"Grand Opening Next Monday," the sign proclaimed.
Ludwig made a mental note to take a look. For the last three weeks, the run-down, empty shop he passed on his way to work had been completely renovated and made over. The windows were still plastered over with cardboard to keep people from peeking in, but even from the outside it was looking better than it ever had.
Not that Ludwig would be able to tell, really; he had moved here only two months ago for his new work. Head of a team of engineers and designers. It was good, with decent payment, he had a team around him that respected him; his task was to make sure the plans were put into action - basically telling everybody what their job was in this or that project and keeping them on time, and building a lot of complicated machines.
The tall blonde walked on, preoccupied with his work; the café was pushed to the back of his mind. But he didn't forget it - impossible to do so. After all, this new café might have good coffee, unlike the other one on his way to work. And if there was one thing Ludwig needed before going to work, it was his coffee.
"Aren't you excited at all, sorella? Well, I'm mighty excited! This will be so great!"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP," Chiara snapped. Her brother had been hyper and excitable all day. Understandable, since today was sunday and tomorrow would be their first time catering to the customers of their very own café. But Feliciano was so used to his sister's temper that he barely blinked an eye, skipped to the counter and checked that everything was there. "Ve, sorella, it will be so great! I hope there aren't any scary customers!"
The older sibling facepalmed and vanished into the storage cellar to raid the tomatoes. Something she did quite often.
They had moved into town about a year back and neither excelled at finding well-paid jobs, so with assistance from their parents the young italian siblings decided to open a café. Admittedly, neither was the type you'd expect to lead a shop. Feliciano was, to be honest, quite a wimp and pretty lazy too, and easily scared; they would just have to hope for the customers to be friendly. Chiara was even more unfit to stand behind the counter with her tendency to be rude and very short-tempered, so she confined herself to the kitchen.
But they did work quite well together, at least at most times. Chiara's temper would keep Feliciano from taking an afternoon nap and Feliciano's enthusiasm and good-naturedness helped with his sister's grumpy moods. So there was actually a pretty fair chance that the café would turn out to be a success.