- Her Deceptive Past -

- 19.12.11 -

I slowly walked into work yawning as I walked to the festive looking counter. It was 7:35 am and I was so tired. I heard humming from the back so I decided to go and see who was in the back. It was Kate, she was humming to herself along with the music on her I phone. I tapped her back and it made her jump. "Oh hey, E. How long have you been here?" She said before standing up and walking through to the front. "Not long really, probably about 2 minutes. I see you decorated the shop. I'm too tired. I better get a coffee before work, after all, this is Starbucks." I said before yawning again. Kate walked over to the coffee machine and filled it with coffee beans. She also grabbed me a cup. "To be honest, I don't blame you. We do work 10 hours a day, ensuring the people of Los Angeles get their tea and coffee. If anything, we deserve a little coffee in the morning. Oh, I forgot to tell you, no breaks today. Gemma is ill and so is Adam." I sighed and went to finish making me and Kate a coffee. "First, never say that again, its weird. Secondly, I swear that they're a couple. More to the point, being off at the same time.." I smirked and raised an eyebrow, Kate just looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, it did sound a little bit weird, 'the people of Los Angeles'. Did you see the letter that was on the counter at home yesterday?" By home what she really means is our flat. It's a bit small but we have learnt to cope with it. However its the perfect home for Kate's little dog Oscar. I remember yesterday, I was getting ready for a job interview and I was late so I must have not noticed it. "Nope, I don't remember seeing it, maybe Oscar knocked it off the counter?" I had a little sip of coffee before looking at my phone. It was 7:50, the shop opened in 10 minutes and we were just sat there drinking coffee. "Well, we better get to work, 10 hours, it will fly by right?" I said sarcastically. I did want time to fly by to see what this letter was about. Nowadays anything can happen. It might have been my parents who were on holiday. My sister who was away with some friends. Or possibly my brother who was working away in Australia. It could have been a bill. I really wish I was more observant at the time, believe it or not, I am pretty observant most of the time and a little bit judgemental.

The door bell rung and in came our first customer. He was tall, dark hair, too much gel and stunk of lynx aftershave. Not the nice kind. It was pretty obvious he was in a rush, he had chewing gum in and that mixed with his awful breath was not a nice combination. However this is normal, when you work here, anything can happen. Trust me when I say that, we have once had a woman with 3 cats come in, a clown and even someone who spat their teeth onto the counter. However we do have some normal people, maybe even celebrities. The man with too much aftershave ordered a espresso and a bacon sandwich. As if his breath couldn't get any worse! His name was Justin, I wrote it down on a little pad of paper and told Kate to go and get the bacon sandwich. I made the espresso and remembered that I forgot to ask if he was eating out. I walked out from behind the counter and stood about 5 feet away from Justin and 'shouted' to him about weather he was eating in or not. He said yes and I turned around and cursed in my head. He will scare the customers away. I walked back behind the counter and put the espresso into a mug. Kate then brought his bacon sandwich and Kate went out to give it to him whilst I walked back to the till and saw another man walking through the door, he was 5 foot 9 ish, possibly 10. Looked about 18, maybe 19. He also had dark and a little bit messy hair and his jaw-line was indescribable he was wearing a beanie and a green hoodie with black skinny jeans. I realised that I was staring so I looked at the till until he came up in front of the counter. "What can I get for you today sir?" I said before tapping my short nails onto the till edge. "Hang on, i'm thinking." He paused for about 45 seconds before speaking again "I will just have a regular coffee please." I nodded and pressed the coffee button on the till screen. "Eating in or taking out? and what's the name?" He was looking at the price board and then answered my questions "Oh right, yeah, I will eat in, I am supposed to be meeting my brother anyway and names Ethan" He added. I wrote on the ticket in red marker what Ethan wanted and passed it in Kate's direction. "That will be $2.90 please." I said before he got his wallet out and got his card out. He scanned his card on the pin device and went off to sit down.