FRIENDS WITH A LOT OF BENEFITS

THE GREEN EYE MAN

                                                                                   I. LOUISA

I woke up from my delightful daydream, I don’t think if it's still can categorize as a daydream cause I know that I'm still in the middle of my night shift. Even if my mind was running a million miles away from where The Busy Bean Café, located in the downtown part of the town was.

Yeah, my nightdream cause is not a day that consists of me having the life that I do always crave for and hope for. It is me living in my dream house, with a beautiful garden at the front alongside a majestic ocean view at the back of it. Having my dream Tesla car driving around the town, just running around my errands here and there.

Me having my successful business and living like the lady boss that I should be. Meeting my close friends in a fancy restaurant and just talking and catching up with what is happening in our own lives and having the best moment of our times.

But when my dream love life came and the man that just crosses the beautiful work of my mind due to its hopelessness. I pull back from my hopeless dreams and welcome the oh-so-not-good reality. Where I ‘am stuck as one of the crews of a local café that’s only the people who have a bad taste in drinking coffee will come here.

I don’t and I can’t describe or answer why our coffee is sucks. We are serving high grains of coffee, I think that is what our management and owner want us to believe. This is what I believed in and I’m not sure if it's, however, I still don’t know why the coffee here tastes like mud, sour, and burnt. Well, maybe our Barista who is the one making the coffee that we are just preparing and serving is the one to blame for this horrible coffee. Though trust me I try to raise my concerns to the management which causes the Barista that will just call him Zue hate the hell out of me. And since that, he still didn't change how he makes the coffee.

I can say that my instant coffee at home is much more aligned with my palette. Or I’m just not this boujee like this fella lining up in the store in the middle of the night.

Though I guess I’m just saying it cause I have just tasted their coffee ones since I can’t buy a six-dollar coffee every day and I don’t think my almost non-existent bank account will allow me to do that.

So, I just push back my debate in the back of my mind and face our seventh dear customer of the night since I start my shift at ten o’clock in the evening. I welcome him or her I don’t know what his or her preference more. Because some other time there is a customer that I have encountered who yelled at me because I’ve got the wrong pronoun to address him. I call him she because that’s what I see but guess what I'm totally wrong and he just snapped out of me and create a scene. Though I owe that mistake so I make sure to be careful in addressing pronouns. Especially these days people were obsessed with it, yeah, I can understand where are they coming but they are others that can go over the line by just stating their wrong pronouns. I can say if they are wrong in addressing your pronoun then correct it and move on. You don't need to go berserk about it, just my humble opinion.

Especially I've been in the customer service line quite some time ad I have encountered numerous chances where costumers do some stuff that out of our job description to handle.

I'm still waiting for him to state his order, I just use he to address him in my mind because that's what I’m seeing right now. I wait and I wait, till I’m not sure if he is still reading the same menu that I’ve known. If so, then why did it take him so long to choose his order because I know we don’t have more than twenty items on the menu.

“Ahm, sir if you still don’t know what you are going to order. You can please step out of line for a bit and d—“ I politely say to him because the line is starting to build up and I also starting to see that they getting annoyed waiting for him, but before I finish my sentence he cut me off.

“Can I order some Ice americano please with two-shot of espresso?” He said looking at me like it doesn’t take him forever to order. Then eventually he just orders an iced americano.

I just take a deep breath and punch in his order and give him his change from his 20-dollar bills. And while he is waiting for his I’m busy taking the order of the five more people that line up at his back.

A couple of minutes pass I already served all of the orders that I've got moments ago. I have to release a huge sigh again and look at my surrounding. The whole interior design of the place is more like the cool rustic, industrial design but still, it showcases a warm and cozy ambiance. And while I’m looking at the whole café, I saw different kinds of people. Some are our old customers and always at the shop doing their own business like the one on my left. The busy man, who looks like a cranky tall man with his huge glasses, as one of my co-workers describes him because he is always busy and cramming while his fingers fly through the keyboard of his laptop. That every hour, one of us will come and refill his glass of brewed black coffee.

While on the other side is, I know they are a medical student who is always here at the café at exactly eight in the evening until midnight or it can go till three in the morning if she gets lost on those thick books that she is reading. And when she looks at the time and sees that she passed her usual hour of going home I guess, she will just cram and nervously come out of the café like someone is following her. And we have seen that a lot. And some just casually drink their coffee, talking, enjoying every drop of it, and just living their lives.

That I hope one day I can make it but at the age of thirty-two I don’t know when I will gonna make it to that level of living. My life right now has tons of bills that I don’t where it came from, maybe because I’m alive and living that’s why I have those bills, says the other sane side of my mind. A life that is full of anxiety and fears of the unknown future and not living the best life out of it.

