Tomorrow

Chapter Nine

This wasn't how I'd imagined my morning to start.

I was holding two cup carriers in one hand and a large bag of oranges in the other. I had baby formula all over the front of my shirt, a coffee cream dispenser was uncontrollably pouring cream all over my back, and a dozen angry people were looming in front of me.

I wasn't dreaming.
-----------------

It is around 8 AM in the morning and I had just arrived at the Red Tree Café. It is a peaceful morning, as smooth jazz is quietly playing, and a few customers are taking their orders from my coworker, Sam.

I walk in and greet her with a drowsy wave.

"Hey Sam. I'll take over from here. Don't you have a summer class to get to?"

"Good morning, sleepyhead."
She tousles my hair and haphazardly throws a visor over my head.

"I'm not in that big of a rush, since it's a lab day. But before I head out, I should probably give you a heads up. A few to be exact."

Taking her apron off, she turns to me and points to the coffee creamer.

"That's broken. Make sure you don't use the one on the far left. The other one works, but don't use that one. Once you turn it on, it doesn't stop spewing cream. And that's not a good sign."

I flinch at the sight of the machine. I had a feeling that my bad luck wasn't going to let me get away with it. Especially while business was starting to get busy.
"Okay. Gotcha. Don't touch the creamer. Far left. Yup. Is that all?"

"No, there are a few other things."
She reaches for her visor and takes it off, as I watch her jet-blue page-boy hair vividly flash around the neutrality of the cafe.

"Are you paying attention?" She snaps her fingers in front of my face.

"Yeah, yeah. Your hair was blinding me. Go on."

She smirks and raises a brow, giving me a toddler-scolding look.
"I said, there's a woman who's going to stop by in a few hours to pick up a large bag of oranges."
She points to a large, brown paper bag that was hidden under the cash register counter.

I stare at the bag. "Uh, oranges?"

"Yeah. Renee's trying out a new thing. We're going to be selling fruit for a while. She wants to see if we can get more business that way."

"Okay, okay. I see. Is that all?"

"Nope. We're almost done. There's going to be man stopping by today who's going to pick up a large order of coffee for a business meeting."

"Large? Elaborate please."

"Thirty-two coffees. But I told them that you'd be able to handle it."

I breathe in a heavy breath. Tying the back of my apron, I feebly try to decompress my rising stress with a slow sigh.

Sam lightly slaps my back and holds her fist out.
"You've got this. You're eccentric, young, and smart. You'll get used to this job. Don't worry about it."

I reply with a weak fist bump and slowly begin to realize how much I was going to regret this day.

-------------------------

Two hours later.
Everything was in chaos.

The lady came by to pick up her oranges, but told me to hold her child while she went out to the car to retrieve her wallet. I try to calm him down when he realizes only a few minutes after awkwardly holding him on my hip that I wasn't his mother. The phone suddenly starts ringing.

The man who was going to pick up the large order of 32 coffees was going to be there in five minutes. I mentally panick.
The lady's child was still crying in my arms, and she was taking her sweet time.

I start to slowly rock him in my arms while pacing around from behind the counter.
He squirms around in my arms and his cries rapidly escalate to emphasize his cranky mood.
Customers begin looking up towards me, and a few give me aggravated looks. I turn around, just a few inches away from the creamer, hoping to stifle his ominous cries by facing the other way.

He squirms around like a centipede. I wasn't used to this kind of child care in the middle of a cafe. His legs kick frantically. He continues to kick and I hear a loud pop.

He kicked the creamer.

I stare at the dispenser in horror, as it slowly begins to spew cream like a water fountain. I turn around in a weak attempt to shield the vexing child and frantically look around the cafe for the woman.
The cream continues to spew everywhere, only, it was all over my back, and it was cold.

"Where is your mother??" I look down at the child, who had suddenly fallen silent. He takes my panicked look as a sign to panic with me.
Suddenly, he throws up.
"Oh God. Oh God. Oh God."
I hold him out onto one side of my arm to make sure he doesn't continue to spew the contents of his meal all over my clothing. I reach out with the other hand and grabbed a rag from under the counter.

The cafe door jungles.

My head shoots up like an arrow, anticipating the mother to come in, and hoping that it wasn't the man coming for the pickup.

"Quinn!" A cool and calming voice calls out to me.

"Jake??" I stare at Jake in surprise.
"Jake. Come here. Please. Now. Child. Here. Please."

I reach out from the other side of the counter and pass the child over to him. He takes in my grungy appearance and looks at the child with genuine confusion.

"Jake. Please. I'll explain later. Just stay here."
I take the rag and quickly turn around to face the mountainous mass of cream that was slowly forming a small pool around my feet.
Just as I reach for the base of the machine, the cafe door jingles again.

My head shoots up like an arrow, as I turn to see who it is this time.

Oh sh*t.