He could see she fell for his ploy. Debating on whether to look hungry and eager, or arrogant and pushy, he opted for the latter. It might give him some respect since she now knew that he knew what he was talking about and it would give him some more leeway.
"I could use the spare bit of change, yeah," he said. "But you have to let me teach these people to do the job right. I won't be able to work here, otherwise. What's it paying, by the way?" She eyed him up and down, liking what she saw. He suppressed a shudder as he saw what he supposed was a look of lust on her face. Better stop that right at the beginning. He was not going to let this creature paw him at the counter. She named a sum that was ridiculously high for the typical barista position. That's when he made the decision she really had to be an alien. No human would pay a salary that high.
"Done and done," Ianto said. He reached over to the sink and dumped the cups in there. "Let me clean this place up, and then I'll see about what we can do about getting things set up properly. First I have to let my partner know I'm not going to be able to meet him, though." He picked his mobile out of his back pocket and speed dialed a number. He caught a look of disappointment on her face as he mentioned having a partner. Good. He was willing to abase himself to get the job and find out what was going on, but he wasn't willing to go further than that. There had to be a line somewhere.
A moment later, Jack picked up. "Yeah?"
"Honey! You'll never guess what just happened!" Ianto said, oozing enthusiasm.
"Ianto?" Jack asked. He sounded confused. He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it in amazement. He had never heard Ianto talk like this before.
"I just picked up a second job. Yes I know, mad, isn't it? But we'll be able to save some extra money for that holiday in Ibiza, darling," Ianto said excitedly. Jack chuckled at the thought of the two of them going to that clubbing hotspot. "Sorry I won't be able to meet you, but hopefully if I do this right, we'll have people coming in droves. Where? Oh, the Coffi Emporium over on High St."
"Got it," Jack said, writing something down. "I'll send Rhys and Gwen by as new clients, how does that sound?"
"Loving it, sweetheart," Ianto said. "Oops, gotta go, lots to do here. Love ya!" He flipped his mobile closed and beamed at the manager. "This is going to be so fun." She seemed taken aback at his sudden enthusiasm. Backing away, she muttered something about checking supplies and ran off behind the curtain area in the back. Ianto grinned in satisfaction.
One of the few people seated against the window came over and asked for a cup of coffee. Ianto glared at the other barista who had moved forward. The man looked at him and shrugged. He didn't care if this new guy did all the work. He still got paid whether anyone showed up or not. Ianto moved to the counter to take the man's order. He made the man's cappuccino and rang up the order. While he did so, he scanned the place, looking for anything that might look odd. Not that all of it didn't look odd. How could they have an empty coffee shop in this bustling area? He shook his head.
Looking around the back area, he decided that he needed to de-scale at least one of the coffee pots. They all needed some tender loving care, but he couldn't do them all at once. But he could get started with one. Lord knew it wasn't busy enough to worry about doing it during business hours. He bustled around the place, cleaning up and checking supplies. Much of it was in good shape, just poorly managed. He then went around the tables and picked up, bringing empty cups back and chatting with the few customers who were there. Once he was done picking up, he decided to tackle the apathetic staff member.
"Hello, I'm Ianto," He said. "What's your name?" The young man turned away from the window and stared at him. "Hello?"
"Terry," he said, though he seemed more interested in the people passing by outside than looking at Ianto.
"Well, Terry, how would you like to learn to make the best damn cup of coffee in the world?" Ianto asked. Terry shrugged. Ianto stifled a sigh. This wasn't going to be easy. "Here, come over here and I'll show you." Terry was a lanky young man wearing worn jeans and a U2 t-shirt which was mostly covered by the store apron he wore over it. He moved closer to the coffee machine when Ianto motioned to him.
He then proceeded to demonstrate the correct way to do it, Terry watching listlessly. It beat staring out the window, apparently. He handed the cup for Terry to drink. The other man's eyes widened as he tasted the difference. "See?" Terry nodded. "Okay, now you try it," Ianto said.
He watched, biting his tongue as Terry went through the steps to make an espresso. He did okay, but not the way Ianto himself would have done it. Still, it was better than before. And anything was better with the machine now clean. "Good!"
"How'd you learn all this?" Terry asked him. He could see that the other man thought that making coffee was an art form or something. He just thought of it as a job to pay the bills.
"Worked as a barista when I was going to uni in London," Ianto said. He used a cloth to clean off the nozzles of the machine, wiping it down lovingly. "I learned from a master as well. That man lived coffee. He used to travel to South America to buy his own beans, straight from the farmers."
"Wow," Terry said. The guy sounded a bit of a loon, he thought. So did Ianto, come to think of it. It was only coffee, after all. He didn't say that out loud, though. "Oh man, look at the time, I gotta go. Hey, you're going to stay, right?" Ianto nodded. "Okay, I'm off then!" He pulled off his apron and dumped it on the floor. "See ya!"
He was gone before Ianto could do more than blink. Ianto watched the door close and he shook his head. He was hoping to loosen the kid up enough to chat. Well, it was only his first day. He couldn't expect too much progress.