I look at the time and its past midnight and when I saw it in my eyes, it immediately went to the medical student that we have here. She is still engrossed in whatever she’s reading and it looks that she has no plan to leave the café any time yet.

“Hey! How is it going there?” I hear my co-worker Andy ask me after a moment of counting the cups because apparently, I can’t use my phone at work because it is prohibited by the owner, with I f*cking don’t the reason why.

“Ahh… just cool… just counting those cups right here” I awkwardly said to him, Andy is my new co-worker here I think he is just twenty-two years old and a working student who is taking up a bachelor’s degree in accounting at the known university near at the café.

That’s why I’m still awkward around him well I’m not the most out there type of person and it is hard for me to have a conversation with just anybody especially on someone that I have just met, that is why I have only one friend in my entire life and that friend that I've made was way back in the middle school.

And right now, after graduating from high school and I never have gone to a university, I just take some two years secretarial course that I have used for just a couple of years. Because of the bad experiences that I’ve got with the bosses that I have before. Well, Mandy is the one and only friend that I've got. We still have our constant communication here and there and we still see each other if she had time away from her family. She had married a businessman where the results of their loving relationship are three beautiful children and now living with them in the upper-class side of the town. That even if I don’t want to feel jealous about her life right now because I know she deserved it, but I still feel it, sadly I do.

So back to Andy, he is a pretty decent young man, and I can see the handwork that he is putting in both on his job in the café and his studies. Because I don’t know if I can juggle two different important things at one mostly at his age.

Me, at that age after I finish my two years secretarial course I still don’t know where I’m heading on, so I just go with the flow at that time use the secretarial course that I've got. But Andy, just the look at him, he truly knows what he is doing, and he gets it.

“It really sucks that phone is not allowed, particularly we are in the night shift, and it's hard to stay up without something to pass time with.” He said after he had just cleaned some of the tables, where the customers left in their empty cups, tissue, and other disposable garbage.

“Well, I guess the boss thought that the coffee can help our misery,” I say while looking at him to dispose of some of the things that the customer left on their table.

“But there is no free coffee!” We both say it at the same time, and after that, we look at each other and laugh. And I know some of our dear customers looking at us, but I care no less. We are just like them talking and chatting about their own life except that we are not sipping an expensive coffee but working and serving them.

After three hours and it is already three in the morning as I expected the female medical student just rushes out with her thick books from the café. While the busy man on my other side also left after the last refill of his coffee an hour ago.

And this is the time when some of the party-goers will come and drink some coffee to loosen up those boosts that they just take in. And for me, this is the most dreaded part of my work as a night shift café crew. Because a simple sane and not clouded with alcohol or any substances that I don’t know is kinda hard to serve with. How else do these people who are drowning in alcohol come and make some noise inside the quiet café?

I’m not here to judge but on my almost eight years of experience in the serving industry, not just being a café crew. I have also tried the work as a waitress on one of the restaurants here, a call center agent, and a sales clerk on one a known luxury boutique.

With that experiences, I can say I met every person in a different way of life. There is the casual and normal the easy to deal with, customer. While as usual the rude, mean one or what the gen z called them nowadays the Karen is always present. Although in the long run, I mastered the way of how to handle that kind of situation and people it is still extra hard to deal with them when there’s alcohol involved.

Exactly four in the morning a bunch of people who usually goes here to the café after their big night at the bar to grab some coffee to lessen the spirit of the gas that they have taken.

As the bell rings indicating that someone has come in the place. I have ready my greetings to them when suddenly I met the most beautiful green eyes that I’ve ever seen. And when I lose the focus of my sight on his eyes that’s when I see how gorgeous the man that the beautiful green eyes are from.

I took a moment to appreciate this one-of-a-kind work of art that just land in front of me. From its slightly shaggy dark as the night without the moon and the stars hair that just tousled on his head. Those intense looks from its forest green eyes with long eyelashes that every girl is this time wanting to have. And that aristocratic nose and his stubborn chiseled jawline. And those thin pinkish lips.

I would have gone down my eyes more to inspect this delicious specimen right in front of my eyes when I hear someone say.

“As far as I know that I’m still not part of the menu for you to look and crave at.” I hear a deep sexy voice that ever heard. And to my deep surprise, it shoots heat inside of me that goes down there on my precious part with just listening to that deep-sultry voice.

“Hey, you! We’re not here to just stand for nothing!” I wake up on that deep thought when a woman with a banshee voice yells at me.

