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Jiae stared forlornly at the sky as the clouds wept onto her umbrella. She sighed. Normally, she would’ve loved the rain. But today was a bad day. She’d started the day off with a pounding headache. Her roommate had thought it’d be a good day to wake her up by banging pots and pans together. Then she’d missed the bus. When she’d finally gotten to work, she’d been informed that she was being laid off. And now she was lugging a box of her belongings home in the rain. She could have taken the bus, sure, but she never took the bus home.
She’d become accustomed to stopping at the cute little coffee shop along the main street on her way home. The first time she’d been there, she’d been served by the sweetest boy. He’d kept her coming back just to see him. And his hot chocolate. It was heavenly. He wouldn’t tell her what the secret ingredient was, though. Eventually, after months of coming by, she’d discovered out he was the manager.
She definitely needed a hot chocolate today. It was going to be the only redeeming quality of this day. A minute later, she dragged her box inside the coffee shop. She shook off her umbrella and set it by the door. Then she set her box on her usual table.
“Jiae! You’re early today!”
Well. At least something was going right today. It wasn’t every day the manager was working the cash register. She looked up, meeting his eyes. He smiled at her, making his eyes disappear a bit.
“Bad day?” he asked, gesturing towards the box on the table.
“Yeah. I got laid off.”
He frowned. “Oh. I’m sorry. You want your usual? Hot chocolate with extra whipped cream?”
She smiled faintly at him. “Yeah. That’d be great.” Then she reached down and started fishing around in her purse for her wallet. “$3.75, right?”
“Nope. It’s on the house today.”
“Oh, Tae, no…”
He chuckled as he made the beverage. “You’ve spent enough money here to pay my rent for a year. I think I can give you something for free. Besides, you’ve had a bad day. I want to do something nice for you.”
He handed her the hot chocolate and she sighed. “All right. Thank you.”
He nodded. “We’re hiring right now. I could get you a good word in with the manager if you wanted the job.” He winked at her, grinning.
A real smile passed over Jiae’s face for the first time that day.
“I think I’d like that.”
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