BEEP BEEP BEEP
My alarm angrily wakes me up from my peaceful sleep. I roll over and smack the top hitting the snooze button. I was never a morning person, but my job required it of me too. I worked at a small local cafe that was known for some of the best coffee in town. I had been working at this job for almost a year now and the only down side to it was getting up at 5:30 every morning. I love my job just not most of the people I worked with.
I looked over at my clock and the little red lines seemed to be teasing me. I took a deep breath and rolled myself out of my bed and I stumbled my way into the bathroom. I flipped on the light and groaned at my hair in complete disarray.
I always described my hair as bi-polar, one day it was straight as a pin but others it was so curly it almost looked like I had an afro. Today was an afro day. I tried my best to contain my curly blonde hair, so I put in a nice fishtail braid that started by the top of my right ear and curved around my head so it laid nicely on my left shoulder. Satisfied with my hair, I did a quick job of my make-up and got dressed
Another perk of my job was that I didn't have to worry about making coffee or breakfast because I just ate at the shop anyways. My morning routine was short and sweet. From the time it took me to get ready and take the short half hour walk to the cafe, I was able to get to work at 6:15 right on time.
Even before I walked in the door of the cafe, I was able to smell that Kiara had already started making the fresh baked good that we made every morning. The bell rang as I walked in.
"Good Morning Alexa!" I heard Kiara call from the small kitchen. I made my way over to the old fashion swinging door like the ones that you would see in the old west movies. I saw her over a big metal bowl mixing some sort of dough. No matter how much flour Kiara used, half of it would some how end up on her.
"Hi Kiara," I said, still with a little morning grogginess in my voice. Kiara was a petite girl, only 5' 3" and with a size 3 figure. She had shoulder length dark brown hair that was in a messy bun at the top of her head and gorgeous caramel brown eyes. Even though she was small, she was bursting with personality. She was one of the nicest people that I have ever met in my entire life. Even though we have only met a couple months ago, people ask if we are best friends or even sisters, though we look nothing alike. I consider her one of my best friends and tell her everything and she treats me the same.
"Your coffee is on the back desk," She said as I walked past her at one of the food prep station to the far back corner of the kitchen which had a small desk where we held all the paper work and stored personal items. I found my iced caramel mocha on the desk with whip cream and a straw.
"Do I ever mention how much I love you?" I said after taking a long sip.
"Every time I make your coffee, which is every morning, so yes I know how much you love me," She gave me a cute little wink and I couldn't help but laugh. I grabbed my apron and my name tag and put both on. From a locked drawer in the desk, I grabbed today's till, and made my way into a small room adjacent to the kitchen where the cash machine and the espresso machine.
I got to work with all my morning chores that I had to do before we could open.
"Who's going to be here today do you know?" I called to Kiara.
"I think Trent, Shania and Noelle," Kiara said her name like it left a bad taste in her mouth. Noelle was the supposed "manager" of the cafe but I had been working her longer than her and I was basically training her. Kiara and I called her the Tyrant. Noelle was one of the worst people that I had the displeasure of working with. The thing that I hate the most about her was that she was super nice and sickly sweet to the customers, but would not hold back the opportunity to tongue lash us any chance she got.
One day I had a cup of coffee in my hands and went to place it on the counter but I tripped on one of the floor rugs and spilt a little on the counter and a few drops on the customer. Apologized to the customer and told them how sorry I was. The young gentlemen was super nice about it and told me that I shouldn't worry and we even had a little laugh about it. The second that the customer was gone Noelle literally dragged me into the kitchen and told me that if I ever disrespected a customer like that again that she would have me fired. She acted like I had thrown the coffee in the guys' face.
A few days later, we had a volunteer named Hayden, that was working for us, come in only a few minutes late from his break. He told Kiara and I that he was sorry and I told him not to sweat it but just not let it happen again. I guess Noelle over heard our conversation and a few minutes later I saw him run out of the coffee shop crying his eyes out. Hayden was a sensitive guy but I had never seen him cry like that, it was like she slapped him.
