Barista Liz Enjoys Her New Job!

Note to readers: Though I hope this submission will work as a stand-alone story, a few references in this story to an earlier event will make more sense if you've read the earlier story: "Liz Wants to Earn Her Reputation!"

As always, thanks for reading, rating and commenting!

Six months and one change of employer after her daring naked romp all around the building where her former workplace was located, Liz could finally look back on that night and laugh. In the week immediately after the adventure, she wasn't so comfortable; having to go in to the coffee shop and work alongside a co-worker who'd seen her naked. At least as bad was the teasing and gossiping by the rest of the shop's employees who'd enjoyed his oh-so detailed description of what she'd done and how she'd looked doing it.

Liz had started looking for another job during her lunch break a few days after her nude jaunt, preferably one where nobody had seen her without any clothing! She realized that a fairly large number of people had seen her at least partially undressed that night, but since most of them had been pretty distant she decided to just not worry about them and focus on getting away from the people who'd been treated to a look at her completely naked body just a few feet away!

Closing up the shop by herself one night, she recognized a last-minute customer as a fellow student in one of her creative writing classes; despite not having seen him in almost two years, after a slight pause she remembered his name and greeted him, "Hi, Evan, it's been a while!"

"I thought you looked familiar," he replied, "Liz, right?" She poured him a coffee and they chatted a few minutes about their respective struggles to find worthwhile employment in a job market seemingly not interested in what English majors had to offer. "I've actually sworn off dead end jobs for good," he said, "I'm giving being a small business owner a shot!"

"That's great," Liz replied, "What are you going to do?"

"I've already started; Just last week I opened a small bookstore a few blocks down the street, right at the corner of 8th and Pearl"

"Oh, wow, I walked by there a few weeks ago and saw the 'Opening Soon' sign! That's yours?"

"Yes it is!" he proudly confirmed, "Come check it out sometime!"

Evan left and Liz locked up shortly after. She was thinking it was cool that he was starting a business. He was thinking she was at least as hot as when they'd been in that class together.

A few days later, Liz left work early, feeling like she'd endured enough wisecracks about her supposed nudity fetish for one day. She decided to check out Evan's bookstore and walked to it. The sign looked improvised and temporary, but there were some nice displays in the storefront. Stepping inside, she saw a bunch of mismatched shelving units half filled with books, and two or three small tables, each with four well worn chairs. The unfinished plywood checkout counter added to the general appearance of the shop being very much a shoestring operation. She was about to slip out, but Evan spotted her and insisted on giving her a tour.

Evan showed Liz around, admitting that his store was a work in progress but describing what he had planned. A circular stair she hadn't noticed at first turned out to lead to the second floor, where most of the merchandise was planned to be. Hearing his ideas and seeing his apparently boundless optimism, she could imagine it coming together nicely, but she had a few questions.

"Why is such a high proportion of the space devoted to books up on the second floor?" she asked, "And is that winding stair how you're expecting customers to get upstairs?"

"I didn't give you the complete tour; there is an elevator near the back of the building, and I'm planning on having a small area at the front of the 1st floor being a mini-coffee shop, maybe with a few snacks." he replied. "I've got another person lined up to work there but probably need another part-timer or two; I was actually going to ask if you knew of anybody who might be interested in working in that part of the place?"

"As it happens I'm looking to make a change away from being a barista," Liz said, "I'd be interested if I could work more in the books part of the bookstore, just pitching in at the coffee shop side during the busier times."

"That sounds good, Evan replied. Everyone I've talked to about the coffee shop opening hasn't been available when I'd need them there!"

Liz spent the better part of that afternoon going over the pros and cons of switching jobs. A 10 minute phone call with Evan sealed the deal. She sent the regional manager of the chain she was working for an email giving her resignation and offering to stay on two weeks beyond the current week to allow time for a replacement to be found and made familiar with the shop.

Less than 20 minutes later she received a formal reply email accepting her resignation, effective at the end of her Friday shift. That week. A very carefully worded reference letter was attached. She hadn't been sure if word of her nude jaunt had made it as far as the regional office, but it really seemed like they were relieved to be rid of her before she did something scandalous again!

