Day 1
Although I wasn't made aware if its name at the time, I was the longtime manager of the, what I'll go ahead and call the Cafe de Montefiore due to who would become the central character of this story, despite no resemblance to the fictional character from New Eridu. We were wrapping up service, the three of us, as the sky just began to redden. Sophie was wiping the tables while Liza was storing away leftover pastries for our tomorrow breakfast. We wore proper attire, white collared tops, them, blouses, dark bottoms, slacks for myself and skirts for them. Sophie had short black hair, Liza, medium and blonde.
Having finished closing the system, I leaned back on the counter and looked up. Our cafe was located at the first level of an enormous corporate office. Being connected with the main plaza, above us baristas was an open sightline of all the floors, such that any senior executives or entry associates could simply look over their railing and see our cafe at the ground level. Through the windowed walls above I could see dark birds in the distance.
"What're you looking at, boss?" Sophie plainly asked.
"Oh..."
I shook my head, not having a meaningful reply. She wasn't interested anyways, but it was at least a little bit surprising that my moment of contemplation was visible to her. Although just fully immersed in the busy shift, everything had now melted away. I had these two girls who I cared for, and they worked hard as well. Maybe I should've cherished it more. Studied my reality like an espresso. Maybe there was no reason for me to have been so diligent for the years here if this was the last time I'd see them. Not that I'd change anything about it. Maybe they knew.