Who: Katherine Van Der Woodsen, Avis Tremaine and Tomas Booth
What: Coffee and awkward!
When: February 9 1978
Where: Coffee shop around the corner from the MoM
It was a little after five, and Katherine joined the waves and waves of people departing from the Ministry to go home. Of course, her job always required her to be around and about at various hours, but today, she was able to leave at a more conventional time. So she had sent a memo to her best friend, Avis, requesting to join her for coffee. It simply had been too long since they had just hung out and relaxed - their jobs, it seemed, took up way too much of their time.
Katherine sauntered to the small coffee shop just down the street. It was almost always crowded, but she was addicted to their carmel mochas. Managing to find a booth in the corner, she folded her long legs Indian-style and scanned the crowd of people, looking for the brunette.
Avis ... was far more pleased than usual with herself. She'd gotten Katherine's memo the moment she'd arrived back at the office and she'd opted to go and see her straight from work.
Unfortunately, this also meant that her shirt was misbuttoned. It was still pressed and neat, but the misbutton was quite obvious. She caught sight of Katherine and smiled just a little, walking over and sitting next to her in the booth.
"This place is always so ... busy." She took a sip of her own black coffee.
Katherine smiled. "It's because their coffee is the best and everyone knows it," she said ruefully. "I know a few places that aren't as busy, but their coffee isn't..."
She trailed off as her sharp eyes noticed something. Something quite strange. In all the years that she had know Avis, the woman was almost - no, always impeccably dressed. Her eyes focused on the misbuttoned shirt, which was glaringly obvious, and she started to arch a brow. Unless something extremely... something - no, it couldn't... Oh, Katherine had to ask, otherwise she'd die of the curiosity. "Ah, what happened here?"
She had a horrible time lying to Katherine. Everybody knew that, and some people used it to their advantage. Avis looked a little startled for a moment before she rolled her shoulders in an easy shrug.
"...I shagged some Quidditch bloke in a broom closet. Did I miss a button?" Avis had hoped her voice was quiet enough that nobody else would notice what she'd just said, especially from the crowd all but pressed against their table.
If this was anybody else, they would've choked on the coffee that they had just sipped. However, Katherine wasn't just anybody, and she had too much poise to spit up coffee. She did, however, swallow as quickly as she could, and allowed her gray blue eyes to grow as huge and round as possible.
"You...?" Despite her initial surprise, she started to chuckle, and nudged Avis's foot with her own. "Aviiiis. You'd better tell me everything, every detail, or I'll never forgive you!"
It didn't surprise her that Katherine was shocked. Avis gave an easy roll of her shoulders and shook her head at the woman.
"Yes, me. Some ... ah, I don't remember what team he plays for. Finn. He was very ... tall." And he didn't even know her name, but she left that part out for now.
"I'm not entirely certain what there is to tell." Anyone else might have smirked. Avis kept a straight face.
Katherine couldn't keep a straight face. She grinned widely, arching a slow eyebrow at Avis. "Finn, Finn... hmmm, he sounds quite familiar, I just can't..." The grin quickly changed into a small 'o' of surprise. "No way! Puddlemere United-Finn?"
She leaned back in her seat. "Well! At least one of us is having fun!"
She pursed her lips.
"Right, that's where he was from. Puddlemere United ... I don't know anything about Quidditch, but he was talking about his team before, I think. Is he important?"
Quidditch doesn't really 'turn her on'. But he'd been smart enough and he'd been cute.
So Tomas Booth was having a bad day. He had a lot of bad days; therefore, he was used to it when people gave a double-take or quickly moved out of the way after they glimpsed the scowl that he usually wore. The only thing he had going for him today, or so he thought, was when he had finally gotten his coffee after waiting in a ridiculously long line. He took a hefty sip after trying in vain to look for a place to sit.
He had spotted Katherine, though she was with (he rolled his eyes) a certain Avis Tremaine. Something about Avis made him feel... well, something different. He, Mr. Analytical Thinker, couldn't quite find the proper words for it. Huh. As he headed over, however, he couldn't help but overhear something very interesting. The women were trying to keep quiet, but Tomas always had very excellent hearing, nearly above average, and -
Involuntarily, his hand crushed his cup, which resulted in him spilling hot coffee all over himself. It took most of his Auror training not to shout, as he grimaced in pain. Unfortunately, as he was about to walk briskly out the door, he made direct eye contact with Katherine, and she waved him over. Feeling trapped, he walked over, nursing his hurt hand and gritting his teeth. He nodded at the both of them and took a seat.
