Work Text:
Milk wiped the counter absentmindedly, she had been doing it for the past few hours it became shiny and spotless. But unlike the counter, the sky outside was dark, like the whole Bangkok was placed under a black umbrella. The roar of thunder from far away was another sign that the storm was brewing and it would be in no time that rain would come and drench this city until tomorrow.
She sighed, she had been alone for a few hours, not even one customer came and rang the bell to place an order. Her coworker, Jimmy, had left to fetch their stocks because the distributor refused to deliver them with the storm threatening the sky. While her manager, well, might as well get fired because he hadn’t been coming to work for the past week, leaving either her or any other available employee to do his job.
The sky was getting darker outside and the thunder sounded louder than before. She also could see the wind making the trees by the side of the road dancing wildly. And she was sure the lightning had made the electricity shut down for a second, not because of her suddenly experiencing temporary blindness.
“Great.” She murmured after it happened for the second time.
Milk was really, really, considering ditching this empty coffee shop and giving it a ‘screw it’ attitude. A nap sounded very appealing, especially in this chilly weather. The sound of a notification from her phone took her out of her contemplating state. It was Jimmy.
‘Stuck, there’s a tree falling on the road and it’s blocking the traffic.’
She sent out a ‘take your time’ before locking her phone again. Nothing was going well today. Well at least she had taken in the laundry, or else she wouldn’t be able to find it once she returns home.
Taking a glance at the entrance one more time, she hoped a customer would magically get pushed along by the storm and arrive at the door so her shift would not be in vain. But humans could only wish, because outside the drizzle of rain had come, hitting the window with so much force. And the trees were swaying like the song’s bpm had raised from 80 to 120.
“You know what,” Milk said to no one in particular but herself, sounding like she had reached a conclusion from her internal debate with the voice inside her head. “You’re right, a nap sounds very nice. No one will come anyway.”
She walked around the counter to the front door, thinking to lock it, because might as well close the business for the day. But Milk hesitated, she might have given the authority for today but didn’t mean she was the manager for real. To close the shop before the supposed time just because she deemed so was out of her authority, but then again, managing the whole shop by herself was beyond her job description as a part-timer. The gears inside her head were wiring, turning to find a suitable decision. She knew Jimmy would get inside through the back door, so she wasn’t worried about him. But there was something that made her stop in her tracks to lock the door, something that she just couldn’t seem to put a hand on.
Milk put her hands in the air, feeling defeated due to her indecisiveness, “I really need a raise.”
So she just walked away from the entrance, ditching the idea to close the shop before its closing time. She murmured a prayer that nothing would get stolen in case she takes deeper than a nap later. With eyes on the door with the printed letters ‘STAFF ONLY’ situated behind the counter, Milk dismissed any other thoughts besides nap nap nap nap. She almost hummed a little at the thought of her sore back against the slightly comfortable couch that was provided in the staff’s room.
Ting!
Another notification.
Just when her hand landed on the handle. It seemed like the universe despise her plan to take a nap so much that it decided to hinder her in any way.
Milk was hoping it was her boss, telling her to just close the shop and take a rest until the storm let up before going home. Or Jimmy, notifying her that he would arrive in less than five minutes so she at least could have a friend to talk to and not die out of boredom. But of course, it was neither. Instead, the notification was from the zodiac application she forgot to uninstall.
‘Good news for Leo! Today love will storm into your life, hold tight!’
She scoffed, the only thing that would come storming to her was the bicycle outside if the owner forgot to bring it home in this weather. Placing the cloth along with its friends, Milk took her step to the employee room, going to take a nap or just simply resting her aching back. But before her hand even took a hold of the knob, she felt a gush of wind on her back, like the storm had caught up to her and tapped her on the shoulder to place an order.
“Oh no…”
Milk froze, there was a voice, the storm had a voice. It sounded sweet and almost childlike. When she turned around, she saw a drenched kitten, or maybe a duck because of their bright yellow raincoat.
“Sorry, I got your floors wet.” It was a young woman, with the cutest face Milk had ever seen. Her smile was sheepish and instead of a kitten or a duck, she resembled more of a rabbit.
