Lauren hurried across the parking lot of the coffee shop where she worked, pulling her jacket more tightly around her, not for the first time cursing whoever had decided that shorts were going to be a part of their uniform. She slipped in the back door, immediately grateful for the warmth. Quickly she dropped off her rucksack in the back room and snagged her green apron off it's hook, pulling it over her head and tying the strings behind her back before making her way into the shop. She smiled at her friend and coworker, Jaime, as she passed her, and the other girl paused to give her a wave.
There were already a handful of patrons seated at tables around the room, talking in low voices. The early morning light filtered through the wide window that stretched across the front of the shop and she could see people passing on their way to work or school. The smell of coffee alone was helping to wake her up and she smiled as her first customer of the day approached the counter.
"Hi, what can I get you?"
It was late October, and she'd been working here since the beginning of the academic year. She finished college two years ago, and had originally moved away to New York to try and make something of her acting degree, but when that fell through she came back to Ann Arbor. She couldn't say what drew her back here; maybe the deep rooted sense of belonging she'd developed during her time at school here. But by now all her friends had graduated and were working all across the country, aside from Jaime, and she couldn't help but wish sometimes that her life hadn't panned out this way.
After two months as a barista, she'd fallen into a routine. She and Jaime worked well as a team, and she poured coffee and served pastries almost as though it were second nature. The shift continued like normal for about an hour. Their small shop was no competition for the large Starbucks in town, so most of their customers were regulars, and Lauren smiled and made small talk with them.
Being down the road from some of the housing for U of M, they also got a lot of students. The shop was busiest on the weekends when they had college kids in all day writing papers, the coffee refills the only thing keeping some of them going at points. But there was also a steady stream of them throughout the weekday mornings as they stopped by on their way to class.
Jaime was flirting with one boy at the counter. Lauren rolled her eyes as she carried on making an order. She didn't understand how Jaime got away with it; she spent more time passing compliments back and forth across the counter than she did drinks. With a scowl, Lauren thought about the fact that she'd probably lose her job if it were her. Her boss had it in for her for some reason. She occasionally wondered what she was doing still working there, but the truth was acting jobs in a place as small as this were almost impossible to come by, so she needed some other way to support herself, and the wage wasn't half bad. But sometimes it was hard to keep up the polite customer service face when she constantly felt as though she was missing out on achieving something with her life.
"Lauren, you could try smiling," Jaime said as she reached for a mug from behind the girl.
"Some of us are more worried about keeping our jobs than flirting with boys," Lauren muttered.
At that moment the bell above the door rang as the door flew open, slamming against the wall. The boy who had just entered looked at it in surprise and then shut it gently behind him before hurrying up to the counter.
"Hi, could I get a black coffee please," he asked with a tense smile.
Lauren nodded, turning to grab a disposable cup.
She snuck glances at the boy while she stood at the coffee machine. He was tall, with dark brown hair that was currently dripping water down the back of his neck. His jaw was crooked, but she thought it was cute. Right now he was bouncing on the balls of his feet, his fingers tapping anxiously against the counter, his eyes darting about and looking at nothing in particular. She knew she'd never seen him come in before; she would definitely have remembered.
