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.
While they’re enjoying the night, celebrating Conrad’s acceptance at top culinary schools in New York, his uncle suddenly asks him about where he’ll be staying.“Now that you mention it, I’m planning on looking for other options besides the dorms they’re offering." Conrad answered his uncle.“Don’t you like dorms?” His uncle asked.“It’s not that I don’t like dorms, but I’m kind of looking for a place where there’s a kitchen so that I can practice my cooking during my free time." Conrad answered once more.“Don’t they have kitchens in their dorms?” He asked confusingly.“Jake, have you really gone into college or no?” Conrad’s aunt asked his husband. “You know college dorms don’t have a kitchen included in the rooms.” She said.“Christy’s right.” Conrad’s mother said to Aunt Christy
Conrad wakes up to the sound of his alarm on his phone. Turning off his alarm, he gets up, fixes his bed, and prepares for his last day of work at Ultimo Coffee.He was about to go out of his room until his Aunt Christy calls him. He answers the phone expecting that it might be news about his place in New York.“Hey, Aunt Christy.” Conrad greeted.“Conrad, I have good news for you.” She said excitedly.“What is it?” He asked excitedly.“I found a place for you.” She answered. “The place is great and it’s near at the Institute of Culinary Education.” She added. “Wait let me send you a pic of the place.”Aunt Christy sends a picture of the apartment to Conrad. By the time Conrad receives the picture, he was amazed. The walls are sky blue, it had windows, the whole apartment is fully furnished and the kitchen is equipped with everything I needed. He then thinks
Conrad arrives at Ultimo Coffee. Knowing that he needs to tell his manager about him leaving, he starts to feel nervous as he doesn’t know what to tell his manager since everything was so sudden. He takes a deep breath and gets out of the car. By the time he gets out of the car, he sees Duke opening up the café.“Good morning Duke!” Conrad greets while approaching him.“Hey, Conrad.” Duke greets back as he opens the café.“I see you’re in charge of opening up today.” Conrad said. “Do you know what time the manager will arrive?” He asked Duke.“No, why?” Duke asked back.“I’m leaving for college tomorrow morning.” Conrad answered. “I have to tell Sir Devon about it since everything was so sudden.” He added.“That’s cool.” Duke said. “What culinary school you’re going to?” He asked out of curio
Conrad gets in his car and takes a deep breath knowing that he’ll be missing working in Ultimo Coffee. He starts the car and leaves the parking space. He drives past Ultimo Coffee, looks at his mirror, and sees Ultimo getting smaller as he drives further.A few moments later, Conrad arrives at his home and turns off the car. He sees his grandma sitting by the front door with a cup of tea in her hand. Conrad walks up to her and kisses her on the cheek.“Everything okay grandma?” Conrad asked.“Everything’s fine.” She replied. “Just breathing in some fresh air.” She added. “By the way, if you ever need a suggestion to cook for dinner, I’d suggest you cook something that your mother loves.” She suggested to Conrad.“Thanks for the suggestion grandma.” He thanked her as he hugs her. “Do you want to help in the kitchen?” He asked as he opens the doors.“No th
After dinner, Conrad excuses himself to go to his bedroom since he will start packing for tomorrow. As Conrad went ahead, Elizabeth suggested that they should stay in the living room. They all agreed and went to the living room.Mike and Elizabeth sat down together on the couch while Elizabeth’s mother sat on her armchair.“Mother, would you like to introduce yourself to Mike, so that you two would get to know each other better?” Elizabeth suggested to her mother.“Where are my manners?” Elizabeth's mother said in realization. “I’m Betty Walter by the way.” She said to Mike. “I’m Elizabeth’s mother and Conrad’s grandmother.” She added.“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Walter.” Mike said.“You can call me Betty.” Betty suggested to Mike.“Sure thing, Betty.” Mike replied.“Let me ask you, why are you dating my
The next morning, Conrad woke up by the sound of his alarm. He turns off his alarm on his phone, stands up, and sighs as he sees his empty room. Sadness starts to fill him knowing that he’s not ready to leave yet. As he was about to change into his clothes for today, there was a sudden knock on the door.“Who is it?” Conrad shouted.“It’s your future stepdad,” Mike answered. “Is it okay for me to come inside?” He asked.“Yeah, you can,” Conrad replied.“Your mom wanted me to tell you that breakfast is ready,” Mike said as opens the door.“I’ll go down as soon as I finished taking a shower,” Conrad replied while he’s preparing his clothes.“Hey, why is this photo faced down?” He asked as he noticed the photo on top of the shelf.“I think it’s best if we leave that there,” Conrad said.“How is that?&
While Mike was helping Conrad put his stuff in Conrad’s car, he suddenly asks him a question.“So, this is it.” Mike said. “Are you excited to live a new life in New York?” He asked.“To be honest Mike, I don’t know.” Conrad answered. “It’s like, all my feelings are all mixed up.” He added“Whatever it is you’re feeling, always remember that we’re here for you.” Mike said.“Take care of mom for me.” Conrad said as he puts his right hand on Mike’s left shoulder.“I will don’t worry.” Mike answered with a smile knowing that he has Conrad’s trust.A few minutes later, they finished putting Conrad’s stuff in his car. Conrad goes back inside to tell his goodbyes. He opens the door for one last time and sighs as he enters the house. As he went inside, he sees his mother and his grandmother waiting by the door. H
After hours of driving, Conrad finally arrives in New York. “Welcome to New York” by Taylor Swift, starts to play as he drives through Brooklyn Bridge. He drives past Times Square and was overwhelmed after seeing the place full of people. He also expected that it would be full of billboards but he still got amazed by it. A few minutes, he arrives at the address where his apartment would be. Conrad was puzzled at first since he expected something big but what he arrived at was bigger than he expected. He goes inside, bringing some of his stuff in, and sees if he can find the landlord of the apartment. Luckily, the landlord was there by the entrance. He put down the box he was bringing and introduced himself. “I’m Conrad Walter, the tenant of apartment number 217.” Conrad introduced. “Nice to meet you, sir…?” He said unsurely. “Call me Sir Hampton.” Sir Hampton said. “So, you’re the other tenant who rented apartment 217.” He added. “Other tenant?” Conra