Ever since I was young, every adult I met told me about what college would be like. Some referred to them as the glory days, others as a painful slog. I definitely align more closely with the latter opinion.
My undergrad days weren’t horrendous, but I don’t look back on them fondly. I worked my ass off to get accepted to the best school in the city, even managing to pick up a few merit scholarships along the way. It wasn’t enough for a full ride, though, so I worked the odd job to make up the difference. Cleaning dorm rooms after parties, writing papers the night before they were due, or watching pets over breaks, I did anything I could to scrounge up the money to keep going.
The real kick in the teeth was that I wasn’t even enjoying going to school. My jobs left me barely enough time to get my own work done, so I was constantly stressed out. I neglected my health, neglecting nutrition to save costs on groceries or eating out.
People are often dramatic when they talk about coffee as if it was some mythical panacea, but it really was magical for me. If I bought in big enough batches and reused filters, I could drink the stuff for months without buying more. When I finally graduated, I got a temporary job as a teaching assistant for a Sociology professor. This gave me the boost in income I needed to be able to afford slightly nicer things for myself.
Once I had enough money to spend a little without worrying constantly, I decided to pamper myself a little bit. I started occasionally frequenting a local café called Baugh & Riley’s, which was a nice café in the thirteenth outer city district.
The pleasant aromas and calming atmosphere of the place helped me clear my mind after a long week. It was truly a therapeutic experience. After the surprise call I received yesterday, I spent the entire day looking for any way to avoid spending my Friday in a sterile waiting room. Unfortunately for me there was no such luck in finding any leads.
I decided that I needed a pick-me-up in the form of some hot coffee. Usually I’d come in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the exact same time, where I would see the exact same faces between weeks. One of my favorite regulars was a father and daughter who would come in early every Friday.
The father would order some tall, pale white drink that was loaded with so many ingredients it barely registered as coffee. He would then sit with his daughter in a booth, and they would both finish it together over the course of an hour or so.
I would usually sit on the opposite side of the room from them since I found it hard to focus on work when they started talking. The daughter was young, probably seven or eight, but she had a rather impressive vocabulary for her age. She would spend most of the trip blabbering off to her dad about the hottest social media trend or what little Stacy did to Carter on the playground the day before.
I got to B&R slightly later than usual and ordered an espresso with one cream and sugar. I tapped my hand to the side of my interface and then put my finger onto the pay pad. A harsh beep rang out in the restaurant, announcing to the entire populace that the payment failed.
“Oh,” the cashier said quickly, “Do you want to try that again?”
I shifted around in embarrassment, “Uhm, yeah, please.” After a moment I added, “I promise I have money.”
As I ran through the motions to pay again, I swiftly and discretely checked my bank account:
Remaining Balance: 4.01 Urona Centrali
“Oh shit, I’m out,” I thought to myself as I still made the motion of paying with my hand. A single shot of espresso wasn’t cheap, but it was relatively inexpensive at 9.99 UC plus tax. I favored it because it was both relatively inexpensive while being tasty and energizing.
The pay pad screeched out again, seemingly trying to humiliate me by telling everyone I couldn’t afford coffee yet came to an expensive place. Before the cashier could ask me to change orders, a hand moved quickly over my right shoulder to land on the payment pad. The sudden movement startled me, so I jolted my head sideways as if I were dodging a bullet. A pleasant ding rang out from the counter as I whipped my head around to see who had almost assaulted me.
What met my gaze were two giant blue eyes staring back at me with barely contained mirth. They were a bright blue that seemed to shine brightly in the natural light of the coffee shop. A warm and somewhat familiar voice came from near the beady eyes.
“Woah there, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. I also hope you don’t mind that I paid for you. My daughter has seen you around and insisted that we cover you.”
The pair of eyes backed up to reveal the father-daughter duo I had grown so familiar with seeing in the store.
“No dad, I said that we should be nice to the needy, that’s all,” the little girl added after her father.
The man hastily amended, “Not that we’re implying you look needy or anything, I’m sure you just had an internal error at the bank.” The small head and its glossy eyes cocked sideways at her dad.
