He picked his city center location, the first one he had launched, where his mother once assisted with baking pies!

She didn’t answer. She punched in his order like it offended her, then dropped the change onto the counter with a flick of her wrist. He watched the coins scatter. She didn’t.

He took a seat in a corner booth and observed. It wasn’t chaos. It wasn’t understaffing. It was laziness. A mother tried three times to get a simple question answered about her kid’s meal. No one looked up. An elderly man asked politely about a senior discount. Denise brushed him off without a word. A worker in the back cursed loud enough for every customer to hear.

Then came the whispering.

The young cashier leaned toward Denise. “Did you see that guy with the sandwich? Looks like he crawled out of a tunnel.”

Denise snorted. “Please. This isn’t a charity. Bet he complains about the price.”

They laughed.

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