There’s no way to absorb this much crazy before coffee, so I give him and the dick plant a wide berth as I put my bag away and head over to the coffee station.
The best thing about working for Sage, apart from all the craft supplies, is definitely the coffee station. We have a programmable drip coffee maker, so there’s always a fresh pot in the morning, and Sage’s brother is a baker in Chester Falls—only a few miles away—so most days, there are a few fresh cinnamon buns.
“No pastries today?” I ask.
“Nah, I need to stay away from my brother for a couple of weeks, at least.”
“Do I want to know?” I pour the coffee into two cups and give him one.
“I broke into his place and did his laundry.”
That doesn’t sound too bad. Then again, this is Sage.
“I might need some context.”
“Okay, when I say I did his laundry, I mean that I changed his bedding, so he has a brand-new set of sheets with lots of tiny dicks. Regular dicks, rainbow dicks, frog dicks—”
“Wait…frog dicks?”
“Yeah, they’re super cute with these tiny frog legs coming out of them… Anyway, I think it makes his room look a lot nicer. It really lifts it up.”
“I get why he might be a little annoyed if you broke in, but surely he can just change it back,” I say as we both walk through the mostly empty barn room and into the store.
Even though Birchcraft is right in the middle of the busy Main Street, the building itself, much like most businesses in Stillwater, has been converted from something else and given a new life.
The front of the building is made up of an open-plan area with a few separate sections, each with its own dedicated craft. From painting, knitting, crochet, drawing, and other specialties, Birchcraft is a crafter’s paradise.
My favorite area is what I call the barn room because it looks like a big bright and airy barn. We only use it for storage, which seems a shame.
Sage turns the sign on the door and props it open since it’s a nice day outside.
I take a sip of my coffee while the checkout computer boots up and wait for Sage to finish his story.
“He can’t change the bedding because I took all his bedsheets to the laundromat. They have far too much sex anyway. Those bedsheets were begging for a proper clean. I’ve basically done them a favor, right?”
“Riiiight.”
“Anyway, since I can’t give you buns, I can get you cookies from Liv’s. I’ll be right back.”
He exits the store holding his coffee cup and crosses the road to Lovely Buns, our local bakery. There’s a coffee shop farther up the road, but Liv’s cookies are the best.
I finish my coffee, grab the A-board with our weekly offers, and take it outside.
When my friend, Fletcher, told me the weather in Connecticut could be unpredictable, he wasn’t lying. Just last week, the streets were still white with snow, but now, with the sun shining and the flowers making a return to the baskets hung along the street, you’d never know it.
If only I could feel as sunny as the weather.
I place the A-board by the door and look around.
The street is filling up with people going in and out of stores with their shopping bags, occasionally stopping to talk to each other.
Sage crosses the road with a paper bag in hand, catching me as I stare toward the town hall end of the street.
Birchcraft is cleverly positioned on Main Street halfway between the town hall and The Academy.
“They’ll come around,” Sage says as if he can guess where my thoughts are at. “You won’t be the newcomer for long.”
I follow him back inside the store.
