The City of Dreams and Love

It was a quiet afternoon in Ultimo Coffee in Philadelphia. A young man is working there as a cashier. Business is slow and he is talking to his co-worker while they’re waiting for customers.

“Conrad, I heard you’re summer job is ending soon.” Said the barista.

“Now that you mention it, Duke, it is.” Replied Conrad.

“Don’t tell me you’d forgotten about college?” Duke questioned.

“No, I didn’t,” Conrad answered. “It’s just that I still haven’t received any acceptance letters from any of my applications.”

While they’re talking, the manager suddenly cuts in their conversation and tells them to go back to work. The two of them were startled by the manager and goes back to work. As Conrad was about to clean the counters, the manager tells him to go with him to his office to talk about something important.

Conrad follows his manager into the office. The manager tells him to take a seat as he sat down on his. Conrad takes a seat and asks the manager a question.

“What is it you want to talk about Sir Devon?” Asked Conrad.

“I want to talk about your plans after your summer job.” Sir Devon answered.

“Well, I’m planning to go to one of the top three culinary schools located in New York,” Conrad said.

“Specifically?” Sir Devon questioned.

“I’m not sure yet. I’m still waiting on my acceptance letters.” He sighed.

Sir Devon stands up from his seat and goes over to Conrad. He gives a pat on Conrad’s shoulder as he gives him courage knowing that he’ll receive an acceptance letter from one of those culinary schools. Conrad feels encouraged and straightly goes back to work as they finished their conversation.

As Conrad goes out of the manager’s office, he notices Duke multitasking as customers kept coming into the café. Knowing that Duke can’t keep up with the work, Conrad takes over the cashier while Duke works on the customers’ orders. They both work fast and at a steady rate as they keep up with the customers’ satisfaction.

By the time Conrad’s shift was about to end, the manager takes over the cashier and lets him rest for a while before he goes home. He goes over to the employees’ room and sighs of relief as he sat down. Getting his phone from his pocket, he receives a text message from his mother saying she has good news for him. Expecting the good news would be the acceptance letter, he stops resting, gets all of his stuff in his locker, says goodbye to Duke and Sir Devon, and leaves the café.

He rushes over to his car, feeling a bit excited about the good news his mother bears for him. Starting the car, his phone suddenly rings. He takes his phone out to see who’s calling him. His mother was calling. He answers his phone knowing that her mother might ask him to go buy something at the store.

“Hey, mom.’’ Conrad greeted.

“Conrad, I know I just texted you about me bearing good news, but before you go home, can you go buy pizza?” Her mother asked. “I kind of fell asleep and forgot to go to the store.” She said in embarrassment.

“Sure thing.” He agreed.

Conrad ends the call and starts driving. He decides on getting pizza from Pizza Plus, which they haven’t tried. Hearing a lot from his friends and co-workers that their pizza is good, he thought of trying it along with his mother.

A few minutes later, he arrives at Pizza Plus. He parks by the sidewalk and goes out of his car. Lining up by the cashier to order, her mother calls him again. He answers his phone before he orders.

“Hey, mom.” Conrad greeted once more. “I was just about to order our pizza for tonight, do you have any requests?” He asked.

“Yeah, actually I was just going to tell you that.” Her mother said. “Since you’ve asked, can they do like a half-half pizza?” She asked.

“Half-half pizza?” He asked confusingly.

“It’s like one half is pepperoni pizza and on the other half is cheese.” She explained.

“Okay, let me ask them. Just wait for a while.” He said.

By the time it was Conrad’s turn to order, he asks if they can do two flavors of pizza in one pizza. Unfortunately, the cashier answered that they don’t serve pizzas like that. He tells the cashier to wait for a while he talks to his mother.

“Hello, mom” He called. “Unfortunately, they don’t do that here.” He said to his mother sadly.

“Oh!” She sighed. “Then if that’s the case, you pick our pizza for tonight.” She said.

“Mom, you just told me that you have a request. C’mon, tell me what you want.” Conrad insisted.

“If you insist, then order a large pizza with cheese, pepperonis, sausages, bell peppers, and olives.” She replied.

“Okay, I will.” He said as he ends the call.

Conrad repeats her mother’s request to the cashier and pays for it. He steps aside and waits for the pizza. While he waits for the pizza, he scrolls through F******k to see if there are any interesting happened. Then he stumbled upon a post by one of his friends in high school. An old picture of him with his old high school friends. Seeing a picture of them made Conrad miss his old friends more. Now that they’re about to attend college, all of them moved by the time they graduated. Conrad was left in Philadelphia since he still has work to do.

A while later, he hears his order number order and puts his phone back in his pocket. He goes over the counter, gives his order number, and receives the pizza. He leaves Pizza Plus and goes back to his car. Starting his car, he can already smell the deliciousness of the pizza and his appetite grows. Before he drives back home, he texts his mother that he own his way there. He puts his phone back in his pocket and leaves the parking spot.

Moments later, he arrives back home. They live in a big white house with a blackish roof, but only he and his mother live there. He parks by their driveway, turns the car off, brings the pizza, and goes out. By the time he gets out, he was surprised to see that no lights were turned on. Knowing that this is strange to happen because his mother turns on the lights by the time sunset has passed. He rushes inside to check if his mother doing okay.

As soon as he opens the door, the lights turned on and party poppers popped near him. He was confused by what’s happening as he sees his family relatives in their house and throwing a party. Her mother approaches him and escorts him to the dining room where a lot of food was prepared there.

“Mom, what’s happening?” He asked confusingly,

“Well, we’re throwing you a party.” She said.

Still confused, his mother happily gives him two envelopes addressed to him. Seeing the top corner of the envelopes, both were from the top culinary schools in New York. He opens the envelope from the Institute of Culinary Education. Reading the contents of the letter aloud to his mother, he suddenly stops after reading the part where he got accepted. He opens the second envelope from the International Culinary Center, and to his surprise, he also got accepted. Looking at his mother happily, he hugs her and was brought to tears of joy. She congratulates him as they finished hugging.

“You finally get to achieve your dream. I’m so proud of you.” She said happily.

“Thanks, mom,” Conrad said as he wiped his face.

“Now, how about we enjoy the night with the rest.” His mother said.

“Sure thing.” Said Conrad. “But before we do that, how did you know that I will get accepted?” He asked.

“Well, mothers do know best.” She said as they laughed together.

As they were finished talking, his mother asks him to call everyone for dinner. Conrad steps into the lively living room and hears congratulations from everyone. He gives his thanks to everyone and tells them that it’s time to eat.

They happily eat their dinner as their night is filled with happiness.