StarStruck Coffee

Coffee Art

Present day

"One Salted Caramel Latte to-go?" Beth repeated Zach's order back to him; even though he'd been going to 'Starstruck Cafe' for over 6 months and was still one of the (very) few customers they actually had, Beth always had to double-check his order to make sure she didn't get it wrong. "Yes Beth. How long's it been now, and you still don't remember my order?" Zach rolled his eyes jokingly, "I can't believe my best friend still doesn't remember my order."

"The fact that your barista is your best friend is kinda sad Zach." Beth laughed over her shoulder as she turned on the coffee machine. "Whipped cream as well?" Zach said hopefully,

"Fine, fine this is the last time though you know my boss only likes us to use it on iced drinks." She replied haphazardly.

Beth's boss was 42, 4'9 and Irish, his flaming red hair and slightly different accent made that very obvious. Even though he was shorter than most people's eleven-year-old children; he was still the scariest man Zach had ever met. He's only ever in the shop in the afternoon though so apart from the odd occasion when he turned up early, Zach managed to avoid him completely. The very few times Zach did meet him, it did not end well.

One of Beth's favourite memories to tell new customers when they ask about Zach and her relationship, was about two months ago.

That day two months ago

Zach had a day off from lectures and seminars as his sociology teacher was at a wedding, so he decided to spend a bit more time in the coffee shop with Beth. About 20 minutes in, Zach was moaning he was bored, so Beth had the, at the time, amazing idea that Zach should learn coffee art, in case he ever lost his part time job at the pizzeria next to his flat, that way he could get a job with her.

This made Zach perk up straight away and he was instantly at the coffee machine with an apron on. Where he found a spare apron in such a short amount of time, Beth still could not tell ya, but he did. Deal with it. Anyway, Zach was without a doubt the worst coffee artist Beth had ever met and she did not hesitate but to tell him so. For about 15 minutes Zach stood there taking all the jokes and dramatics Beth dished out. She even went so far as to go outside with Zach's supposed "Leaf Latte" (it was one of 'Starstruck Coffee's Specials, the only reason why was because it was a latte where the froth had been designed to look like the leaf of a pine tree) and asked what Zach could only assume was a businessman what it looked like.

Luckily for Zach he didn't know what to say to this bubbly barista who had bounced over to him on the street to ask about Zach's "coffee art" so he mumbled his apologies and pretended to get a phone call while he hurriedly ran the opposite direction from her.

This was Zach's favourite part of the story, so he always took over at this part.

Zach came out of the coffee shop, not hearing any of this to tell Beth to come inside and stop bothering people when he saw this absolutely petrified businessman run away from the 5'2 Beth who was waving coffee around like a raving lunatic. At the sight of this he couldn't control his laughter, at this point as he'd been in the coffee shop all day, he was very high on caffeine so that was no surprise. As he was laughing his head off, he leant back by just a bit too much and his back cracked (this is where Beth took over).

And he went face first into the pavement, which in turn led Beth to also fall over from laughter. After about 10 minutes of laying on the floor dying from laughter, Beth heard a slightly off accented man clearing his throat. Zach hadn't met Beth's boss yet, so he was confused when she stopped laughing, pulled him up off the ground and basically man-handled him into a somewhat military-regulated attention stance.

As he turned him around, he saw the problem, this short ginger haired man with a patchy beard stood there with the look of a very disappointed father and his arms crossed staring at them. Still Zach was confused until Beth nudged him, pointed at his apron and then pointed at the short man. Zach looked him up and down twice before his eyes finally set on the slightly tanned apron with black straps tied around his neck and his waist. This was the famed Sean Vander. Beth's eccentric boss with anger issues.

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur for both Zach and Beth but from what they do remember there was a lot of shouting, a lot of swearing and it ended in both of them being told to stay at home for the rest of the day and come back tomorrow with a fresh mindset.