Coffee Shop Soundtrack

Now that the morning rush had died down for the moment, the shop only had three people total inside. Cassie, Ryan, and the kindly old fellow that always came in at 6:57 sharp for his large black coffee and bagel he got every day seven days a week for the last five years. He even sat at the exact same table ever morning, staring out the window that faced out towards the empty road always wearing a dreamy far off look as if reminiscing about the old days, wishing for something better. Cassie had tried to talk to him a few times, but he kept his answers short and sweet. He didn't come off as rude, just liking to be by himself. But every day, without fail, when he walked in exactly at 6:57 and left a half hour later he always gave a friendly wave and a sweet smile. Neither of them didn't even know his name so Cassie just went ahead and dubbed him Steve. Ryan always gave her a look when she yelled bye Steve once the door was closed and the old man was out of earshot.

Just as Steve left, the song on the radio changed and Cassie gasped excitedly as she instantly recognized it. For being stuck right between two small towns and the place surrounding the shop being long abandoned when the newer towns had developed around it, it got excellent radio stations. You would think that all they would get was static but they got the best of both towns with all the popular hits and awesome jazz stations that Ryan and she always switched and fought over throughout the day.

"Baaaby you light up my world like nobody else! The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed! But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tel you don't kno-O-OW, you don't know you're beautiful...."

Cassie was singing along loudly and horribly off key standing in the middle of the shop with a broom in hand swinging it around and dancing stupidly making Ryan roll his eyes at her.

"You know, its a good thing that Steve left or he would be deaf by now." Ryan muttered. "And stop swinging that broom around! You're going to break something again!"

Cassie stuck her tongue out at him, "you're such a crabby patty today. You used to be so much fun."

Ryan just raised a brow and turned to plug his iPod in making Cassie start to whine. But she was ignored as some of his favorite music filled the speakers, songs that Cassie didn't know. But that didn't stop Cassie from dancing as she continued to sweep up all the things left from their first customers of the day since more were filing in.

The coffee shop had been a old church turned into a coffee shop. The only evidence to it being a church was the outside and the stained glass windows along with a few of the pews that had been salvaged from the mess it had been left it. But everything else was brought in from elsewhere. The floors had been polished, new mismatching table and chairs and bookshelves and strange posters and lights filled the four walls. They usually either played the local radio stations, their own music, or the free sampler cd's that local bands brought in to advertise their bands. Ry had opened the shop five years ago and hired Cass a few months after he opened since the help he had suddenly left when a better opportunity had come up. Cass had every intention to just pass through on her grand scheme she had cooked up to travel all over the country and live in her car, picking up weird jobs every now and then to make sure she could pay for gas and food. She had no intention of staying, but Ryan and her had started talking when she had stopped in that summer day and somehow offered her a temporary job since she needed money and he needed the help and somehow turned into a permanent thing. And there they were, five years later, shop still open and running well and getting a lot of customers.

After the strange lapse in customers during Cassie's 'performance' that no one but Ryan had to witness, they were back running around like chickens with their heads cut off as they tried to get orders done as quickly as possible. Cass was actually really shocked at all the business that always came in. Not that it was a bad shop or anything, Ryan did a really good job of running the place, just that the location was strange and the town was so small. But what seemed to help was that in order to get to the big city, you had to pass the road that the shop faced, the same one Steve always watched when he came in, with a gas station right across the street, so that helped a lot. And the high school kids liked to come in before and after school also to get away for a little bit since it was about ten minutes from the nearest town.

"Cassie!" Ryan called from behind the counter, pulling her out of her reverie. "I need a little help back here!"

She nodded as she rushed towards the counter with a teasing grin, "coming muffin face!"