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He didn’t really have money for coffee, but he needed just one good thing for the hellish week he’d had, so he turned into Elixr and paused at the door. The store inside was warmly lit and filled with laughter, but on the main window, they had a sign, reading Help Wanted . He considered it for a long moment because his savings were quickly dwindling and he had no idea when he would next hear back from Chicago Med or any other hospital about an opening for an emergency position. He really wasn’t in the position to turn down an opportunity for any paycheck, even if it was pulling espresso shots at a hipster coffee shop downtown.
“What makes you come to work here at Elixr after being a doctor?” the manager, a tiny woman with a lot of curling gray-blonde hair with a big nametag announcing herself as Liana, asked at his interview. Will shifted awkwardly, and worked through his responses.
“Turns out, I’m not built quite for how unbalanced life as a doctor gets. I got extremely burnt out with how much work I did in a week without a break.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie, but then again, he would’ve stayed at Chicago Med if it hadn’t been for Natalie. He’d been so tired at the end, but he couldn’t walk away beause he needed to help those he could. He didn’t want to walk away, or he couldn’t want to. It was all so confusing.
“I get that,” Liana said with a nowing nod. “Before I opened Elixr, I was a financial advisor, and it was great money, it was just so soulless.”
He nodded like he understood.
Maybe he did.
“Well, we’d love to have you aboard, Will, if you’ll have us. It’s full time hours, although not nearly as high paid as being a doctor, but you also get tips from your shifts so that’ll pad the check a little. It’s full benefits, including sick days and paid time off, and the business matches your 401k contributions up to a certain percentage. My financial advisor, she’s also my wife, Elaine, will go over all of that after you’re officially hired, but yeah, consider this your official job offer.”
He’d only ever really made himself black coffee, but there was a lot more to coffee than he was expecting. He got to sample everything he and his designated trainer, a brick house of a person who went by Ky made. He found that he actually really liked espresso by itself, but it was also incredible in lattes and macchiatos. He was fascinated by the way different drinks were made using the same ingredients but the way they were put together mattered.
It settled something in Will’s brain that had long been screaming, the routine and the puzzle of it all. He researched best practices while they were in between rushes, and found a tutorial on latte art. He’d always loved art, creation for the sake of it, and this was a fun epression of that.
He started off with simple designs, arches of milk curled through the coffee in the mug, then small leaves and trees. It took him a bit to truly master it, but it was fun, almost, to watch his own progress. He hadn’t had this kind of outlet in a while, either, which was nice too, trying something new for once with low stakes. His lattes still tasted the same, even if the art wasn’t perfect, and he got to keep going on another.
Liana and Ky insisted on posting his creations to instagram, and they got popular. He had people coming from all over the city, and the state, and soon the country, to get his lattes. It was incredible to see anyone there just because of something he created.
“Hi! I saw Elixr on Instagram, and do you do the latte art?” a young girl in her mid-teens asked excitedly on afternoon. He was cleaning the counter after a disastrous spill of an iced coffee from an overly anxious man who had squeezed his coffee a bit too hard when Ky had flirted with him.
“Yes, we do. It’s an up-charge, but we can do some art if you’d like,” he said. It took him a couple extra minutes so they had decided to start charging more to keep the demand lower. It didn’t exactly dissuade anyone, but it did mean that extra money went to Will’s savings.
“I was wondering if you could make something for my sister, like this,” she said, and she passed over her phone to show an intricate deer design. “She’s in the hospital, and deer are her favorite animal.”
Will smiled, and set his rag back in the bucket beneath the counter.
“Yeah, let’s see what we can do,” he said.
It was beautiful, he thought, and when he presented it to the girl, she’d given her sister’s name as Eddie for the order, she’d sniffled.
“Yeah, that’s, that’s perfect. Thank you so much. Where’s the tip jar?”
He pointed, and she dropped a twenty dollar bill in the jar before leaving without another word. Liana who had been lingering nearby chuckled.
“That one’s all for you, lover boy.”
