Chapter 1.

Renalt, after traveling for a fortnight, was ready to be home. His queen awaited him, and after having been separated for too long...BEE BEEP BEEP...

Shit. I glanced over at my clock. It was five in the morning already, which meant I enjoyed another sleepless night trying to finish my current work in progress. There were only a handful of chapters left to the monstrosity I was working on, a lovely endearment because I had lost a good third of it when I moved apartments four months ago and ended up spending any spare time I had building those lost chapters back. I blamed the moving company and cried for days over the loss. Of all the things to go missing, my writing was the last thing I'd expected.

I stretched out my sore limbs, which were numb from being in the same position for hours. As I waited for the sensations to return with the bite of pins and needles, I tugged on the work shirt I'd placed on my nightstand before I'd gone to bed. Once feeling returned, I hobbled to the bathroom

Perhaps I could give Renalt  a heroic return...no, the war was already won, and they celebrated at the end...

I had too many thoughts running through my head as I swiped on mascara to my bloodshot eyes, and smeared lip gloss to my heavily chapped lips. Water would have to wait. I would make myself a coffee when I got to work to survive the madness of the morning shift.

It wasn't a mad dash this morning, but I was sluggish from the lack of sleep, and I struggled on the drive to work. The silent atmosphere of the parking lot was reassuring when I arrived. The mornings I opened the shop myself were the better days. I opened the shop and was grateful to find a clean store, clean counters, and clean equipment. Our new afternoon crew was great. I had a little over an hour to set everything up before we opened. I turned on the ovens, made sure the cash register was full, and the batteries in our scanner were charged.

The espresso machine was all cleaned and ready to use. There was enough milk to start the shift in our small refrigerator, and all of the tea containers were stuffed to the brim. The sweeteners did need a refill, alongside lids and stirrers. 30 minutes until open, the tinkle of the bell brought me from my thoughts.

"Eliza, we've got corporate coming in today, so Regina called me in to help you out," it was Jenna. She was perhaps the closest thing I had to a friend. We didn't do anything outside of work, but we did message each other.

"Oh! Okay, I have everything ready and was just fiddling around until opening time," Jenna gave me a knowing smile.

"You're always on point, I'm surprised you haven't asked to become a manager,"

"I could never, I barely have enough energy to do my own thing at home when I leave here as a regular employee," I replied, tucking away my phone where I was writing notes on my book to add in at a later date. I didn't add that as a published writer, I didn't have the extra time to take care of any issues that may arise and need managerial expertise. Not to mention, I couldn't deal with conflict.

"What do you do at home?" Jenna said with a small laugh. I began making a coffee with our dark roast, and some heavy cream.

"I read, exercise on the occasion, and watch my television shows," I told her. It was true. When I wasn't writing my next book, I was happily engrossed in someone else's work of art. And I would go for walks in my spare time. Any spare time I had today would be spent sleeping, though. I was already so tired.

"Oh! That reminds me. I wanted to tell you about this new author I found. Her book was in this small shop Abe and I visited last week. And I was absolutely hooked. I did some digging because I wanted to read more of her works, and she's a new and upcoming author, so there wasn't much on her. She goes by the name Z. Amber. It's obviously a fake name. Have you heard of her?" I had to take a steady breath. She was talking about my work, my first book. The unpleasantness of the acknowledgment caught me off guard, but I had to suck it up. My publisher had known my writing would become a hit. Otherwise, she wouldn't have agreed to take my work.

"I have not," and the bald face lie made me cringe internally. I didn't want to out myself, not even to someone who seemed to like my writing. Secondly, Z. Amber wasn't a totally false name. The Z came from Elizabeth, my full name, and Amber was my middle name, though I didn't share that fact with anyone in case they made the connection.

"I'll bring the book next time we have a shift together! I think you'd really enjoy it," if only Jenna knew how much heartache and exhaustion had gone into writing that book. She wouldn't ask it of me...

"Let's step to it. It is opening time!" I had to laugh at Jenna's enthusiasm. She was made for this, I just hung on by the threads of whatever sanity I possessed.

By 10 am, I had walked 8 thousand steps, served over 50 drinks, and had been called several horrible names for not accommodating ridiculous requests. It was proving to be a typical weekday morning. Not that I minded, but having already been bogged down by a sleepless night, I was so exhausted that the next four hours would prove to be hell.

At noon, things slowed down to the point where I could wash our morning dishes. I didn't like to leave what we used for the night crew to clean up after us. It wasn't fair to them. Jenna could handle the front, and I could stand in one place and think about my writing as I worked.

