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Right okay so when Wifies said he was looking forward to it that did not mean he thought he would see Hummer camped outside the cafe the next day. The boy had a floral tote bag over his shoulder, seemingly filled to the brim with books, that clashes somewhat with the serious vibes he seems to be trying to go for with the waist coat and white button down. ‘Wifies!’ The man perks up as he sees Wifies approaching him. ‘Good morning Hummer, why are you here so early?’ Hummer grins down at him as he goes to pull one of the books from his bag. ‘Look at this I’ve got so many books with documented cases and proof of these sea creatures I’m so excited to show you, but it seems the door is locked.’ The questioning look Hummer throws him is not warranted given the fact it’s half eight in the morning and the cafe itself doesn’t open until nine. ‘That’s because you’re a bit early Hummer do you mind going somewhere else for a while so I can prepare the cafe to open in a bit.’ ‘But I thought you wanted to know about sea creatures,’ Hummer’s eyes smile seems to fade as he speaks ‘I thought you didn’t fear the depths and that you wanted to know the truth I thought-.’ ‘Hummer,’ Wifies holds up his hands in a placating way cutting off Hummer’s panicked ramblings ‘I would love to hear all about it but my manager won’t be happy if he finds out I let a customer in before opening, and besides one of he should be here any moment now. Can you just do a lap and come back at nine I would still love to hear about it dude.’ Hummer doesn’t look too happy about this but ultimately agrees and stalks off.
‘So do I want to know who Mr Mentally Unwell is or do you want to keep your insane boyfriend to yourself.’ The voice behind him causes him to jump before he realises it’s just Branzy. ‘Oh he’s some tourist guy I’ll tell you about him while we start opening.’ Wifies then turned the key in the lock and walking inside. He recounts yesterday’s odd encounter with the man as he and Branzy start turning on the TVs that display the menu and the coffee machine, opening the window to let some of that fresh sea air in. ‘You know my husband told me before he died that he hopes to be amongst the fish I sometimes wonder if he’s amongst those sea monsters. I think they’d get on great.’ Branzy says as he wipes down the table for any dust that may have accumulated on the tables. ‘I didn’t realise you had a husband I thought you just enjoyed flirting with all the guys who come in here.’ An offended scoff leaves Branzy’s mouth but it’s not like he’s wrong since Wifies started working here men from around his age to older than Branzy would come in here to flirt with the other man. ‘Well I did, everyone thinks he just left me because I was a bit insane but my Clown loves me a bit insane and wouldn’t have left me alone if he didn’t have to so he’d want to be dead or at the very least been turned into a sea creature.’ Wifies does not know enough about them to disagree however he is pretty sure they can’t turn humans like fucking vampires but you know what, what ever keeps Branzy happy and not taking apart the coffee machine and making it just slow enough to be annoying. ‘Alright man whatever floats your boat.’
Wifies goes to flip the open sign and can just see Hummer gazing at him through the glass front door. When he flips the sign he barely has time to get out the way before Hummer barges in. ‘Sorry sorry, but I just have so much to discuss with you I spent the whole night researching,’ Hummer gestures wildly as he speaks grabbing Wifies hand and leading him to an empty table, ‘by the end of this your going to be like wow Hummer-‘. ‘You need to buy a drink if you want to stay here ogling my employee?’ Branzy cuts him off from behind the counter with a teasing lilt to his voice. For his trouble Branzy gets a death glare from Hummer before he turns back to Wifies with eyes like a dog who hasn’t been on the streets long enough to fear people. ‘Can you please make me a half shot decaf ice vanilla latte dear, I loved the way you made it yesterday.’ Hummer asked. ‘Sure man if you just want to sit there I can bring it down when I’m finished.’ Despite what Wifies said Hummer followed him up to the counter to continue chatting however he was cut off by people coming in for the morning rush. Wifies quickly got into the swing of making coffees as Branzy, the bigger people person between the two of them, took everyone’s orders. Every once and a while Wifies would look over to see Hummer, who had moved back to his table stare at him dejectedly before lighting up and waving when ever he noticed him looking to which Wifies would always respond with a quick smile before going back to work.
An hour passed before the rush ebbed off most people having headed to work by now, which is when Hummer ran back up to the counter. ‘Wifies hey, are you busy can I tell you all my research now.’ Hummer didn’t wait for an answer as he reached into his bag and grabbed out a book. ‘Yeah dude but I’m just going to need to stay here in case it gets busy again.’ Hummer waved him off easily. ‘Yeah yeah yeah that’s fine,’ Hummer opened the book to a dog eared page near the middle of the book, ‘so the first recorded encounter was by this women called Jenny in 1903 who claimed she saw a man in the water who sang beautifully to her but she had to promise not to tell anyone else about him, obviously she did and she ended up drowning a couple days later what do you think of that?’ Wifies glanced down at the open page it was filled with highlighting, annotations and weirdly a couple water stains but it was clearly well loved. ‘I think,’ Wifies began slowly trying to find a way to word this that isn’t overly rude, ‘that a testimony from a women we know nothing about with no additional proof isn’t very viable evidence.’ Hummer doesn’t seem to be put off by his answer as he places a worn photograph on the counter facing Wifies. The photo is taken from the dock and shows a large green and blue scaled tail disappear under the dock. ‘This is the last photo taken by Francis Faraway before his body was found strewn apart on the shore you know what that sounds like?’ Hummer asked with a cheeky smirk. ‘It sounds like something you shouldn’t be messing with or bringing Wifies into,’ Branzy appeared behind Wifies with his arms crossed, ‘it especially doesn’t sound like something you should be discussing in front of all my customers. Now if you came in here and started talking about it when nobody’s around that would be fine but people round here already know not to mess with that stuff, so I’d appreciate if you either left and came back when it was dead to talk about this or pick a new topic to discuss.’
‘Fine I’ll leave.’ Hummer put $5 on the counter to pay for his drink but gave Branzy another dirty look. Hummer walks to the door and calls out. ‘Bye Wifies see you tomorrow!’ ‘Wait but I’m not… working tomorrow and he’s already left.’ Wifies sighed before turning to Branzy. ‘I’d be careful there Wifies there such thing as adventure but there are reasons people here fear the sea whether you believe them or not I just would rather you not risk it.’ Branzy warned probably the most serious Wifies ever heard him and he just dropped dead husband lore earlier. ‘Don’t worry Branzy it’s not like I’m planning on getting on a boat with him and sailing out to sea I barely know the dude.’ Wifies tried to calm his friends worry though really there nothing to worry about Wifies is able to handle himself just fine.