Mysterious notes and Coworkers in Love

by FritzyFribbit

Summary:

For weeks now, Coffee Candy has been receiving sweet notes from an anonymous author. I wonder who it could be, will she find out?

Chapter 1

‘Your smile makes me look forward to work all the more.’

That’s it, that’s all that was written on the small pink slip of paper Coffee Candy held. It was quite distracting, as she found herself rereading it all throughout the day. It was as distracting as the one from yesterday, and the day before, and even the day before that. This has been going on for a little over two weeks, the notes. Whether it’s morning noon or evening, she’ll find one on her desk, or even hand delivered by one of the TBD bots. During the first few days, she’d tried getting the bots to tell her who sent it. She’d ask if they’d tell and each time they’d give the same smile and wink, and say,

“I get paid not to!”

As silly as it was, she couldn’t manage anything worse than slight irritation towards the charming ai workers before they marched back to their station. With a huff, Coffee Candy took out a jar from her desk drawer, neatly folded the note in half, and dropped the note in. Though she still found the situation odd, she couldn’t help but collect the sweet little notes. Each day her collection grew, and truly it was a wonder she didn’t need a second jar yet. During her lunch break she’d often reread the notes, and feel her cheeks warm as she thinks about the fact someone wanted to send her all of these. Although those small reading sessions also came with speculations as to who exactly was sending these notes. Her mind often thought of random coworkers, which would be disappointing but not unexpected. Other times, she thought of what would make her heart stop with glee and world crumble apart all at once, and that would be if the notes were from. . . Baguette Cookie.

Now she was a woman of her own league. Elegant, well put together, punctual, when she walked it’s like she commanded respect. Not in any way that made her feared, but a way that exuded her professionalism and dedication to her work. Ever since being hired, Coffee Candy would often find herself admiring the other. Not just for her admirable work ethic, or for her skill, but for more. . . Selfish reasons you could say. She’d think of Baguettes sharp eyes, which made her stomach do a flip each time they looked her way. Of her lean figure, and sharp face. Of her-

“Coffee Candy.” A voice cut through her train of thought.

With a small yelp Coffee Candy put’s the jar back in the desk drawer and turns around to see the very topic of her thoughts at the moment.

“Ah- yes Baguette! What is it?” She asks, fumbling through her words slightly.

Baguette sighs and places a pile of documents onto the desk. “A new timeline formed, something kingdom related, and I need you to get these documents in order to establish said world’s current events.” She spoke curtly, though not coldly.

Coffee Candy gives a determined nod, ready to prove herself capable another day, and begins to sift through the pile of documents. “I’ll have this done by the end of the day!” She says, in a bit of a bubbly manner that surprised herself. Perhaps she was a bit giddy after rereading some of those sweet notes.

A hum of acknowledgment and a nod came from Baguette in response. “Excellent, see that you do.” And with that, she walks away, heeled boots leaving muffled clicks as she gets further away.

Coffee Candy then sits back at her desk and starts to sift through the pile as she sighs, readying herself for an afternoon of meticulous organizing, and labeling, and date noting. . .

~~Time-skip~~

Coffee Candy leans back in her desk, back popping as she lets out a light groan and then a huff. The sun was likely setting by now if her watch was anything to go by, and she’d just finished sorting through the entire pile of documents. She stands up, picking the now organized pile of papers, and walks over to one of the many whirring machines in her workplace. She leaves it on the machine to get archived and then grabs her bag. Luckily for her, it was a Friday, meaning she’d get a relaxing night in as soon as she got off the public bus. She notices the jar of notes from where her drawer is cracked open, and after a moment of consideration, grabs and places the jar in her bag before walking out of the department, the building and to the bus stop.

An hour long commute later, and she’s made it to her door. With a jingling noise as she fumbles with her keys, she then unlocked the door with a click and opens it, quickly stepping inside and locking it.

“I’m home~!” She calls out with a smile as she steps out of her shoes and turns on the light. After a silent greeting in return, her face begins to fall.

Right.. an empty apartment. On a late night… this is her relaxing night in. A relaxing night in an empty apartment… on an empty street…

Chapter 2: Breaks in Routine

Summary:

After a waste of a weekend (did it even really happen?? It blurred by…) Coffee Candy finds herself going about her usual routine. But maybe, today calls for a small change.

Notes:

HEEEYY WOW
SO
I TOTALLY DROPPED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH FOR A HOT MINUTE…
ANYWAYS I STILL HAVE STUFF FOR THIS.

