Luxury Cafe Owner - Chapter 29 Gotcha

The name of the account that tweeted it instantly stuck out to him: Zachary Taylor.

Alan shook his head. Of course it was that brat.

He pulled up the tweet. A picture of his cappuccino appeared in front of him. However, the froth art he’d designed had been ruined.

Alan frowned as he read.

“Went to that cafe today,” the tweet read. “I think this picture says it all.”

Alan was about to tweet a reply when he suddenly had a better idea. He went downstairs.

When he returned he had a thumbdrive with him.

He put it in his computer and quickly pulled up the video files on it.

He scrolled through it until he found a file labeled the current date. He opened it up and an image of the interior of the cafe popped up.

He sped through the video until he got to 3:00 PM. He relied on the timestamp on the bottom right of the screen.

Then he paused when he got to where Zachary Taylor had messed with the cappuccino. His face was clearly visible in the footage.

Alan grinned. “Little punk didn’t even notice the security cameras.”

He cut and edited the clip until it only contained the necessary scene. Then he saved it as a new file titled: gotcha.

He uploaded the clip and tweeted it out saying, “Zachary Taylor went to the cafe today. I think this video says it all. Additionally, for violating the rules and not finishing his coffee he’s banned for life from Lux Cafe.”

Then he tweeted it out.

The response was pretty quick from the community. Everyone enjoyed watching drama like that unfold, especially when it ended in a face smacking moment. He quickly started trending again.

He shook his head. “They make it too easy.” He checked through the other tweets and saw some people insulting the taste of the coffee and stirring up more trouble. However, he ignored them. It wasn’t because he was kind hearted, but because other people had already scolded them. Moreover, he had already taken all the attention away from them with his tweet. If he responded to them it would just give them more attention.

He grinned to himself and put his phone away.

However, as he did so he had the nagging feeling he had forgotten something.

As he thought about it, wondering what it could be, the system chimed in.

“Host, as a reminder the espresso and coffee cake are available and may be added to the menu.”

Alan ground to a stop as he realized he’d completely forgotten about them. If he’d served the espresso today he’d have been able to serve way more customers. People had left the line because they didn’t want to wait that long, not to mention some people chose not to stay once they heard they couldn’t get the coffee to go.

On the street outside the cafe a miserable cry could be heard from the second floor.

Insult a miser all you want, but the true way to hurt them is through their wallets.

The next morning Alan got up early and made sure to add the espresso to the menu. He still couldn’t add the coffee cake as he didn’t have the ingredients to make it.

He grumbled to himself as he made himself his coffee and drank it. Checking his phone he saw the twitter controversy had largely died down. That Zachary Taylor had been scolded to the point that he’d been forced to delete the tweet and issue an apology.

Alan marveled at how fast the internet could turn on people. He decided to keep it in mind and not let his mild internet fame get to his head.

As he sat there, the system’s voice rang out.

“Attention Host. System is issuing a new mission. Host has seen a large increase in fame which resulted in many new customers. However, Host has yet to build a regular customer base. Regular customers are key for the success of a cafe. Please endeavor to obtain 100 regular customers.”

Alan was curious. “System, what are the requirements for someone to be considered a regular customer?”

“Host, a regular customer will come to the cafe at least twice per week.”

“Is that all?” Alan asked, surprised.

“That is all, Host.” The system replied.

Alan began to grow suspicious as he thought, “Since when did the system issue such simple quests?”

“How many regular customers do I have currently System?” Alan asked.

“Host, that will be determined after a month has passed.”

Alan put aside his suspicions and nodded his head indicating he understood.

Then he went about preparing to open the cafe.

When the time came he opened the doors and instantly saw a familiar face.

“Morning Tom,” Alan greeted.

Tom grunted in reply.

“Something wrong?” Alan asked curiously as he went back behind the counter.

Tom shook his head. “It’s just been too busy here lately. I have to wait way too long for my coffee and then I can’t just relax and drink it because I spend so much time waiting I need to rush off to get work done. Chugging a hot coffee is not exactly an ideal experience.”

Alan nodded sympathetically.

Seeing this Tom pushed on excitedly. “So, that’s why I think you should offer coffee to go-” He got cut off before he could say anymore by Alan shaking his head.

Tom started to grumble to himself when Alan spoke up. “I’m not offering coffee to go, but I decided to add a new drink to the menu to resolve the issue.”

Tom looked up at the menu in surprise. His eyes landed on the new word up there: espresso.

“Is it a shot of coffee?” He asked in surprise.

Alan nodded his head. “It’s only available in the morning, as it has a very strong immediate effect that would be unhealthy later at night.”

Tom shook his head, refraining from commenting as he was already used to Alan making random rules.

“I’ll go ahead and try it.” Tom said.

Alan nodded and went to go prepare the first shot of espresso served in the cafe.