One of the good things about working from home was that I could do it from a coffee shop.
Not that I lived in a coffee shop, I should point that out before there is any confusion.
Unfortunately.
Most days the place was quiet after the morning rush and I could get on with stuff, there were a couple of mornings when the local mums gathered and prams cluttered the place, which was already small and I would usually get a takeaway and go back to my flat.
One of the other good things about the cafe was the staff. There were two cute baristas who were there pretty much most days. Maya was younger, possibly and blonde, but somewhat distant. Jay was dark haired, but it looked dyed and had glasses, which was always a good thing for me and a friendly laughing manner, but was quiet and shy. Either way, they were both cute and I would cast furtive glances their way and dream a little dream.
The summer was settling down in London now, after a shaky start that saw me reaching for the heating control in early June. My trips to the cafe grew longer as they had some air conditioning and my argument was that it made my laptop more efficient. Whatever, it was nice to just sit there and enjoy the view as I tried to look at spreadsheets and data and I could use their wifi for most of my work, except when using secure databases.
The heat kept people away too, mixed with the holidays and even the mothers' meetings were quieter now.
Unfortunately, I was also busy at work as my company took on more as the places that used our service needed holiday cover. As I had no family, I was usually tasked with these jobs as I would be working over the 'holidays' and I had just been handed a monster of a project to streamline a charity database prior to their swapping to another system. It was easy, just download one, check it all for duplicates and errors, then upload the result and hope it all worked. If it did, then do it all again for the next few weeks as more supporters were added until their 'go live' date in a fortnight. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I decided the best method was to download the files in the morning, then go 'offline' for the day to clean it, avoiding emails that might distract me.
The best way to do this was to sit in the coffee shop, obviously.
A clatter of cup and saucer startled me and Jay laughed as my eyes shot up from the screen.
"Wake up, you need to work." she chuckled as she put my empty cup in a bowl with the other used items in the cafe while she did her rounds to tidy up after the lunch rush.
"Maybe I need another coffee." I replied blinking as the darker surroundings shook my eyes and I blinked again to see the gridlines of the spreadsheet etched onto my retinas.
"Come on then, I'm not bringing it to you." and she turned and I sat and watched her walk away, her dark trousers showing the curve of her bottom nicely and I was still transfixed by this when she called to me again and I looked to see her head turned in my direction, clearly seeing where my gaze was. She giggled and her dark hair shimmied as she shook her head.
I waited as the espresso machine gurgled and sighed, steam rising to cloud the chrome fittings and then dark, rich liquid trickling down into a cup.
"Cake?" Jay knew me well, or my habits anyway, and her finger ran over the selection as I tried to decide. "It's a fruity kind of day." she said and I had to agree, so a strawberry cheesecake was scooped onto a plate and my card went to the machine and beeped.
I tried to enjoy the cake and coffee, but I was being drawn back to the spreadsheet and I was engrossed again, so much so that I didn't see Jay walking over until she stood in front of the table, hand on hips, trying to look stern.
"What's so important that you can't take a break?" she said, her accent not giving much away, other than she was from the South of England. I looked up and blinked and swallowed the mouthful of cake.
This was probably the most in-depth conversation we had even had, usually it was just a few words, related to coffee and cake. She knew my regular order, so even that had been replaced by a nod from us both and Maya was the same. Other than their names, I knew nothing and didn't even think they knew my name. I was probably just 'americano, black no sugar, guy'.
"Well." I started and wondered if I should continue. Would she be interested in database stuff? I used to think everyone was, until, well, you find out the hard way.
"Well." I repeated and her lips went into a small smile. "I am reconciling data." She blinked. "For a client." No reaction. "It's a big job." Her head tilted to one side a fraction.
"I understood a few of those words." She said as she smiled a bit more. "But you need a break, you have been staring at that screen for hours."
She may have been right as I could see lines and words on her skin every time I closed my eyelids.
Jay sat down on the bench seat next to me and turned my laptop slightly and laughed. "There, that's better." and my eyes tried to look at the screen still, but then went to the cake and coffee, feeling the nerves sweeping through my body.
"So." She said firmly and I had to look at her. "Tell me what you are doing, without looking at your bloody laptop for a few moments."
"Well." It was my standard response when cornered. I took a breath, then another. Then I took another for good measure. "I have to get a client's database cleaned up." Jay looked at me without any expression. "So I am checking their records for duplicates and also matching new records to eliminate any more dupes, then merging the records to make a fresh, clean database." There was no change in her look.
