It was a cold and stormy night when the tiny dragon appeared on the doorstep of the TecTeaColor Café. Such a rare and auspicious creature could not be turned away, especially not one that was shivering in the rain. So Lin, the owner of the shop, nicknamed the dragon Milo and decided that he would be welcome for as long as he wanted to stay.
It didn’t take long until she regretted doing so.
It was remarkable how much mischief could be caused by a creature small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. By the end of the first day the cash register stopped working because Milo had chewed through the power cord. Everyone who worked at the cafe was tripping over the dragon multiple times a day, and Lin could not figure out why a creature that could fly was always sitting on the ground directly in everyone’s way. Scratch marks appeared on all the tabletops and the chairs covered in bite marks. And no less than four times did he dive directly into a customer’s drink, tiny jaws snapping at the boba pearls at the bottom of the cup.
The final straw was when Milo had gotten trapped in the fridge, panicked, and clawed open two containers of milk before the door was opened again, spilling gallons of liquid all over the floor of the kitchen. But before Lin could react to this latest incident, an employee ran into the back room requesting help with an angry customer.
A woman had apparently tried to order a large milk tea with black boba but no tapioca. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain that it was not possible to fulfill this request, she then tried to pay using a coupon from the deli next door. When the cashier refused to accept the coupon, the lady began demanding to speak with a manager.
With a parting threat that she would deal with Milo when she came back, Lin went out to the front of the store. The lady immediately started waving her coupon in Lin’s face and ranting about incompetence and disrespect and refusal to listen to the customer. Lin took the coupon and glanced at it. Not only was it for an entirely different store, it had also expired three months ago.
As politely as she could, Lin tried to explain that the coupon was not valid, but the customer was not accepting no for an answer. The lady continued to yell but only got through half a sentence before she was interrupted by an ear splitting screech as a winged creature dive bombed at her head. The customer barely dodged out of the way, but Milo circled around and attacked again, this time with a charged fire breath. With a singed eyebrow and a terrified yelp, the woman fled the building. She shouted over her shoulder that they had lost a customer, but truly no one cared.
Milo completed his victory lap and landed on the counter where he was greeted with praises and belly scratches from the cafe employees. Lin even gave him a handful of lychee jellies as a treat, all previously held grievances forgotten and forgiven. If he could deal with troublesome customers this effectively, the other dragon related mishaps were more than worth it.
With all the attention directed his way, Milo wagged his tail and knocked a jar of sugar onto the ground. Lin shook her head and then smiled.