Cloud nine (Romance)

Chapter 15: Initiation Day

(Pov: Minh)

As the clock strikes about nine in the morning on a beautiful saturday morning, an automatic sign illuminates the entrance of our beautiful cafe. In the distance, I see the same brown haired boy from yesterday hastily speeding his way towards the doors. As he makes his way up to the entrance doors, retaliating, my body pulls up to greet him as he makes his way inside. "It seems like someone is late." Said by me in a joking manner. Max lets off a sad sigh. "Sorry, my phone went off late." He says, scratching the back of his neck. "Don't worry, I'm late all the time." "Alex is always here whether I'm asleep or not, I'm honestly shocked she doesn't run the whole thing to be honest." We both laugh it off, as everyone makes mistakes.

"So, ya' ready for your first day?" I say to Max as we enter the doors. He gives a light laugh. "Yeah." Taking a small breath. "I'm just hoping you don't fire me." He finishes, giving me a playful shove. As we reach the counter, Alex approaches us, handing off a used apron to Max. "You're gonna want this if you want your clothes to stay clean." "It's gonna be nice having some help around here." Alex finishes, giving me a sly smirk as she walks off. "Well, you're going to be starting off working as a waiter." "We'll show you how to make some of the baked goods and drinks later on." Max gives a slight laugh. "Minh, I don't think you should trust me with an oven.

A few minutes pass before our first customer enters. Max has already been situated with me behind the counter. "Hi!" "Welcome to C9 cafe, how can I help you? Max starts, energetically. "Hey, can I just get a strawberry milk tea? The customer asks. Max turns to the small tablet in front of him. "One strawberry milk tea with tapioca ..." Max continues. "That'll be..." Max pauses, trying to find the price. "4.93," I whisper into Max's ear. Max turns his head back up to the customer. "That'll be 4.93!". He says the words a little bit too cheery, but it's passable. He then says "Will that be to go or to dine in?" good on him, I didn't even have to tell him to say that. The Woman responded "Just to go sir." As she gave Max her credit card, He then dozed off for a minute, entering in some information on the order until saying "Go over to... the uh, side of the counter and we'll give you your drink shortly." Alex, knowing that Max would be unsure what to do, tells him that she will make the drink and they'll swap positions with the next order. Alex, telling Max to look at what she is doing, shows him how to make the drink.

By the front counter, there is a side table with all of the materials. She starts to make the drink in slow motion, showing Max in a way that could make it comprehensible. As she starts to make it, I narrate over what she is doing. She picks up a boba cup, and moves swiftly with her motions of putting in strawberry milk, almond milk, and ice from our fridge in one swift motion. I tell him that doing that is obviously not all that important, and he can do it at a regular pace. She then opens up the lid of our big pot, pulls out a ladle from the cabinet underneath and pours the bubbles into the drink. She then puts on a plastic lid onto it, shaking it up to make sure everything is blended just right. Lastly, she walked up to the end of the counter, placed it on the counter and she said "pleasure doing business with you ma'am." and walked back to us. What a showoff.

A few more customers pass by, Max has now started to become more fluent with his job. Even made the occasional drinks he knew like coffee or a blended drink. Before we even realize it, lunch break has already come by. The winds from outside push softly against the doors of the cafe. Whistling subtle, infrequent toons as we head to turn the sign-off. "Well, we got half an hour lunch break now," Alex says to Max, who is finishing off cleaning the counters. I walk over to him, trying to look cute by tucking my hands in my apron. "We have some bread and cold cuts in the back if you want to make a sandwich." Max proceeds to place the towel in his apron. "Oh, I'm fine," Max responds. "I've been snacking on some of the stale pastries throughout the day." He smiles nervously, looking over to see my reaction. "Max!" "We use those to make bread pudding!" I say in response. Looking down to the ground. "Oh." Max pauses. "Well, they were really tasty." I smile back at Max, who has now looked back at me. Our eyes connect, and not a sound surrounds us. "Minh..." Max says shyly. "Thank you, so much for this."