Coffee Wars - Excerpt # 7
Coffee Wars - Chapter Three, Part Two
The next day, while trapped on the school bus heading home, Christina couldn’t help but think of Buddy. As weird as he was, Christina still couldn’t believe he was serious about letting customers smoke weed behind May’s. Even for him, it was a stupid idea. If the cops busted him, there went her job. She might even get busted too, which would get her kicked out of school and possibly out of her parents’ house.
After a full day of school and a full day of similarly depressing thoughts, Christina was hangry. Instead of going straight home when the school bus dropped her off in her neighborhood, she switched directions. Café Pizza was just a short walk across the main road outside of her neighborhood.
Christina bought a slice of pizza along with a soda and sat down at a two-person table by one of the front windows. The first bite of pizza burned her tongue, and she dropped the slice back on the paper plate and gulped from her can of soda. She was still chewing when her friend Lea sat down across from her.
“Hey, are you ready for that math test on Tuesday?” Lea said, the frantic tone in her voice reflecting the look in her overly wide eyes.
Christina held a napkin to her mouth as she swallowed hard. “I’m pretty ready,” she told Lea. “Work has been really slow this week, so I’ve had extra time to study.”
Lea’s brow knitted. “Since when is May’s slow?”
“Since an Expresso opened up across the street.”
“Oh. That would do it.”
“Tell me about it.”
Lea’s eyes went wide again, and she leaned in. “But you’re still working there, right?”
Christina’s lips twitched. “Yeah. I’m still working there. Don’t worry.”
Sometimes, when Buddy wasn’t at May’s and the other workers were “on a break” out back, she’d fix free drinks for her friends. Lea’s worry that she’d have to start paying for drinks if Christina lost her job was as evident as a blaring siren. Christina knew her friendship with Lea would be much less important to Lea if she couldn’t get her drinks for free, not that Christina cared that much. It only hurt a smidge.
Which was why Christina decided messing with Lea was not a bad idea. “Buddy says I’ll be the last one he fires if he has to start laying people off.”
As expected, Lea looked worried. “He’s already talking about laying people off?”
Shrugging, Christina took another bite of pizza. Lea could sweat a little. Christina chewed slower than she normally would, swallowed, and took a swig of soda before saying, “Sort of. But then he hired a new guy after he came up with this ‘brilliant’ plan.” She made air quotes with her fingers on the word brilliant.
“What kind of plan?”
Christina glanced around and then whispered in Lea’s direction. “He’s going to open the back patio to the customers.”
Lea didn’t bother to whisper. “You mean where the employees go to smoke weed?”
Christina shushed her and looked around again. “Keep your voice down, and yes, that’s where I mean.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Lea sat quietly while Christina finished her pizza, but the contemplative expression on Lea’s face made Christina nervous. “Look, just don’t tell anyone. Okay?”
“Oh, no,” Lea said. “I would never tell. I promise.”
Too bad Christina didn’t believe her.
Comments
Post a Comment