This was a troubling development. The girly laugh could be put aside, that was a surprising rather than troubling. No, what was bothering Abner was this: Verniy was adorable. Rather than dwell upon this when there was practical matters to attend to Abner pushed the realization to the back of his mind to deal with later.
He couldn't help but be amused by the little outburst. Verniy was like a child at Christmas and as cold-hearted and curmudgeonly as he could be he just didn't have the heart to start bursting bubbles again. "I'm exactly like one of the detectives in the movies. Dunno why it took you so long to notice, Valkova. I'm roguishly handsome and dashingly intelligent, I'm a regular old Hollywood adaptation of Sherlock Holmes."
From behind the counter Juanita's laughter quickly transitioned into fake coughing. Abner shot her a look.
Juanita had evidently recovered from her coughing fit well enough to bring over the coffees, setting down two tall coffee-filled latte glasses. She smiled at Verniy, and wandered back over to the counter.
Abner used his spoon to scrape some of the rapidly melting whipped cream off of the edges of the glass. "Spoken like a true student." And well, if the rookie wanted to earn a few brownie points, Abner had more than a few suggestions... Wait. No. Bad Abner. No. Work colleagues. Professionalism. No. Abner blinked, his train of thought swiftly derailed and promptly buried (with any luck, it'd never see the light of day again). "Let's see, that's one point for enthusiasm, another for shirking on your work, another for having absolutely ludicrous taste in coffee, and one for abandoning formality within an hour of meeting me. All in all, I'm reasonably impressed."