He held the door open for her, whispering to her that she might want to fold over the cash and put it in her pocket because people might stare, which she hurriedly did.
When they got to the register, Tristan ordered his hot cocoa, and then he turned to Colleen standing at his elbow. “What’s your favorite coffee?”
Colleen said to the barista. “I’ll have a brewed coffee, please. Black.”
That was less than two dollars. “Is that your favorite drink?”
“Well, if I were ordering for myself, I might order something else. But you’re paying for it, so it isn’t fair.”
“What do you usually get? Caramel macchiato? Vanilla latte? Frozen matcha tea?”
Colleen mumbled, “Caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream.”
Tristan turned back to the barista, a waifish elf with enormous dark eyes and impressive eyelashes that seemed to reach her eyebrows. “And one caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream, please.”
The girl behind the cash register looked at Colleen, who shrugged at her, so the elf rang it up, told him the total, and then pointed to where they should wait for their brews.
When the other barista handed their drinks across the counter to them, Colleen sprinkled cinnamon from the condiment bar on top of the whipped cream on hers.
Perhaps Tristan should’ve worn his evening cologne, because he would’ve really liked it if she would’ve licked any part of him with her little pink tongue the way she lapped just a bit of the tall cone of whipped cream on her drink. His neck would’ve been fine. Even a fingertip would’ve sent him to Heaven.
After they’d found a table, Tristin asked, “Do you need your purse or anything from GameShack?”
Colleen shook her head and tugged a cluster of keys from her pocket, flipping the keys around to a dull bronze one. “I lock my purse in my trunk during my shifts. Besides, I still have my key to the store. I would’ve just waited until Miller went home.”
Tristan wrapped his hands around the paper cup, inhaling the warm scent of hot chocolate. Nowhere in the States made cocoa as well as Switzerland, but it was a pretty good cup of cocoa. “Smart.”
She pried the wad of bills out of her front pocket and started to hold it out to him, but she looked around the coffee shop suspiciously and wrapped it in a paper napkin before trying to shove it in his hands. “Look, I don’t feel right about taking your money.”
“Whyever not? I got you into this mess, and money fixes it. Why shouldn’t I want to fix it?”
“I don’t go around just taking other people’s money. I earn my money. I’ve had a job since I was twelve when I started working in my parents’ feed store, and I’ve had a job ever since. I can earn my own money, make my own way, and stand on my own two feet. I don’t need anybody’s handout.”
“It isn’t a handout. Think of it this way: I made you lose your job, and you sued me, and this was what the court ordered I pay you. We’re just going to skip the lawyers part.”
She shook the rustling paper at him. “Not good enough. I don’t need your charity.”
“It’s not charity. It’s just that you need—”
“Need a handout?”
“It’s just an advance on whatever you’re going to sue me for.”
“I’m not going to sue anybody. I’ve never sued anybody, and my family’s never sued anybody. That’s just a racket to get money you don’t deserve.”
“Going to court is often a remedy when someone does the wrong thing, like asking for a review on the play in football. But that’s not what we’re talking about. I feel like I put you in a perilous situation, and I need to know that you’re going to be all right.”
“I offered to pay you back.”
“This money doesn’t mean anything to me. I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Then I can work it off. I can clean your house or something.”
Tristan waved his hand in the air. “I don’t live around here. I just flew in for a few days.”
She frowned. “If you don’t live here, why are you running all over town and shopping for a new gaming computer for your house?”
The top of the hot chocolate had flecks of undissolved cocoa and streaks of cream, so Tristan stirred his drink as he formulated an answer. “The videogaming console on my private plane conked out whilst I was flying here. I wanted to buy a new one because I have a long flight home in a few days.”
