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3:15pm was always a slow time at the coffee shop.
Well past the lunch rush, but still before most people got off work, it was always a lull in the day. Which meant, usually, it was incredibly dull.
That was, of course, until she started coming in. The very serious, white-haired woman who always was dressed nicely and always wore sunglasses inside and never said a word but to order her Double Shot Espresso. Granted, she wasn’t particularly special on her own, (plenty of soigné yuppies came in on their break to get the same thing every time) but her behavior, specifically the fact that her schedule was seemingly both sporadic and incredibly consistent, made her something of a curiosity. She didn’t come in every day, and the days she came in didn’t seem to follow any pattern, but when she did come in, it was always at 3:15 exactly .
It provided just a little bit of excitement to whoever happened to be working that shift. Was she going to come in today? Was she going to sit at that same table and drink her coffee alone in silence, staring off into space?
Chuchu swore that it was them that she was staring at the whole time, from behind the sunglasses, though everyone sort of silently agreed that that was just her buying too much into the mystery they had all formed around this (in all honesty, pretty normal) customer.
But the truth of the matter, though it broke the enigmatic facade they had built up around her, was equally exciting.
Nika had been the one to crack the code. To put the pieces of the puzzle together. It had happened when she was working the afternoon shift with Suletta, who had been in the back at the time, digging through their stock to see if they had any more bottles of hazelnut syrup, as the clock struck 3:15, heralding the arrival of The Lady (as they had taken to calling her. They knew her name was Miorine, she gave it every time she ordered, but that wasn’t as fun).
She approached the counter, as normal, and ordered her drink, but something about her was different this time. It was hard to make out exactly what, with the glasses hiding her face, but she seemed to be… a little upset? Her lips pursed into a barely perceptible pout.
That was until, as Nika was pulling her shots of espresso, Suletta emerged from the back to confirm Nika’s suspicion that they were, in fact, out of hazelnut syrup. Nika could tell, though she was most definitely trying to hide it, that The Lady perked up almost instantly.
Everything fell into place then. Nika was kind of surprised they hadn’t put it together sooner. The seemingly erratic schedule? She only, and always, came in when Suletta was working the afternoon shift. The sunglasses? Chuchu (who would later feel incredibly vindicated by this and proceed to make it everyone else’s problem) was right, she was secretly staring at the baristas, or rather, barista. The fancy attire? Well, in all likelihood, she just had to dress like that for work, but Nika liked the idea that she thought it would impress Suletta.
The Lady had a crush.
And, now that the mystery was revealed, it became a matter of watching things develop.
Nothing huge happened, but everyone was so invested now everything that happened was huge (this was still just about the only thing to be excited about in this afternoon dead period, after all). ‘The Lady sat a table closer to the counter today’, Lilique reported. ‘She paid with cash so Suletta had to give her change’, from Till. ‘She took off the sunglasses! Though, it was only for a second’, from Martin.
To make matters even more lively, there were bets being made (started by Ojelo and Nuno, to the surprise of no one, but almost everybody got in on the fun eventually). Various things like: where would she sit today, how long would she take to drink her coffee, and (the big one) would today be the day she finally said something to Suletta, all had money down on their potential outcomes.
All of this was behind Suletta’s back, of course. They had thought about telling her, and while they felt a little guilty about leaving her in the dark, they had collectively decided that letting her know what was going on would be interfering too much. It was probably best to let this little one-sided relationship run its course. Not push the needle towards any particular result. Besides, they all knew that, if they did tell her that The Lady had a crush on her, she would spend every shift getting progressively more and more nervous until 3:15 finally rolled around.
After weeks and weeks of this, just as it had started to get a little boring, finally, there was a big development. It started as a normal afternoon shift. Chuchu had been working with Suletta, which of course meant that The Lady would make her usual 3:15 appearance. Sure enough, she walked through the doors right on cue. Suletta was at the register, anyone who worked the afternoon shift would ensure that she was around this time, and took The Lady’s order.
Chuchu eyed her every move. Something was up about her today. Her posture was a little straighter than it normally was. Her movements were even more practiced and deliberate than usual. She took a deep breath in through her nose before she ordered, and when she did, her voice was just a tad bit more assertive.
She was poised for something.
This all, obviously, caught Chuchu’s attention, who tried to watch The Lady while Suletta made her standard order without making it too obvious that's what she was doing. As a testament to either her stealthiness or The Lady’s tunnel vision on her plans, she didn’t notice the stare as she wrote something on a small slip of paper with one of the sharpies by the register.
When Suletta called out “Miorine?”, (there was no one else the order could have been for, but it was policy) The Lady couldn’t hide the slight smirk on her lips as she took the Double Shot Espresso, thanked her, shoved the slip in her hand, and then did something she’d never, ever done in all her time ordering here.
She left without drinking her coffee. She just walked right out the door. Almost booking it, as Chuchu would add in her retelling of the event.
Suletta stared at the small note in her hand for a moment with confusion, before the realization flashed across her face, followed by blush.
“What is it?” Chuchu had asked, already knowing the answer
Suletta stared in disbelief for a moment before spitting out her reply. “I… think it's her phone number…”
Chuchu smiled a bittersweet smile at that. Sweet because she’d seen it finally happen, right in front of her eyes.
Bitter because she just lost 11 bucks.