“- and now I have an ugly painting in my room.” Cain finished recapping yesterday’s evening to Etienne who’d popped in to ‘Chez Manon’ during his lunch break.
“How could you, Laura?” Etienne looked up at me with a fake offended expression.
“You’ve been to my apartment, you know there’s nowhere else to put it.” I replied, matching his energy. “And anyway, I only came down here to get clean plates, stop distracting me.”
“Managers don’t have to clean up plates.” Etienne suddenly said. He did so in his usual joking tone, but the reminder that I still hadn’t given Manon a definitive answer hit me in a way it shouldn’t have.
“And on that note, you shouldn’t let people in through the back door,” I said, pointing at Cain, “And you shouldn’t show up uninvited while other people are working.”
I picked up the tray of plates and was about to leave. But, I felt bad all of a sudden for being so dry, so I turned around and said in a soft tone:
“I’ll see you later.”
“Who, your cousin or me?”
I winked to Etienne in reply and hurried upstairs.
----------------------------------------
I arrived just in time to witness Alex get flustered before a customer. I put down the plates and was about to intervene, but JJ gestured to me from the other end of the room, hastily telling me to go there, and let Alex be. I gave the girl one last glance before joining my colleague. She looked like she was struggling, but no more than usual. Plus, the client before her had that typical ‘give me a discount’ look on their face.
“This one is a special kind of weird, even by our standards.” JJ whispered to me, all while very convincingly pretending to clean a table.
JJ and I had very different standards of what was and wasn’t weird, as I for one never came to work in mismatched shoes, or clothes two or three sizes too big. I also always kept on a business façade, never telling people what I thought of their behaviour or outfits, like JJ’s black hair that had been neon-green two days ago (which I did have an opinion on). Perhaps that was why I didn’t think much of the customer at the counter, and their body armour that did not match their duck hat. They looked like a character from a video game who’d put on whatever would max out their stats.
“Are you sure you don’t have red-flower tea?” They asked.
“No, I’m very sorry, but I don’t know what you mean by red flower.” Alex shyly replied.
“You know, those flowers that grow amongst the grass in the Wild Lands? They are red and have long green stems.”
“I’m very sorry. But if you aren’t going to order anything, I will need to have to ask you to leave.
“I’m ordering, I’m ordering…” They glanced around before their gaze landed on a sponge cake. “That one. And I get a discount.”
“Here goes round two,” JJ smirked.
Jack Quack
He/Him
25
C+
War Priest
Force Shield
B Covalent Amethyst barrier [Ac]
C+ Prayer of Azaron [Ac]
C Child of Eir [Pa]
D+ Whisper of protection [Ac]
luck
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
40/100
MP
33/100
Strength
11
Dexterity
9
Constitution
13
Intelligence
11
Wisdom
9
Charisma
10
“Sorry. On what basis do you think you deserve a discount?” Alex asked in her usual shaky and anxious voice.
JJ chortled, and I pressed my lips together, deciding to intervene. But JJ grabbed the side of my apron and tugged on it, holding me back.
“She needs to learn. Let her handle it.”
“Fine.” I resigned and followed JJ’s example of pretending to work while watching the scene.
“Well because I am in the military, of course.”
“I’m sorry, but we don’t do discounts.” Alex repeated, just as shyly as before. “But if show me proof of id, I can give you a bigger slice of cake.”
I facepalmed myself and JJ chortled again. This was going stupidly poorly, but at least Alex hadn’t needed to operate the coffee machine yet. That usually was a whole different kind of disaster.
When Alex glanced my way, silently asking me what was wrong, I quickly returned to my task of half-heartedly working, as I walked among the tables, checking if anyone needed anything else, or anything taken away.
“No, I don’t mind a regular-sized slice, if you answer one question.” Jack continued.
“I…”
“How come you don’t have a full maid outfit, but just the apron and headband?”
“It’s not a maid outfit … uniform. Your order will be 2.30-”
Just as the man was pulling out his wallet from his utility belt, Alex suddenly froze. I put down the two empty cups I had picked up, and worryingly watched as her eyes filled with orange energy, before quickly but smoothly returning to normal.
“You know, even if your friends put you up to pranks like this, you shouldn’t bully hospitality workers.” Alex suddenly said in a calm tone I’ve only ever heard her use when her boyfriend was around.
“What are you talking about?” Jack asked, his expression slowly shifting into a perplexed one.
“I mean what I said. You-”
“Are getting cake on the house.” I rushed in, cutting Alex off.
“Why?” Jack replied with a mixture of confusion and doubt painted over his face.
“Because we like your hat.” JJ suddenly chipped in. “Today is st-Oiseau day, so we’re celebrating everyone with a bird hat. This employee,” JJ gestured towards Alex, “arrived late and missed the memo. So, here’s your cake, and have a nice day.”
While JJ was talking, I quickly wrapped up the cake and handed it to the man. Alex had taken a step back and was leaning against the coffee machine, clearly feeling unwell.
While JJ was spouting some more formalities, the next customer leaned over and asked:
“Does that mean that if I run home and bring a bird hat, I’ll get free cake as well?”
“My colleague will answer that for you.” I replied, before grabbing Alex by the shoulders and practically dragging her downstairs. “Good luck with the st-Oiseau thing.” I whispered to JJ on y way down.
----------------------------------------
“I’m fine, let me be.” Alex spoke as soon as we were down far enough the staircase for the customers not to hear us.
“You’re clearly not. You’re pale as heck, and you were acting weird. Do you want to-”
“Oh, I was acting weird? Laura, I thought we had an agreement. You stay out of my business, and I stay out of yours. Otherwise, you might wanna start worrying about how Etienne would react to learning you’re a high ranker.”
“What-”
“How do I know? Same way I know you and I never walked home together when the café blew up back in August.” Alex cut me off again in a frustrated, almost angry, tone. “So leave me alone.”
I clicked my tongue but didn’t say anything as I watched her disappear into the kitchen. She was right, we all had our secrets, but mine wasn’t affecting my ability to work, or customer service. She was right about one thing though, I did need to start thinking about how Etienne would react to learning about my rank, as now that he was spending unsupervised time with Cain, the beans were at risk of getting spilled out of the bag.
Mind Stop
Effects of Double Mirror negated
“No, no… no. no.” I muttered, as soon as I realised what this notification meant.
I rushed back upstairs and saw none other than the Nam twins comfortably sat at the same corner table as last time. Today had started out as a regular day, and I struggled to wrap my head around as to why it was going downhill so fast.
“He’s hot.” JJ said, as I approached the counter, nodding in the direction of Dong-hyuk.
“They’re also out of your league. So stay away.” I informed JJ.
“We’ll see about that.” JJ replied. “Do you mind doing clean-up for now? I have a good view from here…”
I shook my head in a resigned manner and got on with the task.
The fact that the twins had shown up for the third time at ‘Chez Manon’ was starting to worry me. On one hand, I was getting used to their presence, as I no longer feared for my life or wanted to run away. Perhaps that was a false scene of security settling in, or perhaps it was one of their skills acting, one that I could not block with ‘Mind Stop’.
The bottom line was, Hyeonmin kept glancing my way as I worked, but neither he nor his sibling did anything noteworthy during their hour or so stay. As they left, I truly hoped they wouldn’t come back.
[https://i.imgur.com/OHMyQo0.png]