Snow Day at the Cafe
“NICO!” Jerry yelled, running down the stairs that lead from the apartment to the kitchen of the café.
“Jer?” Nico squeaked, not used to the volume this early in the morning.
“Nico, Nico, Nico NicoNicoNico.” She was practically vibrating with how fast she was bouncing. Nico sighed, throwing the towel they had been using to clean the front counter over their shoulder, “Yeah Jer?”
“Snow day.”
“Snow day?”
“Snow day!” Jerry threw her arms into the air. “Doc just texted all of us to take two days to do no homework and to avoid campus! I was going to go just to check on some things, but they said if any of us get online onto any of the school’s portals or step one foot on campus they would know and be disappointed and it was a mandatory break!” She was only wearing one sock, and bunny slippers.
Nico smiled, “So you’re stuck helping at the café?”
“No, YOU are stuck with ME helping at the café, wait that’s what you just said, not it isn’t never mind, either way you and Charlie get to deal with my bullshit all day today and tomorrow.”
Nico thought that sounded like a fantastic idea.
Jerry was excited about free coffee and sweets.
Charlie had just shown up in the middle of Jerry's impassioned rant and was still wiping the snow out of his hair before pulling it back into a small bun.
“Doctor Gemima! Will you be joining us lowly customer service workers for two days then?” He asked.
“It’s not doctor for three more years, Charlie,” She paused, “and don’t use my government name. It sounds… weird.”
Charlie just shrugged, grabbing an apron from the back before getting the front of the house set up for the day. The sun wasn’t quite up yet, and he had been at his other job until an hour ago, so he didn’t feel like arguing the point now. When he had first met Nico and Jerry, two years ago, she had introduced herself with her government name, as she liked to call it, before Nico had yelled for “Jerry to come to the back”. He still wasn’t convinced that they weren’t married.
“I think I’m going to do something with chocolate today,” Nico mused, twirling a chalk pen in their hand looking at the board above the counter.
“Chocolate bread?” Jerry asked.
“Nah you want a hot chocolate. Something with ah, cinnamon and cayenne.”
“Con cayenne?” Nico raised an eyebrow.
“Ah, duh. Puts the hot in hot chocolate.” Charlie pulled the curtains open.
“Like an Aztec mocha?” Jerry grabbed her apron from its hook.
“But without the coffee. Something similar to that.” Nico was chewing the back of the marker now as if the plastic would give them the secrets to the universe.
“Still baffling that you own a coffee shop and hate coffee.” Charlie laid himself across the table nearest him, trying to pop his back.
“You don’t drink and work at a bar.” Jerry shot at him.
“I used to drink. There’s a difference. As far as I know, Nico has never had coffee that they enjoyed. I know you two have tested it out.”
“What if, I made a cinnamon and cayenne whipped topping and a cream hot coco instead of water-based coco.”
“That sounds like it’s going to be really rich… just for today? Do you have the supplies for it?” Jerry raised an eyebrow.
“I will when my best friend in the whole world runs down the street with money and buys three more gallons of heavy cream.” Nico held out a small stack of cash to Jerry, giving her their best puppy dog eyes. It didn’t always land, given they worked out every day and could bench press twice their own weight and looked it, but Jerry was feeling generous today. She took the cash, tossed her apron back down, and grabbed her coat from the back room.
“Be back in, like, twenty!”
“Jer, you ain’t wearin’ shoes!”
The bell dinged as the door closed. Nico started drawing on the chalkboard, using the back of their hand to clean off the previous day's special. Charlie watched the small number of people passing the front of the café from his spot on the table. He liked how much calmer the café was than the bar he worked at. He was also plotting if he would be able to take a nap in the back room after the morning rush.
“Deep in thought?” Nico drawled, dragging him out of his thoughts.
“Just tired. Thinking about taking a nap here in a bit, if you can handle it with the doctor here.”
Nico nodded, watching out the window. They would be fully open soon. They started opening the café at 6:00 for a few regular customers, but it didn’t officially open until 6:30.
“Think that Jerrys professor will show up? They usually roll in around 6:30.”
“Probably, they’re here every morning.”
“Yeah, and at my bar every night. You ever notice that they leave really big tips?” Charlie asked, raising an eyebrow. The door opened, letting in a gust of cold air. Charlie pulled his sweater tighter around himself.
“Why didn’t you tell me I wasn’t wearing shoes!” Jerry screeched, running to the kitchen with two bags of heavy cream and what looked like soaking-wet house shoes.
“I tried to tell you when you went running out the door you just didn’t listen!”
And like that, the three returned to their usual routine of cleaning, coffee and creating. Jerry and Charlie started decorating the tables, adding blankets to a reading and study corner and moving small trees and garlands around the empty spaces. Charlie liked working with Jerry and Nico. They went with the flow and didn’t let too many things bother them. He was still waiting for them to announce they were dating; it was obvious. Nico was watching Jerry while she was cleaning. Jerry would watch Nico when they were drawing or creating whatever drink they had decided on for the day.
But he wouldn’t say anything until they were ready for it. Mostly because he wanted to win their regular customers' betting pool about it. He had to beat Henson at the very least.
“Alrighty, try this out!” Nico set two mugs on the counter with a grin.
Charlie could take a free drink.