i started my job at starbucks on monday, september 30, not knowing exactly what to expect.
a coffee shop. save the 3 months at mcdonald’s, i have had no experience working with food, let alone a million and one varieties of caffeinated beverages.
it all started off with my manager, who is a doll, telling me about the locals and how i would very quickly start to get to know them.
i would love to go on about my training, the things they told me, tips, tricks, yada yada yada but i wanted to talk about this customer i saw.
i first noticed him on my first day; sporting a vietnam veteran trucker hat. having spent a year in america, i thought nothing of it as most veterans wore them (they also sold them in gift shops so anyone over the age of 75 could potentially sport them).
anyway, my manager, paolina, informed me and a fellow trainee that he was a frequent visitor to our store, not disclosing any other information.
every morning as i went into work for my 8 o’clock shift, he was always sitting in the same seat out on the patio, with his chocolate brown dog perched in the chair next to his, probably sipping his usual.
a few days go by and this never changed.
then wednesday, october 2, i noticed he was wearing a vietnam tshirt, tucked into a pair of dark wash jeans, held up by a thick, cognac coloured belt with VIETNAM carved around it.
i also noticed a big, red pick up truck parked outside the store, in the same spot it had been during previous days. i thought that it had belonged to the vietnamese family that comes in every day.
i was wrong. yesterday, i saw him, after purchasing his regular coffee, check out a bulletin above our condiment bar featuring an advert for a gathering for the vietnamese culture, filled his cup with coffee cream, left the building, then collected his dog from his typical seat on the patio and climbed into the red pickup truck.
i wonder what this man’s life was like. i’ve heard through the grapevine that his wife is vietnamese.
i would really like to figure this man out.
the auburn mermaid 