Rewards Card

By James Milne

A membership with a local cafe proves to have unexpected benefits, when Sora wins their monthly prize.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Milne
• Release date: Apr 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005209223

Book preview

Rewards Card

James Milne.

Rewards Card

A coffee membership has many rewards.

A coffee membership has many rewards. Copyright © 2022 James Milne.

All Rights Reserved.

Rewards Card

Bloop!

Sora pulled her phone from her bra, idly twirling the straw in her double-shot iced coffee, and mostly thinking just how much she didn’t want to go back to work. The message was from a number she didn’t recognise, and she nearly dismissed it as spam.

% Congratulations! You’ve won the monthly draw at Barnhaus, meaning there’s a $50 gift card with your name on it!

She glanced at the drink in her hand. The little cafe around the corner from her work wasn’t that big. They had only three stools, which were always taken by the regulars, but most of the customers were like her. They grabbed their drinks and headed to the park.

Bloop!

% Just let me know when you’d like to pick it up, Sora.

Bloop!

% Your friendly neighbourhood coffee nut, Liam!

Liam, she did remember. He was one of the new staff, and when he’d asked for her name to pick up the order, she’d got a little hot and bothered. Sora couldn’t deny she had a thing for rough beards. She didn’t know why. They scratched and felt uncomfortable during a kiss, but they also made her need to change her underwear.

Sora frowned, and then smiled to herself. Maybe she could have a little bit of fun with this. Better than going back in to work and being yelled at for something that someone else had done.

$ I think you need to ease off on the coffee, nut.

She winced the minute she sent it. There was no way that the teasing tone she’d wanted to imply had made it across. Sounded more like she was pissed about getting text’d. Crap.

Bloop!

% Haha! Yeah, probs.

Bloop!

% But you don’t want to meet me, when I haven’t had my regular six gallons.

Bloop!

% Caffeine makes the world go round!

Sora grinned excitedly as she realised that there really was someone else on the other end of the line, and it probably wasn’t just some kind of A.I. If Liam the yummy was the guy, and wasn’t just having his name stolen to make the marketing more tempting...

Bloop! Bloop!

% I did get the name right, didn’t I? Sora.

% It’s what we have on our membership records.

% Ten percent discount, and part of the monthly draw.

% Really hoping this is ringing some bells.

% And not just coming off weird.

The discount was the reason she’d signed up. She went by two or three times a day, mostly as a break from work, so she figured it was worth it even if her number got added to some list, but she’d never received a text from them, before.

She looked at her phone carefully, trying to think through the best way to drag out the conversation and maybe, just maybe, have a little bit of fun with Liam along the way.

First things, first.

$ Liam, wasn’t it? So I just need to check with you, to get my reward?

She needed to find an excuse to make it all about him, and less about the reward. It was just an excuse to talk to him, and if she played her cards right, see him. Unless he made it clear he was just doing what the job required.

She fretted when he didn’t reply immediately.

Sora sighed, finished her drink, and tossed it into the trash. She was standing up and tucking her phone into her bra when it went off. She nearly dropped it in surprise.

% Technically... You could get the reward from any of the staff.

She grinned as she realised that he actually was flirting with her. She bit her lip, thinking quickly. It had been a while since anyone had given her even this tiny bit of attention. She wanted to play it up, as much as she could.

However, she also didn’t want to seem like a creep.

$ How long are you on shift? I’d have to come after work.

There. A nice normal message than anybody might come up with. It was even mostly true. She was walking back into the office, even if she was doing it at a snail’s pace and staring at her phone as she did.

Unfortunately, he took a long time to reply. Again.

Sora wondered if it was because there was some kind of rush at the coffee house. That would make sense. He was just sending a message to a contest winner. When there were actual customers, they were the ones that would take priority.

Not a random woman who was acting like a desperate teenager.

How long had it actually been? Sora knew it had been over a year since she’d had a boyfriend. That last relationship had been an absolute dumpster fire. He had regularly called her fat, and laughed at her for working out, and even the sex had been barely adequate.

It wasn’t like dumping him had been arduous and completely heartbreaking. It had hurt, but he’d been a downright asshole by the end of it.

They’d actually stopped having sex altogether, even before she did end it. He was interested in getting a blowjob, but he wasn’t interested in giving her anything in return. Giving it some real though... Sora probably hadn’t had anyone else get her off in nearly two years, not just one.

Officially her longest drought since moving out of home, even if some of her parents probably had longer ones.

Bloop! Liam interrupted her self-pity.

% I just asked my boss about a delivery.

% Apparently that would be crossing a line.

% Sorry.

% Oh. Probs should have asked you first, huh?

% Must be too much coffee. My bad.

% I reeeeaaallly like coffee.

% Coffffffeeeee.

% Where’s the undo button? That last one was awful.

% Uh... I’m just going to stop texting now.

% Sorry.

Sora laughed, grinning. She tucked a strand of hair behind one ear, and felt herself give a tiny and small excited sway of her hips before she sent her reply.

This was it. This was where she made it obvious she was flirting with him, just him. Would he be up for it? Wasn’t exactly professional. And she’d hate it if most people flirted with her at work.

Like her ass-pinching boss. Who probably actually thought touching her ass was somehow flirting and not just sexual assault. Dickbag.

$ COFFEE MONSTER SAYS

$ ME WANT COFFEE!

$ OM NOM NOM NOM!

She looked at the three messages she’d sent, and cringed. That had sounded so much better in her head. She’d probably just come across as a freak, and an immature one at that. Shit.

Bloop!

% Sometimes, me think, what is friend?

% Then me say

% Friend is someone to share coffee with!

Sora blinked in surprise. The message tickled a distant memory with her, but she hadn’t expected him to play back into it so quickly or easily. She doubted most of her friends would be able to quote the blue monster so easily.

She looked up from her phone as she headed back up the stairs towards the office building. She’d broken enough heels on the overly narrow stairs to know not to risk it.

Hey, Sora! Got a minute? She immediately met one of her coworkers in the lobby.

She sighed, and shrugged, Yeah. What’s up Adam?

Adam was the last person in the world she wanted to see, right now. Before she’d taken her coffee break, she’d been fixing up his damned mistake. Not that there’s a lot you can do apart from beg forgiveness and promise it won’t happen again when instead of sending the yearly accounting reports, you send a very long and very detailed celebrity-oriented rape fantasy erotica.

Bloop!

Sora still wasn’t sure how she’d managed to hold onto that business relationship. All that her firm did for them was data entry, and yet Adam had still managed to send that kind of crap to an agency that specialised in rehousing abused women.

Adam looked down at the ground, "I...