The game room, two guys and some card action.

You nurse your juice in the corner for about 5 minutes before two white guys walk into the room. The first man you recognize as Mr. Lawrence from the picture on his law practice bio. He's about 5'10", with short black hair and piercing gray eyes. He looks comfortable in his jeans and red sweater. The other man is about 6 feet even. He has long brown hair, blue eyes, and looks to be in his early 40s. He's wearing black slacks, a button-up white shirt, and has a black suit jacket draped over his shoulder. Both are carrying knapsacks with "Raiders of Kamigawa" emblazoned on them. They don't seem to notice you at first since they are engrossed in a conversation discussing some sort of ban or something. You stand and that gets their attention. Lawrence walks over to your corner and offers his hand.

"Hello, Miss. I assume you are the poor barista stuck watching a couple of nerdy guys play cards? I'd say I'm sorry but we got the better end of the deal here I think."

You smile, shake his hand quickly, and respond.

"I'm not so sure about that, sir. I get to knock out work-study credits in a warm room. My name is Simone and I'll be your coffee fetcher for the evening."

"Call me Tyler. The fellow with me is Robert, he's my play partner for the night. Have we met? You look vaguely familiar."

"You may have seen me at The Hobby Habit a few times a couple of years back? In high school, Gary my boyfriend at the time was really into the game. I went with him a couple of times. We broke up after a few months though, he was far more interested in the game than me I'm afraid."

Robert walks up and you release Tyler's hand to shake his. Robert quickly shakes your hand, smiles, and walks over to a table to set up a laptop.

"Robert is all business when it comes to play nights. I wouldn't take the aloof attitude as anything but a hurry to get to work," Tyler laughs.

"It's fine by me. I expect to be mostly ignored. You guys aren't paying to entertain me after all."

The lawyer just shrugs, walks over toward the table and puts his bag on top of it. You walk back over toward your corner but then he calls back after you.

"I don't know if it'll be more entertaining than your phone but you are welcome to pull up a chair and watch if you like. I guess it's too much to hope you actually know how to play or did you just watch a lot?" He asks as he sits and starts pulling his stuff out of the bag. Robert takes the seat on the other side of the table and does the same.

You smile, pull a seat over, and watch them finish setting up.

"It'd be a lot more accurate to say no I guess but I played a little. Gary occasionally tried to teach me to play a simple red deck but I wasn't very good at it."

The lawyer nods, "Even mono-red takes time to learn, Simone. His loss, having someone willing to tolerate an expensive hobby with time demands like this is a hard ask. We're practicing for the con in Seattle in two weeks. Feel free to ask questions. We've played this matchup to **** but since they are the two most popular meta decks, they have to be our focus."

You nod and watch them play. Robert is a very quiet player you notice but he's good enough to win more than half the matches or maybe his deck is better? You're not 100% sure. Tyler seems more than happy to chat with you though and answer even the questions you feel pretty sure were stupid. You do end up making two snack runs for the guys though so you feel you've earned your pay. The laptop mostly sits unused on the other table, Robert does consult it once to explain how two cards interact though. Seems a waste of a good laptop to you.

At 10:00 you clear your throat, "Guys? This is the end of my shift."

They scoop up their cards and start putting things back in the backpacks. You take that time to gather up the plates and glasses for a quick trip to the kitchen. When you get back, all their stuff is clear and Robert is gone. Tyler puts his backpack on and looks over at you.

"Thanks for being a good sport. You could have hidden in the corner with your nose in your phone. That's what the last couple of baristas did."

You offer a smile and start wiping down the two tables used.

"I'm just glad you two tolerated my interruptions. It was a lot more fun than goofing around with a game."

"Did you want to learn? I mean you seemed interested enough tonight."

"Well you're stuck with me Thursday night but there is no way I'm monopolizing your time. You need to practice and Ms. Silver didn't bring me on to play games."

At that point, Marsha walks into the room and makes a beeline for Mr. Lawrence. You finish cleaning up and then wait for a good point in the conversation to interject.

"Excuse me, Ms. Silver?"

"Yes, Simone?"

"I think I'm done for the evening. Do you need anything else?"

"No, you are free to go. Don't forget to log your hours on the timesheet site. Hold on to the cap and apron, you'll need it Thursday."

"Yes, ma'am," you look over at Tyler. "Have a great night. See you Thursday?"

He smiles, "I'll be here at 8 pm. Most likely more of the guys will show though. Thursday seems to be the day everyone finds time to be here."

You nod, "See you then!".

You smile at both of them and make your way out of the room. You hear them continue talking as you walk down the hall. She seems to be trying to sell him on expanding the rental hours and he seems to be dodging it a bit. Oh well, so long as he doesn't cancel what he has now, you'll be fine. At least the client seems like a nice guy. It's always a plus when you can have a two-hour conversation and dodge being hit on all together! You walk out to the parking lot, get in the car, and motor home.

Ten minutes later, you park in front of your building. Then you head up to your apartment, toss your bag on the table, hang the jacket up, and hop on your laptop. After logging your time on the college website, you shut it down and get ready for bed. Just car shopping and the apartment inspection tomorrow, you think as you climb into bed. You aren't looking forward to the inspection but after it's done, it'll be another 12 months before it happens again. You set the phone alarm for 8 am and drift off to sleep.