A Cup of Coffee

[MAXINE MCMANUS]

Maxi was faded out when she left the school; literally. She didn't need to be stopped by the assistant principal who was constantly ask her to pick up little projects. Her students were preparing for midterms, which made for a long day full of questions and repeated explanations. Then there were still papers to grade when she got home, so the quicker she could get out of the school, the better. First she would stop for a cup of coffee, though, just to calm her nerves. Sunshine's Too would be the best place to stop and enjoy some down time, maybe even get started on grading. As she reached the door, she could see the assistant principal walking out of the main office and towards Maxi's classroom. Maxi had to stifle a laugh as the man passed her; no doubt he would marvel at how she slipped out of the building without him seeing. When she was safely to her beat-up truck, she slipped out of the parking lot feeling a little guilty. She didn't like shirking work, but she needed a reprieve today.

At the coffee shop, the mixed smell of soap and coffee was pleasantly unusual. The coffee here was exceptional and the atmosphere was so casual and relaxed. It made her feel a little vulnerable to be out in public alone, but it also gave her more reason to focus. With a heavy sigh, she pulled her papers from her bag and sipped coffee as she marked away. She never used a red pen, since she saw it as a negative color--red meant stop, and that wasn't the message she wanted to convey. Instead, she used purple, something which a few of her collegues had copied. Purple was noticeable but neutral, and in her opinion, the students didn't take her comments as harshly.

Critiquing her students' arguments, she wasn't aware of anyone around her. She always got wrapped up in her work, particularly when it came to longer papers like the ones in front of her. By long she meant five pages, but that was long to a high school student. She didn't tell her students that a five page paper was short for her in college; she didn't need to scare them aware from furthering their education. Her cheek rested on her hand as she delved deeper into the stack of theses and formulated paragraphs.

[hadleyfraser]

Hadley was late for her shift at Sunshine's. She had overslept, which for Hadley meant falling asleep at 8 am and waking up at 2:30 in the afternoon. Today she'd slept till three, and she was supposed to be at work at a quarter after. Oopsie. She had leaped off the sofa and thrown on her jeans and a black polo, grabbed her apron from the hook by the door, and beat fleet feet to the cozy little shoppe. She actually made it through the door with forty-two seconds to spare. Score!

Wrapping her apron around her waist and double checking her change supply, Hadley waved at Jordana to let her know she was present and accounted for before clocking in and immediately jumping on the floor. She grabbed a pot of hot coffee and started making her rounds, filling up half empty mugs and checking up on clients. She knew almost everyone in the shop today, with the exception of a blonde woman who looked unfamiliar.

Hadley dropped by the new girl's table and hitched her friendliest smile into place. "Hi there. Can I bring you anything? Still doin' okay?" Hadley was used to being cheerful around work, and she was to the point where greeting utter strangers didn't hardly faze her anymore.

Hadley took note of the fact that the woman was grading papers, and she smiled inwardly at the notion of grading in purple. She'd always done the same thing. She always felt in her teaching days that red was too negative or harsh a color, so she'd always graded in green or purple. She was glad she wasn't the only one.

[MAXINE MCMANUS]

The waitress appeared so suddenly, Maxi jumped a little and turned her large eyes up. Giving a laugh, she pressed a hand to her chest. "I'm sorry, you startled me," she breathed, laying her pen down on her pile of paper. Her coffee cup was only half full, so she decided a top-off would be in order. "I guess I could use a little more coffee," she smiled, attempting to push her coffee cup more into arms reach for the waitress. Unfortunately, it caught on a sticky spot on the table and tipped over half of her papers.

Gasping, Maxi tried to catch the coffee cup before it collapsed completely, but only succeeded in smacking it to the floor. She winced against the loud clatter as it hit the floor and she could feel her face turning bright red. "I'm so sorry. I'm such a klutz," she moaned, grabbing the few napkins she had at the table and dabbing at the papers. When they were soaked through, she ran to grab more and cleaned up as much as she could. Sure the entire shoppe was watching her, this was quickly turning into one of those times she wished she could disappear.

She sighed over the coffee-stained papers, knowing it wasn't completely a loss. At least she could still read them. "Well, it won't be the first time I return papers with coffee stains on them," she said with a smile, trying to make light of the mess she made. She hated to burden anyone with the destruction she occasionally left in her wake. An extra tip was definitely in order for the waitress dealing with this.

