We collectively had a thing for this girl who worked at starbucks
We would cut our visits short if she wasn’t there
We learned her work schedule
We would arrive around 8 on the days she was working
We stayed till close

She would hook us up with the giant french press
She would take her breaks with us
She talked trash

• about the people she worked with
• about the clientelle
• about music, film, books, pretty much everything

She was one of us
She was not my type ( at all )

She was tall
She was very blonde
classic prep school dress code
had a million times more energy than was acceptible ( or tolerable )

She full of snark and damned funny
both major hot points

After months of stalking this girl
getting to know her and her us
We realized
We didn’t even know her real name
(she would purposely swap name tags with the other employees)

We had been calling her barista longshot or the starbucks princess

Her name was Tara
Her boyfriend of 5 years
was
really
nice.