“We’re here,” he said, straightening and looking out of the window. “Or so I think. This is a bookstore.”
I nodded. “Yes. I’m well aware.”
He looked at me with mock concern. “Tell me you do have a home.”
I leveled him with a look. “I work here.”
“I don’t believe you work in customer service.”
“And why is that?”
“With your sunny disposition?”
I wanted to scowl but had to admit I liked him teasing me like this. Which was…a problem.
Before I could reach the back, he’d rounded the car and opened the trunk, handing me my duffel bag.
“Thanks for the ride, I guess.” I stood stiffly, my butt begging me for a pack of frozen peas.
He nodded. “Good luck, Nora. I’ll see you at the announcement.”
I shouldered my bag. “I don’t need luck to kick your ass.”
He smirked, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I know you don’t.”
I turned before he could see my smile.
“Your ex came by this morning,” Otis said as a way of greeting. His lids were covered in sparkly shimmer, a pink blush highlighting his cheekbones.
I stifled a groan. “What a way to greet your bestie after a lifetime apart.”
I plonked my bag behind the counter and straightened my hair with a fork, feeling very Un-Disney-like.
“You look like you had a hell of a week,” Otis said. “And,” he leaned forward, scrunching up his nose, “you smell like a campfire.” He straightened. “Did you go camping? Like… in nature? Did you eat wild berries and fight grizzly bears?” He twisted me around, making me laugh. “Who are you, and what did you do to my Nora?”
I giggled. An odd burning grew behind my eyes. The heaviness and stress of the week slammed into me. Being here with Otis, my shining beacon, made me realize just how exhausted I was and how happy I was to be here. And how much I needed this store to survive.
Otis’s face fell. “Oh no, love, did they break you? Do I have to send you back in exchange for the newer and hotter model?” He tugged me into a hug, and I buried my face into him.
“It was… I…” I began, not sure how to continue, then gasped, tugging on his sleeve. “Your first rehearsal is tonight!”
“I know. I’m equally excited and may die of a heart attack. But I want to know about your week first.”
I shook my head, ready to drown my body weight in espresso. The nap in the car had not been sufficient, even though those were by far the comfiest leather seats my ass had ever met. Truth was, I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. The last twenty-four hours had been…wildly unnerving. It felt like a different universe.
I took a deep breath in, turned our shop sign to open, and said, in my best, stoic, Brad Majors impression, “We don’t want to be any worry.”
I waved my hand dramatically in the air. The cue for Otis to pick up his line as Frank-N-Furter.
There was a shift in Otis’s expression. He closed his eyes, like he could feel the stage light warming his skin. A dramatic sigh. When his eyes opened again, his brow shot up, his lips quirked in a sultry way.
“Well, you got caught with a flat. Well, how about that? Well, babies, don’t you panic…”
Chapter Seventeen
It’s called Instant Gram.
Enough pastries will turn you half German.
