Episode 19: "How Do You Like Your Coffee?"

Christian's dinner party came and went. And so did the time.

Alicia stepped out of Ricky's car carrying her apron to wear.

It had been 3 months.

"I'll be right in, okay?" Ricky said.

"Okay!" Alicia called.

At first it came as a surprise for Alicia to be working the day-shift. It was her first time after all. But then she worked it again. And again. And again. Her shifts changed throughout the week. Sometimes she'd do the day. And sometimes the night.

When her third check arrived in the mail it was safe to say that Christian had loaded her off onto Ricky, something both women didn't approve of, but for different reasons.

And Alicia hadn't seen Christian for all that time. Naturally she began to cut him out of her life. Even if he hadn't been there for a long time, days really, it affected her.

Ricky had gone to his house to try and work things out on a multiple occassions, but Christian wouldn't hear of it. Alicia had mentioned his blood situation in which he responded, "I'll suffice." This wasn't from the horse's mouth of course, it had to be delivered from Ricky's.

She grew angry somewhat before she just decided to drop it all. If Christian didn't want to see her, use her again, that was fine.

She had been saving all her checks though. Only living, or trying to live off $500 to a $1000 a month. Half of that went to Ricky for her trouble. She said Christian was paying her more since she was in her care, but Alicia wouldn't feel right living under her roof for nothing.

So far she had saved up a little over $9000 dollars, the other money going towards bills and in someways towards her new room in Ricky's apartment.

Ricky had allowed her to decorate the room anyway she pleased since she really didn't use the second one for much other than storage.

Going into the shop she greeted her co-workers and got to work. Today was 'Girls Day' so they had to advertise more. She wasn't big on speaking in public but it was two of them so it wasn't that bad.

Having grabbed her flyers, the other co-worker setting the sign outside, they began waving at passerbyes and handing out flyers. Their job was to hand out 50 each.

She was about to hand out another flyer when she saw her parents red car in the street. Just as they looked her way she had pretended to tie her boot lace.

They turned away and drove forward as the light turned green.

Alicia watched them go and then straightened up.

"That was sudden?" her co-worker spoke. "Almost as though you were trying to avoid someone."

"Maybe I was?" She watched the girl's eyes dance in anticipation. Markle was her name. She lived for anything gossip.

"Oh?"

"But why would I tell you that?" Alicia chuckled and handed out a flyer to a teenage girl walking passed. "Hi! Today's Girls Day at the cafe! Bring your girlfriends and have anything 75% off!"

"75% off!" she cried.

"Yes, you heard that right!"

"Dang, the owner must be rich! And I've heard of this cafe too! It gets good business!" She looked up at the sign. "I'll definitely drop by later on with my friends-oh! Do they have to all be girls? I have a couple guy friends too?"

"Oh, just for girls today." Alicia said.

"We have a "Friends Day" coming up next week where everything is half off." Markle said with a smile. "A lot of teens come to that one."

"Oh really? Okay! I'll just bring my girls to this one!"

"Great!" Alicia said. "We'd love to have you!"

"Thanks!" she said, and she walked off.

The girls turned to see Ricky take down their hour sign.

"Oh? We're getting new hours?" Markle said.

"I guess so." Alicia said.

Ricky was talking on the phone with a retail provider as she posted the Cafe's new hours. Instead of opening at 8 AM and closing at 3 PM for everyone during the day, they now opened from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM. The evening hours were from 6:00 PM to 3:00 AM.

"WHAT!" Alicia yelled. "I can't stay up for that long!" Christian I'm gonna kill you! She pictured herself strangling the blonde man.

"Well, if the owner can afford it." Markle said. "I'm not complaining. That means more hours for us!"

"Yeah, I guess." Alicia said, wondering why he changed the hours. She read the ink in red. "HOURS EFFECTIVE STARTING WEEK OF: NOV 5th."

***

 "Hey Ricky?" Alicia knocked on her office door.

"Yeah?" she said flling paper work.

"You know why Christian changed the hours? Won't that be a little stressful on everyone? Myself included?"

She chuckled some and took a sip of her tea. "Hm. Recently a lot of the younger crowd has been complaining about the hours the cafe is open for them. They wanted it to be open longer. That makes sense seeing that they only get till 3 and then it closes down for two hours that could be catered to them more. So Christian changed the hours for them. They now have until 4:30. He can't say five because we would need time to prepare for the adults and stuff, you know prepare food and all that. And as far as stress, it shouldn't be, just an extra hour for the day-shift and two more for the night-shift."

"Oh okay. That was nice. What about me? How long am I working now?"

"Uh, he emailed me your schedule...let me pull it up," she looked at her computer. "You work the day-shift today from 8 to 1 in the afternoon and then tomorrow..." she clicked her tongue, "tomorrow you go in from 6 to 10--oh! No! You're actually going in from 8 till closing."

