The Definition of Me

Chapter 11: Eighteen Candles

The only thing I could possibly think of was 'don't drop, splash or accidentally break the cups and/or drinks' that I was holding in my hands as I walked slowly towards the table.

"Two Lattes with lactose-free milk and a spoon of cocoa powder as requested." I tried to sound very professional, covering up the fact it was my first shift. Ever.

"Thank you" the two ladies smiled at me as I left to take the next order.

"Afternoon sir, what can I get you?" I greeted the customer warmly, clicking my pen as I was ready to writ$)

His eyes were on the menu that was hung on the wall, handwritten with chalk.

"Hi, uh..." he was indecisive, making me quickly lose my patience, so I stepped in to help;

"May I ask if you would prefer a coffee, chocolate, smoothie or a tea type drink?"

"I am thinking smoothie." the man murmured, still not making any eye contact with me.

"Great, we have banana-strawberry, peach-passionfruit, blackberry-raspberry..." I started listing the suggestions, but he rudely interrupted me and pointed upwards at another drink on the menu.

"Can I actually get one of those 4' dteas you have?"

"Okay..." I huffed, "Would you like to try our speciality - vanilla cream tea?" I was hoping 'yes' would come out of his mouth this time since there was forming a line of people behind him that gave me rather unpleasant, this-is-taking-so-long stares.

"Well, that sounds fitting." He grinned, giving me a nod in agreement.

"Anything else?" I sighed as I wrote it down, this time wanting to hear a 'no'.

"No, thank you." He pronounced, getting out his wallet from his obviously heavily packed bag.

Today is my lucky day.

"That would be 3.50€, please."

He put the money, mostly coins, in my hand, annoyingly counting almost every penny, "20... 30... 50... here, you go."

At least there was no change needed, and the man took one of the nearby seats.

After printing out the receipt's copy, I turned around and pinned it down onto the metal shelf next to the other orders that either Gemma or Antone (her 'back in the days' roommate in college) would read and make the drinks.

"Classic vanilla cream," I shouted and got back to the cashier place.

"Afternoon sir, what could I get you?" My head was facing the counter as I once again clicked my pen, ready to write down another the order. This was becoming my ritual in less than a day.

"Nobody has ever called me 'sir' before." I recognized the familiar, giggling voice.

"Liam!" I fondled.

His wide smile was my instant mood changer and the crowd that kept lining up became barely noticeable by that point as we started conversating.

"How are you?" He asked me, stealing one of the chocolate chip cookies from the jar.

"Hey, you will have to pay for that!" I tried to fake an angry voice as he munched in front of me with cookie crusts falling down on the counter.

He raised his hands in surrender and smirked "Sorry."

"Why are you here anyway?"

"It's your first shift." He sounded quite excited by that not-so-exciting fact.