31 Regulars (1/2)

Though business had dropped off, Alan still found that he had a pretty steady stream of customers.The cafe never came close to being full like it had been over that two day period, but he had customers.He also started to notice some familiar faces.

The lady named Claire, whom he had come to learn was a corporate litigator, came by around noon and got a cup of coffee.As usual she took a place in a leather armchair and pulled out documents that she read through, occasionally putting pen to paper and writing notes or crossing something out.

Meanwhile, Alan noticed a tired looking young man who had started coming more often sitting at one of the dark wood tables along the wall.He had pulled out a laptop and was typing furiously away on it.Periodically, he would sip his coffee as he did so.Alan had come to know that this young man was named Richard.Richard was a university students.Originally Alan had been curious how Richard could afford to come to his cafe.As it turned out, Richard was a published author.His novel had been a bestseller so he found himself with money to afford coffee at a place like this.

Richard, truthfully, was a frugal person.Afterall he couldn't say if his next novel would be a success, so he had to be careful with spending the money earned from his first novel.However, he found that he was better able to write when he was at Lux Cafe.

Alan felt a sense of satisfaction seeing he had some steady customers.The rush of the past few days had been exciting, but when it settled down, Alan was much like Richard in that he couldn't rely on a rush of business like that happening every month.He needed to pay the bills, and his debt was ever looming.Thus, seeing that his regular business was expanding he felt some sense of comfort.

”Should I implement some sort of reward system for regular customers?”He pondered to himself before pushing that idea aside.It was still pretty early to consider doing that.

As Alan was pondering this, the door opened and the bell rang as a customer he was familiar with entered.

Gerald approached the counter.Alan nodded a greeting at him.He didn't know Gerald too well but Gerald had provided him with a huge boom to his business.As a result, he felt grateful to Gerald.

However, Gerald did not appear to be in a good mood.”Did you lie to me about what coffee you use?” He asked demandingly.

Alan was taken aback.”What was all of this about?” He thought as he shook his head and replied to Gerald.”No.The coffee I use is from Prosperidad coffee farm in Colombia.Why?Is there some sort of problem?”

Gerald looked doubtful.”I had my chef make some and it didn't taste at all like your coffee.”

Alan suddenly understood what had happened.He felt a little smug, though he hid it.”How could your chef possibly compare to the perfected recipe of the system?”He thought to himself.

Out loud, he simply shrugged and said, ”The same coffee brewed different ways will have different flavors.Isn't that obvious?”

Gerald was somewhat speechless.He really couldn't argue with that.Still, he couldn't believe that his chef was inferior to Alan in this aspect.

Alan could see Gerald's doubts.He sighed.”I wouldn't normally do this, but since you helped me out recently I'll show you the receipts for the purchase.”

He went back into the kitchen.There was a desk in one corner with a file drawer on it.He opened it and leafed through the files until he found his receipts of purchase for the Colombian coffee.Then he brought them out for Gerald to see.

Gerald was helpless now that he saw the irrefutable proof in front of him.

”I'm sorry,” He apologized to Alan.”It's just my chef is unable to replicate the flavor of your cappuccino.I'd like to order a cappuccino.”

Alan pointed to the wall.”It's not yet three o'clock so I'm unable to serve you a cappuccino.However, I can serve you either regular coffee or espresso.All of our coffee drinks are made with Prosperidad coffee beans.”