asoncalledgabriel | (no subject)

Gabriel found an extra job to get him through the summer, working at a cafe. It was probably better to have something to do all summer, and his other job was only part time - mostly because he didn't want to spend the entire summer outside. He was lucky - for an Irish lad he tanned fairly well - but summer here was warmer than it was back home, and doing landscape work in the heat and humidity was exhausting.

At least the cafe had air conditioning.

Keeping busy gave him less time to think, anyway, and that was also probably for the best. Since coming to Darrow, he felt un-tethered from everything. All the things he'd wanted back home felt uncertain and far away now. He'd wanted to go to university to get away from his family, his life, and now... he was in a place that gave him all that. He went to university here because it seemed the thing to do, but was that a good enough reason? He wasn't sure.

The more he thought about it, the more he missed home. Things felt awful there, but at least he'd had an idea of where he was going. He had a handful of hope that.

As the day wound down, he changed the music playing over the speakers, putting on his ABBA playlist while he cleaned up, getting ready to close. The place was empty and had been for about half an hour, so he didn't feel terribly bad singing and dancing around a bit. Surely no one else would come in.

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Accustomed as she is to summers in cities, Therese can't pretend to be enjoying this weather very much. It's as humid and unpleasant as New York was. Still, she can't just sit around all day in the air conditioning, as much as she might like to. She's been out today taking pictures of an event in the park for work, so rather than heading straight back to her building, she decides on a whim to duck into a café, needing something cool to drink and maybe to get out of the heat for a few minutes.

She doesn't look at the hours on the window as she steps inside, so she isn't expecting to find the place looking all but closed. For that matter, she isn't expecting to see a familiar face, either, unable to help smiling a little at the scene she's interrupted, even if she feels a little bad about having done so.

"Sorry," she says. "Are you closed?"

Gabriel blushes when he realizes someone's come in. He rushes to turn the music down and he gives Therese a shy smile. "No, no we're not closed yet. It's just been awfully quiet and I thought I'd get started on cleaning up."

He sets the broom behind the counter. "Honestly I'm not in that much of a hurry. It's a bear out there and I don't want to think about the slog home," he confesses.

"I can't say I blame you," Therese says, laughing gently. "That's why I thought I'd stop inside somewhere." At least she hasn't really intruded. She wouldn't want to keep him or anyone else if they were closed already, but as long as they aren't, she doesn't feel too bad about having wandered in while he was cleaning up. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

He waves off her concern. "Don't worry about it. Here, come sit - what'll you have?"

Gabriel sets the broom aside so he can pop behind the counter again. It's a job that's kept him busy, at least, between learning a new skill and then working in a fairly busy location. It's helped, and now he can start school in the fall with a bit more in his pocket. If he wants to go back at all. He supposes he'll have to sort that decision soon.

"Theresa, d'you mind if I ask - what do you do here?"

"Something cold," Therese says, nose wrinkling as she lets out a self-deprecating exhale of a laugh. "An iced tea? What kinds do you have?" She hasn't really caught onto the whole iced coffee trend, but as relieving as it is to be somewhere air conditioned for the moment, that isn't yet enough for her to be able to drink anything warm. She'll have to go back out there soon enough, so she might as well make the most of this respite while she can.

Taking a seat at one of the little tables, she sets her bag by her feet. "I don't mind at all," she answers. "I'm a photographer for the newspaper."

"I have a cranberry orange herbal tea, or a mint green tea, ooor... I think the black tea is an Earl Grey."

Gabriel ducked down to check one of the refrigerators under the counter, where they kept iced tea and iced coffee for quick access. He'd gotten a taste for all sorts of things since coming to Darrow, things he couldn't even imagine trying back home.

"Oh, and there's a citrus white tea. I haven't tried it yet, but other people have said it's good."

"Oh, that sounds nice," Therese says, brow lifting slightly with interest. "I think I'll try that." Truthfully, she's not used to there being so many variations in places like this, but at least it doesn't require her to be too adventurous, or too confused, as tends to be the case with all the different types of coffee.

"So how have you been?"

"I'm alright. A little... adrift, I think. And I don't know if that's just the summer or because I'm not entirely sure what I want or where I'm headed. And I don't think being in Darrow makes that any better or worse," he confesses with a wry smile.

He sets her drink on the counter and leans on it.

"And as I'm going into my sophomore year at the university, I figure I should start trying to sort myself out."

"I know that feeling, I think," Therese says, nodding slowly. "I always... liked taking pictures, and I like what I do, but I've never known what I want or where I'm headed, either, besides that." She isn't sure what's responsible for that, if it's her age or what her life has been or just who she is. Sometimes she thinks she'll always be a mess of uncertainty and indecision. Maybe it's a little easier to deal with the possibility when she acknowledges it herself.

"Do you have to decide what you're majoring in yet, or do you have some time?"

"I suppose I should sort it out sometime in the near future," he admits. "But I don't think it has to be now. I just-- I haven't the slightest idea what to make of myself here. All I wanted was to get away from home before, that was enough. Going to university in London would've given me that. And now Darrow's done that work instead but there isn't exactly a wide world here, full of possibility. Is there?"

He frowns a bit and looks down at the counter, at his hands. He's a farm boy far from home, and he isn't exactly sure where his skills, what few he has, will make any sense or be of us.

"Suppose I can always resort to digging ditches."

"I'm sure there will be something," Therese says, hoping as she does that it's true. It probably sounds trite, but she hopes it doesn't come across as insincere because of that. "There are always... things you can do in between, too, if you haven't made up your mind. I used to work at a department store before I was able to get a job in photography." If that feels like a lifetime ago now, then that hardly seems worth mentioning. That story isn't one that needs to be told, when the only noteworthy thing about that job is the fact that it brought her to Carol.