"What! You want to run that by me again!"

"Unless my eyes are deceiving me that's your schedule, Alicia." She said.

Alicia went over and peered at the screen. Sure enough it said Sunday-8:00 PM to CLOSING. She sucked her teeth and then sighed, shaking her head. "What is that man on?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to double-check that, okay? If you're not comfortable or feel you're not capable I can let him know that?"

"Oh no! No! I'm okay with it, it's just an adjustment." Alicia said thinking of all those hours she would be spending alone at Ricky's home. That's how it was. Ricky dropped her off when she was and wasn't working and came and got her.

It was lonely. She didn't have any friends she could talk to and her co-workers, while they were all cordial with her, Julia included, they didn't invite her anywhere. She was the human.

"Alicia?" Ricky called her name for the second time.

"Huh?" she said.

"You were daydreaming."

"Oh, yeah. Just in my head."

Ricky looked her over. "How about we go out? Just us? We'll have a little Girls outing ourselves?"

"Oh, no, no, that's okay!" she said.

"Alicia, you have too much time on your hands. I work and then come home but those are at different hours. You are left alone a lot. You have to get out more. Make some friends."

"That's easier said than done."

"What do you mean?"

"Not everyone thinks like me, Ricky." Alicia said. "I'm an old soul, honestly."

"That you are. And you are surrounded by old women and men."

"What do you mean?"

"They'll kill me for this, but everyone on the nightshift excluding Roycel, and Delilah if you want to X her out of the equation just because," she watched Alicia chuckle at her words, "are much older than they look."

Alicia furrowed her brows.

"Dwanye is 57."

Alicia's mouth dropped.

"Julia and Daya are 27 and 28 respectively. Delilah is 34."

Alicia rose an eyebrow. "She looks good for her age."

"I know she does. Roycel just turned 17 last month."

"Hm. And how old are you?"

"It's not nice to tell, dear." Ricky turned away with a small blush.

"Oh, that old huh?" She teased her.

"Shut up." Ricky smiled a little and looked down. "I'm, 88 years old, Alicia."

Alicia's eyes widened.

She looked up at her. "We, you could say we age very slowly."

Alicia had nothing to say.

"Some of us don't age at all though," she said thinking on a certain Elder.

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"Oh?"

"But it's not important, the point is, if you think no one will understand all that wisdom wrapped in your brain, think again. We can. It's just that you may not feel comfortable approaching us and we haven't approached you either so while the feeling isn't necessarily mutual, if you have a question, you could ask any one of us. We'll be sure to help."

"That's asking for help. Not hanging out."

"I know. But it's a gateway into asking, on either of our parts. But it's only if you want too. You are after all the human. I'm sure if you asked Dwayne or Daya, even Julia, well, no, maybe not," she chuckled. "Even some of the co-workers on the day-shift if they wanted to hang out sometime, they wouldn't mind it. You've only been here 3 months. You've settled in, but there's still a lot I'm sure we don't know about you, Alicia June."

"Why would it matter? Aren't I fleeting to you all?"

"Now you see? That pessimistic attitude is what stops you from getting anywhere!"

"It's not pessimistic if it's the truth! What's a human got to do with someone who isn't!"

"Dumps. We all have to take dumps. And cramps. All us girls still get our time of the month though it is extremely brief. And movies. Who doesn't love a good movie? We go to theaters and clubs all the time Alicia. We're very much like you except for a slight change in our genetic code."

Alicia looked down.

"Next month on the 13th, is bingo night here at the cafe. It's the only time of the month and year where Christian closes down the adult times early and invites all the co-workers night and day to a special party. The extra rooms we have in the back get turned into bedrooms and we have one big sleep over at the cafe. It was actually Delilah's idea and it stuck. Everyone liked it. Those that were of age had a couple drinks. We ordered food. We danced. Sang karaoke. Played games. It'll be a great time to officially meet us and we, you."

"I don't know..." Alicia said.

"Alicia, as your supervisor, I'm telling you that you're going. Especially if you're still living with me so there!" She huffed and looked away, folding her arms.

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if I'm still living with you." She thought of Christian.

"What?" Ricky said.

"No, it's not you, Ricky." Alicia said. "I better get back to work."

Ricky looked at the time. It was a little passed ten o' clock now. "Okay. Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

She nodded and then walked out of her office. Coming back to the front it was beginning to get busy now as people took advantage of the offer today.

"Hi! Welcome to Maid Cafe! How many?" Alicia said, preparing to seat a group of girls.

***

 "You ready for your first closing shift?" Ricky said.

"I guess. I have worked the night shift before, just never stayed this late before. I wonder who I'll see come in at those times."

"Oh, just the more roudy bunch. They're just now coming down off of drugs and stuff."

"Huh?" Alicia looked her way as they moved forward with the traffic.

