Work Text:
A new shipment of playtest books were just going to the floor, so this would probably be one of the few days a year when Bread and Roses was actually busy. Tabletop gaming handbooks were located in the far back of the store (political treatise, zines, and poetry made up the bulk of the cafe/bookstore), so at the very least, it wasn't difficult to haul the box out to the floor. In fact, the only issue on the trip there was the fact that there was already somebody in the aisle, sitting down with their back against one row of books with an older game manual open in their lap. They were right in front of where the playtest manuals needed to go, too.
Samantha keyed into her customer service voice and said, "Hey there!, I just need to stock a few books behind you if-"
"Sam?" The woman on the floor already had the manual closed and was out of the way, but she froze as soon as she looked at Samantha. She had short, bleached hair that was recovering from being dyed pink, but a dyed undercut/sidecut combo was about as generic as it came to patrons of this establishment. If they had met, Samantha certainly didn't remember it.
"Um, hello," Samantha replied with a weak smile.
The woman registered Samantha's poorly-hidden confusion, and turned nervous. She said, "Hey. It's, uh, Steph. Gingrich. We went to school together."
It took Samantha several seconds of blinking and high school flashbacks to respond, but when she finally managed to map Steph Gingrich, 18, high school senior onto this woman, she instantly brightened. "Oh! My goodness, hey Steph! It's good to see you."
"You too!" Steph said with a grin. "What're you up to these days?"
Samantha glanced meaningfully around at the store and said, "Well, working here for one. Also going to school full-time."
"Oh, rad. Me too."
Samantha, now more suspiciously, glanced around at the store.
Steph corrected, "I mean, I'm also going to school full-time. I'm a grad student and TA, doing art history. What're you studying?"
"Lit B.A." Samantha replied, nodding gently. "Oh, and Applied Psych for a minor. I'm aiming for a Master's in education."
"Whoah, check you out," Steph said, briefly doing exactly that. "Going into teaching, then?"
"That's the plan." The box of books was really starting to get heavy. "What're your plans? Curatorship or . . . something?"
"Actually . . . I've been doing game art as a side-thing for a couple of years now. Like, video games. If I'm lucky, I'd really like to actually do that."
"Oh wow, that's super cool," and totally explains the 'cool' instead of 'professional' look.
Samantha glanced at the game manual in Steph's hand and said, "But I take it you're still playing tabletop? What are you playing these days?"
"Oh, y'know, some of everything. What's that?" she asked, gesturing at the box in Samantha's hands.
Steph took a step back as Samantha stepped forward and dropped the box. "It's the Pathfinder 2.0 playtest books. I never actually . . . played first edition, so I guess I don't know anything about this, either."
"Can I see?"
Samantha handed Steph a book while she started to shelve the others. Steph crouched down next to her, checking out the front and back covers.
"Ah, I see the art style hasn't changed. Did you get into tabletop at some point?"
"Eh," Samantha shrugged. "I've played some Shadowrun and some 5e, but our DM graduated, so I haven't played in like a year."
"Aw, that's rough. But I guess that's kind of what it's like to play in college," Steph said, scratching the shaved side of her head.
"For sure." It didn't take Samantha long to have the manuals stocked, and she realized that her chatting time was out. "I've got to get back to work though," she said, picking up the box as she stood. "It was really good to see you again! You should stop by again sometime."
"Yeah, totally! Good to see you, too," Steph said with a grin, giving a two-fingered wave as Samantha backpedaled out of the aisle.
It was a week later when Steph showed up again, approaching the cashier's desk with a book wrapped in brown paper. She greeted Samantha and sat down in the chair opposite of her. One of the big reasons Samantha had chosen to apply to Bread & Roses was because the cashier was allowed to sit during their shift. Now, no one was actually just a full-time cashier, but at least she could sit during transactions - as could customers. And when it was a slow day like today, it took the pressure off to finish the transaction as soon as possible.
"Hey Sam!"
"Hey there, Steph."
"How are you doing?"
