“Sorry, I’m dealing with a pastry crisis right now. One of our vendors is super late with their delivery and we’re not going to have anything to feed people soon if I can’t track them down. My contact says the delivery guy left twenty minutes ago, which is clearly a lie, because the bakery is only a ten-minute drive, tops.”
“All right. Good luck.”
Caleb shifted toward the door to the vet clinic. Lauren brought her phone to her ear as he slipped through the door.
He couldn’t tell if she’d been short with him because she didn’t want to see him or because of the pastry crisis, so he decided to drop by the Cat Café on his lunch break to clear the air. It was probably the wrong thing to do; he’d rarely stopped by the café when they’d actually been seeing each other.
But he couldn’t help himself.
She was standing near the counter, talking to Monique, both of them all smiles. Apparently the pastry crisis had been solved. But Lauren frowned when she saw Caleb.
“Hi,” he said. “Uh, regular coffee?”
“Sure,” said Monique, going into action and grabbing a cup.
“What are you doing here?” Lauren asked.
“Getting a cup of coffee. And saying hello. You were a little preoccupied when I walked by this morning, so I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine.” Lauren’s tone was short and direct.
“Two dollars,” said Monique, placing his coffee on the counter.
The pastry display was pretty stark, with only a single plain bagel and a couple of cookies.
“I’ll take that last bagel. Toasted with cream cheese.”
“Sure. That’s another two-seventy-five.”
“No problem.” Caleb pulled a five from his wallet. The whole time he moved, Lauren stared at him like he’d grown a tail. While Monique dropped his bagel into the toaster, Caleb turned to Lauren and said, “Did your pastry delivery arrive?”
“Yeah. Later than I would have liked, but as you can see, we sold out.”
“Glad that worked out.”
“Whoareyou?” Lauren asked. “Do you want something?”
“No, I just came by because it’s my lunch break. I’m trying to be sociable.”
“But…why?”
So it wouldn’t be easy to slip back into her life. She was wary of him, with good reason.
“Can we be friends, at least?” he asked.
Lauren glanced at Monique, who was now smearing cream cheese on Caleb’s bagel. “I don’t know,” she said softly. “Probably not.”
Well, that was an answer. If Caleb wanted to be with Lauren, he’d have to undo some of the damage he’d done. If that was what he wanted.
They stood there in awkward silence until Monique finished the bagel, wrapped it in deli paper, and put it next to Caleb’s coffee on the counter. He handed her six dollars and told her to keep the change.
The thing was, Caleb still wanted Lauren. It was like his body was full of iron filings and Lauren was a big magnet. He wanted to touch her, hold her, kiss her right here with all the customers watching, but he also knew she would shiv him if he tried any of that now.
And that was all she’d wanted the whole time. For him to come in here on his lunch break and greet her as if they were dating, and to be a solid couple. And he’d fucked it up by telling her no.
“I’d better get back,” Caleb said.
Lauren frowned at him. “You come innow?”