“Dad, stop talking, you’re being mean to the broke lady!”
This elicited a heart chuckle from the man. “Broke? Now who’s being mean?” Instead of a response, the young girl started rapidly kicking her old man in his thigh. They obviously didn’t hurt, as this only made the man laugh louder.
“Ah, Lucy! Stop, stop! I don’t want to drop you! Daddy still has to order our special treat!” His tone got slightly firmer as he added, “I won’t order it if you are already this energetic, since the caffeine will be bad for you.”
The little girl paused her assault at the threat to her weekly indulgence. She then opted to look straight up at her dad with the most heart-shattering puppy dog eyes she could muster. The man knew he was fighting a losing battle and decided to accept his defeat with grace. The girl’s eyes lit up again as she began to shake wildly up and down in excitement.
I decided this was my time to step back from the whole ordeal. A lot happened very quickly, and I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed.
Stolen novel; please report.
I made my way around the corner to the waiting area, where I could see the workers mixing various drinks. It was refreshing to see the shop hire human baristas instead of the machines, as everyone knew they could never mix drinks in just the right way.
I wasn’t alone for long as the two regulars not-so-subtly made their way beside me. The daughter then began hanging precariously from her dad’s arms, contorting in his grasp to lean her upper body past his reach.
“Hey lady, you’re supposed to say thank youuuu when people are nice to youuuu.” Her blonde hair had fallen all over her face and partially covered her eyes. The little girl opted to rotate her head slightly so that only one of her eyes could pierce the blonde veil in front of her. She then proceeded to stare directly into my soul.
“Oh, right, I really didn’t do that,” I thought to myself. Out loud I responded with, “Thank you for covering my drink. I think there was some problem with the bank.” She wasn’t lying, there was a problem with the bank: she had no money in it.
The man smiled and then directed his attention towards his daughter, “Lucy, I told you to stop doing that,” he said as he pulled his daughter back into his grasp.
He continued, “It’s no problem, really. I’ve had plenty of long phone calls with banks over transaction holds. Good luck figuring that out, by the way, especially if you bank where I do.”
“Oh, I have an account at Big Picture, so it should be alright.” I then looked forward again as I waited for my order. As nice as this father-daughter duo seemed, I really needed a peaceful start to my day, and this didn’t seem like the place to go for that.
The father it seems, didn’t share my reservations.
“Big Picture? Is that the student bank partnered with the university?” I looked over to him slightly and nodded quickly.
“Yeah, you’re required to open an account with them when you enroll, and I never got around to switching after graduation,” I clarified.
He frowned, “See, that’s how they get you, you know? It’s like a gym membership, where they bet on you being too lazy to cancel your membership or go somewhere else.”
I just nodded again. This guy didn’t seem to pick up on my subtle cues for him to go away. We’re not friends or anything. Hell, I don’t even know his name! As long as it stays that way, I can keep brushing him off-
“Hey Lily, we never introduced ourselves to this nice lady! How rude of us!” He put his face into his daughters with a faux-stern expression. She wasted no time in pinching his nose between her fingers before laughing maniacally. He stuck his tongue out at her before he gently set her to the ground, letting her feet get adjusted first before letting her down fully.
The little girl, Lily, started first, “Hi, I’m Lillia but my friends call me Lily. We’re not friends yet, so please call me Lillia.” The father release an exasperated sigh as he looked at his daughter with a complicated expression.
“I don’t know whether to punish you for being rude or to reward you for being careful around strangers,” the father began. “Welp, I can just do both. I’m Rickard, but I think it sounds pretentious so call me Rick.” The father, no, Rick, extended his hand in greetings.
I took it and shook it three times before letting go. I heard that any more than three shakes and you were considered to be holding the other person hostage.
“I’m Olivia, it’s nice to meet you two,” I replied diplomatically. Guess there was no getting out of this now. I turned to look at Lillia.
“Hi Lillia, how old are you?” She shot me a contemptuous look, but answered, nonetheless.
“I’m nine-and-a-half this May.” She didn’t seem very excited anymore now that the mystery person she just met was given a name. Rick jumped in at this moment.