Ricky chuckled. "Relax. They don't cause much problems. They can't unless they want me or any of the workers wrath upon them."

"I hope so." Alicia said. "By the way, aside from Christian, who's the strongest there?"

"Ha! Me." Ricky said.

"Really?"

"Yep. I would say Dwayne, but I'm older and age does play a part in strength."

"Oh, okay. So Dwayne would be the second strongest should anything go down?"

"Yep. But it rarely does excluding your minor incident."

"Yeah. First day of work too." Alicia looked ahead. "What a memory."

Ricky laughed. "Yeah."

Alicia looked to her.

"No, no! I mean, I don't mean to laugh, but that's quite a first day."

"Yeah, it is." Alicia said, watching the buildings pass by.

***

Ricky had told her to sit tight in her office and come out to clock-in once her shift started.

That was fine by Alicia. She had brought her laptop along and decided to pass the time by looking up places to live. This area was pricey, but as Christian said, they were on the strip.

She admitted she was a little excited to be able to afford some of the places around here. Just a couple blocks away was a gated community that housed two-story homes. It had a 4.0 star rating with security around the clock.

It dawned on her that she had no rental history though. Nor credit.

Shoot! She thought. She had been paying for everything in cash, so there was no need for a credit card. Now there was.

She researched if she could still rent without those requirements and it was possible with a co-signer, a higher deposit, stable income making more than 2 or 3 times the rent, references, or a combination of those things.

Immediately thinking of Christian she shook her head. As of right now he was out of the picture so that only left Ricky. She was sure the woman wouldn't mind. In some ways she was paying her rent. Still, having a credit history would alleviate some of those things and she did make more than enough to rent some places in the surrounding area.

She thought of a few reputable credit cards she could apply for and bookmarked them as she wouldn't have time to do everything at work.

Eyeing the clock it was going for 7:45 p.m.

Closing her laptop lid she pushed it away from her some and placed her head down. She rested her eyes for a few minutes.

***

Alicia was serving a customer when she heard her co-workers whispering, "He's back." or "Christian's here.".

Her heart immediately sped up as she looked toward the door.

Customers had greeted him warmly so he wasn't looking at her in that moment.

Alicia smiled at the customer and told them if they needed anything else to just signal her or any of the servers on duty.

She went in the back to grab a few more shot glasses and place them out as the bar was livelier tonight.

Christian was in his bartending outfit, which caused her to assume he would be working the bar tonight. That wasn't her reason for going in back though. She needed a breather.

Delilah was there, taking in the inventory.

"Christian is here." She said.

"Is he?" Delilah said not looking up from her notepad. "So why aren't you out there? Getting cold feet?"

She swore Delilah could read minds. It didn't help.

"No, I was getting some more shot glasses. We're low out in front."

"Mhm, okay." She said.

Alicia rolled her eyes as she gently picked up a tray of glass shot glasses and prepared to take them out front.

Turning, she walked out of the kitchen and rounded a corner to run right into him.

She felt all eyes on her then. On them.

Christian looked over her face. He could tell where her injury was. It was almost healed over completely, except for the mild raised bump on her face.

"Pardon me?" She said, surprised it came out so casual. The feelings of anger and confusion hadn't hit her yet.

He smirked some and stepped aside. "Excuse me." He said.

"Thank you." Alicia said going over to the bar. Everyone watched her while still serving customers. How could they be so professional and nosy at the same time?

As Alica kneeled down and began stocking the glass she looked Christian's way to still see him staring at her.

Guilt swarmed him and he turned away and went into the back.

Alicia looked down. It was time. Time to confront all those mixed emotions and she wasn't ready. She had enough on her plate already. Or it felt like that anyway.

"Hey!"

She jumped and looked up to see Dwayne leaning over the side of the counter. She laughed. "Dwayne? What are you doing here? You scared me?"

"Uh, I work here for one. Two, of course I scared you. You immediately tensed upon Christian's arrival. And three, maybe we can all find out what really happened? Our boss is tense, but not this tense."

Alicia frowned. "For the last time it was a medical issue and Christian went off to do whatever he does. I'm sure he doesn't tell you where he goes, just like he doesn't tell me?"

"Mhm. We'll see." Dwayne said, leaning away.

"Wait a minute!" she stood up. "Don't tell me you came all the way over here just to ask me that!?"

"Yep. Have fun new girl."

"Ohh!" Alicia shook her head and then knelt down to finish placing the shot glasses away.

Christian walked around her then, saying "Excuse me,"  and her heart jumped again.

This was ridiculous. She'd have a heart attack before the rest of her shift was over.

"That's okay." She said straightening up. She eyed the clock.

It was only 10:15 p.m.

She still had three more hours of this torture.

***

One by one she watched all her co-workers leave out as they completed their tasks. It was half passed 1 now. The dishes had been all washed, the food placed away, and the fountains all cleaned and prepped for earlier today.

