It's a few minutes to 12 noon by the time I take a quick glance at the clock. For some reasons that I cannot quite lay my hands on, today has been rather slow and that makes me feel uneasy for some reason. It's very odd, especially for a Monday, that the café is as quiet as this. At this time of the day, particularly in the early hours of the morning, this place would be hustling and bustling with customers coming in and going out. Even on days when business was not quite good, it was never this calm. It's not as though I do not enjoy the calmness of the morning, in fact, I do love it, but I still can not shake off the feeling of unease that is settling in the pit of my belly. I'm about to resume mindlessly staring and scrolling through my phone when I hear the welcome bells chime. I feel my heart drop straight into my belly.
"Whatever the flying freak is he doing here?", my thoughts are spiraling and I'm trying very hard to keep a hold on my emotions and my sanity. I watch him walk over to Elias who is engrossed in making a new coffee recipe, I think he also got Simon to import new coffee beans, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
"I would like a cup of iced Americano please and cinnamon rolls" I barely catch his words even though I'm straining to hear them. Elias takes down his order and immediately gets to work. While preparing his order, Elias seems to engage him in some small talk. One reason why I feel like our customers keep coming back to this café, not withstanding that we're not exactly the best in town is probably because of Elias. He seems to know just how to get people to feel like they are the most important persons to him in that moment. He does not even have to fake it, it is something that comes very naturally to him and while I genuinely admire that about him, it makes me worry for his safety.He is too trusting for his own good, I'm very certain he does not believe that people are inherently evil, he only sees the good in them. Their conversation is rather mundane so I immediately lose interest. I'm still on edge though, mainly because he is going to need to come to my station to make payment for his order. I do not know what to expect and that's what frustrates me the most.
I see in the corner of my eye that his order is ready and it's time for him to make payment. Elias politely points him in my direction to make payments. I watch warily as he walks over to my work station; I don't know how much he knows or how well he may recognize me but there's no way in hell that I would be letting down my guard.
"Hi, good afternoon, the barista over there said to come here to make payment"
" Yeah, that would be $50. Are you paying with cash, wire transfer or would you be making card payment?" I try my best to sound as polite as possible even in the circumstances where my teeth are on edge.
"I would be making card payment," he says even as I watch him fish for his card in his pockets. "I'm so sorry, I can't seem to find my card in my pocket," he looks so embarrassed and for some reason, I find his embarrassment cute. Something must be terribly wrong with me right now because what the hell do I mean I find his embarrassment cute? This man is literally one of the reasons why a lot of women and children have had to suffer inhumane forms of abuse and here I am finding his embarrassment cute? I most definitely have lost my mind.
"It's totally fine, you can take your time finding your card". He eventually pulls his card out of his pocket, it was in the back pocket, meanwhile he's been searching the front pocket all the while. He extends his card to me and I'm about to accept it from him when he asks me the most random question out of nowhere.
"I'm sorry, not to sound rude or intrusive, do you mind telling me what brand of perfume you use?"
Now that's a rather random question to ask a random stranger. If I were another person, I would probably read no meaning into it, but knowing what I know, I have a nagging suspicion that he may have caught a whiff of my scent at the headquarters. I need to paly this cool or this could come back to bite me in the ass.
"I don't pay attention to the brands of perfume, I just use whatever it is I can afford and whatever smells relatively decent." He seems to be satisfied with my answer because he just nods. I almost let out a sigh of relief but that would make me a little suspicious to this man and I can not afford that.
"Have a good day and I hope you enjoy your drink," I'm the image of a perfect receptionist/cashier when I turn around to hand over his card to him.
"Thank you for your kind services." It's not until he takes his order and walks out the door before I feel the tension in my shoulders finally soften. That was undoubtedly one nerve wrecking encounter.