Two weeks later.

Saying the next two weeks after I asked the girls out were uneventful would be wrong. My life before them was uneventful, but now I always had something to do. Spending time with my girlfriends (with one, two or the three at a time), hanging out with Thomas and sometimes Ben and Kevin, working out at the gym, studying, and continuing my guitar practice… There was so much to do, and there was yet one more thing I had to add to my schedule.

It had been two weeks, and I hadn't found a part-time job.

I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find anything that I felt comfortable with. When I thought I found something that suited me, being a stocker at a warehouse, they picked someone other than me. They didn’t give me a reason, but I knew it was because the other guy was taller. It made sense, but I was still pretty disappointed. A job like that where I didn’t have to talk to many people seemed ideal. But I didn’t get it, and since then, I hadn’t found any job offers at all. I wanted to find one before I had to ask my mom for help, if possible. One day, though, an opportunity arose.

Thomas approached me during lunch break and said he was free that afternoon.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about this coffee shop,” he said. “I’m not much for sweets, but I do like coffee. You been there?”

“Maria’s Coffee Shop? Yeah. I’ve been there like three times, and the girls are regulars by now.”

“Any good?”

“I like it.”

“Wanna come with me today? Going to a coffee shop alone is kind of…” Thomas rubbed the back of his neck.

“Sure, two guys going to a place mostly girls frequent won’t be weird at all.”

Thomas snickered. “What? Insecure of your masculinity?”

“I’m worried about yours.”

We laughed and made plans to go after school. The girls were busy, anyway, and I didn’t have to go to the gym that day. We met outside the school and took the bus there. And it was as we were walking inside that I saw it.

There was an ad on the door. A simple paper sheet with clipart of a cup of coffee and a slice of cake at the bottom. Over the pictures read the words ‘HELPER WANTED. PART-TIME. SPEAK TO THE MANAGER AT THE COUNTER’.

Just reading it made my body tense. Working at a coffee shop? Where lots of people come and go, attending customers? That sounded like the complete opposite of what I was looking for, so I ignored it and sat down at a table with Thomas.

“Nice place,” he said, nodding in approval. “Neat, well decorated…”

Hesitantly, I looked towards the counter. A woman was there, and the strawberry blonde hair bordering on pink made me remember her as the woman who had given me a glass of water back when I rushed into the shop. She must have been somewhere around her 20s, maybe closer to her 30s. She came over to us and took our orders.

I kept my eyes on the menu, afraid to look at her. Was she the manager one was supposed to talk to for the job?

…

It really sounded like the worst possible job for me, but I had yet to find anything. I wasn’t the same person I was two weeks ago, though. I could talk to people now. Somewhat. A few words were better than no words at all. What would I have to do? The ad didn’t specify. If I wanted to know, I’d have to ask that lady.

She left to prepare our orders before I had the chance to ask. My eyes followed her as she walked to the big, red coffee machine behind the counter and started operating it.

I swallowed and made up my mind. I turned to Thomas, who was also intently looking towards the counter, almost without blinking.

“Excuse me. I’ll be back in a second,” I told him.

“Huh?” He seemed startled for a moment and stared at me while I got up and walked up to the counter. “H-Hey…”

My heart pounded hard, my hands shook and I didn’t trust my mouth to form coherent sentences, especially not without stumbling over itself. But I had to ask, at least. Remember. Don’t let inaction ruin opportunities.

“E-Excuse me?”

“Hm? Yes?” The lady turned from the machine to me.

Remember, look people in the eyes. Don’t be intimidated. If you look away, you make a bad first impression. Oh, but don’t stare too intensely, either, or you come off as creepy.

…

So difficult.

“I saw the ad at the door,” I told her. Looking at her in the eyes let me see they were of a soft-looking violet color. Contacts, maybe? Doesn’t matter! Focus! “I’m… interested.”

The lady smiled. “Are you now? Boy, and I only put that up today!” She laughed cheerfully. “My name’s Maria. Maria Day. A pleasure.” She reached her hand and I instinctively shook it over the counter.

