Once in a Lifetime

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It doesn't take me long to reach my desired destination and when I step through the front doors, I'm greeted with the lovely sounds of screeching from a customer at the counter. Poor Haru is just trying to calm the lady down, but it's not working. In fact, it's only making it worse.

"How can you be out of coffee?! This is literally a coffee shop! I want to speak to your manager!" the lady fumes. Haru starts speaking again, stuttering over every word. "Our shipment of c-coffee grounds should be here within fif-fifteen m-minutes if you wouldn't mind w-waiting. I c-can even-"

"NO!" the lady almost screams. "I told you I wanted to speak to your manager, not you. You obviously can't even do a simple task correctly!"

Unable to stand by my spot at the door anymore, I set down my things at the nearest table and walk as calmly and swiftly as I can to the counter where it looks like the lady is about to slap Haru with her, now lifted, hand.

I rounded the edge of the surface, nudged the boy gently out of the way, and snatched her wrist which was quickly approaching the brunette's face. "Hello," I say through gritted teeth and a fake smile. "I'm the manager, how can I help you?"

"Ugh, finally. Finally someone competent," the lady groans, taking her wrist away from my grip. "I would like a vanilla latte and a slice of chocolate cake and make it snappy, I have more important places to be than in this sorry excuse of a cafe." "As I was trying to tell you a minute ago ma'am. We don't-" the boy beside me begins. "I wasn't talking to you," the lady retorts with a demeaning smirk.

I can feel my eye starting to twitch as I become increasingly more frustrated with the rude customer. I turn to Haru and whisper in his ear for him to go wash up some of the tables and let him know that I will handle the situation. He gives me a worried nod in reply and quickly walks away, going to do the task I gave him.

I face the lady again and plaster on the sweetest smile I can manage at the moment which probably doesn't look that convincing. "I'm going to ask you to refrain from being disrespectful to the workers and degrading this establishment. We do not accept that kind of behavior in this store and if you're going to continue acting like this, then I will be more than happy to escort you out. And don't worry, I'll make it snappy."

The look on her face is priceless. If her state of shock tells me anything, it's that people never put her in her place. Taking advantage of this, I continue to speak.

"Now, as Haru was trying to tell you, we are unfortunately out of coffee grounds right now, but we have several other amazing drinks for you to choose from," I tell the lady, handing her a menu with our other beverages listed.

This wakes the woman from her trance and she scans it briefly before slapping it down angrily on the counter, spinning on her heel, and barging back through the doors from which she came. I raise my hand after her and give a sarcastic wave. "Please. Don't come again."

Once the demon of a customer is out of my line of sight, I let my fake smile drop and crack my knuckles as a round of applause rings throughout the shop. Every single customer is applauding me, even Haru and my nana. I flash an embarrassed grin before I grab the secret bag of blonde roast out of my personal locker and begin preparing myself a caffeine loaded drink. I'm going to need a lot to make it through the rest of this shift.

Just as I'm about to put the finishing touches on my drink a tug on my sleeve makes me turn around and I'm immediately engulfed in a bear hug. It lasts for a minute or two before I start getting uncomfortable. "Haru...can't...breathe," I wheeze out, making the boy quickly drop his arms and take a step back, giving me room to regain my breath.