Liz was excited to start work at the bookstore. She'd always been an avid reader, and if she was being honest, having such a small number of co-workers suited her better than the busier coffee shop where she'd been working. Along with her time organizing the bookshelves and helping customers, she worked a few hours a day serving coffee, almost all during the morning and evening rush hours or lunchtime. Even the duties she hadn't been told about before signing on didn't bother her; she pitched in to spruce up the space, painting and ripping out the ugly carpeting.

One unexpected duty she never would have imagined herself doing involved flipping a couple of heavy duty switches on two large heating and AC units. She was a bit intimidated by the industrial scale hardware, but Evan demonstrated the process, explaining that someday he'd get an electrician to rearrange the wiring to be able to avoid having to make the trip up the fire-escape style stair at the back of the building to get to the roof and flip the switches. He offered Liz her choice of turning the units on before the 7:00 AM shop opening or off around the 6:00 PM closing time. Generally an early riser, she chose the morning shift.

By the time Liz had been there two weeks her daily trip up the back stair to the building's roof had become one of her favorite parts of the day. Depending on how much before opening time she arrived, she often had time to relax in solitude before the hum of traffic overtook the chirping of birds as the dominant sound. She hauled a folding chair up there and often read a chapter or two of whatever book she was reading before heading downstairs to help Sandra, the shop's other barista, get several varieties of coffee ready for the morning rush.

The only serious distraction Liz had to deal with during her time relaxing on the roof was some squealing from a commuter train as it stopped right behind her perch every day somewhere between 6:35 and 6:40, leaving with a rumble without fail at exactly 6:50. The tracks were close to most of the buildings on the block but angled away toward a main line a block or two away before disappearing beyond the buildings on that block.

One day a month or so after she began working for Evan, her car being in the shop forced her to find another way to get to work; a quick look online confirmed that there was a commuter rail station within a couple of blocks of her workplace.

Sitting at a window seat in the crowded rail car, listening for her station to be announced, Liz was absentmindedly gazing out the window; she gasped when the train came to a stop at a station with a familiar name, and a good view of a place she would never forget! Though there was nobody on the roof of her previous workplace to give a sense of what kind of view she'd given her audience that crazy evening, but the door at the closest stair enclosure gave her a pretty good idea!

Liz was still blushing when she stepped off the train two stops later, thinking, "I still can't believe I stripped naked on that roof! Seeing what the view was like for all those people watching me..." Even as she felt her face glowing, a part of her insisted she had nothing to be embarrassed about, telling herself, "I was looking for something daring to do, outside my comfort zone. Well, mission accomplished, and no real harm done!" Though still a bit shaken when she arrived at work, she actually felt a sense of accomplishment. "Still, not sure I'd want to be reminded of what I did that night on a daily basis. I hope my car is back in action tomorrow!"

Taking the train back home that evening a bit late after making up for being late that morning, Liz forced herself to sit on the side of the train opposite what she'd taken to thinking of as her roof, but she couldn't help looking that way when the train stopped there. Watching her fellow commuters getting on or off, she realized that at least some of them probably rode this route at this time every weekday. "It's likely that at least some of the people around me right now have seen me naked!" she thought; to her surprise, the idea made her more curious than anything. Curious, and more than slightly excited!

The day after she'd been reminded of her nude stunt at her former workplace, Liz was a bit distracted as she walked up to the roof; she brushed against the rusty metal railing, grinding sizable rust stains into both her blouse and skirt. She had done similar damage to two other outfits over the 3 months she'd been responsible for startup of the HVAC equipment, and didn't want this to be an ongoing problem.

She asked Evan to do something about the problem with the stair, but had to laugh when he triumphantly showed her his solution a few days later. She'd assumed he would solve the problem at its source, but instead of doing something about the rust his solution consisted of a gaudy parka length raincoat, in school bus yellow with vertical green stripes.

