"Hello, and what would you like to order today..." I trailed off, looking up from my nails to the person who stood in front of me, "...sir?"

The man was a regular customer who came to Happy Cafe early in the mornings—just when it opens—before going to his job. He was always wearing a suit, which went with his work attire. He had jet black hair, green eyes, and peach skin tone.

He was quite handsome.

"The usual. Coffee, no milk," he said. "Honestly, I don't get it how I come here every day and you still ask me the same question all the time."

That's because I'm too lazy to remember, I said to myself. I mean, there are several different people who come here to buy coffee every day. I don't care to remember your order.

"Mhmm," I mumbled with a yawn and lazily tapped the screen of the computer to set his order.

"And like I've always said to you before—even yesterday—'Please, call me Lucas'," he said to me, handing me the amount he was to pay for his beverage, and I smiled with no effort, just hoping he'd stop talking and walk away so that I could take the order of the next person in line.

He walked away to the pickup area to collect his coffee from my co-worker, Belle, who sent him a flirtatious wink while handing him his drink. Poor girl kept on flirting and winking at every guy that an old lady just had to ask her if there was something wrong with her eye and that she should probably go check it out at the doctor.

I sighed as I took the order of the next person in line, I wanted to go sit down and eat something. I was feeling pretty hungry because I woke up late in the morning, forgetting to set the alarm for 7 am so it woke me up for a different time and didn't have time to eat anything since I had to rush out of the apartment that I lived in with my aunt. My manager was upset with me—as always, whenever I'm late for work—that she threatened to fire me if I was to ever do that again, and, of course, she had said that probably a thousand times before. She didn't fire me for being late to work, but I had a feeling that it was coming sooner than later.

"Hello, Ma'am?" a customer said to me and waved a hand in front of my face in order to get my attention. I heard my stomach growl—no, scratch that—roar with hunger as I looked up at the middle-aged woman who had a small frown on her face. "I've been waiting here for minutes, watching you as you daydream about something."

I wasn't daydreaming, I said to myself. Just thinking about food.

"I'm sorry, Ms," I said to the woman and forced myself to not show any sign of hunger in my expression. "What would you like to order?"

"That's okay. I'd like to order—" the woman started, but got cut off by a furious feminine voice.

"Chloe Markle!" I stiffened as my manager clearly screamed my name. I turned my head to look towards her. Her bright, red hair that just reached her shoulders was now off her and stood around her in a fiery way—well, not really, it was just how I had always imagined her whenever she was angry—and her green eyes stared at me with such anger in them, I gulped hard.

"Get over here. Now!" My feet automatically moved without me even thinking of it as she yelled in her hard tone for me to come over to the pickup area. "This young man told me that he ordered coffee with no milk, but instead got coffee with milk."

As she said 'This young man', I looked to the man who I'd first took the order of for today. The man's blue eyes looked at me with a tiny bit of humor in them, almost as if he found the situation funny—which it was not!

"I'm sure I had set the order through correctly. It was probably Belle—" I didn't get to finish my sentence as my manager cut me short.

"Now, now... Don't go blaming poor Belle for something that wasn't her fault!" she said, holding the cup of coffee that the man had given back to her.

"Well, if it wasn't Belle, there's something wrong with the computer..." I said to her. I didn't like this job, but, of course, I couldn't afford to lose it because then my aunt would either kill me or send me on another hunting spree for work, which I so didn't want to do.

"Chloe, there's nothing wrong with the computer," she said to me and threw the—probably cold—cup of coffee in the bin that was just beside her feet, and took another cup of coffee from Belle, who had made another cup for the customer. "I'm sorry to say this to you, Miss Markle, but you get to go home earlier than the time your shift is over."

"Thank you, Adele. I'll make sure to come back fresh and..." I trailed off when I saw the serious expression on her face and thought back over what she said.

"I mean that you're fired, Chloe. So you get to go home early," she told me with a slight frown on her face, handing the coffee to the man, who gladly took it and walked out of the coffee shop with a thank you.

"Oh, well, I'll be leaving..." I said with a small smile and walked by her to go get my things.

I walked back out with my purse and phone in hand and faced Adele, who still stood in the same spot. "I'm sorry, Chloe. It's just that you're not really the best worker around here... I hope you understand this. I just can't have a lazy employee," she looked at me sadly and I forced myself not to roll my eyes at her.

"Yes, I understand," I told her and looked over at Belle and the rest of my (used to be) co-workers. "Goodbye, Adele!"

"Bye, Chloe," and with that, I turned away and walked out of the coffee shop.

While I was walking home, I pulled out my earbuds from out of my purse and plugged them into my phone and then started listening to music on the highest volume.

I couldn't help the small smile that had suddenly appeared on my face.

Getting fired from my job meant that I didn't have to worry about being late anymore, didn't have to have customers waving their hand —or even hands—in my face, didn't have to make small talks with customers anymore, and most of all, I didn't have to worry about a customer complaining about their order being wrong and my manager getting upset with me.

I felt free!

Well... just for a bit.

_

A/N:

Hello, there!! So, this is the first chapter of my new book... What do you think?

School is starting in one week, but luckily, I've managed to write a few chapters... so from now on, this book will be updated every week on Wednesday!

Thank you for reading and please don't forget to—

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