When he got home at the end of the day, he had energy. He took Kol on walks and read novels, and in the evenings, he took out some long forgotten art supplies that he’d been neglecting. It had been something he wasn’t allowed to do around Pat, because art was not a useful use of his time and energy. He’d kept them, though, the colored pencils and the sketchbooks in a bin he never unpacked whenever he moved apartments. Now he had time, and energy, and the freedom to do something he wanted. He sat on his balcony with a sketchbook and his pencils, Kol snoozing at his feet, listening to the neighboorhood come alive as people came home from work and kids were able to go out to play. He sketched trees and flowers, the buildings around him, a dog sleeping on a balcony across from theirs, Kol’s feet. He tried everything he could.
There was such a freedom in art that he had found at Elixr. It was warm, and sweet, something he hadn’t been expecting when he’d been fired from the hospital. He can even bring his sketchbook to work on his drawings during down times and on breaks, while he was waiting for the train. Liana even leaned over his shoulder one afternoon while he was sketching out the coffee shop and out the front window with a simple graphite pencil.
“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s incredible, Will. You’re a man of many talents.”
“I just have really steady hands,” he said.
“No, that’s talent, Will. I don’t know who told you you weren’t talented somewhere in your life, but that’s good. That’s really good. I might commission you to draw stuff for our walls.”
“I’d love that, actually. I think I have an idea for a large canvas, I can sketch up a mock for it, and we can talk about it when I work on Monday?”
“Sounds lovely,” Liana said, before flitting away as she tended to do to attend to one business need or another. Will dropped his head down and went back to his sketches.
It was a good home that he had found, filled with wonderful little moments, Ky laughing so hard they snorted their coffee by accident, Liana singing to herself as she set out pastries in the morning. His days passed, and he felt better than he had in as long as he could remember, even as customers came and went, snappy some days and sunshine the next. He had regulars, ones he got to know well enough to have their order down by heart. He had coworkers he adored, and a boss that values his time and effort, encouraging him rather than holding him back. It was a good home, the best it seemed, and he adored all the little moments in time he got to spend there. The weirdest moment, and best moment, was the day Doctor Connor Rhodes rolled back into town, and walked right into Elixr looking for a cup of coffee.
“Connor!” Will smiled as he set a pair of cups down in front of a college freshman and her girlfriend, little lovebirds drawn into their milk. “I didn’t know you were back in Chicago!”
Connor looked at him, surprised, eyebrows raised.
“I didn’t know you were a barista on the side.”
“Oh, yeah. This, this is a long story. Let me get you something to drink, I’m just about to clock out if you’ve got time to catch up.”
“I’ve always got time for you.” He smiled at Will. “So, you’re the latte art guy? Claire has been raving about Elixr for weeks since she saw some viral art of a Totoro, I think. Wouldn’t drop it until I said I’d swing by and grab a cup.”
“I am! Turns out, steady surgeon hands also mean that I can make some impressive latte art! I’ve also discovered drawing, although that isn’t quite as viral yet. But, let’s see. You still like caramel, right?”
“I do, that’s - you remembered?”
Will grinned at him as he started the process he’d memorized and had sewn into his muscle memory. This part was easy. This part he could move through like the steps to a dance or a triage protocol. He steamed the milk while he pulled the shot for Connor’s drink, then came the fun part. While Connor watched, Will carefully managed to draw an almost accurate depiction of an anatomical heart. He gently passed the mug over with pride.
“It’s hard to get all the ventricles in there, but I think I did pretty well.”
“This is actually incredible, Will. How much do I owe you?”
“Don’t worry about it, that one’s on me,” Will said, waving Connor’s hand away when he reached for his wallet. “I’m sure it’s enough to get Claire off your back.”
“Spoken like an older brother,” Connor said and Will snorted a little at that. “I am sending her a picture of this, she’s going to lose her mind.”
“So, what are you doing back in Chicago?”
“That is actually long story, too.”
“Well, I’m off for the rest of the day, so if you got it, I’ve always got the time for you.”