Seeing the doubtful way Liz was looking at the coat, Evan told her, "Look, I know it's ugly, and it probably wouldn't even do much to stop rain, but it was either the $9 I spent at the thrift store or a couple thousand dollars a painter quoted to refinish the stair. Nobody ever has to see you wearing the stupid thing, it's just a way to protect you and your clothes until we can afford to fix things the right way."

Liz considered the long list of more important things the store needed to spend money on. She smiled and put the hideous coat on, doing a lap around the store, strutting and posing like some kind of model at a low-class fashion show before hanging it up near the back door, safely out of sight from anywhere a customer might be able to see it.

For the next 6 weeks, Liz and the coat made the daily trek to the roof, and her clothes stayed untouched by rust. She had an out-of-town wedding to go to, so she turned the responsibility for the HVAC startup back to Evan, who wanted no part of wearing the ugly coat. Noticing how many rust marks the coat had come up with, he took advantage of Liz being gone to send it out to be cleaned.

Returning to work following her mini-vacation, Liz noticed the coat looking cleaner than it had in weeks when she put it on to head to the roof. Her trip had been fun, but she was happy to get back to her routine, cranky HVAC equipment, ugly coat and all. She even managed to stay upbeat during the morning rush, working alongside Sandra, who always seemed like she needed a vacation. Even when Liz's line was longer customers tended to choose her line instead of Sandra's, reliably choosing to deal with the cheerful, attractive, outgoing Liz rather than the borderline sullen, doughy, and formal Sandra.

Even though many customers tended to favor Liz, both she and Sandra did have a few regular customers who were faithful to a specific barista, which made Liz take note when one of Sandra's most regular of regulars lined up in her own line instead of Sandra's! When the elderly man took his turn at the counter, Liz greeted him in her usual friendly way and asked what he wanted to order. He smiled and gave her detailed instructions for his half caff Americano with oat milk, then as she was handing him the drink he thanked her, adding, "So nice to see you back, you were missed!" This made no sense at all to Liz; she was sure she'd seen him in the shop many times, but was equally sure she had never waited on him, and never noticed him paying any particular attention to her.

Picking up on her confusion, the customer introduced himself and explained what he meant, saying, "My name is Edward, by the way. I just meant it was nice to see you and your distinctive coat back in your usual place on the roof! My train pauses for a few minutes every morning behind this building; seeing you always brightens my day, so when for a few days there was no lovely woman in the bright coat I feared you might be gone forever!

Moving from confusion towards mild discomfort, Liz replied, "I've noticed the train parked on the angled track every morning, but never realized people in the cars might be watching me!"

"Oh, you needn't be concerned," he assured her, "there is only stop before this area, and at that hour there are but a few passengers onboard; since everyone prefers looking in the direction we are headed, I have always been the only passenger looking back towards your building."

"Well, thanks for the reminder that even though it feels secluded, I'm actually in public when I'm on the roof," she said, "If you don't mind me asking, why do you choose to turn your back on the direction the train is headed?"

"Besides getting to see a pretty young woman going about her business?" he chuckled, "At my stage of life, most of the good things are in the past; I tend to prefer looking back at where I've been to facing what my future holds." He thanked her, dropped a tip nearly equal to the cost of his coffee in the tip jar, and walked out the door.

The next morning, Liz started the HVAC units as usual, sat down to read her book as usual. Unlike her usual routine, she put her book down once the train arrived, shielding her eyes from the sun as she tried without success to see inside the cars near her building. She couldn't help wondering if he was really watching her, so she tried doing something different to see if he commented on it if she waited on him in an hour or so.

She stood up and waved in the general direction of the train, then did her best imitation of a model walking a catwalk, strutting back and forth a couple times. She finished her act by flipping the coat wide open to reveal, as luck had it, one of her most conservative outfits. The grey flannel below the knee skirt, white button down blouse and maroon cardigan she had chosen when she got dressed that morning wouldn't have been her first choice if she'd been thinking of how best to do something outrageous, but she thought her silly little unplanned act was enough of a departure from her usual routine.

