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No, she was definitely taking her time. It definitely wasn’t necessary for her to run her fingers up my horn the way she was doing in order to pull the strap off.
“Are you almost finished?” I grumbled, my claws tightening into fists at my sides. The sensation of her fingers there was... too much.
“Yes,” she breathed below me. “Sorry.”
A moment later, I felt the strap move against the back of my neck, settling into place on my shoulders, And it was guided into place, yet again, by those traipsing fingers. Even her knuckles were soft, silk over bone, as they brushed down my thick neck.
I straightened quickly, tying the other straps behind my back.
“Here,” I said, grabbing another apron from the shelf and handing it to her. “Even if you’re not making the drinks, it can still get messy.”
“Thanks,” she said with a smile, slipping her own strap over her head much more gracefully than I had. Which, considering she was a human – a notoriously clumsy species – and I was a Chimera, was...
Alright. It was embarrassing.
That embarrassment was hardening into irritation in my guts, making my tail twitch. At least, until Sophie turned around, stepping backwards towards me.
“Tie me up?” she asked, and I froze. I stared at the two black straps hanging loose by her sides. The way she’d worded it had conjured a very different and totally unprofessional image in my mind. Choking that image down, reminding myself I was a disciplined Chimera, I stepped forward, closing the last of the space between us. I swept the straps up into my claws, pulling them back and beginning to tie a bow.
Every time a finger or knuckle pressed against her flesh through her shirt, Sophie’s breathing changed, the muscles of her back tightening. I tensed, heat pooling low in my groin. This was absurd, absolutely insane, that such a small thing – tying a coworker’s apron – was having such an effect on me. And, apparently, on her. Was it fear driving the pulse in her neck to speed up? But if it was fear, why would she have gotten close to me in the first place?
Perplexing.
Unlike Sophie getting the strap off of my horn, I worked as quickly as I could, tying a bow then reeling back from the little human. Good timing, too, as our first customers were lining up at the window.
I turned sharply away from Sophie, readying my station at the espresso machine. From the side, I heard her greet the first patron merrily, her voice chiming.
“Welcome to Hallowed be thy Bean, what can we get for you today?”
Luckily, it turned out Sophie was a natural at both learning on her feet (a trait we both shared) and giving great customer service (a trait we definitely didn’t). I glanced at her between tamping espresso beans and steaming milk, watching as her smile urged similar smiles out of even our most taciturn customers. The tablet ordering system was pretty straightforward, and apart from a few hiccups, she did astonishingly well.
OK, maybe having two people on the job really does make things easier.
It was a busy day, which made the shift fly by. By the time we were closing up, Sophie’s hair was no longer so tidily tied back. The dark tendrils escaping her hairstyle practically screamed at me to tuck them back in.
Which I didn’t, of course. I may have been one of the deadliest bastards out there, but I still had some semblance of good manners. Sometimes. When the other person wasn’t pissing me off.
And it turned out that definitely wasn’t Sophie. When Shelly’d told me I would be getting a new coworker, I’d expected to be annoyed by them and slowed down in my work. But apart from a few little learning curve hiccups, Sophie hadn’t caused me any problems. At all. She’d kept the customers happy and allowed me to do my work, fitting in here as if she’d worked here for years. It was jarring. But also somewhat nice.
“That was awesome,” Sophie said, smiling widely, her cheeks positively glowing as I closed the top part of the door and put the “Closed” sign up.
“Not too tired?” I asked, looking at her closely. It had been a pretty busy one, and she’d been working hard. I’d noticed.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m beat. And I don’t get how you do this every day.” she said, falling into one of the little chairs at the back of the shop. She undid her hair, letting it fall in glossy waves around her shoulders. “But don’t forget I come from New Toronto. I’ve been working hard my whole life. My last job was in the assembly department of a shuttle engine factory. I’m used to hard work.”
I grunted in approval. That made sense. No matter how frenzied the pace had gotten, even though it was her first day, she’d never been fazed.
“And my last job wasn’t nearly as fun as this. Everyone was so nice today!” she said, leaning back in her chair and grinning. I let out a sharp bark of a laugh at that, which made her smile fall.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s not that they’re nice people. We had some of our rudest regular customers today. But they couldn’t help but be charmed by the cute, smiley human.”
“The... the what?” Sophie asked, her soft mouth falling open. Fuck. Had I just called her cute out loud?
Yep. I did.
Oh well. No way to backtrack away from that one. I shrugged, pulling my apron off in a mercifully smooth movement this time.
