Page 38 of September

“What? No, call me,” she said, sounding a little desperate. “I can tell you how I managed to avoid getting burned by a rogue steam wand today.”

“That’s a story I absolutelyhaveto hear,” Gwen joked, and they hung up when she grabbed her stuff and headed out the door, trying to wrangle Carly, only to reconnect a minute lateronce she had the dog outside, walking on the sidewalk. “So, rogue steam wand?”

Juliet told her the story of how one of her trainees had left the wand pulled out when they were supposed to push it back in after each use to avoid burns like the one she’d nearly gotten. It wasn’t as interesting as she’d thought it would be, but Gwen still laughed when Juliet told her that she’d moved out of the way just in time and bumped her elbow on the counter in the process.

“Are you okay?” Gwen asked.

“I’m fine. Small bruise, but not the worst I’ve ever gotten at this job.”

“What’s the worst?”

“Honestly, the paper cuts,” Juliet said. “We have to go over this start and end-of-day paperwork. Some of it is on the computer, but the employees still have to sign a piece of paper whenever they open or close a cash drawer.”

“People still pay in cash?”

“You’d be surprised. We get a lot of small, drip coffee orders, and people don’t always want to put that on a credit or debit card or even tap their phones, so, yeah. But we still have to have cash for change just in case, and that’s money that someone could steal, so they sign that they’ve counted it and that the amount is correct, and they do that at night, too. They have to fill out this thing, and the manager includes those in their daily reports. Whenever I’m training, I have to review all the practice forms, and I’ve gotten so many paper cuts flipping through them.”

“How many Band-Aids do you go through?”

“Oh, I’m keeping them in business,” she joked. “I know where every first aid kit is in every local Southern Roastery location because I’ve probably had to open it up.”

Gwen laughed a little and said, “Oh, speaking of that; I had some of your coffee.”

“Some ofmycoffee?”

“Yeah, I went to Southern and got a vanilla latte. It wasn’t bad.”

“Well, if it wasn’t bad, that means it wasn’tgreat, and I might need to retrain the roaster who made it.”

“I ran into Molly,” Gwen said, changing the subject.

“You did?” Juliet asked and ate a fry.

“Yeah. She was on her way out, and I was on my way in. She looks like she’s feeling a lot better.”

“She is. I called her at lunch today.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I think she really did just eat something bad.”

“No chance she’s pregnant?” Gwen joked.

“Molly?” Juliet laughed. “No way. Molly is as gay as they come. Not in some of the stereotypical ways; she just loves women. She’s never even dated a guy. Maybe when she was a teenager, but I don’t remember her telling me that. I know she’s never even really kissed one.”

“Me neither,” Gwen said.

“No?”

“No,” Gwen replied. “You?”

“Oh, wow. I guess, yeah. High school, mainly. I had a boyfriend for about six months at the end of my senior year, but we broke up when we went to different colleges.”

“And women from then on for you?”

“It was really women for me all along, but I wasn’t ready to admit it.”

“I get that,” Gwen replied. “So, Molly is all about the ladies?”