Flat white

Photo by Mauro on Unsplash

Lorana swore under her breath as the contents of the cup she was holding turned green and started to bubble up.
She quickly  emptied the cup, grabbed a clean one from the stacks in front of her and tried again, this time it worked and she passed the flat white to the customer with a sigh of relief.

Being a witch wasn't as easy as people assumed, Lorana couldn't just work a spell to become rich and gone are the days when the neighbours would pay money for a love potion or a curse.

Lorana had to work for a living just like everyone else. But finding work wasn't easy, nothing with computers as her magic had a tendency to fry them.

At first the job in the cafe had been great, the cafe had been run by the same family for years. The fittings were so old they had come back in to fashion and called retro. There was an old fashioned pushbutton till, urns of boiling water for hot drinks using instant coffee and tea bags. Gas rings for frying bacon, eggs and sausages it had been hard work but at least nothing could go wrong.

Until, that is, Jason arrived on the scene, fresh from college and determined to turn his grandparents cafe into the IN place to be.

He was happy with the retro look of the cafe, he loved the old fashioned till but not the urns. The urns had to go, they were replaced with a state of the art coffee machine and Lorana was expected to become a barrista.

Lorana tried, she really did but the harder she tried the more stressed she became. The more stressed she became the less control she had over her magic.

She knew Jason was watching her carefully and that made things worse.
Eventually after a few weeks when the situation still hadn't improved Jason asked Lorana to stay after work for a chat. Lorana's heart sank, she knew he was going to sack her. She struggled through the rest of the day with a heavy heart.
Once the last customer had left and the doors locked Jason leant against the coffee machine and looked at Lorana.
 'I've noticed you seem to have a problem with the coffee machine' he said.
Lorana nodded miserably. 'Let me show you something' said Jason.
'Its no good' she blurted out.
Jason held up his hand, 'Just watch'.
He took a cup and filled it with black coffee, hot and strong. Lorana was about to point out that black coffee should be made in a glass as, but he put his finger to his lips. He pointed his finger at the cup and concentrated, the tip of his finger started to glow. 'Flat white' Jason murmured and the black coffee in the cup turned instantly to a flat white!