Liz had intended her show on the roof to be more funny than sexy, but when she saw Edward in her line of customers she couldn't help feeling a bit nervous. "What if he took my little act the wrong way?" she thought, "and what exactly would the right way be? I did sort of act like I was going to flash him! He seems like a nice enough old guy, but he's got to be three times my age!" Whatever his age, she couldn't help feeling a bit excited, wondering what he had been thinking when he saw her up on the roof!

To her relief, he greeted her ambiguously, but in a way that made it clear that he enjoyed her act. "Hello, Liz! How nice to see you again this morning," he said with a smile before ordering his usual coffee. "Keep up the good work!" he said before leaving, pausing to leave a $20 tip!

"Okay," she thought as she watched him walking away, "He clearly wasn't put off by my little act. It actually seems like he's trying to encourage more of the same behavior." She kept up with her various duties the rest of the day, but had trouble concentrating, thinking about what she'd done earlier. By the time she finished her shift she'd come to the conclusion that her silly behavior on the roof was no big deal, especially when compared to her unclothed stunt at her former job!

As she finished her breakfast the following morning, she decided she would take the elderly gent's suggestion that she keep up the good work at face value, raising the bar for her early morning antics slightly. "Nothing too scandalous," she thought, "but daring enough to keep things interesting!" She dressed in a fairly typical outfit; tan khaki slacks, paired with a long dark blue chambray boyfriend shirt. She wore a mismatched unexceptional bra and panty combination, not putting any thought to her lingerie because, "Nobody is going to be seeing any of that today!"

By the time she reached the bookshop, Liz had settled on how she would greet her new favorite customer. She let herself in the front door, walking briskly through the dark store to the small Ladies room. Once inside the locked room, she took her slacks off, folded them up neatly, and placed them in a clean black garbage bag, which she set down next to the back door, having decided to leave any clothing she wouldn't be wearing on the roof safe inside the building.

She looked in the mirror; she thought she looked pretty good, but frowned seeing how long the shirt was. "Its not much shorter than the skirt I was wearing yesterday," she thought, "showing an extra inch or two of my legs doesn't seem like much of a progression!"

After a minute or two spent considering her options she went with what seemed to her, with her customer's train due to arrive soon, like a reasonable, middle of the road option. She immediately rejected the look she was currently showing, and also ruled out going without the shirt entirely, settling instead on unbuttoning its top four buttons, leaving three fastened between the hem and her waist! She liked the look and put the odd looking coat on, convinced her customer would be pleased!

She was about to go out the back door to climb the stair when her hatred of having the unsightly bra she'd picked out at random when getting dressed so visible gave her second thoughts. She unzipped the coat and took her bra off, sending it to join her slacks in the garbage bag! After a brief check in the mirror with the coat back on to be sure she was showing cleavage, as she intended, and not showing either of her nipples, as she also intended, she stepped outside and started her climb to the roof!

Liz noticed the parked train already waiting for the all clear signal to proceed as she was walking up the stair. She realized she wouldn't have much time on the roof before the train, and with it her white haired admirer, rolled away; she would have to decide quickly what she was going to do or not do for his entertainment.

She broke out in her catwalk style strut as soon as she set foot on the roof, pausing briefly to wave to the general area where she believed Edward was sitting. After two brisk laps back and forth she stopped, faced the train, and unzipped the gaudy coat from top to bottom. She pulled the two sides apart, showing Edward practically all of her long legs, her mostly open blouse, and a generous amount of cleavage usually hidden by one of her 36C bras, and a narrow band of her belly, all the way down to her belly button!

Less than a minute after Liz opened her coat the train moved away. "Long enough for Edward to see what I wanted him to see," she thought, "but not so long that I was seriously tempted to go any further!" She felt her pulse racing, both both because of the direction her rooftop appearances were moving in and her realization that she was seriously entertaining the idea of appearing on the roof wearing even less clothing than the little she had left on! She was so distracted that she forgot the official reason for her being on the roof at all! She was halfway down the stairs before she remembered that she hadn't turned on the HVAC units!