"Good - how about you?"
"Oh, I'm fine."
Now with that out of the way, they could actually speak like regular people. Steph put the book down on the table, and Samantha flipped it over to scan. They Thought They Were Free. Samantha had never read it, but it had been a popular purchase in 2017 when 'punch nazis' was a more popular slogan.
"And is this a college art history thing or just an . . . interest-in-history thing?" Samantha asked as she pressed all of the buttons to get through the slow-to-load program.
Steph shrugged. "Kind of all of my interests become a college art history thing sooner or later. But it's not assigned or anything, if that's what you mean."
As Samantha slid the book back towards Steph, Steph asked, "Why is it wrapped up like this, though? I've seen book stores do that for 'mystery books' before, but this still has the title and everything on it."
Samantha grimaced. "The actual cover is full of swastikas. I mean, most 'rise of the third reich' books have a swastika, but with this one it's . . . hard to miss."
"Egh, got it. I'll just keep the paper on then, I think."
While waiting for her card to finish processing, Step glanced over at the other half of the bookstore. "Is the cafe here any good?"
Normally, Samantha had a very programmed response to that question - smile, mention her favorite beverage, and say that a lot of people like to sit here and study, dodging an actual evaluation. But with Steph, Samantha felt a lot less compelled to be a good employee and a lot more compelled to help her out. She said, "Well, most of the drinks are really good. The baked goods are . . . eh?" She tilted her hand to indicate 'so-so'. "Just don't buy anything fancy. They don't know how to jelly things well and it shows."
Steph cracked a smile, standing up with her card and book in hand. "Good to know."
"Do you want a receipt?"
"Nah, thanks."
After she'd ordered some tea and snacks, Steph set herself up with her laptop and new book and started reading. Samantha expected her to only stay for as long as her snacks and tea lasted, but by the time the end of her shift rolled around a few hours later, Steph was still engrossed in the book. No matter how good a historical book was, Samantha wasn't sure how you could keep your attention on interviews with nazis for so long. Despite the environments she put herself in, Samantha had never gotten good at looking at tragedy or evil.
Samantha caught Steph's attention on her way out. Steph shook her head and blinked, as if only then realizing how much time had passed.
"I'm off work, so I'm gonna go. It was nice to see you again, though."
Steph just smiled softly and replied, "Likewise. This is a nice store you've got."
Samantha smiled back and said, "Well, we do our best. See you."
"See ya."
When Samantha checked her Facebook on the way home, she found several of her most recent posts and pictures liked by one Stephanie Gingrich.
For the past two weeks, Steph had started visiting Bread & Roses fairly regularly, sitting for hours doing homework or reading at the same table on the edge of the cafe, always in sight from Samantha's place at the cash register. It was nice, honestly, because now when Samantha took her 15 there was someone to go with her to get smoothies down the street, and Steph was never too busy with a project to sit and talk for the few minutes Samantha had free.
She got to learn about Steph's interest in indie games, about Gamergate and how that was somehow implicated in the creation of a surge of sapphic indie computer games. Something about a game called Gone Home? And Samantha had to make a Steam account so Steph could send her gifts like Tacoma and Undertale, which were apparently important because reasons. Samantha couldn't really keep up with it all, but she liked hearing Steph talk about it. It was just like how Steph had gotten her into D&D back in high school - it was easy to get caught up in her enthusiasm, and often hard to pick apart whether something was genuinely good or if she was just really enthusiastic about it. Usually the answer was 'both.'
Today was just another day with Steph sitting at the cafe, although perhaps slower than normal. Samantha's coworker Zeke was also out of stuff to do and sitting in the customer's seat across from the cash register, the two of them sitting quietly on their phone between tasks.
At least, until Zeke decided to break that quiet. He said, "You know she's coming here for you, right?"
Samantha glanced up from her Facebook feed. "Pardon?"
Zeke nodded towards the cafe. "Stephanie. Your grad student buddy. She hangs out here to see you."
