Getting Ahead Of This Slip

(For work experience, I spend a week as a barista at a small cafe. About three days in, this happens:)

Regular Customer: “Hey! Who’s this, then?” *referring to me*

Supervisor: “This is [My Name]! He’s with us for the week. I’ll leave you to it. Trust me; he makes great coffee.”

(I try not to gush, and ask the customer — a fairly burly man — what he’d like.)

Regular Customer: “I’ll have a single shot of espresso.”

Me: “Just a single shot? You’re the first to order that, actually.”

Regular Customer: “Well, I’m actually Italian! Most of my family just has espresso shots, sometimes double. Not a fan of the milk ones.”

(I carry on making the espresso shot, easily the simplest task I’ve had all week. The crema — also called the head; the brown layer on top of the coffee — is absolutely perfect, and I hand it to the customer.)

Regular Customer: “Wow, you do great head!”

Me: “…”

Regular Customer: “…”

Me: “…”

Regular Customer: “You, er, know what I mean.”