The blonde behind the counter is very ditsy, and has a Bronx accent. I order a piece of cake and a mocha, but when I point to the cake I want, the cake display changes to a hodge podge of assorted cake slices arranged in concentric circles. She grabs the first slice she can, drops it a few times into the display and finally gets it onto a plate. Then she disappears inside the back room, I think she is going there to make my mocha because I don't see any of the usual machines out front. All this time there is a gaggle of English-speaking women behind me, chattering away and generally being annoying.
I take my cake to a table and sit down, and soon
caprine comes in, wearing hot pink, with a matching over-the-shoulder bag with huge gold circles linked together to form the part between the leather strap and the bag. She joins me, we talk, completely ignoring the fact that we are both in a western bakery in Thailand. I mean, as if this was ordinary. The waitress finally appears with a bucket filled with various 3-ounce glass bottles on ice. She plucks out one with brown liquid, saying "you ordered a mocha?" and puts it down in front of me. I ask what I owe, and she says something like 4.95, but I don't know which currency that it, so I open my wallet and all I see at first are USA $10 bills, but then I see what looks to me IRL like postcards which have scenes from famous British historical events on them, which she recognizes as UK money. I reach into my other pocket and feel my keys in there, but not my car keys, which I keep on a removable connector with my other keys. Somehow my car keys are on the table, I re-connect them with my other keys but leave them all on the table.I give her a 5 and say keep the change and she gushes a lot, and tells
caprine what a lucky person she is to know such a generous guy, and I tell her "she's a very special friend".