Orphan Black Saturdays and Tuesdays

Cosima had been there for 8 and a half hours, and the end was finally in sight.

"That's $22.17 please." Cosima said, the lady who she was serving at checkout 10 handed her the notes and some change, she took it pressed some buttons on the till screen and put the money away. She took the receipt with the same enthusiasm that someone has at a funeral and handed it to the woman. When the woman grabbed her things Cosima could finally rest. Taking up the wheely chair she span around at the lack of customers to her friend at the next till. Sarah had just finished serving someone too and sighed heavily enough to be heard over at Cosima's checkout.

"Almost over huh?" Sarah said, they were both on the same shift and both waiting for it to be over. It was the slowest 8 and a half hours she had ever had. And she needed it to be over. Sarah looked around and then suddenly, both hands on her side of the till, jumped up onto it and leaped off the other side. Cosima's eyes widened as she saw Sarah escape the checkout and come over to her own. "Alright, I'm off, cover for me yeah? Not that the prick will even check or anything." Sarah winked and pulled her tight black jeans up and untucked the awful red polo shirt they had to wear for uniform. Cosima sighed, wanting to be that daring. "On second thought." Sarah said suddenly running around her till and back to serving. Cosima was hella confused, so looked around to what made Sarah change her mind. Then she saw her.

Heart racing, suddenly rushes of blood filled her face and a massive amount of adrenaline coursed through her veins.

The French woman.

She had only been working there with Sarah for the winter holidays when they were back from university. But ever since their first day they had noticed this customer. Every single Saturday and Tuesday without fail she would come in at half 8 and load the checkout up with a whole range of stuff and pay extraordinary rates for an over seas top up voucher on her phone. Cosima and Sarah played a game on how many times she would come to the till. It was only the two of them on tills now, so it was really down to which one she preferred today. The Frenchie wondered around the end of the aisles looking at chewing gum, batteries and whatever she could. Cosima knew she was just assessing who to go to. It had become tradition, even for the woman. After another 5 minutes had passed two customers one for each till came over. It looked like the French woman was ready to pay though. So now it was more a test of which one could process their transaction faster.

"Hi, how you doing, do you need help paying and do you have a loyalty card?" Cosima asked the taken aback customer at the amount of questions she was being asked at once. Cosima didn't wait for an answer she saw that Sarah had less to process and she was already starting. Cosima grabbed all of the closest things and jammed them through the scanner as fast as she could. Most of it she dropped or pushed over and it all went to crap but she literally had to get this out of the way first.

The French woman was heading over to the tills. This was important now.

Cosima apologised to the woman for dropping all of her shit and then continued. The customer was hastily trying to pack but for her it was just building up. Sarah was almost done. So Cosima grabbed the rest scanned half of it and totalled it all the fastest she ever had. The French looked over to her with bright eyes and then down at the free space on the check outs. Sarah had a few things left so was still scanning. The French woman pulled her cart up over to Cosima's till and smiled at her.

Yes! Cosima high-fived herself mentally but maintained her cool, smiling back confidently. A quick look over to Sarah made he almost laugh out loud, she was brooding in that way that she always seemed to when she never got what she wanted and she just stared at her slowly shaking her head. She would hear all about it anyway when Cosima would call her up that night and tell her everything! The woman started loading up her things onto the checkout with careful and slow precision. She placed an item and then looked up to Cosima with a knowing and friendly look. As if they had known each other a long time Cosima smiled back in the same way, and they shared a moment. The French kept looking at Cosima, but her hands were trying to lift things out of her cart and onto the belt. As she did she dropped some of what she was lifting onto the floor. With desperation Cosima and Sarah looked to it, it only took half of a second for one of them to react. Again Sarah grabbed onto the till and heaved herself over the whole checkout and landed on the floor by the cart, picking up the dropped things in her hands and handing them over. The French woman shocked at the sound and speed of Sarah was still for a second and then she laughed a little.

"Merci." And took the things from her. To Sarah's disappointment she did not laugh for long, she quickly turned her attention to Cosima. With a wink Cosima gave to Sarah she asked the French if she needed help.