I ran after him and asked him what happened.
"She said that I was no longer allowed to talk to my friends while I was working because it's 'too distracting' and 'unprofessional if I was talking to my friends and ignoring the customers'," He said through tears. "She also wrote me up and told me that she was going to call my mom and tell her what happened, you know how much of a hard-ass my mom is," Hayden broke down in tears again. For the next few days we didn't see or hear a single word from Hayden.
Finally a week later he showed up to work, but he didn't say a single word to us. Normally he is one of the ones that always has to have a say in any conversation, and is always making jokes.
I was so mad about the situation I told Travis, the guy that took over the cafe when his mother, who originally owned it, passed away. Travis was the typical asshole business man, who didn't give a crap about his workers, but only worry was the money. When I told him how Noelle was treating us, only laughed and said 'We needed someone to whip our lazy asses into shape'. I almost strangled the two then and there.
"I so do not have the patience to deal with that bitch today," I said to Kiara.
"I know. I hate her as much as you do. If it weren't for you and I, Noelle and Travis would run this place into the ground. Noelle would scare away all the employees, making no one in their right mind want to work her ever, and Travis would drain every last penny out of this place to help fuel his gambling addiction. You and I have to stay strong, until the two of us can buy this place from Travis and run it the way that it was run before. I checked my savings the other day and I have almost 3 grand saved up," Kiara said, a little proud of herself.
"Yeah but Travis is not going to sell this place to unless we offer something rediculous like, a half million dollars, so some stupid number like that. Unless you and I don't spend any of our pay check at all, it might take us a good five or six years to raise that kind of money and if this place is being run the way that it is, it won't last another 2 years if that. We have already lost half our staff because they were tired of being verbally abused and over worked," There was only a few things that could get me this agitated this much, and Travis and Noelle were on the top of that list. "You and I should just leave this place and start our own cafe. I hate to say it but it would be a lot easier. Like ripping off a ban-aid, quick and clean, yeah it's going to hurt a little but we just have to forget about the pain and move on,"
Kiara sighed loudly and even stuck out her bottom a little. Miss Morgan, the sweet old lady that started this shop, was like a second mom to Kiara and she basically grew up in this cafe. She had so many emotional attachments to this place, it was going to be really hard to pull her away from this place.
I kissed her on the top of her head and continued with my chores. At seven we were able to open and everything went on normally. At 7:15, our two volunteers, Trent and Shania, came in and got to work.
Trent was a nice, but quite guy. His jobs were mostly doing dishes and cleaning. Every now and then if we are super busy, he would help make the breakfast sandwich that we offered, or serve ice cream. Mostly he just stayed over by the sinks and did dishes all day.
Shania on the other hand was one of our front girls. She mostly maned the register and handled the customers orders. She was a very pretty high school girl, with a matching sweet personality. She was so sickly sweet that it was annoying, she could start up a conversation with a customer, even if they were super cranky, and leave them laughing. I was glad that she handled most of the customers, because I can't deal with people who give me attitude because I dish the same back to them.
I mostly worked on the espresso bar and handled most of the coffee. Kiara and I would switch jobs throughout the day, so I would be making food while she did bar. We had a great system until Noelle came to work.
I swear the second she stepped in the room, a cold winter breeze blew through the cafe, even though it was the middle of summer, and the hair's on the back of my neck stood up.
"Good morning everybody," Noelle said in a cold voice.
"It was until you got here," I said under my breath.
"What was that Alexa?" I guess she heard me. She turned to face me with a vile look on her face that I so badly just wanted to smack of her stupid face.
"I said Good morning Noelle," I pulled a fake smile. She glared at me for a second.
"That's what I thought. So who's mess am I going to have to clean up today? I wonder." I just rolled my eyes and did my best to ignore her and stay out of the way.
