New Barista
Posy Lightfoot hated starting a new job. Despised it really. It was a hundred-fold worse when she was stuck in a customer service job. Pretending to give a shit about a customer’s coffee order or mollifying a wealthy person over the fit of a pair of high-end jeans made her want to gouge her own eyeballs out. Yet, here she was, once again, needing to start over in a new city because she had a cover to maintain and an ex to hide her truth from.
She struggled to keep her resting bitch face in a neutral position as the manager of the coffee shop explained how to work the espresso machine. The woman was extolling the virtues of the machine the owner of the shop purchased as if he were the Messiah himself, and the item was a gift from her God. The way the woman was going on about Mr. Caruso made her wonder if the woman’s dick wasn’t hard for the guy or if she didn’t worship at the Caruso altar.
“Posy, do you think you can repeat what I just did?”
She nodded, stepping forward, wondering how many people actually lied on their resumés to say they knew how to be a barista, when the woman scowled at her as if she were expecting her to blow the priceless machine up.
With a deft hand, she easily created the base for any of the coffees on the menu and then poured the steaming coffee into a tiny cup, passed it to the woman, “how did I do?” She tried to keep the sneer off her lips as the woman commented ‘not bad’ and then challenged her to make one of the more complex items on the menu after nudging the recipe book in her direction.
“I would expect in a week or two you would memorize the book,” Lindy said in the same patronizing tone.
“I will have it memorized by end of shift,” she shrugged. “I have a knack for memorizing lists.”
“Sorry I’m late,” a woman who appeared to be Posy’s age raced in through the back door and then skidded to a stop. “Oh hey, I forgot the new girl was starting today. It’s going to be great to have an extra set of hands for the morning rush.” She extended her hand, “my name is Seraphina Caruso, but my friends call me Fina.”
Posy regarded the bright vivacious woman and immediately knew this was a girl who was going to try to make friends with her. There was always one who wanted to be besties, but Posy rarely stuck around long enough to make friends and when she did, they ended up disappointed in her because she tended to lay low and avoid any kind of spotlight. She shook the hand of the pretty brunette with the huge brown puppy dog eyes and smiled tightly, “Posy Lightfoot.” She studied the brown eyes curiously as a sense of déjà vu hit her. It wasn’t like her to forget a face and she didn’t know the face, but she felt strongly she knew the eyes, but from where?
“Posy has a ton of experience,” Lindy interjected herself into the introductions.
“Oh, that’s great!” Fina gushed.
“Why are you late?” Lindy asked her as she stepped backwards to let the baker approach the display case to put in a tray of warm muffins. “You’re supposed to be here for five-thirty and its almost six.”
Posy wondered if they tasted as good as they smelled. She leaned closer and sniffed. Poppy seed and lemon. Her favorite. It wasn’t even six in the morning, and she rarely ate before noon, but the smell was divine and considered pilfering one. She quashed the thought deciding to be fired her first day was not a good start for her new life.
“My brother insisted on driving me himself this morning.” Fina rolled her eyes as if her brother was the world’s biggest inconvenience, “but it meant I travelled on his time. I told him you’d be upset with me for being late, but he said you could take it up with him directly. Should I call him for you, and you can talk to him, Lindy? I’m sure he would be pleased to discuss with you why he was running behind today.”
Posy considered this was a lot of drama for her first day on the job but the pallor of her new supervisor at the mere mention of Fina’s brother made her shove her curiosity to the bottom of her feet and stomp on it. It was not good to be involved.
Lindy stammered as she backtracked, “it’s not a big deal. Try to be here on time tomorrow though,” she stepped away and headed to the office. “I’m going to get the keys to open up. Fina, show Posy how to use the cash register. It’s quite simple since it’s all computerized.”
As Lindy walked away, Fina leaned towards Posy, “my family owns the place. I’m working here as a punishment for wrecking two cars. Nero, my big brother, was pissed at me and told Lindy to treat me the way she would any other staff member, but she has a raging hard on for him. I simply mention his name and Lindy disappears into the back office to finger herself to whatever photo she can find of him on the internet.”
Posy choked on her spit at the blunt words of the brunette and noted the sparkle of devilry there. “Who are you?”
“I told you Fina Caruso.” The woman shrugged, “my family is well known in the neighborhood. You don’t know us?”
“I recently moved here from Sacramento. Still learning.”
