Page 4 of Welcome to Ero-TEA-Ca: We’re Open!
“Please don’t go to the opening,” Cass began.
“I’m going. I’ll leave out the fact I’m part owner of this place if it helps, but I’m looking forward to meeting some new people. The high street is full of old fuddy-duddies. It’s about time some life got injected into the place.”
“Are you calling me an old fuddy-duddy?”
“If the shoes fits, Cass.”
Well, wasn’t that just peachy? Sure, Cass was a bit of a grouch, and she liked things to be a certain way and hated change, but a fuddy-duddy? Rude. Just rude.
“I’m going to do a stock take,” she huffed, leaving a smirking Kendal at the till. Matt would be in soon to help her with customers, so Cass didn’t feel too bad. And Kendal deserved some payback after that comment, anyway.
The stockroom remained as organised as ever and Cass regretted exiling herself to it. After all, they’d completed the stock take just last week, and Cass knew she didn’t need to recount anything for a few more days. Kendal would call her any second for help. Any second…
Cass slumped in the chair used to reach the higher shelves.
Kendal had not called for help, and after a peek through the door, Cass saw her business partner was doing absolutely fine by herself.
There wasn’t a long queue and everyone seemed affable.
Huh. The customers never smiled at Cass like that.
Grumbling to herself, Cass’s nose twitched. The smell was back! Instead of the gorgeous aroma of coffee, Cass’s olfactory centre was being assaulted by some sort of plant. Not perfume…something earthy, and wholeheartedly unwelcome.
Scrambling to her feet, Cass sniffed the air. Where was it coming from? She shifted a few boxes, sniffing as she went. On her hands and knees, she crawled across the floor with her nose millimetres away from her pristine laminate. The smell was weaker down there.
Back to a vertical position, Cass flattened herself against the stock shelving. Coffee. That’s all she could smell. Pushing away, she brought hands to hips, scanning the room. One step to the left and the smell was a fraction stronger. Another step and Cass knew she was getting warmer.
Cass grabbed the chair she’d been slumped in minutes before, leaned it against the shelves, and hauled herself up.
The earthy stench got infinitely worse as she rose to her tiptoes. Carefully lifting a box of her favourite coffee out of the way, Cass caught sight of an air vent in the top corner of the wall shared with…no, she couldn’t even say the name. Who called their business Ero-Tea-Ca, for goodness’ sake?
Craning her face closer, Cass took a giant whiff. The smell was coming from next door! Cass gasped, “Oh my God, they’re smoking marijuana!” She was right! They were new-age hippies, hellbent on destroying the neighbourhood. First sex, and now drugs.
Jumping down, Cass tore out of the stockroom, intent on having it out with the new owner, or whoever was there when she arrived.
Her frustration and anger were already close to spilling over, and the way Cass saw it, if a new employee got the brunt of her ire, then so be it.
More fool them for choosing to work in a porn tea shop where drugs were liberally used in broad daylight.
Cass didn’t give Kendal the chance to say anything.
She was busy with a customer anyway. And Cass didn’t need her ex-wife’s rationality poking its nose in.
A new wave of fury washed over her as she exited The Oxford Beanery.
The blasted moving van was still there, and it didn’t look like it was going to move anytime soon.
There were piles of boxes sitting on the curb and inside the vehicle.
Bypassing the clear health and safety violation, Cass marched next door.
The windows were frosted, making it impossible for Cass to see inside.
Just as she was about to barge her way in and give them all a piece of her mind, the young Asian woman came dancing out.
Literally, dancing. Her hair was up in two buns on top of her head, and she was wearing neon pink eye makeup.
Cass glared. “A new-age hippy! I knew it,” she mumbled.
“Oh, hey,” the woman said after she’d twirled one more time. “I’m Nabi.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Cass seethed. “That van is blocking access to my café. The boxes are causing a safety hazard, and whatever illegal crap you’re smoking in there is leaking through to my stockroom.”
The Chinese woman—no, Nabi—pulled her EarPods out and stuffed them in her dress pocket. “I’m totally sorry about the van. The people who were here earlier had to leave, but reinforcements are on the way. I slept in the back room—”
“You’re not allowed to live in your shop!” Cass bellowed. “Christ, how many laws do you plan on breaking?”
Nabi laughed. “Oh, no worries. I don’t live here. I was cleansing the space and connecting with its energy.”
“Cleansing the space,” Cass deadpanned.
“Totally. Energy is so important. Don’t you think? Anyway, I’m not the owner, but I will be working here.”
Cass could feel her jaw muscles locking. “I don’t care,” she hissed. “Just get that bloody van moved before I call the council and lodge a complaint.”
Unsatisfied and still raging, Cass stomped back to The Oxford Beanery. The council was about to get a strongly worded email.