Coffee and Flirting

[Cherie Paxton]

  It was just as well that it was warm outside now. Finally. Cherie hated the cold weather, and she'd learned a lot of other people did, too. As she strode down the sidewalk, she thrust her hands into the pockets of her white shorts and stopped to tip her sunglasses down to examine her flip-flops. The straps were beginning to wear horribly, and she knew it was time to buy new ones before these just broke right off her feet. She had a habit of wearing shoes 'til they disintegrated on her, but flip-flops weren't a lot of material to begin with.

  She sighed and pushed her sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose with her pinkie. She continued along her way, texting on her phone every few seconds with Finley, who was waiting for her at the cafe they liked to go to for coffee. Well, she didn't like coffee, but she liked their frozen latte things, especially the ones with lots of chocolate in them. Before she entered the cafe, she paused to give herself a once over in the window next to it. She saw the same plain girl she always saw, and again it made her wonder how she'd ended up with a boyfriend quite so wild as Fin was.

  She pushed through the door and immediatly found him in the room - he always sat at 'their' table, a corner table by the window so that they could see people passing. Many times friends would go by and they'd pound on the window to get them to come inside, so it was more of a social obligation that they sit there than anything else. Cherie moved behind him silently and put her hands over his eyes, ceasing whatever writing he'd just been doing in a notebook.

  "Guess who," she whispered, leaning against his shoulder and letting her lips brush his ear. She wasn't always a physically affectionate person, more or less because Cherie was a little old-fashioned, but sometimes when she saw Fin wrapped in something he was doing, he inspired a little attention from her - if not just to distract him.

[Finley O'Hara]

He'd always been a fan of this little coffeeshop, and it wasn't because of the coffee.  Being a shifter, it didn't do anything for him, and even if it did, he wouldn't have been sure if it'd wind him up more or calm him down some.  ADHD would have been a bitch that way, if it weren't for the fact that being a shfiter meant that medications also didn't work for him.  That made it a bitch either way, if you were inclined to think that his energy level was a bad thing.  He knew it irritated people sometimes, but he was personally fine with it.  If they weren't, then they learned rather quickly not to hang out with him.

Cherie was one of the many friends (since being so hyper made him pretty fun to be around, most of the time, and granted him plenty of friends) that he was immensely glad didn't mind that little fact.  When they started dating, however casually they'd decided it was due to HER little 'issue', she became the one he was most pleased over.  He still wondered how a guy like him, just a hyperactive, loud-mouthed crow, could have landed such a nice, pretty jackal as she was.  That was without even taking into consideration just how COOL jackals were.  He'd gotten her to shift for him, and he'd shifted for her, and he still thought that her being a jackal was the coolest thing ever.  She seemed to think a crow was pretty cool, too, given the whole 'flying' bit, but he disagreed.  Jackals > Crows.

They'd agreed to disagree.

They'd also agreed to disagree on the fact that she was 'boring'.  She kept saying he was 'wild and fun', and that she didn't really fit in, and then he'd talk her into getting on stage with him for karaoke or something, and he'd argue that she was better than he was and definitely not boring.  Again, agreed to disagree.  It was crazy fun, though, and he was totally planning how he was going to get her to do karaoke again.  Since they were shifters, he couldn't just go out drinking and wait until she'd had her share to ask her to.  He had to be more persuasive, but it seemed to work.

Plotting for karaoke aside, he was actually working on a song when she showed up, sitting at 'their' table and so caught up in what he was doing (yes, it was possible) that he wasn't even distracted by anyone walking by the windows.  He should have noticed her before she got there, but there were lines flowing, and he needed to get them down before he lost them.

Fortunately, by the time he had hands over his eyes, he had a definite rhythm going on, and he'd written down as many words as he could think of.  She had great timing, he loved it.

"Only one person would ever distract me when I'm being quiet, so I'm going to guess.....Cherie?" he offered with a grin, his hands shooting up to grab hers even as he turned his head to give her a quick kiss.  He knew she wasn't incredibly affectionate, especially in public, and he could respect that.  He had to kiss her, though.  She'd played with his ear.

[Cherie Paxton]

She laughed loudly when he said she would be the only person to distract him when he was quiet. It was the truth - Cherie thrived off of his ADD nature. She was so demure and calm that she felt like Fin was her drug of sorts. She kissed him back, on the cheek of course, but made it cute by doing it a few times - she was cuddly, and that was okay.

  "I hope I didn't make you lose your train of thought," she said apologetically, sitting down across from him. He'd already gotten her drink ready, and the server came over with it the moment she'd tucked her chair in - she smiled and thanked him, and then went back to Fin. "I love that you know what I want. It isn't like I order anything different, but still. It's nice. None of your other friends do that for their girlfriends - I think that's why they're always single," she said with a little laugh.

  She tucked some wayward hair behind her ear and leaned over the table to see what he was writing. "When is your next show supposed to be? I want to bring Annika with me, I think she'd like it. I gave her your CD and she dug it, though I'm afraid she might try to start a mosh pit," she said. Annika might, knowing her. "Oh, and she also said she's down for karaoke. She's easier to get up on stage than I am."