To deny her breathe was caught and her mouth opened uselessly was a lie, Milk was starstruck, or lovestruck. Both fitted the situation really well. And then the rabbit started to ramble out the apology and how she didn’t have a choice but to ruin a perfectly dry place because the storm was too dangerous for her to walk to the nearby bus station, and she definitely couldn’t risk getting swept up by it.
“T-that’s okay. Please, take a seat. I’ll fetch you some dry towels.” Milk, who finally found her voice again, said.
“Oh, you don’t have to.” The young woman said with a guilt-stricken face, she didn’t even take a step away from the door.
“I insist. Please wait for a moment.”
Milk hurriedly went inside the staff’s room and headed for the inventory. She quickly snatched three dry small towels in one go. Fearing the person outside would catch a cold, she dashed back to the front with a record time.
“Please take a seat, I can just mop it later.” Milk said as she pulled down the nearest chair to the woman who was still standing by the door, but at least she was now out of her raincoat. Milk assumed she was probably two years younger than her, but her posture was petite, one might mistaken her for a high school student.
Milk left her customer—well, Milk hoped she would eventually place an order—to grab a mop to clean the crime scene while the latter was busy drying her damp hair.
“If you give me the mop, I’d clean it myself.” The girl said. Even with her seating down, she didn’t make herself comfortable at all in her seat. Her posture made it like she was a second away from standing up.
Milk smiled, amused by the statement. “It’s okay, this won’t take even a minute.”
But the girl’s feet stayed restless and her eyes kept darting to the mess she just made and Milk. Face twisting in between embarrassment and guilt. “I’ll make an order then?”
“Sure, whenever you’re ready.” Done with the mess, Milk placed the mop back to its rightful place, the supply closet.
Not even a second after she was standing behind the counter, the girl she had yet known her name of was already scrambling on her feet to get to stand across from her. The towels were left carelessly on the table and the squeaking from her shoes just created another crime scene. The girl looked back to the trail she had just made, face was flushed and another train of apology was already at the tip of her tongue. But Milk beat her to it,
"That's okay. Just walk slowly next time, I don't know how to mend a broken bone." Milk made sure it didn't sound like a threat, but the girl still showed some fear in her eyes. Like a deer caught in the headlines. "I mean, we don't want you to get hurt, do we?"
The girl nodded meekly, "then, can I order now?"
"Of course. Take your time."
"Hmm…" Milk saw her scanning the menu, from the caffeine to the non-caffeine ones. Then her gaze finally landed on one, "I'll have one chocobanana smoothie and I also want those mochi ice creams, chocolate and vanilla, please."
The girl was sure of her orders, but Milk wasn't. "Are you sure you don't want something warm?"
"I'm feeling like having a banana smoothie, there's no hot option for that on the menu."
Milk shrugged inwardly, this girl was a customer, not her sister nor daughter, she couldn't tell her what to order. She input the orders onto the monitor, "anything else?"
"Nope."
"Your name, please." Milk said before she could stop herself. The shop was deserted and there was no line behind the customer in front of her, but the habit was not easy to kill.
"Love." Milk's fingers hovered awkwardly in the air, a question mark was probably showing on her face, thus her customer continued, "my name, it's Love."
"O-oh. It's a pretty name." Milk mumbled.
The cute young woman named Love let out a giggle, "thanks. Your name is cute as well, Milk."
Milk almost said something stupid like 'how do you know my name?' before she realized in time that she had her name pinned on her uniform. So instead she blushed, like a high school girl who got a good morning on the first day of school by her crush.
After the transaction was made, she insisted for Love to just go back to her seat and take care of her hair or simply act like the usual customer while she busied herself with the order. She mused, this was probably the first thing that put a smile on her face today.
Her phone let out a ting!, another notification. It was Jimmy again, complaining how the traffic was about to eat him up. Milk smirked, at least she wasn’t the only one who suffered.
Then her eyes landed on the notification she had yet to swipe below it,
‘Good news for Leo! Today love will storm into your life, hold tight!’
She blushed. Today, love had indeed stormed into her life, literally and figuratively.