Coffee Bar Birthday

Terry watched from behind the counter as Carla entered the coffee shop, gift in hand. He suddenly felt nervous.

“Terr!” she shouted, her smile beaming as she walked to the register. “It sucks this is the only time I get to see you on your actual birthday, but I’m here!”

Forcing a smile, Terry nodded as another customer walked up to the counter ahead of Carla. “Hey, the Wifi is down, I think.”

Without blinking, Terry said, “It’s ‘CoffeeBar2’. The other one is for employees.”

“Why didn’t they just…”

“I wish I knew.” Looking at his friend, he said, “Thank you! Car, what can I get started for you,” he asked while eyeing the oblong gift in her hand. He thought it may have resembled a book, but it could’ve also been a picture frame.

“Let’s do a Soy Mocha with a non-dairy whip and a shot of almond syrup.”

Terry scrunched his face up. “Wow. Sounds gross.”

“You don’t even like coffee, so it all sounds gross to you! Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Thank you, but you sent that text already at, like, 4:30. And the GIF. Why up so early?”

Carla chuckled. “Oh, I wasn’t. I set my phone to send those. For fun!”

Rolling his eyes, Terry said, “Oh, yeah, it was fun alright! No receipt?” he asked while crumpling the paper up.

“Wait! I want one today!”

“What? Why?”

“I wanna do the survey. I’m doing receipt surveys now, to get free stuff.”

“Coffee Bar doesn’t give away food. It’s just a sweepstakes.”

Carla grabbed the crumpled receipt, set the gift on the counter, and straightened the paper. Terry thought the gift sounded heavy when it hit the counter. “Oh, I’m gonna win that sweepstakes! What’s the prize?”

Moving to the mini fridge, Terry said, “Gift card. What else? And they just want your data, Car.”

“I don’t have a datacard.”

“No, Car.” He sighed. “Your data. Your information.”

With realization dawning, she nodded her head. “Oh, I get it. Like, they want to send emails and stuff.”

As he poured the soy milk into the steel pitcher, he nodded. “Yeah. Something like that. So, when do you have to be at work?” he asked as he looked over at the wall clock. It was 1:50 and the after school rush would be coming soon.

Carla frowned and groaned as she moved down the counter. “I gotta be in in, like, an hour. But I wanted to bring your present today.” She started looking around. “Where…?”

Terry knocked his head back toward the register, but had a flash of regret. It wasn’t likely she would permanently misplace the gift, but he didn’t want to open it here at the Coffee Bar counter. There were seven tables in the dining area with four of them occupied.

Thinking back to all of his birthdays and even Christmas, Terry dreaded having to open gifts in front of people he loved, and he really didn’t want to do it in front of total strangers.

He caught Wifi Guy’s eye and gave a quick nod. The guy gave a thumbs up, a smile, and then went back to work on his laptop.

As she retrieved the gift, Terry pulled the frothing wand to churn the soy milk. To him, soy milk didn’t look the same as real milk when it was properly frothed and he didn’t think it held it’s foamy state for the same amount of time, but he also knew Carla was lactose intolerant.

I could’ve used real milk and sent her to the bathroom.

“So,” she started as he pulled his espresso shots and prepped the cup. “You’re the big two-three today. How’s it feel?”

Smiling tightly, Terry said, “About the same way you felt two years ago, old lady.”

Feigning outrage, Carla said, “I never!” Leaning onto the counter, she quickly added, “Well, at least I can rent a car.”

“Ha! I don’t know why we keep talking about that. We looked it up. It’s not a thing.” He pulled out the can and put an enormous flourish of whipped cream on top of Carla’s drink. “Now, you be careful,” he said, his eyes trained on the beverage. The cream nearly doubled the height of the cup. He smiled when she grabbed it and the towering whipped topping jiggled.

Carla eagerly chomped on the whipped cream, getting some on her nose and cheeks. Terry was thankful her long dark hair was in a ponytail. He pulled some napkins and set them in front of her as she giggled.

The minutes rolled by with no new customers. Terry and Carla chatted with Terry hoping time would run out on the pair before she would remember the heavy gift under her arm.

Suddenly, Carla’s eyes bulged and her smile disappeared. Terry knew that look and picked up the whipped cream he’d left on the counter. He’d accidentally grabbed the dairy version. “Oh, Carla! I’m sorry!”

“N-no problem. Just…I’ll be back. Don’t go… anywhere!”

Leaving the gift on the counter, she bolted to the restroom and Terry realized he could open it, prepare his reaction, and tape it back.

Working with the paper folds, he easily got under the wrapping paper and was astonished at what he saw. His gift from Carla was a wood carving. It was rectangular and depicted a scene Terry knew all too well: it was a wooden reproduction of the photo of their first trip to the cabin four years ago. The detail in the carving was incredible and Terry felt slightly overwhelmed.

Wifi Guy loudly closed his laptop, drawing Terry’s attention. He winced as he started packing up his stuff and Terry knew he needed to rewrap the gift quickly.

With the job done, Terry realized his nose was running a little after his eyes had welled up, but he was sure he’d still have the same reactions and emotions when he opened it in front of Carla.



Word Count: 995