The snow once peacefully falling from the dull blue sky is token up by wind fluttering around in a frenzy. Clouds disseminate up above, covering the sun making sure not a single streak of it could beam down on me and warm my skin. Bleak wind whips at my skin, stinging the surface.
I'm sure my long brown hair that now seems a tangled mess- due to the wind, sweeping off one shoulder is covered in snow by now and I reach up pulling the small red beanie that lays on my hair more tightly over my head and shove my small hands into the pockets of my jacket trying to keep them as warm as possible.
The large black and white sign reading 'Beans n' cream' comes into sight and I rush towards it in a hurry my fingers feelings as if they're going to fall off if their out in this frigid weather any longer.
The dainty silver bell chimes as I open the door to the shop and the aroma of coffee and cake fills my senses.
"You're late again Riley." Jonathan scolds behind the counter eyes flicking away from me momentarily to lazily greet an impatient costumer with two kids hanging onto her legs begging their mom for chocolate cake.
He reaches behind the counter collecting two pieces of the freshly cooked cake and wraps them in napkin placing them into small white bags that have the name of the shop plastered on them in a bright blue color.
Numbers are typed into the register and the recipt is given to the women as she says a polite thank you to my boss and makes her way to the back of the shop sitting in one of the abandoned chairs pulling up two others for her now satisfied kids to sit on.
"Sorry the snow, it's bad." Although it sounds like a horrible lie, the accumulating amount of snow outside is clear to the eye.
"Yeah wasn't that your excuse yesterday." He shakes his head blonde hair flicking from side to side as he tosses me an apron and hat. "I need to leave, Mike's in the back if you need him."
And with that Jonathan is stripped from his work clothes and heads outside into the frenzy of people, cars, and snow of New York City.
Since it's only quarter past ten in the morning the shop is relatively quiet at this hour not including a few men who sit in the back of the store with coffee and their attention concentrated on the laptops in front of them. We get a lot of those early in a morning, probably because we offer free wifi, and it's almost always quiet making getting work done accessible.
I wipe the small mess that has piled up on the counters and brush the floors down with a broom.
The shop is quaint. We have as many round tables as we can fit into the small space as possible. Beautifully canvased paintings hang on the walls that you can always catch a few curious eyes examining.
A myriad of spotlights hang from the ceiling illuminating the glossy light brown wood floors.
Another few lights hang from the ceiling that cast an array of lambent light over the dark red wood of the counters I work behind.
My back rests against the counter eyes scanning the shop to see if their is anything else to do, since i'm already becoming bored with looking at the snow and hearing the sound of whining children.
A few tables are littered with napkins and the windows have handprints the size of toddlers on them and I sigh knowing if John see's that I didn't clean that up he'll probably end up threating to fire me- which is something he does regularly, but I doubt he'll ever actually do it.
Our staff here is small and as long as we're all here there is no one else needed.
John knows I'm available almost 24/7, unlike most of the other employees that work here.