"Hey." Cosima said in a really nice and husky San Fran way. Sarah had always had an edge over Cosima because herself and the French were European and so automatically bonded when she first came here. But now Cosima had to put on her best smile and most alluring voice to win her over. "I'm Cosima." She let her name sink into the woman's mind and then continued. But realised this woman had been coming in all of this time and it was only now that she bothered to give her name. How stupid. "Do you need any help packing or...?" She did it in a way that sounded as if she knew the woman was more than capable but made it look like she was being forced to ask this question. Technically she was being forced, it was in her contract. The French looked up from her now packed till and pulled her cart past Cosima's front.

"Oh non non, thanks though." The woman said in a similar French depth that Cosima had, it drove her crazy. She shook her hand cutely to iterate her words as she pulled her cart up to the end and got her own bags out. They were woven deep bags with wooden handles to hold when you were carrying them. They were different colours, earthy but colourful. She would not have paired the elegant stylish woman up to these things, but Cosima loved that style so much. "I'm Delphine, by the way." Delphine said, rolling her eyes back as Cosima slowly passed some scanned items through as if she forgot to answer that first. Cosima beamed at her but was lost for words when she heard that thick raw French accent. There was a tense silence. Who was making it tense? Was it just in Cosima's head or did Delphine feel it too? "Would you believe I only came in for bread?" Delphine said, packing the heaviest things first with the same thoughtfulness that someone places a baby in a cot.

"And would you believe I hear that at least 20 times a day?" Cosima joked, picking up the pace at scanning and then realising she wanted to milk this as long as she could. Because she was going slowly their hands connected just for a second when Delphine had tried to pick the item up. "Oh sorry!" Cosima said, she only apologised because some people don't like hand touching, and plus it is like major unnecessary physical contact that you don't expect when you go shopping. But it seemed as though Delphine didn't mind.

Delphine...what a beautiful name...Cosima though as she dragged a heavier item across the scanner searching for a bar-code.

"Oh don't worry, mon cheri..." Delphine saw Cosima's struggle and came closer to the till to lift it up whilst Cosima scanned this really awkward bar-code. Delphine pulled it up at an angle and stared into Cosima's eyes.

Cosima forgot how to function. She just looked right back into those big light brown eyes and lost her self. Her heart which had been racing the whole time seemed to slow down as they connected. Not a grin, but a small smile slid across her face. Her face was burning and she just knew Delphine could tell. Cosima realised she would need to scan it like right then otherwise this would be really weird to anyone else. With the scanner she zapped the bar-code and Delphine pulled the item into her bag. Just then a draft from that god damn window that was not shut properly caught her, immediately she went a little cold and then she realised that there was a scent attached to it also. The scent that was coming off of Delphine. It was amazing, like properly addicted but also subtly and smooth and it was flowery but sweet. It was heaven. Then she realised she probably didn't have any perfume on or at least it wouldn't still be there after her long shift, so she suddenly felt self conscious about the smell she could be emitting.

"Jeez it's cold out there. Was it cold when you came in?" Cosima asked just to get some conversation going. It was so drab, talking about the weather but if she didn't she was afraid she might just blurt out how attracted to her she was and how she had been waiting weeks just to ask her out. But then again she only learned her name now.

Why didn't she tell her her name the first time they met? God damn it.

"Oh yes it is horrible out there. But then I love this type of weather, when I am inside at home." Delphine said with a laugh as she piled more things into her bags. This little snip of information was enough for Cosima's imagination to go wild. What did she do on cold winter nights at home, was she wrapped up warm? Did she have a fire place? Did she drink hot drinks like coffee, or hot coco? Cosima would love to have a night in with her, watching movies, hanging out by the fire or...more than that.

"Yeah, I mean I love these nights where you can just stay in and watch movies, I mean its a nice excuse not to work right?" Cosima said with a smile, then continued. "But then I remember I am doing a PhD and have to study to actually pass it so..-"

"A PhD in what?" There was a genuine interest in her French accent that caught Cosima's attention. Plus she loved to tell people she was working on a PhD when she was also working in a food store.

"Evolutionary developmental biology- do looking at the evolution of cells and determining links between evolutions of different strains and like...oh wait, yeah its like way sciency, don't worry about it-" Cosima was getting carried away and she could hear her voice getting higher and faster in her excitement to talk about it. But Delphine cut her off.

