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“Right, so who are we judging today?”
Sylvie sipped on her whipped frappuccino with a vigor that made Mobius wonder if she was inhaling her food. She licked her lips and practically glared across the coffee shop, her eyebrows furrowing together and her tongue sticking out of her mouth. Mobius shook his head, but he followed her gaze as she stared at a person in a corner of the shop.
He couldn’t see their face, but from what he could tell, the person’s hair didn’t go farther than the nape of their neck, and their skin was smooth and dark. It seemed like they were wearing a uniform, but from this angle, he could only see a collar and a jacket over their shoulders. In front of them was a computer, where they were typing away at lightning speed and sipping slowly at a cup that was marked with a…
Mobius tilted his face. Was that a winky face?
He frowned. They seemed kind of familiar, too…
“A woman who has been here for two hours without ordering so much as a slice of cake to go along with her damned cappuccino.” Sylvie slurped her drink again, making loud noises that made Mobius cringe. She put her cup down on the counter and leaned against it with crossed arms, now looking at Mobius with a scowl. “She’s been typing away at that little computer of hers for ages now and she’s talked to me once to question the establishment.”
He looked over his shoulder at Sylvie, who was still angrily inhaling her drink and scowling at the customer. Mobius chuckled softly and fell back against the opposite side of the counter.
"I'm sure she's just a skeptical person," Mobius suggested, faking confidence.
Sylvie turned to him to raise a brow, and Mobius sighed in defeat.
"It's a coffee shop, for God's sake," Sylvie said, slamming down her cup and moving to clean the counter. "It's not like I'm slipping poison into her drinks."
"Well, I guess when an ex-convict owns an establishment, people start to get suspicious,” Mobius joked weakly.
Sylvie groaned, and took away her attention from the woman to flick him. “C’mon, Moby. Doesn’t mean she can sit at the table for two hours.” She went back to glaring at the woman in the corner of the shop, muttering under her breath, “Or question my credibility. It’s a damn coffee shop.”
Mobius stayed quiet for a moment as Sylvie continuously wiped away at the counter. Then, to try and distract her, he asked, "So am I getting my usual?"
Sylvie snorted, gladly taking the bait for a change of subject and immediately began her rant on why his coffee order sucked. He just shakes his head and chuckles under his breath.
"You're such bullshit, Mobius," Sylvie told him, already taking out a cheap cup and filling it with his order. “I keep thinking you’re better than this.”
Mobius just smiles softly, leaning forward on the counter with his arms crossed as he says, “What can I say, medium coffee, cream, two sugars is a pleasure.”
“You are such bullshit,” Sylvie repeated. She shook her head as she poured the cream into the cup and took a moment to find the sugar before turning back to Mobius.
“Sometimes I think you just drink this to annoy me,” She said under her breath.
“I’m sure you say the same about the customer in the corner, too,”
Sylvie groaned louder, and some patrons turned their heads to see why she was making the noise. Mobius shrugged, mouthing an apology towards them before turning back to Sylvie, who was glaring at him soundly as she put the plate of croissant in front of him.
“Honestly, the least she could do is order the most expensive thing on the menu- or a cupcake every twenty minutes.” Sylvie went to the cashier and punched the half-working machine. Holding her hand out expectantly, Mobius gave her his credit card, and she slid the thing in and waited for the receipt to come out.
“Why don’t you just kick her out?” Mobius took the plate of croissant and took bite, grinning to himself when he heard the satisfying crunch of bread. “Wouldn’t be that hard,” Mobius told her once he’d swallowed.
Sylvie sighed exasperatedly and ripped out the receipt. “I wish. Asking her to leave would probably mean another damn customer wanting to take this place down. I really don’t have the patience for that right now- especially since my family’s coming into town.”
Mobius nodded. He brushed some pieces of chocolate off his tie and continued to munch on his lunch. “She’s not too bad. At least it’s just one person.”
The scoff that followed his statement was not appreciated. “She’s terrible . I told you, she’s been wasting that chair, and she’s been completely bitchy about it, too. Every time I goad her into trying to buy something, she either ignores me or snaps, ‘No, thanks.’ Now, whenever I go up to her, she tells me before I even get up to her table- ‘I’m good.’ Honestly, where are her manners?”
“You’re the last person to care about manners,” Mobius called out. He took a bite out of his croissant and noticed as Sylvie’s face shifted into something vaguely familiar.
She pursed her lips together and looked at the cup of frappuccino that was starting to get cold. “That doesn’t mean I don’t notice when someone has a distinct lack of them.”
Mobius nodded slowly, processing the information alongside eating his croissant. Watching as Sylvie went off to take a customer’s order, he furrowed his eyebrows and wondered. It was in character for her to ramble on about an unfair, skeptical customer who stuck their noses up at her business, but something about the way she talked about the whole situation made him think…
“Anyway,” Sylvie continued, walking back to him after taking the customer’s order. She prepared another cup of coffee as she told him, “That person’s probably gonna leave after, what, another hour, and it’s not like this place is packed, anyway. Just hope they leave a tip that makes up for the wait.” Screwing on the top to the to-go cup, she called out a random name and the customer came to the counter swiftly.
“Have a jolly day,” She said with fake cheeriness. Sylvie put on her phoniest smile, but when they left, her face dropped and she went back to Mobius.
“My family’s coming over for the holidays, unannounced , and I have to get ready for their big appetites and high tastes,” She muttered bitterly.
Mobius tried for an empathetic smile that came out more as a grimace. “Hope it goes well for you, though.” Then he furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait. If they’re coming unannounced, doesn’t that mean it’s- well, y’know, without an announcement?”
Sylvie shrugged. “My cousin told me that they were planning on coming to New York.” She took an apple from a nearby basket and threw it up in the air. “Two of them decided to stay at a rented apartment, but my cousin is going to be staying with me.”
“Don’t you live in a studio?” Mobius asked, tilting his coffee towards her.
Sylvie rolled her eyes. “Don’t talk about it.”
He nodded. “Sorry.” Taking another sip from his coffee, he said, “Good luck with your cousin.”
Dropping her head in her hands, Sylvie groaned. “I’m gonna need it.”
As Mobius laughed, Sylvie slapped his arm and went to the corner of the coffee shop to see if the customer needed anything new.
(Spoiler alert: she did not.)