MY USUAL AND YOU [Cafe Titas #2 PREVIEW -- SOON!]

2. No wedding ring

Truth was, Erika very rarely made coffee at her job. She didn't actually train as a barista. Some drinks she could handle, and pouring black coffee into the to-go cup was within her skill set. Something about making the cup for him also made her feel...virtuous or something. Like she was pouring him his drink from her kitchen the morning after. Or something.

Then she would ring up the transaction and she enjoyed it every time, in ways that had nothing to do with him. This was, after all, not her first time being a cashier. That had been when she was in college, at Sabrina's family's coffee shop Fire Clan Coffee, a wonderful place on Katipunan Avenue that closed after one year. As Sabrina Losfieros's best friend, Erika hung out there for long hours, helping out as cashier. She'd loved being part of a family dynamic that was reliable, compassionate, supportive of dreams. That one year that the coffee shop had been operational was enlightening, and held so many clues to what Erika would eventually want out of life—that she didn't seem to have gotten yet from all the time with her actual family.

She didn't hate them; she just didn't fit in.

"Erika."

Wait. Had he ever said her name? This entire time? She had it on her name tag so yes he would know what to call her but—"Yes?"

"Is it okay to talk to you for a few minutes? When you're free. I can wait, if you're still working."

What? She checked the line behind him and there were three people queued. "Sure. Twenty minutes okay?"

"Perfect. I can wait."

"Do I get to know what this is about?" Unlike her favorite customer, Erika was not fond of waiting.

He smiled. He was not wearing a mask. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't, and Erika remembered exactly when that happened because that was when she thought, Yes. Noted. Thank you. "I was going to ask you out. But I want us to talk first, have some time so I can introduce myself to you, and tell you more about what I'm going to ask you to do."

"Oh. Well." Erika cleared her throat and located her cashier voice again. "This is an interesting proposition, and I'm interesting in hearing it. See you in twenty minutes."

"Daniel," he said.

***

Yumi & Kit Cafe was established in 2021, with its only (or first?) location at the courtyard of the Bristol Gardens Condominium in the Makati business district. What that meant was that Erika's best friend Sabrina opened a new business—a food business—in the middle of one of the most poorly-implemented COVID lockdowns in the world. Existing food establishments were expected to pivot to takeout, significantly reduce dining space from fifty to twenty-five percent to forty-six-point-seven-random percent with no reasonable time to prepare, and no significant subsidies and protection from a government that seemed to want people to have their food but didn't care for the people making it.

Opening a cafe during that time seemed like the worst idea, and of course the first thing Erika did was quit her job and tell her friend, "I'm in."

Let it not be said that she was being selfless or a hero, when she did that. Erika could afford to jump the corporate ship—she had savings, and property, a large family that had wealth and property. Sabrina on the other hand had been laid off, and in a bout of helplessness decided that this was going to be her next phase.

"Cashier break," Erika announced to Jelli who was at the counter with her. The queue was gone, every customer who had dropped by for the afternoon coffee had gotten theirs, and Erika was free to...be asked out. Apparently. Jelli was a baby (a twenty-two year old) who had started working with them a month ago, and nodded to acknowledge as Erika stepped out of the cafe and into the Bristol Gardens courtyard.

There were a few tables set up there, and Daniel was sitting by himself at the table with the chessboard top. It was humid; a layer of sweat made his forehead shine. His cup of coffee was in front of him, but he seemed to have consumed most of it by now, while waiting for her.

So. No wedding ring, very handsome. That could mean everything and not a damn thing.

She sat at the seat across from him, paused to consider whether to take her mask off. And then she did. "Daniel. Nice to meet you. My name is—as you know—Erika."

"Yes, I took a chance there. Hello, Erika." Daniel's hands went around his paper cup. "Thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I'm Daniel and I...am a regular customer at your cafe."

"It's my friend's cafe," Erika said. "Sabrina. She's the barista sometimes. She's my best friend and she owns the cafe, and I'm her cashier. Sorry, please continue your introduction."

"I work across the park at Sarasola Foundation, in Sarasola Tower. I...am not sure if I like what I do anymore, so I walk a lot when I can. I ended up walking a little further out than usual and found this cafe. And now I go here whenever I get the chance."

Practically daily now. "Thank you for supporting a small business."

"I'm glad that my routine helps someone in some way. I don't want to spend too much of your time talking about why I don't like work and why I choose to take a very long walk to get coffee—but one of my former colleagues is having a party for his child this weekend, and he invited me."

"Ah."

"He's okay and I'm sure the kid is great and deserves a great party, and if I've been invited I should go. It's more of—if I go I'll see former colleagues and classmates who all think I haven't been showing up enough, and if it matters, I'm forty-one."

"Ah." Erika could see where this was going.

"And if you're thinking, at forty-one it shouldn't matter to me what these people I barely see think of me, and when it comes down to it I really don't care...but I've also started to think that maybe it's okay to have some people in my life. And care about their lives, like when they celebrate their child. Maybe the experience will be less...harrowing—"

"Harrowing."

"Yes, less harrowing—if someone were with me."

"As your decoy? Distraction?"

"As someone I genuinely want to get to know." Then he smiled. "And also the other things."