Grounds to Leaves: The Best Joe in Town – Part 3

Do I have an excuse for the long absense? Sure do. Am I going to bother telling you? Nope. Just accept my humblest apologies and let's hope I can get another update before the end of the month.

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Chelsie tried not to stare too long at the boy that sat across the table from her. She had to look at him, of course, but that didn’t mean she had to stare. He was the opposite end of the scale from the girl she had hired yesterday.

“So, Jack, what makes you think that you would be a good part of the team here at Grounds to Leave?”

“Well, I have had experience working as a barista before. It’s actually how I developed my interest in tea.”

“Do you know a lot about tea?”

“You could say that. It’s kind of my area of expertise. In fact, tea is my drink of choice. Did you know that all non-herbal teas are derived from the same plant, the carmelia sinensis?”

Chelsie raised one of her eyebrows and gave Jack another look over. “Actually I did know that, but not every one does. Know anything else?”

“Did you know that the invention of the tea bag was actually an accident? Thomas Sullivan would send out samples of tea in silk bags and some people just assumed that the bag was used in the same way as a diffuser, thus the teabag was born.”

“Really? Well I guess some of the most interesting things are discovered by accident.” Chelsie leaned back and tried again to figure out whether or not she actually wanted to hire the young man across from her.

“I know a million interesting things about tea. If wasn’t studying to become an architect, I’d probably move to India and grow my own tea.”

Chelsie had to admit to herself that this boy was interesting, and much like the girl she had hired yesterday, she could see Aiden not liking him. His piercings and tattoo sleeves would through Aiden off completely. His extensive tea knowledge was a bonus.

“That is very cool. I think we’d like to give you a try here.”

“That’s great. Thank you.” Jack stood up and Chelsie did likewise to shake his hand.

“We’ll start your training on Wednesday at,” Chelsie consulted the schedule in front of her, “at three o’clock.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Chelsie watched Jack walk off with a smile on her face as she sat back down in her chair. Two new hires in as many days; she hadn’t expected to get this lucky finding people who fit what she was looking for. Experience and the right mix of looks and personality to annoy Aiden.

“You are a very naughty young lady. I would tell you that you should be ashamed of yourself if I didn’t find your plans to annoy that Aiden boy so amusing.”

Chelsie jumped at the sound of Old Walter’s voice. He still managed to surprise her sometimes.

“Hey, what can I say, he still deserves some sort of payback for sneaking this one on me the way he did. If I can hire good employees that’ll annoy him, that’ll be payback enough.”

Old Walter chuckled and took a few puffs on his pipe. “Well Chelsie, I have to admit that I will enjoy watching this play out. “

“I’m sure you will. Well, I have to go home Walter, but I’ll see you in the morning?”

“Chat and a tea. Of course you will my dear. Good night. “

Chelsie grabbed her purse and headed out, looking forward to Aiden’s reaction to Ashleigh tomorrow. She could almost here his voice already; that note of distain for the preppy blonde girl. Chelsie smirked as she locked the door. Tomorrow would be interesting.

Aiden was already busy in the kitchen by the time she arrived in the morning. Bleary-eyed she set a pot of tea to steep before sneaking into the kitchen to see if she could steal something from the cooling racks for breakfast.

“Morning Chels. If you want to wait a few more minutes I’ll have some ginger-pumpkin scones ready for you to steal away from paying customers.”

“Caught me,” she laughed, a guilty grin on her face. “We’ve got a new girl starting training today. “

“Is that so? You didn’t waste any time finding some new staff.”

“No point in dragging my feet now that I’ve got no choice in the matter. We might as well make a go of it.”

“Hmmm. I’ll call you when the scones are ready.”

“Thanks.” Chelsie said as she left the kitchen. She grabbed her tea, fishing out the bag before getting starting to organize everything for a new day. She took a sip of her tea as she contemplated the best way to go about training the new girl.

“Well my dear, another big day ahead.”

“You could say that. Another day, another dollar.” Chelsie looked over at the familiar face of Old Walter, wreathed by the smoke of his pipe.

“It’s more than that. I think I’ll be keeping an eye on things around here today. That new girl ought to provide me with more than my fair share of amusement.”

“Ya think?”

“I know.” Walter winked at Chelsie and faded from view.

“Scones are ready Chels.” Aiden called out from the kitchen. Chelsie grinned at Old Walter’s impeccable timing as she headed into the kitchen to grab her breakfast.

****

The morning rush had tapered into the late morning crawl. A few regulars and one or two new faces sat around the shop, no one in any hurry to leave. Aiden was baking a few fresh batches of pastries for the expected lunch crowd.

Ashleigh walked through the door at exactly five minutes before the start of her first shift. Chelsie gave her a quick once over as she made her way towards the counter. She didn’t look like the sort of person one expected to see working in a coffee shop. In fact, she didn’t look like the kind of person who worked at all.

“Hey Ashleigh, ready to get started?”

“Totally.”

“Great let me show you where you can put your stuff. Follow me.” Chelsie headed into the kitchen, Ashleigh right behind her.

“Whoa.”

The barely whispered word caused Chelsie to turn around. A single look at Ashleigh and Chelsie knew exactly what she was thinking about. Trying to smother her smirk she answered the question she knew must be bouncing around inside Ashleigh’s head.

“That’s Aiden, baker and co-owner.” Aiden turned at the sound of his name and gave the new hire a quick glance before turning back to his work. “He works up front when we’re short-handed, but he spends most of his time back here. Over here is the office, where you can store your stuff.”

The rest of the day passed in a blur as she trained Ashleigh on the ins and outs of working at Grounds to Leaves. Chelsie had to admit to herself that the girl was a better employee than she expected her to be.

Most importantly she enjoyed the way Ashleigh’s eyes followed Aiden whenever he came out of the kitchen. Chelsie could tell from the look on Aiden’s face that the attention did not go unnoticed and it annoyed him.

At the end of the day, after everyone else had left, Chelsie waited for Aiden to bring the topic up. She sat at her desk, going over the new schedule for her employees. In a few weeks they would start with the live music, but they still had a lot of prep to do.

She looked up when Aiden’s shadow crossed her desk, doing her best to keep her face neutral. He just stood in the doorway, arms crossed, not saying a word and she stared back at him, equally silent. Aiden broke down first.

“She cannot stay. Nuh uh, no way.”

“You’re the one that wanted the music night. She’s bright and a quick learner. Why shouldn’t we keep her on?”

Aiden sighed. “You know why. I swear you are trying to hire people to deliberately annoy me.”

“Don’t be silly Aiden. Give me a real reason and maybe I’ll think about letting her go. Her finding you attractive is not a good reason.”

“If it interferes with her doing the job, it is.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, if we cross it. For now, she’s doing good. I’m not letting her go. You’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” Chelsie tried not to grin as Aiden stomped back into the kitchen, but she couldn’t help herself. She heard a slight ghostly chuckle and a whiff of cigar smoke drifted by, but Old Walter did not make an appearance.