‘3… 2… 1…’

 

RIIIII- click

 

Just as soon as the alarm has begun its blaring noises, it was shut off. The action was soon followed by Coffee Candy sitting up in her bed, stretching slightly, and yawning. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes she swung her legs over the bed and just… sat, for a moment. An early and dreary Monday morning, it was as if her weekend had gone by in an instant. It wasn’t as if she had plans really, she never does. She didn’t do much of anything over the weekend besides lounging about, not that there’s anything she ever does outside of work anyways, let alone anyone to make plans with. Sure some may find this lifestyle a bit.. lonely, but to her it was just…. Comfortable. Yeah, comfortable. She had a routine, she stuck to it, and she found safety in that schedule. The only sad part about this morning, if you were to ask her, is that she had woken up even earlier than her alarm was set.

 

She stands up, and slides her feet into the slippers that stay by her bed, ready to start the day. Of course, she could have gotten up earlier considering when she woke up, but why would she? Just because she was awake earlier than usual doesn’t mean she had to leave the comfort of her blankets any sooner than she usually does. She’ll get up at the same time as usual, brush her teeth and do her hair at the same time as usual, and the safety of her schedule will maintain its consistency, again, as usual.

 

She glances at the digital clock on her night stand, 6:36, it reads, and goes to her kitchenette. She lets her coffee maker prep a cup for her before heading back to her room, fetching her usual work attire, and going into the bathroom to dress.

 

‘A simple routine keeps the mind clean.’

 

It’s a saying that replays in her head early every morning, something that she can remember her mother saying, even in her earliest memories. As she puts on her usual attire she gets ready to style her hair, before spotting something. A hair pin on the counter, and her one indulgence from the weekend. She’d seen it in a store window while out running errands and she simply couldn’t resist. It was a cute bow clip, a warm yellow color with short ribbons, and some cute clothes and accessories here and there are her little forms of self treats.

 

Coffee Candy glances at the accessory for a moment before grabbing it. Carefully, she styles her hair into a loose bun+ponytail combo (tight buns just give her a headache) and takes the time to inspect the look in her mirror, as if scrutinizing every detail. After a few minutes, she smiles, seemingly satisfied with the change of pace. Now this wasn’t part of her “as usual” routine. Still, it’s her own choice, she’s still in control, and she… likes this, it’s still comfortable to her. The continues the rest of her routine the same way she always had, by prepping her work bag, and sitting down to enjoy her coffee (full of hazelnut creamer) for a few minutes before she really had to leave.

 

It’s this part of the mornings that she likes to savor. Slow, warm, and… quiet. Very quiet actually. Is it always this quiet-? She takes the time to glance around, taking another sip of her coffee and tapping her foot as if she’s waiting for something (but she isn’t.) A thought creeps in slowly, about her break in routine.

 

‘Does it actually look okay?’ She thinks, opening up the camera on her phone just to check and prod at the new style she’s tried.

 

‘Maybe I look silly.. what if the others at work think so?’

 

‘What if Baguette thinks so.’ Now that thought only has her tapping her foot faster, knee bouncing as her nervousness rises.’

 

‘What if-‘ That time her thoughts are interrupted, and she can’t take a moment to reconsider her appearance now as her phone alarm goes off this time, signaling it’s time to go. In a frantic motion she stands up, coffee mug forgotten, and quickly grabs her bag before speeding out the door (and locking it behind her of course.)

 

Time skip

 

It’s now 8:03am in the TRD when Coffee Candy arrives (she checked to be sure), and immediately after clocking in, she speed-walks her way to the desk (perhaps faster than she did leaving her apartment earlier) and sits down. Upon walking in, no one had greeted her, or taken notice of anything different in her appearance. Somehow this was relieving to her, though, that relief only lasted for a second before more thoughts began to creep in.

 

‘Did anyone stare? I don’t look strange do I, oh what if someone’s laughing at me-‘ The thoughts seem to swirl around the poor TBD employees head before she’s snapped out of her thoughts, quite literally, by a hand snapping in her face. She looks up to see Baguette cookie, who had the same stern and authoritative look as always, standing beside her desk and looking down at her.

 

“I should hope you aren’t planning on slacking this morning, right?” The woman says, placing her hand on her hip and tilting her head slightly as she does so.

 

Immediately, Coffee Candy is shaking her head and bolts right up from her desk.

 

“Of course not!” She exclaims in an earnest and light tone. “Just getting my bearings is all- is there something you needed from me? You aren’t usually in here at this time.” She asks in return.

