We continue down the sidewalk, and I drop Autumn off at her preschool, which is just a few blocks from our apartment and the coffee shop. Once I kiss her goodbye, I make my way back the way I came from so I can head into work.
A little over six months ago, my parents stepped away from the business and made me the acting manager of the coffee shop. Which means more paperwork and phone calls, plus a slew of other responsibilities. That includes hiring new people. Usually, the turnover rate for employees at a coffee shop is pretty high, since most people are just looking for a part-time gig until something better comes along, but we’ve managed to hold onto this crew for over a year now, and the shop is doing great because of it. It’s going to be interesting adding new employees to the mix, but it has to happen. I just hope my gut was right when I hired the two new girls.
The bell above the door rings as I step into the shop, and my immediate goal is to make myself a coffee for my first hit of caffeine of the day.
“Hey, Pen!” Jordan calls out over the noise of the running espresso machine.
“Morning. Everything good?”
“You know it.” Her smile is wide, and there’s an air about her that’s lighter. I have no doubt it has everything to do with her boyfriend and her newfound freedom from all the stuff she was going through.
The door chimes not a moment later, and the first of the new employees walks through the door.
“Hi, Wren!” I call out.
“Hey. It’s so busy in here.” Her eyes are wide, but I have no doubt she’ll do fine in this environment. One of her previous jobs was working at one of the big chain coffee shops, which bodes well for me because I don’t have to train her from the ground up.
“Let’s get your stuff put in the office and I’ll introduce you to the quitter.”
“I heard that,” Jordan chimes from behind me and I wave her off, winking at Wren.
Wren knows why Jordan is leaving and also why I hired two people instead of just one. We’ve been extra busy this year and I want to be able to take a step back from helping out behind the counter and really dig into the business and marketing side of the coffee shop. It’s what I originally went to school for. Not that I finished, but still.
My parents opened the shop a year before I went to college. I would help out on the weekends and fell in love with making coffee. When it was finally time for me to leave the nest, I planned to major in business and minor in marketing so Icould come back and help my parents with the business. Neither of them had any previous dealings with running a business, so I put it on myself to help them out. I made it through a year of college before those plans got derailed. Not that I’m complaining, but it would have been nice to finish what I started.
Wren chuckles at the banter between me and Jordan, and I make introductions. She’s going to fit in just fine here. She’s twenty-three years old and has been working since she was sixteen, according to her resume. She has long, slightly wavy, chocolate-brown hair down to her waist, and her whiskey-colored almond eyes are framed by a spattering of freckles that cross the bridge of her nose and trail over her cheeks. Between her quiet demeanor and shy, soft smile, I have a feeling she’s clueless as to how pretty she is.
“You’ll get to meet Kyle soon. He only does a few hours in the morning before he goes to school, but since break is coming up, you’ll see him a lot more.”
“Cool.” She nods and looks around.
I can tell she’s a little nervous, but I pull her behind the counter to show her where everything is, and before I know it, she’s making drinks like she owns the place.
“Did she memorize the drink list?” Jordan questions a few hours later while Wren is in the bathroom.
“It seems like it. I gave her the recipe list last week, and she must have studied. I didn’t expect her to memorize it this quickly, though.”
“She’s a quick learner. She told someone their total, including tax, without looking at the computer. Did she tell you why she’s working at a coffee shop and not going to school?”
I might have let it slip to Jordan that Wren’s resume said she had only completed high school. Zero college. It seems weird, considering how smart she is.
“Nope. She just said she needed a full-time job and was a reliable employee.”
“Well, you’ll be in good hands when I leave. She’s a workhorse.”
Wren returns from the bathroom, and I finish showing her the ropes before sending her home.
Jordan leaves an hour after her, and it’s me in the empty shop alone.
I finally have a chance to look at my phone, and I have two unopened messages. The first one is from my mom, telling me that she and my dad picked Autumn up from preschool and are having fun at their house.
The second message has my heart skipping a beat, and I open it with a giddy smile on my face.
Dec: Dark green or dark blue?
Sent thirty minutes ago.
Me: Um… dark green. Why?
