Cafe Madness a Short Story written by Zariel Pate
“So... you're going to be late again!” I said on the phone, shouting at Grace. “Listen, you’re making me one of those hazelnut coffee whips when we get to the café. Bye,” I told her. I finished getting dressed. I was irritated with my sister; she did this at least twice a week.
I quickly threw on the rest of my clothes. I put on an all-black top and some light blue jeans. Maybe I should have worn navy blue jeans like all my other colleagues at the café. But the thing was, I hadn’t dropped a single lick of coffee on them yet. I knew I’d be fine.
I put my shoes on and waited on my couch. Grace sent me the ‘I’m here’ text, and I ran out of my apartment. I hopped in her car, and she sped off.
“Are you trying to get us fired?” I said.
“Well, that wouldn’t be the first,” she said, trying to be funny.
“You know it’s not funny. I said pick me up at 6:30 a.m., not 8 a.m. The last thing you want is Vince on our backs.” I put my seatbelt on.
“I guess,” she said.
“‘GRACE, MOVE FASTER!’ ‘JAMIE, MORE COFFEE!’ ‘MORE COFFEE, JAMIE!’ ‘COFFEE!’ COFFEE!...”
“OK! Shut up!” Grace yelled. I laughed.
“It’s true. That’s what Vince does!” I told her. She laughed.
When we arrived, there were customers already out the door. Best guess: it was full of people who needed their caffeine fix before work. A colleague waved at me and Grace from behind the counter. It was Clarence. We quickly got our aprons from the kitchen and put them on.
Clarence switched with Grace at the cashier and handed me one of the cups he had written an order on. We knew the routine—not just on days we were late to work, but because it was the usual.
“Listen, if you guys didn’t come in today, I would have had to stay over time. Which means I would have had to be at work while my wife and newborn baby are at home.” Clarence said. “Now, I’m not going to say that’s such a bad idea. That child screams all night. The point is, Vince is not happy. He is going to fire you guys.” He said while adding two pumps of strawberry syrup to the bottom of a cup.
“I know. I know. You’re right,” I said, taking a deep breath. I had no other choice but to take rides from Grace. I’d just turned 21 and still didn’t have a car. The café was my only source of income. But with being treated badly by the boss, it made me really want to finish that book I was writing and get it published.
“Whipped cream on top and bottom. Blended Caramel Frappuccino. Two pumps of strawberry syrup,” Clarence read the order on the cup. Sometimes he did that aloud. He truly loved this job, and so did I sometimes. My only other dream job was at Mr. Zain’s publishing company. It was known throughout the town for having the best stories. That’s where I wanted to present my book and get featured on their company’s magazine cover.
“Alright,” I said under my breath. I had another order. It was simple: a hot caramel coffee with two pumps of peppermint syrup.
I ran over to the coffee pot that had hot coffee brewing in it. I hummed a song in my head. Multitasking was key, and I had pretty much mastered it over the past few months of working at the café.
The café had no drive-thru, only walk-ins. The place was cozy and just right for others—and even me—to come here on my days off and write. Maybe that was a cliché, but after a while of being in my house writing, I got writer’s block.
I liked being at my sister’s house better when she read books and didn’t play the guitar, so writing at her house was not an option—ever.
“Yes, yes. You want three pumps of chocolate and light ice?” I heard Grace repeat back the customer’s order.
“So you guys were late again,” Vince said, finally coming back from wherever he was.
Grace turned around and gave the big eyes, signaling the ‘here he comes’ look.
“We’re sorry again, Vince. We are really going to try our best next time.” I looked at Grace with the ‘we are right’ look. She nodded and agreed with me.
“You know, if I fire you guys, I could have more money. If you guys don’t want to work here, find another job.” He turned around and went to the second cashier, making two lines for the customers.
I reached my hand up, about to shout something, but Grace grabbed my arm, leaving the cash register unattended. “Listen,” she quietly told me. “We need this job, okay?”
“I know,” I said.
“You need money to get that car and pay your apartment bills, right?”
“Right,” I said, as I calmed down.
“You guys need to find somewhere else to work!” Vince continued on. “You’re always late, and I would rather have employees who really need this job!”
“We do want this job, Vince,” Grace told him. But before he could respond, all three of us were stunned to see a masked man with a gun grabbing money out of the register Grace had left unattended.
“Hey!” Vince yelled, but the robber pointed the gun at him.
Vince threw his hands up and so did Grace and I. Clarence dropped what he had in his hands and put them up. Customers began running out of the café for their lives.
He had green hair sticking out from the top of his mask, as if there were a hole cut out just for his hair. For some reason, he was wearing orange pants and a yellow shirt.
Is he trying to be the center of attention? He looks like a pineapple. I thought.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Grace whispered. The guy grabbed the money out of the register and ran out of the café. Vince went to the kitchen to call the cops, I presumed.
“WHO ROBS A CAFÉ!” I shouted.
All the customers we did have, were gone.
“The guy looked like a pineapple,” Clarence said.
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
“I wanted to chase after him,” Grace said.
Moments later, Vince walked outside on the phone, talking to the cops and waiting for them to arrive.
A guy in a suit walked in a few moments later. Of course, he had no clue that we had just been robbed.
“I got this order,” Clarence assured us.
“You sure?” Grace asked.
“Yeah, I’ll take over. Just go cool off. Like I said, overtime sounds nice.” he told us.