 

Usually, usually, usually, it’s practically the word in which Coffee Candy manages her life. If she could, it would probably be “always” instead, but you can’t always try and expect the day to go how you, well, expected, now can you?

 

In response to the question, Baguette gives a nod to her co-worker. “Yes actually. We seem to be having issues with the shipping tubes today, and nothing is going where it should at the moment. So I’ll need you,” She says, holding out a few rolls of parchment towards the other woman, “to deliver these to Panettone Cookie, in the holiday records section.”

 

Coffee Candy quickly takes the rolled up records, careful to make sure she doesn’t grab it in a way that tears or crumples the papers. She gives a nod in return to Baguette and exclaims dutifully, “Of course! Consider it done.”

 

“Thank you, that will be all then.” Baguette says, as if she’s ready to leave. Strangely enough, she seems to look at Coffee Candy more closely than she usually would, but the woman in question doesn’t have the time to address it before Baguette turns on her heel and walks away, her boots again leaving behind a series of muffled clicks as she does.

 

Coffee Candy watches the woman’s back as she leaves.

 

‘Shes always so.. elegant..’ She thinks, continuing to stare even after the other woman is gone. It takes a solid minute before she shakes her head free of the thoughts and makes her way in the opposite direction, towards the holiday records section.

 

Thankfully, she’s gotten familiar with her work place, and it only took three, get that, THREE, wrong turns before finding the holiday records area. It’s there she finds a tired looking, older man, glaring at a piece of paper on his desk as if it’s offended him personally. Before she can even get a word out, the man looks up at her and pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing as he stands up.

 

“May I help you.”He says, not sounding rude exactly, but definitely not sounding very personable either.

 

“O-oh!! Yes, er- I’m supposed to be delivering these holiday records to a ‘Panettone Cookie’, is that, uhm… you?”  She asks, stumbling over her words only slightly as she gives a wondering look.

 

To this, the man’s (Panettone, as she has now learned) expression immediately becomes less irritated, and he walks over. “Oh. Yes…” He responds, carefully taking the records from Coffee Candy and setting them back on his desk. “I’ve been expecting these since earlier this morning, and I thought I would be getting them from the tubes, but can you believe it, I instead got records from the season records section!! ” He exclaims, holding the previous paper he was practically staring holes into. He then holds out the paper in question, along with some others, out towards Coffee Candy. “Would you be able to deliver these to the season records area?” He asks.

 

With how sociable and talkative the man suddenly became, it takes Coffee Candy a moment to register everything being said, and soon enough her eyes widen as she gives a somewhat delayed response.

 

“Of course-!! I’m very sorry to hear about the mix up, I only just learned about the issues with the tubes today myself.” She says as she takes the papers from him, giving an apologetic look.

 

“Well you don’t need to apologize by my account.” Panettone responds, seemingly much nicer than his expression would lead you to believe. “It isn’t anything you could have prevented. Thanks for the records, let’s hope this issue is sorted out soon, yeah?”

 

Coffee Candy gives a positive hum in response, nodding at the (surprisingly positive) attitude of her newly acquainted coworker.

 

“Let’s hope!! And it’s no problem to deliver records, I’ll have these to the seasons section in a jiffy! Good luck with your work.” She exclaims, turning to walk away.

 

As she does, Panettone calls out with a ‘same to you’, though it’s faint.

 

Suddenly, it seems her entire day had turned into one long delivery mission. First the records to Holiday, then to Seasons, and apparently Seasons to Once-in-a-Lifetime, and so on and so forth. By the time she had finished and could take a moment to breathe, it was nearly her lunch break!! As she made her way back to her desk, she sits and thinks…. It wouldn’t be so bad to take lunch just a little earlier than usual, would it? She’s done a lot more running around than usual after all, and frankly it’s wearing her down. This Monday is feeling just so very… Monday.

 

As she reaches into bag and brings out her lunch box, she notices another note on her desk as she sets her lunch down. It must have been left while she was out fixing all the record mix ups. Carefully she picks up the small piece of paper, and reads through it.

 

‘You styled your hair differently today. I think it’s quite pretty on you.’

 

.

.

.

 

‘Oh.’

 

A warmth makes its way into both Coffee Candy’s chest, and onto her cheeks.

 

Maybe…. Breaks in routine really can be nice.

 

She puts the note in her jar along with all the rest and opens up her lunch box, smiling to herself as she thinks,

 

‘Maybe I’ll try another style tomorrow…’