"I'll have a venti half and half with a double shot of espresso."
The barista smiled a little more than necessary at the young doctor in front of her. She tucked a strand of dirty blonde hair behind her ear, eyeing her customer through lowered eyelashes as she typed in the order and accepted his money.
"Coming right up."
Spencer Reid moved along the counter to join Derek Morgan as they waited for their coffees. He began sifting through the file in his hands, eager to do some work on their latest case.
"I never understood how a guy as skinny as you can put up with that much coffee," Morgan joked, having overheard his friend's order. "You're only half as high strung as you should be. Or does that brain of yours require a caffeine injection to function properly?"
"Actually," Reid replied, still partially distracted by the case file and oblivious to his teammate's teasing. "Did you know that caffeine is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance? 90 of North American adults consume it daily. And one study showed that when coupled with focused thought, caffeine can actually increase mental performance."
Derek shook his head good-humouredly. After three years, he was used to Reid's unique idea of small talk. He turned his attention to the approaching Barista, offering her an award-winning smile as she placed two drinks in front of them. The young woman ignored his efforts and focused entirely on Spencer.
"Here you go," she remarked, offering an ignorant Reid a flirtatious grin. "It's hot, so don't burn yourself."
Her efforts were also in vain, as Reid's eyes were completely glued to the case file in his hand. He thanked her absentmindedly and grabbed his drink, his thoughts focused on the papers in front of him as he walked out the door. Morgan shook his head again, this time with a sigh of disbelief at his partner's behavior. He thanked the girl as well, giving her an apologetic smile as he hurried after Reid.
He caught up with him outside of the coffee shop, the younger profiler distractedly walking down the busy sidewalk, his nose too deeply buried in the work files to notice the pedestrians darting out of his way to avoid collisions. He gave no indication that he was aware of Morgan's renewed presence at his side, but a small frown of confusion creased his forehead.
"It says here that the latest victim owned a deli shop downtown. All of the previous victims were unemployed, and two of them were on-"
"What's wrong with you?" Morgan interrupted, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"What do you mean?" Reid's voice held more than mild confusion at his partner's blunt question.
"A totally hot girl flirts with you and you just completely blow her off."
Reid stopped walking, causing an elderly woman behind him to dart sideways to avoid running into him.
"What are you talking about?"
Morgan pointed back at the coffee shop they'd just left. "The coffee girl. She was all about you, and you didn't even look at her."
Spencer's mouth opened slightly, as it was prone to do whenever he was contemplating a particularly difficult puzzle. "She was?"
Morgan's gaze was one of incredulity.
"Reid, she was hitting on you. It was obvious."
He watched as Reid's confusion deepened, as if wondering how he could have missed that. His eyes held a faraway look, and the older profiler knew he was searching his memory of the interaction for proof of Derek's observations.
"You really didn't notice, did you?"
Spencer shook his head, his confusion now coupled with embarrassment. Derek's pity for the younger profiler outweighed the brotherly urge to tease him.
People always marveled when Reid explained how quickly he had completed his education. They never seemed to realize that an important part of his education had been missed. By the time he'd hit puberty, he'd almost completed his first Ph.D. Just about the time he was beginning to realize that girls weren't so icky after all, he found himself surrounded by young women who were six and seven years his senior. Women who had absolutely no interest in a fifteen-year-old child prodigy. It only made sense that he was unsure of how to act around them. While other boys his age had been busy discovering the tricks of the opposite sex, he'd been left out of the loop.
But just because he hadn't caught on yet, didn't mean he never could. Morgan gave Reid a friendly clap on the shoulders as they began to walk again.
"Alright," he drawled, a confident smile on his face. "As soon as this case is over, you and I are going to hit the bars. You've got a lot to learn, Genius."