I had almost forgotten that my sister and I were in a heated conversation with the boss. Now that Grace had left the register open and unattended, we were probably going to be fired.
“Well, more like being involved in an investigation,” Grace said. “I’ll be right back, guys.” She said. She left the café, and I figured she was probably going to go look for the robber.
I sat down at one of the tables. I needed to write to help with my stress. I pulled out my notebook from my purse and began writing.
“Two pumps of hazelnut,” I heard Clarence say. It reminded me of the hazelnut whip Grace was supposed to make me. It was her special concoction: an iced coffee with hazelnut syrup, caramel drizzle, whipped cream on top and bottom, and two pumps of peppermint syrup. It sounded distasteful, but it was delicious.
I took out my notebook and started writing the next chapter to my book.
~The Girl and the Yellow Book Chapter Eight: The Lake~
That was my title. As I said, I wanted to become a writer at the famous company called Mr. Zain’s Publishing when I completed my novel. The plan was to work at the café for a few more months and work on my novel at the same time. Then, when my novel was complete, I’d quit working at the café and present it to Mr. Zain. But now, I wasn’t sure if I would have a job anymore.
“MAKE THE COFFEE! COFFEE! MORE COFFEE!” Clarence said, mocking Vince.
He must have been done taking that guy’s order. I laughed, and so did the guy who was now waiting for his coffee. It was pretty funny.
“Hey, what happened? Aren’t you guys usually full?” he asked Clarence.
I stopped writing to listen in.
“Well, brother, we were just robbed,” Clarence said, then he turned on the blender.
“Wow, that sucks.” When I looked up, the guy was staring at me. I didn’t really care, so I kept writing.
A few moments passed, and the blender was off, making it quiet enough for me to write.
“You guys are fired,” Vince came back in, stating it bluntly.
“You guys...meaning my sister and I?” I stood up from the table.
Grace walked back in. “I tried looking for him, but...” she said, but Vince interrupted.
“You guys are fired!” He told her too.
“What?” Grace said.
“You and Jamie. If you hadn’t left that register unattended, this would have never happened!”
I slapped my hands down on the table. “Unbelievable,” I said.
“It was coming, sister,” she told me.
We walked to the back of the kitchen to take our aprons off. Vince didn’t even make eye contact with us as he sorted through the rest of the money that was left in the register.
“Let’s get out of here!” Grace told me. She tucked her arm in mine, and we began walking away (It was kind of childish).
Before we could exit the door, we heard Vince say, “Yeah! Hurry up now and don’t come back to my café!”
I could see Grace getting mad now. We stopped for a moment, and she took a deep breath.
“Grace, don’t turn back around,” I whispered to her.
“I know. I know,” she said as she contemplated what she was going to do next.
“We don’t have to do this, Grace. Let’s just go home…”
“Actually, one second… You know, Vince, you shouldn’t—”
Just as Grace turned us around, to our surprise, we ran right into that customer. Funny that Clarence had made him five Frappuccinos that were now all over us. I wiped my eyes. Grace and I looked at each other. We laughed. It was embarrassing and funny at the same time.
The guy said nothing and just wiped the Frappiccino off of his face.
“We are so sorry!” I said. “We can clean that up for you!”
Grace spat some Frappuccino out of her mouth. When we tried walking back to the kitchen to get some rags, we slipped and fell on our butts.
“Oh my gosh,” I laughed.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Grace said, flicking her hands everywhere.
“Here, let me help you guys up.” He chuckled. He reached out his hand, helping me out of the puddle of slippery Frappuccinos. Now, I could see what the guy looked like. He was a tall and very Hispanic man with shoulder-length curly hair. I felt bad that, his suit was covered in coffee and whipped cream from our little accident.
“I’m so sorry. My sister and I can buy your coffee. There’s another cafe around here, if you’d like…”
“No, that’s not necessary. Thank you. I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.”
“I think it was us, who were not paying attention.”
“It’s okay. I’m sorry again.”
I nodded.
I turned around, and Clarence was helping Grace up off the floor.
“Thanks, Clarence,” Grace said.
Soon after, the cops finally came in. “Are those the suspects?” the two cops asked Vince.
“No, I just fired them. There was only one suspect and he got away,” Vince told them.
“I got it. I’ll clean it up, guys. Just go home,” Clarence said from behind the counter. “Remember, overtime... crying baby...” he added.
“Actually, you two can’t leave just yet. We have to make a report. Besides, it’s your fault we got robbed,” Vince pointed at Grace.
The guy in front of me smiled, then sat at one of the tables, waiting for Clarence to make his five Frappuccinos over again.
I guessed that the days of no coffee spills on my light blue jeans were over. All four of us finished talking to the cops about the situation. The guy got his five coffees and left the café. And since we had just been fired, I knew it was time to finish my novel and contact Mr. Zain’s publishing company. I needed a job fast—and so did Grace.
Café Madness will resume in the near future! Stay tuned for the completed novel! At the moment, I've been working on a few other things, including the Benjamin Harris & The Many Mysteries series (Book 1 is available for purchase!). Don't worry, guys, this story will be completed as soon as possible! Feel free to check out my other short story, Anna Jackson!
Anna Jackson by Zariel Pate
Benjamin Harris & The Many Mysteries by Zariel Pate Chapter 1
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