"That's fascinating! I also have a PhD, but I have completed mine already. Urm it is in Immunology so looking at host/paraci-"

"I love immunology!" Cosima almost shouted in sheer excitement but again had to control herself. She was 28 for gods sake working in a store doing a PhD and getting excited like a 14 year old girl. "I mean I did a module of the immune system of this species I was trying to track ancestry on just for wider knowledge you know. Where did you study?" Delphine blushed a little and seemed embarrassed about where she had studied. Cosima prepared to hear some small town barely a university type school, but she was taken aback.

"Harvard." Delphine said and Cosima's eyes widened. "Yeah, I know. It was a funded programmed from my university in France. But I decided to continue my study here instead of there. You're country seems to have such an interesting and unique take on science."

"Wow, I mean, that's amazing! I study at Minnesota but I mean its a great university so-"

"Minnesota is amazing, a friend of mine actually lectures there. Dr. Moreau? I belies she does a few immunology modu-" Cosima was literally internally freaking out!

"Yes!" She did shout this time and then furrowed her brow in embarrassment but then was too excited to hate her return to her teen years. "I mean, she lead that module I was talking about. How do you know her?" Cosima had finished scanning things, or at least she thought she had. She wasn't really sure because none of her attention at all was on the job she was supposed to be doing. It was now 10 past 9 when she should have finished 10 minutes ago. But she literally did not care.

"She and I went to the same university although she was in her last year when I was in my first, we met through mutual friends but have always stayed in touch...Who knew coming to this store tonight would be so exciting?" Delphine was excited too and her face was so bright with attention to this story. Cosima's heart was racing again. She was so on fire by the closeness that the two of them had even though they were still no closer than before. Her friend had taught Cosima a module on her PhD course, Delphine had done a science PhD like she herself was trying to do. They were closer. Maybe it was just in Cosima's head.

"I know right, normally it is just 'here's the bill, please pay otherwise my job gets super awkward'." Cosima made Delphine laugh.

"Well even if I am still paying for my PhD to this day, I will pay my bill. But then the DYAD pays really really well." Delphine was getting her purse out and just talking about her pay made her eyes go wide in thought. Then Cosima realised what she had said, still in a trance over her accent.

"The DYAD? Oh my god that's amazing!" Cosima was even more excited then she had been before, except she was more professional. Damn why didn't she make a good impression, she could have totally asked for tips on how to get employed there.

"I know right!" There was a pause as she pulled out her plastic card. "What's the damage?" Delphine asked with a coy smile. Cosima looked at the total, again it was huge, but it was always huge. She didn't buy that much but a few things were big. Home style things, maybe she had just moved into a new place? Cosima gave the total and Delphine gasped but put her card into the machine. "Charge it to the DYAD." Delphine said in a jokey way, But Cosima knew she was being serious. She had seen a DYAD credit card before, it was all paid for buy them but all employees had them. Delphine didn't seem to mind the free things.

"They pay for all of your shopping?" Cosima asked a little shocked but so impressed.

"Yeah, it's really nice of them. Because the amount they pay would cover my shopping a few times over..." Then she realised she was probably being a little over the top. But she didn't make another comment.

Cosima pulled out the receipt but she was reluctant to give it over because it meant the end of the transaction.

"Merci." Delphine said as she took the receipt. "Enchanté ." Delphine said as she grabbed her bags and put them into her cart to wheel out of there. Cosima was delighted and high and could feel again the adrenaline that was coursing through her veins. She was almost a little euphoric or overwhelmed with the excitement and allure and the fascination and the attraction and the accent and the way their hands brushed and the way they were both doing or had done science degrees an PhDs and they were...she was perfect.

"Enchanté." Cosima replied with a great beaming smile across her face as Delphine turned and began to push the cart away.

"I'll see you next time." Delphine said before she was fully walking away.

"Yeah..." Cosima's heart throbbed. "I hope so." Still hanging onto the feelings of when she was right in front of her she sighed and sat back down on her chair. Forgetting everything, forgetting her job and her degree and everything she was probably supposed to be focusing on. The only thing that was clear in her mind was the beautiful French Delphine.


End file.