“California?” Fina’s eyes were huge with excitement. “I was in LA last year to attend an awards show with my brother and his flavor of the month, though he dumped her before we even landed since she yelled at our flight attendant. He simply told the driver to take her to the departure gate of LAX and send her home ignoring all of her wailing and crying. Anyway, I got to wear a Versace gown, and it was epic. I sat next to a famous movie star and his wife. They’re divorced now too though.” She pursed her lips.
“How many coffee shops does your family own?” Posy lifted a dark eyebrow high on her forehead. She wondered if she’d stumbled into coffee bean royalty or something.
“A lot all over the country, but my family are really diversified. My uncle is a music producer in LA. My dad runs an import and export business of Italian clothing and shoes and has three boutiques here in New York and six across the country including one in LA. It’s very high end and he’s good friends with some incredible Italian designers. I have three brothers, and they are all older than me. Mario is into food and drink, and he oversees the coffee shops and restaurants. He’s a chef. He’s the one closest to me in age but he’s already thirty and I’m still twenty-four but I’ll be twenty-five at my next birthday. Franco is thirty-two and he oversees all the car dealerships my family owns. My oldest brother Nero is thirty-six and in addition to being a man-whore, he is a tightwad who oversees a lot of the business for my father, but he also dabbles in the art scene and he’s a damn good photographer in his own right. Lately he’s not been much of a man-whore. He’s searching for the one who got away.”
Posy wondered if the girl’s family knew how much she talked. She had a funny feeling the girl who blathered on about her entire family business was likely not supposed to talk this much. Her sixth sense on these things made her stomach churn as she considered it was likely Fina was part of a family of organized criminals. No family diversified this much without reason. She wanted to tell her to stop talking because she did not want to know more. Knowing more would likely put her in danger, and she carried enough trouble in her life without adding to it.
Fina was still talking, “Nero is the one who is making me work here, of course. I was using one of the cars from Franco’s Lamborghini dealership and when I went to drive it off the lot, my phone rang, and I stupidly answered it and drove the car right into another one parked outside the showroom. I smashed up two Lambos and Nero gave me some bullshit about needing to learn the value of a dollar.”
“What do you want to do if you’re not working here,” Posy tried to change the topic. “Are you in school? College?”
“I guess I’m a bit like Nero in the arts.” She looked away sheepishly, “I used to paint and sculpt but I haven’t in a while.”
“Why not?”
“I lost my inspiration,” she gave a loud sigh. “Have you ever been in love Posy?”
“Can’t say I have with any degree of sticking,” she shifted uncomfortably wondering when Lindy would come out and open the door so they could get busy with work and less chatter.
“Really? How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“And you’ve never been in love!”
“No.” She was lying but did not want to elaborate and almost jumped up and down with joy when Lindy reappeared. Posy noted her cheeks were flushed and looked to Fina who made a gagging noise and wiggled her forefinger in a circular motion in front of her hips.
She definitely applied to the wrong coffee shop. Thankfully as soon as Lindy opened the door, three people waiting outside stepped into the shop and filed up to the counter.
Fina got close, “I forgot to show you the cash. Can you handle the coffee, and I’ll do cash, or do you want to figure it out?”
“Whatever you don’t want to do, I’ll do,” Posy offered with a shrug. It was only coffee. She could do this with her eyes closed.
“Great. I hate the coffee maker. I’ll take cash.”
It dawned on Posy the woman did it on purpose. In her blathering on, she managed to get out of doing the task she didn’t want to do. Posy fought her grin as she realized Seraphina Caruso was more cunning than she’d given her credit for. She’d underestimated her. Posy chuckled as she moved to make the first coffee. Maybe Fina Caruso wasn’t going to be too annoying after all. Her personality was great so far.
By the twentieth customer, Posy was in her element, content to make the coffees and not deal with the order taking and cash. A couple of customers gave Fina a hard time though. One of them, who placed an order for eight coffees of assorted sizes and needs was arguing with her over the price and telling her she rang it in wrong because it was always thirty-five dollars even.
Posy felt her teeth grinding as Lindy immediately backed up the customer, telling Fina she must have done it wrong and to do it over and it pissed Posy off. Lindy was decent at putting together the orders, but it was clear she took her manager title to heart and believed the customer over her staff even if she knew the customer was wrong.
