when the ice melts // jack hughes

part three

Cameron groaned as he tied the floral apron around himself. "Happy?" He raised his dark and ruffled eyebrow. "Very much so." I smiled, making Cam roll his eyes. I went to the desk near the staff-only closet and opened the smallest drawer. Cameron watched over my shoulder as I picked out a little tag and sharpie. I cut out a rectangle shape out of paper and wrote 'Cameron' on it. I slipped into the little opening on the side of the tag and clipped it onto Cameron's apron. "There." I smoothed out the wrinkles in his apron. "Now you're an official employee." I picked up my navy blue cloth and continued to wipe the counter. "Now make yourself busy."

Eight o' clock. It was time for the morning rush. People scrambled inside to get a taste of our bagels and breakfast sandwiches. My parents took over two of the registers, leaving one for me to work at.
"Watch and learn," I started helping a customer as Cameron sat patiently in a chair behind me. "Hi, what can I get you today?" It was a lady with a small child, who seemed pretty antsy while being held in his mother's arms.
"Could I get a latte?" She set her son down on the floor. I typed up her order on the register, waiting for something else to being ordered. "Anything else?" I looked up at her. Her son was pulling on her skirt. "Mommy, can I get a donut? Please? Please?" I awaited his mother's approval before putting it into the register. "Would you like a healthy muffin instead? It's not even lunch time yet." His mother looked down at him and pointed to the blueberry muffins. Her son made a whining noise but in the end, they ordered a muffin.
"Thanks, have a nice day!" I said when the mom and her son left, Cameron came up beside me, watching my every move. "Kay. One, I know I'm training you, but you watching me is really creepy. Two, do you wanna try the register?" I looked to Cam, pointing to the register. Cameron shook his head. "I'm not ready for that yet, I'll just stay here." I nodded and got back to work.

It was a pretty easy day, Cameron took over the register when it got stressful for me. He picked up quickly, which was good. Closing time came around and it was time to go home. I hung up my apron and grabbed my backpack from the closet. "Via, I- um.. " I turned around to see Cameron standing there, his apron in his hand. "Thanks, for showing me how things are done around here." I scoffed, "It wasn't that big of a deal, it's just work." I took his apron and hung it up for him. "Well, it was to me. I've never really-" "Closing time people!" My dad clapped his hands. My mom was holding the keys to the cafe, ready to close up. "See you tomorrow." I smiled softly before walking out of the cafe, Cameron following close behind. "Bye," he waved, before starting to head home. I got into my parents car and we drove home.
The entire two minute drive home, I was lost in my thoughts.
Maybe Cameron wasn't who I thought he was.
...

The next two weeks were chaotic, probably because we were tired. People came in and out in a hurry, cam and I were scrambling to serve everyone. At one point, my mom had to go and buy more coffee beans because we ran out, leaving my dad, Cameron and I at the registers.
"Alright, so take everything I taught you and use it." I pushed Cameron to my mom's register. "That's it?" "That's it. C'mon, we gotta serve the rush hour." I went back to my own register. We finished the job and my mom came back, after of course buying a ton of unneeded stuff. "You never really know what you'll need when it comes to work at a family cafe." My mom shrugged it off. She was obsessed with cute salt and pepper shakers, mason jars, cutlery organizers and syrup dispensers. When she saw something she liked, she bought it.
Friday finally came to an end. Our cafe was only open during the week, leaving us all weekend to restock or relax.

"And to think that working at a cafe is this hard." Cameron sighed, tired from the work that had been done today. We were hanging out in the staff lounge. There was a couch and a small coffee station, a tv was in the corner. Everything you could need after a long day of work. "You think that's hard?" I laughed. "It hasn't even been a month!"
Cameron rolled his eyes. "Well, I've never really had a job before." He got up from the couch we were sitting on and started to brew himself a coffee. Not that he needed it, it was ten at night. "Things have always been handed to me, 'yknow?" His hair had been swept back and was under a Vancouver Canucks baseball cap. He took the freshly brewed coffee and sat back down beside me. "But now that it's the summer, my dad thought I should get a job. So I'll know what it's like." I nodded slowly. "This cafe had been in our family since.. who knows how long. You must be pretty special if my parents hired you." Cam grinned. "You think?" I shoved his shoulder a little. "Don't rub it in," He laughed and took a sip of his coffee. His facial expression went from neutral to surprised. "Dang, your parents' coffee is amazing. No wonder you guys are in business." He drank more of the coffee. "What can I say, we love coffee." I shrugged, my lips spread out into a grin. An awkward silence filled the room, I didn't know what to say to keep the conversation going. "You're not the douche who was sitting on the counter on Monday, are you?" I raised an eyebrow. His blue eyes showed an expression of shock, it looked like he wanted to say something.
"Honestly, I'm so confused. Part of me keeps thinking you know who I am and then the other half is still confused because you're not all over me like the other girls are." It was my turn to be shocked.
"I beg your pardon?"
Cameron pulled out his phone and gave it to me.
"Search my name."

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