for: @aaronhirsch location: C4 time: early tuesday morning
Opening the shop with a yawn was a morning staple. Begrudgingly, rubbing the night’s rest away, Ethan and the other unlucky suckers that were rostered on a morning, slowly got to work in preparation for the daily trudge. Though, there was an upside to early starts, not only did he bore witness to the island waking up, its slow shuffle as it roared into the week, mornings also meant a slew of regulars, for whom Ethan had orders memorised.
One of these people was Aaron. After an awkward encounter that had yet to leave his brain, Ethan quickly caught onto his coffee order and his visits to the coffee shop, and eventually they fell into a pattern of small talk over coffee — a great ice breaker and vanquisher of awkward moments, for them anyway. A quick glance at the clock told him Aaron’s imminent arrival, making Ethan ditch the grogginess that clung on and work quickly to set up the cappuccino machine, pushing yesterday’s absence aside. It was a new day after all.
Feet shuffled in, coffee shuffled out, but Ethan had yet to spot Aaron. At first he considered himself lucky, the coffee was still in progress and he had gotten into a habit of handing the steaming cup within seconds of Aaron entrance, but as the minutes ticked by and no sign of him, a light panic crept in. “Hey, that clock is correct, right?” Ethan turned to ask his co-worker, a glance to his own wrist could’ve answered that, but Ethan didn’t trust his eyes. A nod in conformation, only made Ethan’s worry lines crease in deeper. Second day in a row...“Where is he?” A sense of deja vu washed over him as he capped the lid on the cup, same actions yesterday, hopefully not the same result — wasting coffee pained him.