In most of the time that she had known Katherine, Avis had learned to deal with her constant need for socialization ... but there were times when she wished the woman was content with one-on-one conversations.
Now was one of these times. She glanced up from her coffee only to see ... Booth.
They'd worked together on more than one occassion - she was beginning to suspect that the Ministry had paired them together intentionally. But then again, he did do his job better than most of the other Aurors she knew. She arched a brow at him, questioning about the injured hand without asking verbally.
"Ah," What?! "I had an accident, some idiot spilled their coffee on me a minute ago." Tomas scowled. Well, that wasn't a complete lie, was it? No, it was not.
Also? He didn't really feel like going through his thoughts and feelings about why Avis's... frolicking with this "Finn" bothered him so much. Katherine had given him a quick glance, but it was enough to assert her scepticism, but he kept his eyes determinedly on the table in front of him.
That seemed like a poor excuse for scowling, but then again ... since when did Booth need a reason to scowl? She didn't notice Katherine's skeptical glance. She took another sip of her coffee and shook her head.
"You should at least get someone to look at it and make sure you don't need to go for a burn potion." It sounded more practical than concerned, but in reality ... it was probably both.
"It's just coffee." Tomas sounded a lot more brusque than he meant to sound - or at least, a lot more than he usually sounded. He cleared his throat and stood up. He probably had things to do - better things to do than to sit around and chat. (Yeah, that was it.)
"Ah, I'm going to go, I've got to... run errands." He gave a nod to Katherine and Avis, and walked out quickly into the busy London street, not wanting to even think about what he was feeling at the moment, not wanting to know why he felt the way he was feeling right now.
Avis was utterly confused as to why Tomas was leaving. The fact that he was being even more harsh than usual was the cause of some concern (that she wouldn't voice if you paid her a thousand galleons). She opened her mouth to say something, but he'd already gone off into the street.
"...that was really confusing," she frowned a little, brows knitted together. Booth didn't do the errand thing, or at least ... he didn't announce it like some housewife.
Katherine herself was frowning as well, as she trailed Tomas's rather abrupt departure with her eyes. "He's even more grouchy than usual," she said with a tiny sigh, looking quite perplexed. Sure, Tomas was her friend, they worked together on cases well, but that didn't mean that she still wasn't sure of what went on in that man's head sometimes.
"Must be some pretty important errands," she remarked sardonically.
Avis pursed her lips into a tight line and sighed, taking another long drink of her coffee as if it might hold any answers that she could possibly have any hope of finding.
...no such luck. She glanced to Katherine and gave a rather helpless shrug. He'd certainly been grouchier than usual - but there was something else to it and she couldn't put her finger on it. Why did she suddenly feel so awful about it?
"...do you think he overheard?" Not that this explained why he was upset, but it was the only thing she could think of.
Katherine pulled a face. Come to think of it, he might have very have, as Tomas did have nearly freakishly excellent hearing. She smirked to herself when she remembered the one time she and Catrina Henley, a fellow Auror were joking about why Tomas looked as if he constantly had a bug stuck up his arse. And he had overheard, and he had nearly been half way across the room! No wonder he was so good at what he did.
"Perhaps, but why do you think he'd care?" There was no mistaking the light, teasing tone in her voice.
Avis noted the smirk and wondered to herself just exactly what Katherine was thinking about - but she looked to the woman with a frown when she spoke.
"Well if I knew that, Katherine, I wouldn't look so bloody confused. I can't imagine why he would care, but it seems like the only logical explaination. I've never seen him get like that over coffee."
"Oh, he gets upset over the smallest things, it's really nothing to worry about," Katherine replied, though she herself was wondering why on earth Tomas would get so worked up over... coffee.
Ah, well.
"Silly boys," she said ruefully.
"Horribly silly. This? Is the reason I don't date. Can you imagine having to deal with that every day?"
She was a few moments from making a face. She noticed that her coffee was finished up, however, and gave Katherine an apologetic glance. "Now that I'm finished, I really should go and finish up the filing for that Quidditch incident."
Obviously she hadn't done it yet because of certain ... distractions.
Katherine nodded her ascent. "God, I'm almost embarrassed on the lack of dates I've been on for the last couple of years," she said, not without humour. She finished up her coffee and stood up, stretching.
"I should go too. I've got a long overdue nap and a library book just waiting to be cracked." She leaned over and pecked Avis on the cheek. "Catch you later. And don't do anything I wouldn't do!" With a smile, she left as gracefully as she had entered.
