Fallen

Chapter Three

Danielle pulled a face at me as I yawned loudly for the umpteenth time that morning. At first, I'd been trying to stifle them, but as the hours went on, I'd given up and let my tiredness show. Benny quickly noticed and marched up to me.

"Can you yawn louder in front of the customers please, Anna? I don't think table three heard you in the back there."

"Sorry," I murmured, using the back of my hand to mask the next one. My boss rolled his eyes at me before going into the back room. I saw Danielle try not to laugh so I hit her with a tea towel.

"Ouch." She quickly picked up her own tea towel and tried to hit me back, but I managed to dodge it in time just as a customer approached the counter. I nodded at Danielle to take it. She rolled her eyes before turning to the older man taking his pick at the sandwiches in the fridge. He eventually chose one and put it down on the counter, squinting up at the sign of drink prices above our heads.

"Why are there so many different types of coffee?" he grumbled, adjusting the glasses perched on his nose. "I've never heard of a mocha before."

Danielle put on her false customer service smile that I'd seen many times. "It's a latte with added chocolate flavour, sir."

The man's eyes finally landed on Danielle stood behind the till. "What the hell's a latte?"

I had to turn around to hide my stifled laughter. I knew Danielle had her teeth clenched by this point. "It's coffee with milk, sir."

There was a long pause as the man thought. "I'll have that then."

"Coming right up. Would you like me to bring it to your table?"

"Of course."

The man eventually paid and went to sit down. Danielle hit me with her tea towel again from behind. "I hate you right now."

"Hey, what did I do?"

"You could've helped me."

"You seemed to have it under control."

She elbowed me as she moved to the coffee machine. I giggled and poked at Danielle's sides to bring out her smile. She grinned and tried batting me away as the bell above the café door rang. Danielle smirked. "You're getting this one."

I groaned. For someone who had been working here for a while, I still dreaded coming face-to-face with customers. You never knew what types of people you were going to get. I once had a woman yell at me and demand to see my boss because I couldn't give her crying child a juice box for free as if her son's tears could make up for not paying us for the drink. Oddly enough, the child's so-called crying stopped when Benny finally got it through to them that drinks weren't free no matter how much you made your child fake cry. Her review of the café on Yelp the next day was not pretty, but we all got a good laugh out of it.

As Danielle made the coffee, I turned to face the next customer stood by the door and froze when I saw a familiar pair of eyes meet mine. His smile was just as wide as when he showed it to me yesterday. He gave me a small wave. In my embarrassing state of shock, I waved back before finding a fake job to do to look as though I was busy. I stood closely behind Danielle as she put the man's coffee on a tray.

"That guy's here," I said through gritted teeth.

Danielle put a napkin on the tray. "What guy?"

"The cute guy that came in to use the phone last night."

She turned to me with raised eyebrows. "He came back to see you."