"So, who's taking Alicia home?" Ricky said, a coat hanging over her arm.

Straight and to the point. Alicia hated that in this moment. So she decided to speak up,

"Um, I'll ride with you Ricky, if you don't mind." She told her.

She rose her eyebrows some.

"I'll take her home, Ricky." Christian wiped his cloth in circular motions on the counter behind the bar.

"Which home?" They asked in unison.

They looked at one another and chuckled some. But the question was serious.

"Mine." Christian said, still looking down at his cloth. He was done wiping.

"Maybe I don't want to go home with you, Christian."

Ricky made her mouth into an 'o' shape.

"Well your contract is not with Ricky, it's with me." He rose his head looked into her eyes.

Her mouth became a flatline. Ricky couldn't afford to pay her $4000 a month. Even $2000, she was assuming. Right or wrong, he had a point. She didn't make a deal with Ricky. She made it with him. She didn't think it be half way right if he still paid her and she be staying with someone else. And then that person had to want her company as well. Now Ricky had been more than compliant. It wasn't easy Alicia was sure to suddenly have another mouth to feed other than her own. Use up extra gas when she could just take care of herself.

If she even opened her mouth to ask to stay with her it be pure selfish and wrong.

She guessed she could hurry and get a place, but those requirements hung over her head at once. She wasn't the type to rush things immediately unless it was a life or death situation.

Her only real reason she didn't want to be around Christian was that she felt uncomfortable. That was a good excuse if any, but she weighed all her options at this point. They weren't close enough to become friends yet, so why did she feel their "trust" had been broken? Severed?

"Ricky, you may leave." Christian said watching Alicia become lost in her own head.

Both girls looked his way and then at each other.

Christian resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. They were both acting like this was a death sentence from him--he froze thinking about that night. That could have very well been and he grew angry just thinking about it. He wanted to know why Alicia did it and though he had a pretty good idea, this was also a good opportunity to lay some ground rules. Like never going into his room without his permission if he was there or not.

"Now, Ricky. Unless you want docked pay."

That was a new threat on her and the look she gave him said it all. Bluffing or not, that was her que to get out.

"Alicia, I'll see you, okay?" She went in for a quick hug.

"Okay." Alicia smiled some as they hugged and pulled apart.

Ricky turned to look at them, Alicia in particular, smiled some and then faced forward, walking out of the cafe.

Christian came around the bar then. "Can you put on a pot of coffee please? You do know how to do that, right?"

Alicia rolled her eyes. "Giving orders as though nothing happened all ready?"

"I didn't say that." Christian's voice was flat as he closed off the front of his establishment.

Alicia watched the silver garage come down over the doors.

"So I take it we're going to be here for a while then?" She placed her coat over a bar stool.

"Can you just do as your told?" he looked back at her.

"Look, I've seen enough movies to know that two people talking over coffee are either meant to break-up or make-up. Their conversations are hardly five minutes long."

"Fine. Then I'll make it quick." Christian said. "Don't come into my room without my permission. And I'm sorry. That good enough for you?" He folded his harms.

A nerve appeared on the side of her head. "No, that's not! You broke my jaw!"

"Fractured." He said.

"Like that's any better!"

"Still want to do this standing up?"

"Yes! Coffee isn't going to make everything better or more civilized! Sometimes a good old-fashioned arguement is what's needed to get the ball rolling!"

"I suppose."

Alicia opened her mouth but nothing came out.

"Fine. While you decide to daydream again, I'll get it!"

"I'll get it!" she said. She blinked. 'I'll get it." She turned away and walked back into the kitchen. If she didn't find a healthy way to deal with all those feelings she was going to burst at the seams...maybe.

Christian looked around and then rose his hands to cup his face. He blew out and ran his fingers through his hair.

His family would never see him like this--rattled. Showing emotion. Of course he'd get vulnerable, but he felt none of them were worthy to see him in such a state. And he wasn't in the mood for proving them wrong should they take his vulnerability for weakness. He was not weak. But he had to admit that that didn't stop him from feeling it. Emotionally or otherwise.

He looked down at the red and white tiled floors and felt disgusted with them then. He smirked.

As she prepped the coffee, she threw in a postive thought amongst all the negativity and doubt clouding her brain--gave herself credit. She had been surviving this long, right?

And just like that another negative thought weasled it's way in. One with weight.

If it weren't for Christian being there. Her countenance fell. No! It was because you decided to walk into that cafe! This cafe! You didn't have to, you know! I know I didn't--gaaaaahhh! She preferred not be waging an internal battle from within, but was there really any other choice? Her and Christian were going to talk. But she always had a problem sharing her true feelings if something felt threatened.

She couldn't see Christian kicking her out over her being honest, right?

Then just like that she turned everything off. Her emotions. Her brain. Everything would reveal itself soon enough she thought.