It was a brand new day then Denver awoke to the sound of birds chirping, which he thought was strange but that might have just been his hope that it was still night and that he'd woken up by mistake.
Not long after that his alarm went, crushing the dream that he could go back to sleep. This made him feel even more tired. He sat up though he struggled to do so. He set his feet down on the cold floor he knew that it was indeed the next day. He picked up his phone and switched off the alarm and there was something more alarming than the alarm itself.
There was a message which was unexpected.
Upon reading the message he saw the message from Felix informing him that he should come to the office in the morning today for a disciplinary meeting based on the actions over the past day, which again didn't surprise him although he did regret his actions because now we have to deal with Felix, which he utterly hated doing. There was no way he could ever see dealing with Felix as a good thing.
Denver never felt that he and Felix would get on.
He was thinking back to his first day there after his interview with the main manager he met the shift manager Felix. They didn't get on at all. They were like oil and water; that would be the best description.
There are days where Denver could actually take a really large bat and slam it as hard as his arms could, as strong as his body would allow, hard as his arms could manage, and strike Felix in multiple places multiple times just to get the frustration out that he felt dealing with this utter pain in the neck Felix.
While he was dreading the rest of the day, he somehow motivated himself to get up and get going.
He thought about the four women he'd recently seen and the two experiences that shook him to the core. His idea of thinking of something pleasant turned out to be a bad idea in the end because it didn't actually help; it actually made him feel somewhat worse. This was troubling.
He stood up trying to clear his mind, put on the kettle. When it boiled he filled the cup with coffee, added water, added milk, the usual, took a bowl from the cupboard, and went to the next cupboard and grabbed a box of cereal. The large box that the cereal came in was a yellow box and it contained a chocolate rice snack, which he quite enjoyed for breakfast. He quickly went to the fridge, grabbed the milk, added milk to the coffee, milked his bowl, and grabbed a spoon. He went back and sat on his bed and started eating.
He didn't get to clear his mind with the events of the past day; they kept on bumping out any thought that was calm. Any calm he could find was disturbed by the disturbing actions of the previous day. He was unsure and generally bothered by this but he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
Finishing up, he went to shower, got ready, packed some things for lunch, and he was out the door. After he stepped out of the main parking lot area of the building, he was walking along the road, walking slower than usual. He noticed a breeze in the air and he noticed a foul smell on it. One of the sewage greats was releasing its foul odour. This foul odour also reminded him of Felix. This was not turning out to be a good morning.
Denver arrived at work with a face like sour milk. His expression was unpleasant and he walked in and the first face he saw was Tim. Tim greeted him, "Hello morning Denver, how are you?" Denver replied simply with "How do I look?" and walked off.
He didn't even bother going to the change room; he went straight to the office. He didn't enter nicely; he barged in and looked straight into the startled face of Felix. He waited and then Felix asked him to close the door and take a seat. Denver did so, though much as a word, sat down. Before Felix could speak he interrupted, "Fine say your piece." This startled and shocked Felix, who was unsure how to handle the situation.
But then Felix decided to take a dig at Denver. Felix said, "Don't take it out on me. That woman just likes me better than you and you're just the lackey who cleans tables." After hearing this Denver clenched his fist under the desk. Denver just smiled, looked Felix in the eye, and replied with, "Is that so? Here I was thinking you were compensating for something but I didn't expect you to be lacking in intellect."
After this short tiff they seem to be at a stalemate; neither said anything until Felix piped up, "You'll be given a verbal warning. If it happens again it'll be a second and if it happens again there'll be a third and you will be fired." He handed a piece of paper to Denver to sign. Denver signed and said, "Can I go?" Felix, looking away, just nodded his head. Denver left the room quickly.
After Denver left the room Felix was sitting on his chair, very tense, very nervous. He never really knew what to do with Denver when Denver seemed to be in a bad mood; he always looked like he was going to explode and this really worried him. He opened up his computer and tried to find some videos to cheer himself up, not that it helped.
In the locker room Denver was busy getting ready when Tim popped in by the door and asked if he was nearly done. It was getting busy outside. Denver called out, "Sure, be there soon."
Denver, noticing the urgency in Tim's voice, rushed outside and got behind the counter. To his surprise it was quite busy. Soon the morning rush had come early. Everything had figured out the thought of actually working and just getting through all the muck in his brain.
Denver got to it and started working. He was pushing hard on the day, jumping from place to place, handling people here and people there. Someone was also going to tables and collecting things that have finished and left.
Various things were going on. It was an interesting day.
As it started to calm down somewhat, they had a visitor and the visitor was Rose. Rose had a smile on her face as she came to the counter and she asked for her usual short white. She stood there with a smile. The smile dazzled Denver. It also seemed to dazzle Tim. Both were staring at her for a while and she said, "Well how about my coffee?" The two of them jumped too and both started preparing the coffee while admiring her beauty.
Bringing it to the counter. He gave her the price?She handed him a large note as he went onto the system and added the fact that she had given extra money into the system and they needed to give change. Typed into the system, hit the right numbers, and the drawer popped open and he sorted out the change what he normally would do on a daily basis.
What she noticed when he was giving her change back was his hand was shaking and she took her change out and said, "Oh how cute. Do I make you nervous?" Denver smiled and said, "Yes beauty always makes me nervous with a bit of a stammer." When he said that her smile disappeared. She said, "What a pity" and she seemed to look away then waved to Tim and said, "Hi Tim" and walked out, leaving Denver shocked and confused.
As Rose stepped outside with the coffee in hand, she couldn't help but think back on the shaking hand of the man before her. She didn't know his name even though she was introduced to him before. It didn't bother her that she didn't know his name. She wasn't all that interested but she did have an interest in Tim. For some reason his bushy eyebrows were what attracted her to him. What she thought strange was that she always thought well-kept men were more her style. Something about Tim made her interested. Maybe it was just like he was like a small animal and she wanted to protect him. Maybe it was a maternal instinct rising inside her that made her interested.
As she wondered this she kept on walking with a smile and she was about to take a sip of her coffee when she remembered, "Wait it's still hot so I've got to wait a bit." She kept on walking and disappeared into the crowd.
Back at the cafe Tim was all smiles, as happy as a pig in shit, which bothered Denver quite a lot. He began to wonder, "Is this karma coming to bite him in the arse or is his luck with the woman just really bad?" The state of him all day and he couldn't quite put it into perspective. He thought if the opportunity came he would try to see what his chances with women were in general when it came to conversation.
It was a little later in the afternoon after the lunch break. He was the only one at the counter; the rest of his colleagues were cleaning and getting other things ready.
Someone came to the counter. She was a pretty woman, a little bit older. She had dark black hair, very long, which was tied up in a ponytail. She also wore a business suit.
Denver greeted her with a "good afternoon" and she went, "Uh-huh." When Denver asked, "what would you like", she said, "Cappuccino to go with a couple of biscuits." Denver tried to be smart and act like he was being a little flirtatious without being too obvious. He asked, "How many would that be?" Looking up at him with an irritated face she said, "Just give me five and hurry." This startled Denver; he quickly jumped, ran to the side of the counter, grabbed five biscuits in packs, handed them to the customer, and went and busied himself with her making her coffee.
When he gave her the coffee and the price she paid promptly by card; it was a tap and go sale.
Before she left she looked at Denver and said, "You're very rude; you will be getting a bad review. Goodbye." She walked out, making sure her hair flicked for, I guess, artistic pleasure, and walked out the door with a bit of a hard stomp. All Denver could do was think, "What's your problem? I wasn't being mean or anything, was I?" Then Tim came in and said, "Well that was well handled now. No wonder your single?"