close. I assume I have him to thank for why you found yourself here?”
Alex merely nodded, trying to keep a poker face.
“Well I shan’t keep you chatting any longer, what can I get for you?”
Alex ordered his coffee to go and the two of them didn’t say anything else to one another. As he was heading out, Bea called out to him.
“Don’t be a stranger, alright?”
Alex waved, stepped outside, and took a sip of his coffee. It was divine. It was positively magical. He didn’t care who Bea was related to, he was definitely going back to her shop. It’s not like she could control who her brother was.