When Stars Collide

Starbucks

"Who can make coffee here? We're in trouble oo!"

Habiba opened the door to Hibba's shared office, meeting only Hibba and ChiChi who had foregone lunch to finish some work. They raised their heads to  Habiba wringing her hands and shaking.

"What is wrong?" Hibba asked and dropped the pen she was using to hit her blue hijab covered head. Her hair itched so bad.

"Is it not the client in conference room six, he thinks we have a resident Starbucks in here. Asking for one foreign named coffee." Hibba got up and seeing how agitated Habiba was, she led her to a seat ans asked her the client's order.

"If I remember it well, Iced, Half Caff, ristretto, venti, four pump, sugar free, cinnamon, dolce soy milk skinny latte." Hibba chuckled. It was a difficult order alright, but the client was one of the big guns running for governor of Kano state, so they knew they had to find a way to get the order done.

Habiba dropped another bombshell, "He gave us, thirty minutes. Which Kain witchcraft is this one?" Hibba sighed and took Habiba's hand, ChiChi left the work she was doing and followed. This concerned all of them.

"The order is a one that is peculiar to Starbucks, but I can make it. I just need soy milk, cinnamon and honey. Do we have those?" She asked Habiba and Habiba jumped into the small pantry adjacent to the kitchen they all shared to warm their meals or make coffee.

Hibba stepped into the kitchen and tucked her hijab away from her bodice, mixed up cinnamon, honey, soy milk, sugar into a mix and put it in the microwave. The scent filled the whole kitchen after about a minute. Making everyone want to drink some of it, Hibba chuckled, the drink was just a glorified Expresso so she had no idea why the man liked it so much.

About ten minutes later, she handed two cups of it to Habiba and rushed back with Chichi to finish the work they started. They had an hour before they had to submit.

About an hour later, the door opened again and in came the CEO, Hibba and ChiChi jumped to their feet immediately she walked in, their hearts drumming in their chest, thump thump.

"Who made the coffee drink amongst you?" Chichi immediately pointed at Hibba, and they both wondered what this was all about.

"Follow me!" She turned and left the room, leaving Hibba to follow her, Hibba turned her surprised eyes at Chichi and following Chichi's shrug, she followed the CEO out.

After several twists and turns, the doors to the CEO's office opened and Adetutu invited her in, showed her a chair before turning to her own chair waiting behind the glass show that opened up to the whole of Abuja.

"You saved us today, do you know that?" Hibba looked at her clear fingers. She missed using henna, but because of the professional nature of her job, she let go of the finger decorations till when her busniess was stable and she could go without going to work to provide for herself and Ummi.

"I'm glad I was able to do something." She decided to answer. She wasn't there so she didn't know how making coffee changed the man's decision from sneering at their plans to looking at it favorably.

"I heard from Mohammad Tarfaki that you just printed flyers for your business?" Hibba chuckled, Mohamed had given it too much credence. She only used a free flyer making app to make a few flyers that she hadn't even properly shared and as a result had no business from anyone.

"I didn't print flyers, I just made them and sent to my office mates." Hibba watched Adetutu nod. Then she said, "I'll like you to cater for my Ramadan drink needs. My husband brings back lots of guests, and he let's my co-wives and I order from outside to supplement those things we can't do. I like to have pineapple juice, orange drinks, just be creative. How's that?"