"All right then, see you soon." Ianto headed back down to the basement, with more questions than answers in his head. Halfway down the stairs he caught Mrs. Trundle forcing the plywood back over the rear doorway. She turned towards him, startled by his appearance. "Good morning."
If anything, she looked more disheveled than the day before. She must be living in the other rooms in the basement. He stifled the shudder he felt coming on and just smiled at her politely.
"What are you doing down here?" She barked at him, defensive for no apparent reason.
"Cleaning the roaster. You do remember you asked me to do some roasting today, correct?" He took the high road, playing the artiste: arrogant and pushy. The more he got her to back down in their encounters, the better it would be in his opinion.
"Oh, that. Why haven't you started?" She asked crossly. Definitely didn't get up on the right side of the bed, or pod this morning, he thought to himself.
"Because I need to clean it first. I don't know who was doing this for you before, but they had atrocious manners," Ianto said, annoyed by the woman so much he let his natural disgust flow through. Luckily, it was in keeping with the attitude he had projected before. "It's filthy!"
She seemed startled by his vehemence and backed away from him. "Very well, then. Clean it and get roasting!" She scampered up the stairs, leaving him alone, which was a good thing in his opinion. He went through the rest of the machine, digging out the dried bits of coffee beans and chaff dust which had collected over time. He had to climb up on the adjoining table to clean out the vent for the machine. He found it interesting that he still didn't see any insects about. For such a filthy area, it was unusual.
Finally he was ready to start roasting. He turned on the main switch and started the drum and exhaust before turning on the burner. He set the temperature and waited for the machine to warm up. He decided to do an Italian roasting first, and he went over to the storage bins to get the green coffee for roasting. He also found the pad of paper that someone had noted previous roasting sessions in the past and brought that over to the machine with him. After a while, the machine signified it was ready, and he poured beans into the hopper. Once he had the right amount he opened the gate and let the beans pass through. He waited for a few minutes to make sure that nothing was going to go wrong, and then pulled the stopwatch out of his pocket. Starting it, he pocketed it to mark the roasting time.
Checking his watch, he saw that they had already opened upstairs. He made his way up to the store and found poor Ticia drowning in clients. There was no sign of Mrs. Trundle, and he wondered where she was. He headed over to the counter to assist the barista and quickly jumped into the fray, assisting clients and making coffee. He was relieved to see that Ticia had a good handle on making coffee, so he just concentrated on his own work until the morning rush had passed.
"Whew!" Ticia exclaimed. She leaned back against the counter and wiped her forehead with a napkin. "I've never seen it that busy before, ever!"
"Really?" He asked in surprise. He checked his stopwatch and saw that it was nearly time to check the first batch of coffee. The roasting smell permeated the shop. This was the way it should be, he thought to himself. "Wow. I better head downstairs and start the next batch."
Ianto headed back down the stairs and got to the roaster just in time to cool the beans down. The roast smelled heavenly and he quickly sealed the beans into a container to haul upstairs. He started the next batch as a French roast and headed back upstairs after clicking his stopwatch to mark the time. He considered seeing if he could check out the rest of the basement, but without knowing where Mrs. Trundle was, he was reluctant to snoop around.
Ticia was making herself a latte when he came back onto the shop floor, and she nodded towards him. "Would you like some?"
"That's okay, thanks. I think I need something a little stronger," Ianto said with a smile. He poured some of the newly roasted beans into the grinder and set about making himself a cup of espresso.
"Ooh, that smells good!" Ticia exclaimed in appreciation, and he smiled. He took a moment to savor his drink and leaned back, content for the moment.
"So, where's Mrs Trundle?" He asked, taking a moment to survey the store. There were several patrons nursing cups while reading the paper, but it was fairly quiet at the moment.
"No idea," Ticia said. "She's an odd one, let me tell you." He nodded in agreement.
"I'm happy to see you actually know how to work the machines. I worked with Terry last night and his skills were abysmal," Ianto said with a heartfelt sigh. Ticia giggled as she sipped her latte.
"He couldn't care less," she said with an eye roll. "Just marking time, that one. Drives me batty." Ianto smiled. He thought he was going to like Ticia.
"So, what's Ticia short for, Patricia?" He asked her.
"No, Letitia, only I spell it with a c instead of a t, because people were always mispronouncing my name," Ticia said with a laugh. Ianto smiled warmly at her.
"Well, Ticia with a c, it's a pleasure to meet you," Ianto said. They shook hands and laughed.
"I didn't know there was a mirror here," Ticia said as she turned to look behind them. "Did you clean all this up?" Ianto nodded. "Wow."
A noise in the other room made them turn and a moment later Mrs. Trundle came out of the storeroom. It looked like she had changed, but it didn't look much better than her outfit the day before had, Ianto thought with distaste. If she was going to be out on the floor, this might be a good time to go back downstairs.
"Right, well, next batch is done. Need to keep the roaster going now that it's at the right temperature," he said. He nodded as he passed Mrs. Trundle and headed into the storeroom. Going through the curtain, he paused to see what the woman's reaction would be. He could see her hesitate a moment before heading over to talk to Ticia. Hopefully he would have some time to look around before she came back to check on him.
Turning, he made his way back down to the basement just as the second batch finished. Now that the machine was running properly, he decided to do some light roasts which would justify his staying down in the basement. He boxed up the French roast before starting the next batch. It was a good thing he hadn't started snooping, since only fifteen minutes had passed before he got a sense that he was being watched. He pretended to concentrate on what he was doing and glanced towards the stairs as he moved over to the bean bins. Mrs. Trundle was crouched on the stairs, watching him. He ignored her and continued to do his job as if he didn't have another reason for being there.
A creak on the stairs let him know that she had left. He wondered if he dared to try looking around, but still felt too nervous to do so. He figured that if he could lull her into thinking that he was harmless that eventually she would stop watching him. Not that he wanted to be here any longer than necessary, but he wasn't going to solve this in a day or two, unfortunately.
