i know the feeling || n.h. au

part one

Nina hated her job.

It's supposed to be a temporary job whilst she waited for another job (one that would pay her better, wouldn't give her a splitting headache, wouldn't make her clothes and hair smell like coffee by the end of her shift, and definitely one that she would love) and yet she's still here at The Brew, serving coffee and occasionally pastries to the customers.

Seven months had passed since she started actively applying for jobs that were related or remotely related to her job, and she'd been unlucky so far. The companies she applied to either went quiet after her interviews or would give her the devastating news: we were impressed by you but unfortunately we are unable to offer you the job or we are afraid that we require someone with more experience, but please do not be discouraged by that.

How was she supposed to not feel discouraged? She got rejected, for God's sake. Who, in the right mind, would jump in joy when they got rejected for a job? Did they expect her to be happy when she didn't get the job? If they did then they're mental.

Nina had lost count on how many times she'd been rejected and it's beginning to take a toll on her self confidence. Not wanting to feel like a complete failure, she decided to apply for a job at the coffee shop a couple of blocks away from her flat and she was accepted straightaway – the fact that the manager contacted her less than 24 hours later to tell her that she's accepted gave her confidence the boost it desperately needed.

"Your time will come," her friend, Elaine, assured her for the tenth time this week as she refilled the coffee grinder with arabica beans, her words nearly muffled by the sound of the beans rushing out of the packaging and into the machine. "I mean, if Rachel could do it so can you. At least youcan get people's orders right and you make a good cup of coffee."

"Tell that to everyone who came in here and complained about my coffee."

"What do they know about coffee?" Elaine scoffed, making Nina chuckle. Most of the times, their customers knew nothing about coffee but pretended like they're experts. "If I didn't know you, Nins, I'd say you love this job. You're bloody brilliant at it."

Nina wasn't one to toot her own horn, but Elaine was right about that. Whereas Rachel was shockingly bad at her waitressing job, Nina was shockingly good at it. She didn't think she'd be good at it considering that she had never worked in the food and beverages industry before and almost everyone who worked here had. Elaine worked part time as a waitress at a restaurant during her undergraduate studies and so did Jason. She supposed she's a fast learner so it only took her three days of training to learn everything that needed to be learned. Three months later, she's practically a pro and fellow baristas agreed with that because they'd tasted her coffee, and yet according to their customers, she didn't know how to make the right coffee. Nina wanted so badly to ask them to define what right coffee meant to them, but she'd rather not create a scene. Like she said earlier, this wasn't even supposed to be her permanent job so why bother, right?

"Maybe you should quit." Elaine continued.

Nina was about to ask her friend if she'd lost her mind but she clamped her mouth shut when she saw where this conversation was going. She must have spent her free time binge-watching Friends again – the mention of Rachel Green's name earlier gave it away. Elaine had the tendency to reference the tv shows she was currently watching. Like when she used to watch Parks and Recreation, and she'd say things that the characters said in the show or like when she used to watch Grey's Anatomy and she thought she'd become one of the doctors.

Being someone who regularly binge-watched Friends too, Nina knew straightaway that Elaine was referring to the episode where Chandler and Joey talked Rachel into quitting her job at the coffee house.