Luxury Cafe Owner - Chapter 28 Taking On The Twitter Trolls

Gerald had just finished showering and was putting on his suit and tie in preparation for another day’s work. He had just returned to City A in preparation for the opening of the new store.

As was his habit, he scrolled through his Twitter feed. It might seem strange for a CEO of a company to pay attention to social media, but for him he mostly followed businessmen and women, as well as business news outlets. As a result, by scrolling through his Twitter feed he could catch up on any news he might have missed. However, this time something interesting caught his eye: Alan’s tweet.

He read it and couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. That level of confidence seemed to fit with the strange cafe and its equally strange owner.

He finished getting dressed, adjusted his tie and his cuffs to perfection, and stepped out into the dining area. His staff had already arranged breakfast in front of him.

As he approached the table and begin to eat, his butler appeared at his side and said, “Sir, I wanted to inform you that the beans used in preparing today’s coffee were directly imported via private jet from the Prosperidad coffee farms per your request.”

Gerald nodded in acknowledgement. The butler withdrew, and Gerald continued to slowly eat while reading through Twitter. As his throat began to feel parched, he reached for the steaming cup of coffee and took a slight sip of it.

As the coffee hit his taste buds, he frowned. He raised his hand and the butler reappeared by his side. “Is this really from the Prosperidad coffee farms?” He asked.

The butler confirmed it was. Gerald shook his head. “The chef must have made a mistake in the preparation of the coffee. Tell him to fix it for this afternoon.”

The butler acknowledged the order and once again vanished as he went to inform the chef of the critique of their employer.

Elsewhere, Alan finished preparing his own coffee, and sipped it in silent satisfaction while sitting in his favorite armchair in the store.

He noticed a line had already formed in front of the cafe. He grinned to himself, happy that today would be another profitable day.

Throughout the day Alan found himself beset by customers. Some were return customers, or those who missed out at first but came because of the hype. Initially a large number of them were internet trolls who came to cause trouble. However, once word spread through the line thanks to word of mouth and angry tweets that he wasn’t serving cappuccino in the morning, a large number of them left.

As the afternoon rolled around, Alan checked his phone and noticed the large number of complaints people had tweeted at him. Smiling to himself, he sent out a tweet.

“Who told you to not look at the rules before coming? We only serve cappuccino after 3 pm. If you don’t have the money to buy a cappuccino just say so, no need to make up some excuse.”

He smirked at his own shamelessness. At the end of the day he was just promoting his cafe by fighting the trolls. Most of them would probably realize it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it still goaded them. If you trolled people all the time, it was hard to hold back from a challenge just because you knew you were playing into the opponents hands.

He watched with glee as his tweet gradually started to trend on Twitter again.

There was a temporary lull as customers drifted out. However, as the clock struck three in the afternoon, a massive surge of customers came in.

The trolls had arrived.

Alan narrowed his eyes before smiling. “Welcome, what can I get you?”

The first customer was a young kid. He was dressed in designer clothes that indicated wealth, but his age showed there was no way he’d earned it himself. He was clearly a trust fund brat, and based on the disdainful look on his face, he must have been one of the naysayers on Twitter.

“Give me a cappuccino to go.” He said snidely.

For the first time ever, Alan took secret joy in saying, “I’m sorry but we do not serve coffee to go at the moment.”

The trust fund brat was taken aback, but he quickly recovered. “I’ll just take a picture of it and share it online and leave.” Thinking that to himself, he gave a huff of annoyance and said, “Whatever, just hurry up and get me a cappuccino.”

Alan eyed him but gave a nod. After all, he didn’t care if someone treated him poorly so long as they followed the rules and paid him good money. He accepted the brat’s credit card and swiped it, waiting to make sure it was accepted before returning the card to him.

Alan made his cappuccino and served it to him. Alan then took the next order. However, he kept an eye on the brat as he spoke with the next customer.

The trust fund brat initially smirked as he took the cappuccino, but upon seeing it a look of shock appeared on his face. A blossoming tree appeared in the foam, so intricately designed he thought it might have been sketched on it. His expression darkened as he realized he’d made a mistake. After spouting all that nonsense on Twitter, it turned out the cappuccino really was that impressive.

However, he wasn’t about to back down. The truth didn’t matter. All that mattered was appearances. He cast a look around him, making sure no one was looking; once he felt assured he was not being observed he quickly stuck his finger in the foam and mixed it around, ruining the froth art. Then he pulled out his phone and took a picture. Satisfied he got up to leave.

As he did so, however, Alan’s voice rang out.

“Excuse me. All customers must finish their coffee.”

The brat looked over. “What?”

“You haven’t even touched your coffee.” The brat smirked slightly when he heard that, but then continued listening. “One of the rules of this cafe is that everyone must finish the coffee they order.”

The brat ignored him and walked out.

Alan shook his head. The system suddenly rang out with a notification.

“Customer Zachary Taylor has failed to finish his coffee. He is hereby banned from the restaurant.”

An image of the trust fund brat was burned into his memory, seemingly literally as it caused immense pain for a moment.

Shaking his head at the sudden pain, he turned back to the next customer.

The evening proved to be as busy as the morning; a near endless stream of customers came in one after another.

At the end of the day, checking the sales record for the day, Alan’s eyes filled with dollar signs as he stared at the final number.

His nose started bleeding out of nowhere.

As he wiped it while grinning to himself the system chimed in.

“Host, thank you for once again educating the system.”

Alan was suspicious at this sudden gratitude but decided to play along.

“What did I do to educate you system?” He asked.

“My database shows that an age old question is what motivates humans the most? Sex? Food? Shelter? Rage? What emotions or instincts have the most influence on humanity? Previously, the system believed that it was sex, the urge to procreate. However, host has enlightened the system by showing that humans can even get so excited by money that their nose will bleed. Thus, the system must reconsider its conclusion.”

Alan was silent for a moment before saying. “Of course money is more important than procreation. I can adopt a kid but I can’t adopt money.”

For once, the system was left speechless.

Alan whistled in joy as he went back to staring at the sales record.

“I should fight trolls on Twitter more often.” As he thought this to himself he noticed a new tweet about his cafe that was trending.