"Ok." she mumbled, with a sense that she was regretting this now. "But you need to take a break." She actually sounded concerned for me, which was strange, or maybe she was trying to sell me more cake. "I mean, you used to come in for an hour or so, but lately you've been here a long time and with your head buried in the screen. It's not good for you."
I felt totally told off.
"It's important." I mumbled as I reached for the laptop and turned it towards me, only for her hand to push it back.
"Why is it so important?"
"Because it's my job. I like it." I suddenly felt very silly saying that.
"What do you like about it? You are staring at spreadsheets."
"Well." I was suddenly aware of that word in my vocabulary, "They are interesting." She blinked at me. "I mean, every database is just a glorified spreadsheet." There was no response despite my enthusiastic tone. "Look!" and I turned the laptop to us and clicked on the main page, the search page of the database, the highlighted fields, the various input parameters, the filter tabs.
Jay looked at the screen and back to me.
"I would say you need to get out more, but you are, technically, out." she said as she shook her head and I saw the light shining off her hair, a dark shimmer with a hint of red.
I looked back at the screen and moved the cursor around, but she sat back, unimpressed.
"That field." I said as I highlighted a section of the page, "Leads to this column in the spreadsheet. See?" She looked at the screen and back to me again and nodded. "So, from there, you can search all these fields." and I clicked on the spreadsheet to open another one with even more information on. "See!"
"I see." she mumbled and then sighed, knowing her fight was over.
"And this..." I clicked the screen to show the main page for the charity and pressed the 'Donate' button, "Is also connected to the spreadsheet, it feeds into this column!" and I highlighted the relevant part of the Excel sheet and my smile was met with a blank look. "So, they all connect and do so via the spreadsheets. You can find anyone, pretty much, from different fields and try to match people if there are duplicate records." I was smiling when I finished my blurb, Jay wasn't.
She stood. "You should look up more." she said and walked away with a little wave and smile. My eyes went down and the glow of the screen filled them as coffee and cake filled my mouth.
"Hey data king." Jay said as I walked in the next day, laptop under my arm and my other hand holding my stamp card, which was two away from a free cup of coffee. The machine was already steaming as she slid a cup under the spout and then turned to smile at me as my eyes shot across to the machine to avoid her gaze.
I tried to think of something clever to say, but just mumbled a "Hello" and added a "How are you today?" for good measure. She smiled at me, so I looked away again.
"Ok today. How are you? Hope your eyes are not sore from staring at the screen." She giggled a little, but I could sense the firmness of her tone and I looked back to see a little shine behind the lenses of her glasses. I had never really noticed her eyes and realised they were green, but the reflection often hid them.
I mumbled something again as I took my coffee and went to a table, the usual one, tucked away, but with a view of the counter for the occasional lift of the eyes.
An hour or so later, maybe two, I was lost in my data, a glass of water clattered onto the table and I looked at the long pale fingers that held it and then followed the arm to Jay's face as she stared at me. "Take a break." she said, quietly, but firmly.
"Soon." I mumbled, looking down again, the warm glow of the screen filling my vision again, "I just need to sort thirty or so more records."
"Be a shame if the water was spilled over your laptop." She muttered and stomped away.
Twenty five minutes later I walked to the counter and she was glaring at me.
"Americano please." I said, proudly and she turned and twisted the handle from the machine and slammed it down onto the bin to clear the old grounds out before filling it with fresh, thrusting it back and pressing it firmly and then opened the steam valve as it hissed into life. Her hair was in a ponytail and it distracted me, watching it bob as she moved, reaching for a fresh cup, placing it under the spouts, ready for the thick, dark liquid to flow in an upside down U shape into the cup, twisting to glare at me some more and then placing the cup down on the saucer on the counter. All that without a word, but the eyes said a lot, despite the glass masking them. I walked back to the table and heard her footsteps behind me.
She pushed the laptop around just before she sat down next to me, far enough away to be comfortable.
"Take a break." she said, each word firm, eyes wide and the green drew me in and I gulped.
"I am." I mumbled and looked away, back to the empty counter, hoping someone would come in so she would move away.
"Tell me something about yourself." she said quietly, her voice friendly now and I stared at her, hoping it was a joke.
"Me?" was all I managed to say as she held her gaze into me.
"Well you can tell me about someone else, but that's not what I asked." Friendly, but not.
"What do you want to know?" I replied, although my brain was wondering why she wanted to know.
"Anything. All I know is you like coffee without milk or sugar. That and you are in love with spreadsheets." she giggled at the last bit.
"That's it really." I mumbled, unsure why she was interested or what I could say.
"How about..." she stared at me, "your name."
I took a breath and then a sip of coffee, but she wasn't going away.
