The Royal Romance - Good To The Last Drop

Her favourite customer so far

It was now day eight of Jen's NYCoffee adventure, and hopefully today would be a bit busier than yesterday had been. That had been a drag. The first few days had gone really well. There'd been plenty of passing trade, a new shop, a few balloons outside, a few freebies, that had got people in. But then there'd been a few quiet days too. Sunday had been one of them, in fact Sunday had been even deader than yesterday. She was wondering if she should think about closing on Sundays, actually. It would give her a day off before she got established enough to take on an assistant barista.

But having said that, Sunday had resulted in her favourite customer so far, and she'd have missed out on him if she'd not opened on Sunday. Hey, maybe he'd be back next Sunday? She had given him a loyalty card, after all. Buy nine drink-in coffees, get your tenth free. She liked the thought of him coming back that many times.

Dammit, Jen, she chastised herself. You can't go crushing on the customers. You can tell you're starved of social contact other than people you serve coffee to.

The door opened, and you couldn't make it up. It was Maxwell. Still cute, still flashing that flirtatious smile.

"Hey," she said, delighted to see him again, but then realising that it might seem very weird that she remembered him instantly. "Welcome to NYCoffee. What can I get you?"

"Ooh," he said, sliding onto a stool. "Another one of your mean cortados, please."

"Sure. Drink in?"

"Uh.. yep!"

She busied herself making the drink, carefully drawing her best logo on the top, and presented it to him with a flourish. "Three euros, please."

He passed her his card again, she was careful not to brush her fingers against his, although she was sorely tempted to. Jen, you're here to serve them coffee, not seduce them. Keep it together.

"Like the name, by the way," she said. "Not just the Maxwell bit." She ran her fingers along the name on the card, MAXWELL P BEAUMONT.

"Thanks. Best you don't ask me what the P stands for then."

She smiled as she turned back to look at him, still holding his card. He was just her type. Tousled hair, smartly dressed, slim built, blue eyes, great cheekbones, and the brightest smile.

"Ok, I won't. I think I'd rather imagine the hilarious and maybe slightly offensive possibilities instead," she said, passing it back to him.

"Uh, I'm now thinking I should tell you."

"Nah. That'll spoil my fun." She looked around. "I don't have a middle name. Much safer that way."

"I'm lowkey jealous," he said, and she looked back at him to see he was now glancing around. "So. You actually from New York then?"

"I actually am," she said.

"Sweet. D'you know my friend Meghan? She moved here not so long ago from New York."

"Uh, you realise the population of New York City is 8 million, right?"

"So you're saying you don't know 8 million people?" He folded his arms. "I'm disappointed, Jen."

"I barely knew 8 people, to be fair. That's partly why I signed up for a NYCoffee franchise. Could have ended up anywhere in the world. Got Cordonia."

"Whoo. That's a brave step."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Well, I didn't have much worth staying in New York for. And I love to travel. Hopefully when I get this place off the ground I'll be able to take on an assistant barista a couple of days a week and get to see more of this country than the inside of these four walls."

"You live upstairs?"

"Yep. As commutes go, I can't complain."

"Been open long?"

"Nope, just a week actually. Had a bit of a launch last week, did okay for a few days, now it's gone quiet."

He laughed. "You need a social media team! You got a Pictagram page yet?"

"No.."

He started punching buttons on his phone. "Jen, you need a Pictagram page. I'll set you one up. What's your email address? Pop it in there."

She did as she was told, and within ten minutes she had a fully functioning NY Coffee Cordonia Pictagram page, with pictures of the outside of the shop, the cake selection, and Maxwell's cortado, and all set up with an app on her phone too. And with one follower so far, thefullbeaumonty.

"I don't know what to say," she said afterwards. "You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. And it was fun. Hey, we need to get thinking of some hashtags we could use that will get you noticed. I'll work on that and let you know. And I'll definitely big you up on one of my posts. I have nine hundred followers you know." He raised his eyebrows, and she could totally get why.

"Well, when I'm off the clock, I'll check some of your posts out," she said.

"Do. Anyway, I better head off. Can I have three more of those to go?"

"Sure," she said, and got them ready for him. "That's eight euros twenty five."

She smiled to herself as he passed the card to her again. "So, P. Is it Pisshead? Prat? Parasite?"

"Uh... no, it's none of those.." His face was a picture.

"Sorry," she giggled. "Aw, I get that it's either obviously something really boring like Peter or Paul, or something embarrassing like Phineas or Percival. If it was something quirky like Phoenix or Poseidon, you wouldn't be hiding it."

He gulped.

"It so is one of those!" She jumped up in excitement. "You have to tell me now!"

"No I don't!" He grabbed his tray of takeaway coffees, and his card, all flustered. "Anyway, thanks for the coffees!"

"Thanks for your help," she chuckled as he dashed out the door. She had a feeling she'd see him again.

She picked her phone back up and looked at the Pictagram pics. Only one like so far. She idly scrolled to his profile. Nice. Looked like he was quite a busy guy. Seemed to travel a lot, and party a lot... probably had about seven girls on the go.

A notification shot up; she had a direct message. IF YOU MUST KNOW, IT'S PERCIVAL. *COVERS FACE EMOJI*

She giggled, and sent a like in response.