With corporate coming, the dishes were the first thing I tackled. There wasn't too much, we kept up with the mixing pitchers up front, but the pans that went into the oven were always quick to become greasy. We'd changed out the tea twice this shift already, and those pitchers needed a wash, alongside the cold brew bin.

I thought about my current book in this time frame, frustrated with myself for not giving Renalt a proper welcome home event, but undecided as to how I could go about adding it in. I was taking this frustration out on an unfortunate pan when when a knock on the wall leading to the front counter nearly made me yelp in surprise.

"Good afternoon! I'm Jane, from the corporate office. Kyle is out front with your coworker, we are just checking in on things. I see you're working hard," I nodded. I was reminded of plain Jane, but this Jane was anything but plain. Her two piece suit was well kept and crisp. I'd almost named one of my disagreeable characters Jane in my other book, and decided against it. I wiped my hands on my apron before offering my left to Jane as an introduction.

"I'm Eliza Sikes, pleasure to meet you," she took my offered hand lightly.

"I've heard a lot about you! Your store manager is very pleased with your work efforts lately," oh...I did not like the way this conversation was going.

"I'd like to offer you a position of management. Your reviews the last two years have been impeccable and I know you'd be a great leader in our company," Oh lord. I could not do this. Had my conversation with Jenna earlier been some sort of premonition?

"I would need time to think about it, if that's okay," I said in response.

"Of course! I'll have Regina check in by the end of the week," of course she would. Regina was a wonderful person, truly, but I wasn't cut out to lead. I could barely lead my own life right now. Besides, Jane was far too chipper about the whole situation, and I couldn't fathom how Regina stood it. Regina was nice, but she also had a snarky side that rivaled Kaydens in my book.

I knew the drill, they would check the office, and paperwork before they left. They would also do a double check of the cash drawer up front. I just had to wait them out before approaching Jenna.

It took Jane and Kyle less than 30 minutes to do what they needed, and I knew Jenna was doing a fine job of handling the front as I stocked supplies in the backroom from overstock to make things easier to grab and use.

As soon as they left, I raced back up front. Jenna was currently making a drink, there was only one other person in the place and they were sipping our new blueberry matcha drink.

"You knew what they were coming here for," I hissed at her as she shook up the lemonade for her customer.

"Duh, it's the only reason why I mentioned it. I wanted to guage your reception," she said matter of factly.

"You little ass, I'm not the shift lead here, you are," I said.

"Please, it's purely because you won't take the position, and I'd hoped you'd take the offer today," she said pointedly.

"I said I'd consider it, but I won't take it. It's not what I want," I already have what I want. I've done what my dream was to do for the longest. I didn't say this to her though, as it would mean admitting to my lie earlier.

"UGH, you're infuriating. If you don't take it, I will," she said.

"Good, you're more fitting," By the end of our minor chat, we had another customer, which I helped.

"Hello, how can I help you today?" I said in my chipper customer service voice. The man before me looked utterly perplexed.

"I've never been here, and I was told it was the favorite of locals. What would you recommend?" I wouldn't have called Grounded a local special. Perhaps someone who was from out of state would think so, but  the northern half of Florida was littered with the franchise.

"I suppose you've never been to Florida?" I asked.

"No, I'm from Connecticut," he said.

"Very well, I'd recommend our Cheap shot, which is an Americano, if you want a basic coffee. Our bold blend is also good. If you're looking for a sugar rush I'd recommend our Toffee Coffee frozen coffee," I listed out for him.

"A sugar rush it is, Toffee coffee sounds right up my alley, and make it a large please, I'm in for a long day," 

"Very well, that will be five dollars and twenty-five cents," he handed her cash and a quarter for even change. "Name for the order," even though he was the only customer right now, it was reflex to ask.

With a smirk, he said, "Thomas,"

I made his drink and gave it some extra toffee drizzle.

Once he left, Jenna shared a side eye with me.

"He's cute," she gave me a smirk as well.

"And not from here, so I won't be pursuing anything," Goodness. I've had my fair share of dates with customers in the past, but when they were from out of town, what was the point? They'd leave, and I'd stay.

"Hmm. Your loss. I may pursue him myself if you're so scared of a little fling," she joked. Her words stung a bit, but she didn't know the last fling I'd had ended with said man cheating on me three states away and his new fling being the one to tell me. I wouldn't put myself in that position again.

"I'm going to finish the dishes we've used. It's almost time for second shift to come in," I told her before walking back into the kitchen.