By that I see five sets of eyes looking at me, the three are from the bunch of party-goers that always come here while the lady that just yells at me, I just see her here for the first time and the last one is the man that just shook me a while ago.

I simply clear my throat and get back the composure that snatches out of because of the man that simply barged in the café. Where up until now I’ve still felt the weight of his stares at me.

“I’m sorry for that. Can I have your orders please?” Said my apology to them and I finally ask for their order.

“We should have our orders—“ the woman to my left just cut out of what flowery insults that should be aiming to attack me by the man that took my breath away. I know he said something a while ago that was kinda cocky and rude, but I understand that is so uncomfortable to be looked at like what I’ve did not long ago. And I have never known what I have looked like when I stared at him like that. I just feel the rush of heat onto my cheeks because of the humiliation that I’m feeling right now.

“It’s enough. Can we get one flat white and four double shots of espresso, that’s all” His voice will be the death of me. He said, then he gave me their orders. I quickly punch in and try my best to not get an eye to eye contact with him. Even though that the weight of his stare is giving a hotshot. After I put in their orders, he also hands me a hundred bucks.

Soon as I gave the change from its hundred-dollar bill he said.

“Keep the change.” I don’t know what to say, that is why I just did the most proper thing to do in that situation is to thank him.

“Thank you, just wait for a couple of minutes for your drinks to be done.” He just nods but I can actually see the glint of amusement in his green eyes. He abruptly clears his throat and switches his side when one of his friends are now talking to him. And my eyes just not doing some sh*t on me, but I saw the side of his lips turn up, as he tried hard not to laugh at my situation.

And I feel annoyed and disgusted because of the embarrassment that I've got. And by just his presence stirred something in me and for him, it looks like I’m just a laughingstock with his friends, especially when the time they get out of here. When I feel so defensive? I just heave a sigh, just let it go. I say to myself.

They're still chatting when the orders are done and I have to get their attention, so I called the name that he gave me a while ago and it said Dan, so I give it a go.

“Mr. Dan your orders are ready,” I say loud enough for them to get their attention.

I cut their conversation midway and as he hears what I say, he quickly moves to get their order while still laughing on one of his friends says. And even if I hated it, I’m still in awe of his beauty, especially now the happy line on his eyes is visible while he is laughing.

While I’m still appreciating him, I sense someone looking at me, with that stretch my sight. And I see the lady that gives me an attitude a while ago and now she also gave me a stinky eye. I don’t know why but I feel some surge of jealousy thinking that they have a thing but looking through it is obvious that she is with someone based on the man that holding her lower back.

At last, they gather their order, and the last one who gets his is the man who names himself Dan on the receipt. I just simply smiled to be presentable and one by one they went out of the café. But soon he takes his back on me and before he heads to the exit, he winks at me and flashes one of his mischievous smiles, and swiftly walks out the door where his friend waiting on him.

I just release the breath that I didn’t know that I’m holding because of what he had just done. I feel my surely red as a tomato face due to the different waves of emotions that I’m feeling at the moment and I know it is still visible on my fair skin.

It is good that the whole place is deserted right but I know moments from now this will be packed again. As in the morning, most of the people come. And a lot of them grab their morning coffee and breakfast here.

So, I shake and hop on where I stand to get those feelings out of my system. Though it serves some advantages, just what I have experience. Because the boredom and exhaustion that I have just felt a while ago were twisted with a thrilling excitement because of the man I had just encountered. I think this is the most unforgettable moment I have ever experienced in years of working here at the café, plus the tip.

The next last hours of our shift goes smoothly and hectic as they always do. It is good that our co-workers who are shift start at six sharp came minutes early so me and Andy can step back on the long sleepy hours of work.

After greetings with my morning co-workers, I head back to the room where our lockers and valuables at. When finally, I get my phone, I check it if has any messages in store for me, but I'm not surprised because it has none. Yet, nothing unusual about that after the death of my parents my social life has decreased also.

Yes, Mandy and I still have a connection, but she knew that I’m at my work and my cellphone is not allowed so she is not texting me at that time. But I still can’t keep the longing of hanging out with friends be silly and have fun, like Dan and his friend have, minus the mean girl and I know its first name basis because I like to call him Dan if it's his real, I don’t know.

But yeah, it is hard to say especially I give my own life to tending my mother who has lung cancer at that time, it's not that I’m complaining I’m still blessed and thankful and I have to be with her more than the doctor said the time she only has. Still, I have this little voice inside of me that seeks that kind of life, that in this stage of my time I don’t know how I will do it.

After I collected my things, I quickly walk to the bus stop to finally go home and I guess where I can rest my exhausted mind, soul, heart, and body.