Congratulations; It's a Starbucks! 1
numbering as a preemptive thing in case I decide to write more.
[x]
When Connor arrived for the afternoon shift Altair was already looking like he was about to burst a blood vessel. Usually that happened when he worked a double and people ordered one too many frappuccinos, the sheer disgust on his face nearly overwhelming because ‘clearly these imbeciles don’t even know there is no such thing as a frappuccino before Starbucks invented it’ and sometimes Altair took coffee a bit too seriously. Why he was working at a Starbucks was beyond him, maybe it was the people… person. Connor didn’t think too hard on it.
Altair still had a cracked smile on his face as he took the person’s order of a regular who just handed over the four dollars for their vente vanilla latte and the tip and Altair rang them up. Ezio made the latte behind the line.
“Shouldn’t you be on break?” Connor asked, since there was no one at the register now.
“I couldn’t until you showed up,” Altair said accusingly.
Ezio suddenly popped up at Altair’s elbow, having handed off the latte to the customer, “Someone’s grumpy since his favorite person didn’t show up for his morning black,” he said with a grin, leaning on Altair’s shoulder like a leech.
“Doesn’t he splash coffee on you like once a week?” Connor didn’t understand Altair, he was sure it was better if he didn’t try to either.
“Shut up, I’m going on break,” and Altair stormed to the back. Or as well as someone could storm while wearing an apron which was perhaps the most disarming piece of clothing invented.
“He didn’t close the register,” Connor said slowly, looking at it.
“Aw well, you’re up and geeze it’s your dad’s stooge,” and then Ezio was gone before Connor quite knew what was going on when Charles pushed the door open. Everyone who worked here hated serving Charles because he took his tea in a very particular way and unless it was perfect he never tipped. Until Connor had started to take his orders Charles had never tipped.
“Hello, what can I get you today?” Connor asked, at least trying to be upbeat even though he hated Charles’ specificity as much as anyone else here.
At least Charles had stopped sneering at him, he was sure it was more his father telling Charles off than any good will between them. Charles still thought it was scandalous that Haytham had a son out of wedlock. Charles was also a dick. “A medium cappuccino and a vente iced, full leaf, chai tea with a shot of mint and vanilla, cream, and sugar,” he said. Man Charles was going to make him work for that tip today. Money changed hands in silence.
“Coming right up,” he said and signaled desperately to Ezio who was trying to appear busy cleaning off some tables. Ezio just ignored him. Little help that louse was. While he’d been trying to get Ezio’s attention he was brewing the chai. That needed to seep for a little bit so he made his father’s cappuccino, since who else would it be for? He knew that unlike Charles Haytham wasn’t picky about his coffee or his tea and as long as it was hot and strong he’d drink it. So he made it strong with only so much milk and set it aside while he made the stupid tea monstrosity. Charles had taken a seat somewhere else and Ezio had scuttled back behind the line.
“What he order this time?”
“You don’t want to know,” Connor said as he poured vanilla and mint into the tea, stirred it, added the amount of sugar Charles would require and the right amount of cream and then poured it all into a cup filled with ice. He mixed it a final time, added a lid and straw to the tea and then grabbed the cappuccino. “Charles Lee, your order is ready,” he called.
Charles got up from his chair and went to get his order. He took the tea, took a drink, tried not to look impressed and left a five in the tip jar. “You’re literally a wizard” Ezio said only once the door was closed, “Teach me your powerful dark magic, oh barista master,” and Connor just snorted and shook his head.
“Go get Altair, his break is over,” Connor said, a slight grin on his face.