“Well, what are you studying, Olivia?”
“Nothing,” I responded, “I’m working as a TA for a sociology professor. That didn’t elicit much of a reaction.
“Well, my social science credit was in ethics, so I wouldn’t know if sociology is interesting or not. For your sake I hope it’s the latter.” He took a second to let out a chuckle at his own joke. “I was never good at those types of classes, hence me going into business administration, not philosophy.”
That was the belief held by a majority of my students. They all say, “This class is useless, I’m an engineering major. Why do I need to know about this?” For some it makes sense, but for others they just come across as close-minded.
“Business admin? I knew a guy who just got out of that,” I responded.
Rick smirked at me, “No shit? What department does he work for?” Lillia punched her dad in the leg for his swearing, for which he profusely apologized.
I smiled back slightly, “No, he doesn’t work for the government. He got picked up by a pretty big government contractor though, so maybe you’ll run into each other one day.”
At this point, both of us had gotten their drinks and were now awkwardly standing a few paces away from the pickup area. Rick looked like he could talk for hours, but I was saved when his interface started ringing.
“Ah, getting a call, give me one second.” He turned and walked a few paces away. As he was walking away he gestured to his daughter and mouthed, “Watch her?” I nodded my head, and he shot me a thumbs up and walked away. I looked down at Lillia, who did not seem to mind being left in my “capable hands”.
Apparently, the five seconds of silence was too much for the little girl to bear, as she started talking to me about all kinds of random things.
“Ms. Olivia, do you have a boyfriend? Do you make a lot of money? Do you have games on your interface?”
I sighed, “No, no, and no. You sure ask a lot of questions for someone so little.”
She beamed, “My mom says it’s good to ask questions, so I make sure to do it all the time!” That definitely made a lot of sense considering how talkative the young girl was. If I was forced into talking, I was going to try and find one topic of conversation and stick to it until Rick came back.
“Your mom,” I started, “where does she work?” This stopped Lillia’s incessant questions for a moment before she came back to the new topic with vigor.
“My mommy? She works where dad does, in the big city buildings. She has a boring job and just tells people to write stuff down all day. We’re going to see mommy after we get drinks because dad has Fridays off. Do you want to come? Maybe you should come so that it looks like dad has a secret girlfriend! Now you definitely need to come!”
I didn’t even have a chance to respond before Rick appeared from behind a partition, mouthing the words, “Thank you” to me. He walked up and patted his daughter on the head.
“Hey darling, we need to take our drink to go. Mom says that city hall is packed today, and that I’m probably going to get called in today. Come on, get your things.”
“Hey dad, can we bring Olivia with us?”
Rick responded quickly, “No, she’s probably busy and we’re on a bit of a time crunch.” Lillia looked like she wanted to protest, but her father’s gaze gave her no leeway to do so. He was firmer than before, not at all like the playful man I had met earlier. Rick looked to me and smiled, this one a lot less jovial.
“It was very nice to meet you, Olivia, but we’ve got to get going.” Lillia stood next to him with her head towards the floor. Just then, a stray thought crossed my mind.
Without taking time to consider it logically first, I blurted out, “Actually, my plan was to go out to city hall after coffee. I don’t know my way around downtown and I’m sure the buildings itself isn’t easy to navigate either, so…” I trailed off after I noticed how Rick was looked at me. I felt my cheeks begin to burn as I considered what I just did.
“What? Why would I want to bother these people like that,” I thought to myself. Rick continued to study me and gave me some facial gestures that amounted to saying, “Are you being honest, or are you trying to appease the girl?” I sent one of my own back, showing that I was sincere.
Rick paused for another second before looking at his daughter. He turned his head to look at me, a complicated expression in his eyes.
“Well, it shouldn’t be a big issue for us to escort you there if we’re going to the same place.” Lillia’s eyes lit up as she struggled to contain her excitement for her decisive victory against her father.
He didn’t say anything but nodded towards the exit with a slight smile on his face. We hadn’t even walked out of the door when Lillia started talking again, this time about all the interesting things she’d seen on her trips with her father downtown.
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