Then I blinked. “Maria?” I asked. Like the name of the shop and the bakery?

“Yep. My mother’s name is Maria, too, and she opened the bakery across the street. After its success I managed to convince her to open up a coffee shop, too. That one is Maria senior’s bakery and this is Maria junior’s coffee shop. Clever, right?”

I chuckled. “Very.”

Thank God. She seemed nice. “What’s your name?”

“Oliver Brooks.”

Or at least I thought she was nice at first. Ms. Maria then smiled devilishly at me.

“I remember you, you know?” she said in hushed tones. “You’re the boy who came rushing into my shop and asked three girls out at the same time.”

I went from glad to horrified. My face fell, burning harder than a thousand suns.

“I… I thought I had been…”

“Quiet? Well, yeah.” Ms. Maria laughed. “It would’ve been enough if the whole shop hadn’t gone silent when you rushed in.”

That’s it. I wasn’t getting the job. Ms. Maria probably didn’t want a playboy working here.

“What did they say?” Ms. Maria asked with a huge grin.

“Huh?”

“They didn’t seem upset, from what I could see. Did they say yes?”

I swallowed… “That’s…”

“A secret?”

“Y-Yes…”

“Gotcha. Sorry for prying, but it’s been eating me to this day.” Her devil smile didn’t fade.

It wasn’t like I could blame her or get angry at her. The fault here lay entirely on me. What did I think was gonna happen? People aren’t NPCs who don’t react to what happens around them. Of course Ms. Maria would remember.

“So, about the job,” she continued. “The shop is gaining steam, and while I've been able to handle things myself so far, I need someone else around during the peak hours. Any experience with customer service?”

“N-None,” I admitted.

“Okay. Next, how quickly do you think you can learn to work the espresso machine?”

“...If you give me the model name or number I could find the manual online and study it,” I answered. “I would still need to use it to actually learn, so… a day, maybe?”

Ms. Maria nodded. “Confident, are you? I’ll teach you, too, so you can probably get it in a couple of hours. Still, making coffee is a bit of an art. I’ll handle it mostly, but I may need you to handle the machine if I’m too busy.”

I kept my anxiety in check, or at least tried to. The scenario where there were many customers and I had to make coffee only to royally screw up popped up way too vividly for my own comfort.

“Any previous work experience?” she asked.

Yeah, I wasn’t getting the job. “...None.”

Ms. Maria furrowed her brow in thought. She looked me up and down a couple of times, too. Not entirely sure what that was about. I didn’t think she was checking me out per se. Her look was more appraising than interested.

“Alright. Tell you what. When I was your age, someone took a chance on me and hired me without any previous experience for my first job. Let’s see how you handle things for two weeks. You’re still getting paid, of course. What I mostly need is someone who can wait on tables and clean up, wash dishes, that sort of thing. Think you can handle that?”

Cleaning up and washing dishes? Sure. Waiting on tables? The thought alone raised my heart rate, but I’d needed to give it a try. “Yes.”

“We can work out a schedule, but I’ll definitely need you here on Saturdays for most of the day.”

“Starting at what time?”

“10:00 am?”

I was going to the gym with mom on Saturdays from 9:00 to 10:00 am, but if we left for the gym an hour earlier, I’d make it.

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“Give me your phone number and email. We can discuss the details later.”

…Seriously? Did I just get a job? It couldn’t be, right?

We quickly exchanged contact info. “Sorry. I made this a work interview on the spot, but I would rather get this done quickly.”

I nodded. “It’s not a problem. Thank you, Ms. Maria.”

“Call me ‘miss’ again and you’re fired,” she joked, laughing. “Now go back to your friend. We’ve kept him waiting long enough.”

Oh shit, Thomas! I nodded again and went back to our table. And much to my surprise, Thomas was looking at me… strangely. It was like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to glare at me or be apprehensive.

What on earth?