"Pff," Samantha replied with an eye roll and dismissive hand wave. "Don't be stupid. She's just a leftist, too. It's an atmosphere thing."
"Hmm. Mhm," Zeke hummed, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the desk. "And how do you two know each other again?"
Samantha quirked her eyebrows quizzically, then said, "Highschool? She kind of like, mentored me in how to talk to people. Mostly girls, I guess. She kind of pointed me in the right direction while I was still figuring out being queer."
"Uh-huh," Zeke replied, apparently unimpressed. "So, her Facebook says she's single, and one of the only things she knows is definitely still true about you is that you're gay. But it's the atmosphere. Definitely just atmosphere."
Damn. When framed like that, Samantha just felt stupid. But wasn't that just, you know, true? It was easier to relax when you knew you were around like-minded people, especially other queer people when you're queer, and double especially if you had anything signalling yourself as queer. Steph went beyond signalling and literally plastered her ideology onto her laptop and bag, nevermind the pride flags and 'jewish lesbian' pin she kept on her computer bag. Steph was a one-person Pride parade - of course she'd seek out other places that were markedly queer.
Then again . . . would it be such a bad thing if Zeke were right? Samantha just hadn't considered it, but years down the road, when she didn't need a mentor anymore, where she'd been in relationships and had a better idea of who she was and what she wanted . . . was there anything wrong, or even strange with Steph asking her out?
Would she like it if Steph asked her out?
Samantha played with the idea of kissing Steph. It was the easiest test she'd ever come up with to figure out who she was and wasn't attracted to, given how terrible she was at figuring that out without prompting.
Samantha turned her attention back to Zeke and shrugged. Quietly, she said "Maybe you're right . . ." Then, glancing at Steph, "I'll be right back."
Steph didn't notice Samantha approaching until she pulled the seat across from her out and sat down. She immediately bookmarked her book and said, "Heya Sam."
"Hey, Steph."
"I've been meaning to tell you-" Steph said, putting her book down and sitting forward.
Oh god is she really going to just go for it right now?
"- that I'm getting a 5e game together, but it looks like we're short a person, if you might be interested?"
Steph looked so hopeful and so sincere that Samantha nearly laughed. Maybe Zeke was seriously right. Maybe somewhere underneath all of Steph's nerdiness she was actually trying to flirt, but just didn't know how else to relate. But starting a D&D campaign all of the sudden after meeting again and conveniently being short one person? From where Samantha was standing, at least, it looked like a transparent attempt to hang out more.
Still, Samantha was never as smooth or as subtle as Steph was, and she didn't feel like dodging around this for the next few weeks trying to get a read. So she cut to the chase.
"Are you free in a couple of hours?" she asked.
"Hm?" Steph hummed, cocking her head to the side. "Yeah?"
Samantha clapped her hands together in her lap out of satisfaction and smiled. She said, "Cool. There's this Chinese place called New Luck Toy I've been meaning to try out. Let's go on a date."
Steph just blinked, expression refusing to shift an inch, utterly baffled.
Samantha, however, wasn't on break and preferred not to get called out for hanging out instead of pretending to work behind the counter. As she stood up from the table she offered, "Hey, if you're not looking for a date that's totally cool; I also just like, get hungry and we could get food. But if you are looking my way, you can buy me a drink while we're at dinner."
"F-for sure . . ." Steph replied, trying her best to regain some composure.
"Great."
When Samantha arrived back at the cashier's desk, she waited for Zeke to finish up with a customer, then sat across from him. When she leaned forward conspiratorially, he immediately replied in kind, until she was able to safely whisper.
"Did she check me out when I walked over here?" she asked.
"Definitely," he replied in the same whisper.
"Good," she said, sitting up.
A massive smirk crossed her face, and before she could hold herself back, she glanced over at Steph. She was staring, which in any other case would be creepy from a customer, but right now it was just cute. Steph turned her head away when she noticed Samantha look, but Samantha held her gaze until she looked back.
And when she did, she gave her a wink before turning back to pretending to work.