𝑀𝐴𝐺𝑀𝐴 | 𝐉𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒

𝟏𝟑 | 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

・𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐀・

𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 being a little past seven in the morning, the Sun was rather bright. Reina was glad to get rid of the rays on her back as she entered the cool café, and she flicked the lights on.

She was quite liking her new job. Granted, it had only been a week since she started, so she was sure she'd come to hate it soon enough. But the pay wasn't bad—a few dollars above minimum wage, along with tips. 

Plus, she was the only one working, so while it kind of sucked during busier hours, it was nice to get that time to herself without worrying about a manager peering over her shoulder. And the best part: the owner was kind enough to let her take home whatever desserts were left by the end of the day.

Anyway, it wasn't like she would be at this job for long. Or at least, that was the hope. This was just her way of making money while she tried to get an actual job that made use of her degree—one that would pay her enough to get her into law school in a year or two.

It was ten minutes to opening by the time she had checked everything off her list (literally—she had made herself a to-do list to follow since she hadn't exactly memorized the set-up routine just yet). It was just enough time to make herself a vanilla latte and turn on some light jazz just before flipping the open sign and unlocking the door.

The seats in the café quickly filled up, and the room very soon smelled of espresso and warm croissants. It was usually like this—the morning rush for the first hour and a half, and then it quickly settled to a few customers an hour. And honestly, she loved both the hasty surge and sudden calm.

She was becoming a lot quicker at making orders. During her first couple of days, she always had to apologize and ask the customer to bear with her as she tried to remember how to use the machines. It was day three when she put sticky notes on each machine with step-by-step instructions—and it was a proud day when she got to take those off (that was day six).

This was a better morning than most. No complaints, no problems with the cash register, and she had already made twelve dollars in tips.

It had settled down around the early afternoon. Most customers had finished their lunch breaks, and the only people that were left were a couple of university students who were studying in the corner, and an older man who was enjoying his coffee while reading the newspaper.

Now that it was a little quieter, she had more time to focus on cleaning until a customer came up. She wetted a cloth and began to wipe down the counter—after a busy morning, the granite was always sticky with dried coffee and whipped cream.

Once that was finished, she figured she could take her lunch. The thing about her lunch break, though, was that it wasn't really a full-on break. She kind of just chose a time where there wasn't any activity and sat at the counter to eat. If a customer came in, she'd have to get behind the register and finish that order before returning to her food. She still wasn't sure whether she liked this format or not, but she didn't hate it.

But before she could dig around her lunch bag, a chime rang through the air as the door opened. She straightened up to see a man no more than a few years older than her walk in. She was pretty sure he hadn't come before, though a lot of the faces did blend in together. Tousled blond hair and green eyes like his weren't very uncommon, after all.

"Hey, how you doing?" he greeted as he walked up to the counter.

She smiled. "Good, you?"

"I'm pretty good." He squinted his eyes as he looked up at the chalkboard menu. "Could I get, uh, a chocolate croissant?"