[hadleyfraser]

Hadley smiled warmly and laughed genially at the frazzled teacher. "No worries, I've cleaned up worse," she said, waving off the woman's apology. "Let me grab a mop and some towels, and I'll bring you a fresh cup." Hadley swept the overturned mug off the floor and headed to the back to get a clean one and fill it with steamy coffee.

Once she'd refilled the woman's drink, she started looking for Jo. "Hey, where's the stash of clean towels?" she called, spotting Jo across the little kitchen. "We have a clean up on aisle four."

After locating the terry cloth kitchen towels, she made her way back out onto the floor and dropped off the fresh cup of Joe and threw some of the clean towels down to start soaking up the fragrant puddle.

"Seriously, don't worry about it," Hadley reassured her customer. "Happens all the time, and at least coffee smells good when it spills. I knocked over a thing of mixed Indian food spices at home last night, and my house will forever smell like curry. So this is definitely preferable." She offered another friendly smile to the teacher and scooped up the soiled towels.

"Need anything else? I can bring you a shop t-shirt if your blouse got all coffee-fied."

[JORDANNA HAILE GARCIA]

Jordan wasn't a stickler when it came to time or uniforms as long as her staff didn't take advantage of her. She asked they dress appropriately, and that was it. No midriffs, no major cleavage, no super short shorts or skirts. Presentable. And wear an apron. Other than that she was okay with whatever they wore. Hadley had, so far, shown to be both presentable and punctual. Even today, she was cutting it close, but she walked in, technically, on time. Jo liked her employees to be 5-10 minutes early, but in the end as long as they got their jobs done and she didn't have to pay anyone overtime, all was well.

She was in the back on the laptop in the minute office she had, her door open as she continued to research coffees. Sunshine's and Sunshine's Too had strictly sold tea since they opened, but Jo was starting to realize that people often came in looking for a cup of coffee. How many paying customers had she turned down over the years when asked for a cup of java? More than she cared to think about.

But being the saleswoman she was, she wasn't going to half ass this decision. Sunshine's Too had been testing coffee for a few months now. They had two regular house blends that were available all the time, one of which was decaffeinated, and she had been importing three to five different kinds every month to test their success. The top flavors were going to be added as house blends eventually, but for now she was testing them out. Just like everything else about Sunshine's, Jo liked to keep things unique and a little exciting. She aimed to please, and she felt people appreciated her attempts. They must, her store was booming!

When she was finished she made her way back out to the floor, deciding on one more blend for June. She was hoping to have her full coffee menu up and available, permanently, by January of 2013. It was a year long venture, but it was a fun one, and she realized more people had been coming in to try the expensive, but strange (and often delicious) coffees she carried.

She noted Hadley helping a young woman and beamed. She went over and pulled one of the survey cards out and approached them. "I hope the coffee spilled and you didn't just hate it so much you spit it out everywhere." She teased, a polite, kind smile on her face.

[MAXINE MCMANUS]

Maxi laughed at the waitress's comment on curry. "I suppose I could tell my students I was just giving their papers fragrance, then," she grinned. At the offer of a t-shirt, she looked down and noticed, miraculously, she missed her shirt entirely. "Oh, well, it looks like my shirt is the only thing I didn't spill coffee on. But thanks for the offer." She threw away the soaked napkins and wiped off her hands before smiling at the waitress. "Thanks for your help and sorry for the trouble," she reiterated. Other places she had been to weren't nearly as accommodating to her clumsiness.

A figure approaching caught her eye, and Maxi looked over to see who it was. She had seen the woman every time she came to the shop, so Maxi assumed she was the owner. If not, at least a manager. A smile crossed her still mildly pink cheeks as the woman made a joke about the coffee all over the place. "Trust me, I wouldn't spit this coffee out. It's some of the best I've had around here," she assured. She wasn't just saying it to be nice. Even the Starbucks she had in college didn't taste as good as this coffee. And Maxi knew coffee. She could barely get through a day without it, so she always liked to try new blends. When she heard Sunshine Too was bringing coffee to the menu, she had to have been one of the first ones to try it. She hadn't been disappointed yet.

"I like that the blends always change out. It keeps things interesting," she commented with a warm smile, putting the still damp papers in her bag so she wouldn't mess with them until they were dry. She was careful so she wouldn't rip the pages. The conversation was a pleasant distraction from the mountain of paper she had just destroyed. It was also a wonderful way to wind down and forget about her work for a change.