Caffeine Withdrawal | T. Drake ✔

[01] Learning The Ropes

It was Isadora's first day working at the coffee shop. She had gotten up early to the delicious aroma of cocoa beans and found that Alex had been up already preparing breakfast.

"Rise and shine Dora," he remarked not even turning around to see her enter in the kitchen for he was busy at the stove and could not avert his attention from the scrambled eggs he was making. He had rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and was stirring the scrambled eggs from one hand while with the other he poured grounded coffee beans into the frothing milk in the blender beside him.

"Morning," she replied, savoring the scent of cocoa beans and milk.

"Grab a seat, I'm just bringing this over."

The two had breakfast down in the shop's kitchen after which Alex flipped over the sign at the door to Open.

Isadora was perched up on a stool behind the counter, waiting for the customers to start coming in. He placed a cup of coffee in front of her and she almost gasped at seeing the latte art done over it, "Alex, this is amazing. Where did you learn to do this?"

He smiled at her compliment, "well, before starting my own coffee shop I had to gain some experience first. So I worked for a few months at Supreme Cafe, it's located at Robinson Square. There I learnt most of the things which were required such as operating the blenders, customer dealing etc and also some latte art."

"Wow," she remarked appreciatively, taking a sip from her cup, "tastes delicious too. When are you going to share some experience of yours with me as well?"

"Soon. You will be dealing with the customers for now but I'll teach you everything I know in due time. After all, we're equal partners in this business now."

The door opened and the bell on top of it clanged, announcing the arrival of a customer and they looked over to see a girl with blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and a backpack dangling from her arm enter the shop.

"Hi Al," the girl dropped her bag near the umbrella stand at the corner before proceeding in. It seemed as if she was a frequent visitor due to her rather casual behavior. "Oh and you must be Dora," she extended her hand out for her to shake and before she could even ask her anything she gave the introduction herself, "I'm Stephanie Brown, but you can call me Steph."

Stephanie was a bubbly and cheerful soul, even Isadora could tell that by the first impression she projected. She talked fast as her green eyes twinkled in mirth and her face was set in a sweet smile.

"Hi Steph," Isadora smiled cordially as well.

"Sorry I came earlier today," Steph remarked, turning over to Alex, "I missed the bus to college and then I had to walk all the way there but a friend texted that they were having a rescheduled class of Statistics for almost the whole day and I had no stamina for Mr Gavin's lectures so I bunked. But I'll be staying for the evening shift, no worries."

She glanced over at her brother for an explanation, "but didn't you work alone, Alex?"

"I do," he tried, throwing over an apron to Steph, "Steph is a friend who helps every now and then. Especially on weekends."

"Oh... That's sweet."

"Don't mention it," Steph flashed her a genuine smile, "I try to give a helping hand wherever needed."

"Though she has given me more than just a helping hand," Alex admitted, "in the starting days I didn't have enough to buy all the required stuff for the shop so Steph suggested that I should hold a sort of a summer camp teaching latte art to those interested and charging them a little for it. She brought most of the people herself and we collected enough to buy not only the machinery but the furniture as well."

"Well, what can I say; I have connections and street smarts which I'm happy to lend to good friends like Al," Steph stated laughing a bit, "when I first saw his latte art I had gotten the idea of utilizing his skills in a way that could aid him in controlling the expenses of the shop. And that's exactly what we did."

Isadora nodded, "that was really clever of you. Glad to know that Alex has such good friends."

"And I almost forget, her best friend pays for more than half of the coffee we sell," he had a mischievous spark in his eyes and Steph burst out laughing at his remark. Though Dora had not understood the reference for it seemed as if it was an inside joke between the two that she wasn't aware of yet.

"Oh yes he does and don't look at us as if it's absurd, Dora. Tim doesn't just pay for it but he drinks all of it too," Steph nodded then facing Dora she added, "you'll see him soon enough, he's an even frequent visitor than I am."

Shortly afterwards the bell rang again and a group of teenagers entered lining up at the counter for their orders. Alex had retreated to the kitchen while Steph offered to show Dora the ropes instead.

"So I deal with this group and you'll deal with the next. We good?"

"Sure," she nodded, carefully observing as the cheerful blonde noted down the orders.

"We use sticky notes for this," Steph handed her the note, "all you have to do is paste it on the fridge in the kitchen, it serves as Al's notice board and he'll get to the orders accordingly. While the copy of this order goes up on the soft board here."

Isadora obliged taking the note over to the kitchen and pasting it on the fridge. Soon enough Alex had seen the order as he took out the carton of milk from the refrigerator and got to work.

"Dora, your turn!"

She came back to the counter and taking the notepad from Steph, she took her first order. A thrilling sensation settled down at the pit of her stomach as she was both excited and nervous.

"Great," Steph high five her after the order had been taken, "you know what you'll enjoy your work here a lot. Because for starters you have nice people like me and Al to guide you and also because the whole coffee shop atmosphere is really cute. Very soon you'll settle down and love it."

"I know, thanks for the help."

"I already told you, don't mention it," Stephanie glanced over at the clock, "wonder what took Timmy Toes too long. He is usually here even before opening time."

"Your friend Tim?"

"Yup. Friend, foster brother, persistent pain in the ass, a bossy little asshole... I wonder why God gave him a fast functioning brain so that he could boss us around just because he's the genius of the family. But that's the tragedy; he's family and I have to put up with him so yeah... Friend would do for now."

Isadora chuckled slightly, she was beginning to enjoy Steph's company. "How does he drink such a lot of coffee?"

"He's a coffeeholic," Steph replied offhandedly, "and trust me it's almost as bad as being an alcoholic. Oh come on, Dora, don't laugh. I'm not joking."

"Right... Guess I'll see for myself soon enough because judging by this he would be coming in any moment."

"Oh of course. He'll turn up soon enough, my guess is that he has finally worn down his self inflicted insomnia and slept in today. And then I'll go to the kitchen because when he's around, we can't help but get into an argument."

Isadora shrugged, reflecting upon her words, "but that would mean you two get into arguments often."

"Yes we do," Stephanie smiled slightly, her green eyes shining in a nostalgic expression, "we have our ups and downs but we always have each other's backs. Just like Alex does for you and vice versa. Family, you know, just like that."

***