THE LAST MINUTE CUSTOMER

When nighttime came, another one of Cassie's workmates arrived. There were exactly three of them who were supposed to fend on the shop, until the closing hour.

They have to stay there until it closed at exactly eight o'clock in the evening. However, for some unknown reason, one of them decided to suddenly ditch the shift without prior notice.

"Could you believe that intern? She sure is nothing but a headache."

Ella was visibly frustrated when she talked about their new workmate, who happened to be missing in action.

"I could not agree more to what you just said. It was really too irresponsible of Angeline not to give us a proper heads-up that she does not have a plan of showing up tonight. She should have at least told us that she is not coming. In that way, we could have looked for someone who could cover for her shift."

Cassie was equally unhappy as her colleague was so she seconded Ella right away. However, it seemed that the other party did not hear what she just said.

"What? Are you saying something?"

Meanwhile, Cassie momentarily paused as she spoke. She turned the tap off to stop the running water because she thought that it was probably the reason why Ella could not hear her properly.

Then she added afterward,

"Ohh... I was just saying that she should have at least called and told us so that, we could have look for someone who could cover for her absence in the meantime."

Her voice was coming from the back door because apparently, she was busy washing used mugs on their sink. The two of them were actually working as a barista at a coffee shop called, Star Barracks.

"I wonder why Boss Ronald even accepted her for this job."

Ella thought out loud.

"I heard she was referred by a family friend. They said that the girl needed a part-time job to help pay her tuition, though it does not look like that is the case for me. From how I see it, it seemed that she was not even scared to lose the job at all."

"It is sure nice to be young. They can apply for a job and get accepted right away. While, we, on the other hand, whose age was about to reach the end of the calendar could not afford to get fired. Or else we would have a hard time looking for a new one since around our age, employers were already expecting to see a good amount of job experience on our resume."

" I feel like it is so unfair for us."

The two talked about their colleague for almost the entire shift. But at around past seven, Ella asked Cassie if she could leave earlier under the pretext that she has to attend an unexpected family gathering.

"I am really sorry, Cassie. I didn't mean to. I was not expecting my family to come and visit me at my apartment tonight. But what else can I do? They already arrived and were waiting at my doorstep right at this moment."

"Sure. No worries. I can cover for you for tonight."

Cassie agreed without even giving herself a chance to have second thoughts. She reckoned that their shift was about to end anyway so she did not think that it would do her any harm if Ella would leave a little earlier than her.

"Thank you very much. You are such an angel, really."

Ella said as she reached out for Cassie's hand. Cassie, on the other hand, squeezed her hand back before saying,

"Alright. pack your thing now, don't keep your grandparents waiting."

Ella flashed her a kind smile, then left. But not before saying,

"I owe you one for this, Cassie."

"Sure thing."

It did not take that long before Ella emerged out from the staff room, this time wearing a different set of clothes.

"Bye, Cassie."

She bid Cassie a farewell and waved her hand for goodbye. Cassie, on the other hand, no longer say a word and just waved back at her.

She was busy mopping the floor. There were only fifteen minutes left before the store would close. But after a short while, she heard the sound of their wind chime.

The thing was hung right above the door so that the moment someone entered the shop, they would get notified right away.

'TCH! A last-minute customer, I guess.'

Cassie thought to herself.

What most coffee shop workers hated the most were those who loved to waltz inside the store and order something just right before the store was about to close. Oftentimes, it forced them to work overtime and they don't get extra pay for that.