It's Okay, It's a Strategy (to ensure I remain)

Chapter 3: Karen Incident

CW- entitled people :/

The next day, Tommy was back at Bad's Cafe running the register as he usually did on boring and quiet days. Tubbo was wiping down tables and Ranboo was in the kitchen, messing around with ingredients. Bad was in the back room doing something or other, but Tommy couldn't be bothered to annoy him today.

Tommy had just finished saying goodbye to Puffy, who tipped him an unnecessary amount of money again, when a new customer came in. Plastering on his customer service smile, he waved hello the the woman who came in. She did not return the sentiment.

"Welcome to Bad's Cafe, what can I get for you today?" Tommy asked, keeping up his customer service smile.

The woman drummed her painted nails on the counter in thought, making an annoying clacking sound.

"I'll have a banana nut muffin and a caramel latte, thanks." The woman grumbled sourly and looked down to her phone and continued typing busily. Tommy glanced at her, a bit off-put by her attitude, and shrugged. It didn't matter to him, sometimes people have bad days. He'd be the world's biggest hypocrite if he got upset at a customer for being grumpy. As long as she didn't take it out on him, he was fine.

"Alright I'll get that for you." Tommy started making his way towards the kitchen. They had pre-baked warm muffins on hand that they made each morning, seeing as the process of making muffins can take a good chunk of time, but for drinks they would have to be made manually. Tommy opened the kitchen door and started his way in. Quickly grabbing a banana nut muffin, he neatly put it in a wrapper and placed it on the counter.

"Ranboo," Tommy started, glancing back at the monochrome boy, "we have an order for a caramel latte, so if you could get on that-"

"Right, sorry." Ranboo quickly set aside what he was working on and grabbed the ingredients for a caramel latte, starting to go through the process of making it.

Tommy nodded once, then grabbed the requested muffin and started making his way out of the kitchen towards the customer, fighting against the tiredness weighing down his bones. The morning was always tough- he'd only gotten about three hours of sleep that night, so he's almost dead on his feet at this rate. The woman was still typing on her phone frantically, her free hand tapping the counter impatiently. Tubbo was nearly finished cleaning up the various tables in the area, spraying the tables down and drying them with a well used cloth.

"Here's your muffin, ma'am. Your latte will be here shortly." Tommy said, putting the muffin on the counter. "That will be $5.75 please."

The woman stared at him, finally looking up from her phone.

"Excuse me? Why do I have to pay for a latte that isn't even here yet?"

Oh boy.

Tommy held back a groan. Hopefully this wouldn't be a big deal, like with other customers in the past.

"It's just protocol, ma'am. You pay us, we give you the food. If we give the food first there is a chance the customer could take the food without paying for it." Tommy forced his voice to remain friendly and patient, hoping the woman would back off. He's much too tired for this.

"Are you implying you think I'd steal from you?!" The woman looked angrily at Tommy. Tommy took a deep breath in, reigning in his temper.

Sometimes he hated working behind the register. Working behind the register meant working and being friendly with other people, which Tommy wasn't very good at in the first place. And then keeping up the act of customer service- it was all exhausting. Tommy would consider himself pretty emotive, his feelings always finding a way to his face whether he wanted it to or not. And finally- self entitled rich people whose ego's are the size of the moon, the people who act as if a single speck of dirt on their pristine clothes is a crime against humanity. Those were the people Tommy had a horrible time dealing with, his temper often getting the better of him.