Today went by rather smoothly. We had the normal morning and lunch rush, but other than that it was fairly slow. Since it was so hot, more people were ordering ice cream than coffee, which was nice because most of the day I was able to beat the California heat because I had my head in the ice cream case.
Finally 3 o'clock rolled around and I was able to leave for the day. I quickly gave Kiara and Shania a hug and waved good-bye to Trent. Luckily I was able to leave before Noelle gave me a performance review, and I made my way home.
The second I put my key into my apartment door, I could hear my Siberian husky, Zil, scrambling to get to the door. I opened the door and was welcomed by a large kiss on the face.
"Hi Zil! How's my good boy?" He danced around the room excited for my return home. "You want to go outside?" He barked excitedly, answering my question. "Well go yet your leash then," I had an old friend that used to train acting dogs in Hollywood, the ones that were really well behaved and knew some many tricks. He fell in love with Zil and offered to train him for free, and it was an offer that I couldn't refuse.
Zil came trotting back in to the room with his red leash in his mouth. I easily pulled it out and took him out for his afternoon walk. About an half an hour later, we arrived back to the apartment.
My apartment wasn't huge but it suited me well. One bedroom one bath, and a good sized kitchen and living room. Right before I moved in, the building had just gone through a remodel so everything was relatively new and I got it for a steal.
"So what do we want for dinner Zil? Should we make something?"I asked opening the fridge. One of Zil's trick was that he was able to answer my question by softly barking one for yes and two for no. This time he barked twice. "Yeah your right, its to hot to cook anything and I am not in the mood for dishes." I closed the fridge and look at all the take-out menu's I had pinned to it. I know from the outside it looked weird that I was talking to my dog, but sometimes I actually thought he could understand me.
"How about Mexican?"
Bark bark.
"Pizza?"
Bark bark.
"Oh I know, how about that Chinese place that we like?."
Bark.
"Okay Mr. Wong, it is," I grabbed my house phone and punched in the number.
"This Mr. Wong's, What can I get you?" An older oriental lady answered the phone.
"Hi Jian, it's Alexa,"
"Oh Alexa! Why you no come in anymore? Instead you call me over stupid phone. You need to come in more!"
"I would Jian but I have just been busy lately,"
"Uh un, too busy to visit little old lady that miss you, I see what's going on, lazy girl" I laughed. Li Na was tough on the outside but I knew she had a good heart.
"Okay I promise, next time I want Thai I'll come in,"
"I'll believe it when I see. What you want? The usual?"
"Well you know what I like, why don't you surpires my this time," I answered back.
"Oh now I am supposed to know what you want." I laughed and there was a pause and I could hear muffled Mandarin in the background, "Chang said he's going to make you crickets and make super spicy."
"Sounds delicious,"
"Uh hu, I give you usual. You know the price, Hong will be there in 30 minutes."
"Thank you Jian, I promise next time, I'll come in."
"Yeah yeah, like I say, i'll believe when I see,"
"Goodbye," She hung up without responding.
Within a half an hour there was a knock at the door. I grabbed my wallet and answered the door. Hong was Jian son, and was only working with mom because she made him work to help pay for his college bill. Hong was in premed at school and one of the highest in his class.
"Hi Hong," I said as I opened the door.
"Hiya," Unlike his mom Hong's first language was English so he didn't have the accent like his mom. We made small talk about how college was going for him and work. He was a nice guy and easy to talk too. After a few minutes we said our good byes and I gave him a generous tip.
I didn't realize how hungry I was until I started eating. Once I was full I grabbed Zil's food bowl and gave him my left-overs mixed with some dry dog food. After we were both feed and happy, I put on a movie and cuddled up with Zil. After that I jumped in the shower and crawled into bed with my laptop. An hour later I shut off my computer, turned off my light and rolled over and went to bed.
Yep, that was my normal routine, simple and a little boring, but it suited me well. I had no idea that my life was going to change completely tomorrow when I would meet a guy named Kendall.