Plus, there was the way his phone wouldn’t stop buzzing in Hawaii until he shut it off. I don’t think this is a new avoidance.
And more than once, I caught him watching me in the reflection of one of the windows or glancing back at the kitchen with utter misery etched on his face. Like he didn’twantto be the grouchy asshole that he was being, and like he wanted to be back in Hawaii too.
But that might’ve been me projecting.
What would today have been like if he’d understood why I had to leave the way I did in Hawaii?
I swallow and meet Laney’s gaze. “He’s getting bids to renovate Bean & Nugget entirely.”
“How entirely?”
I know I need to say it, but I can hardly bring myself to force the words out. I run my hands through Jitter’s fur to make it more palatable. “He wants to convert it into a kombucha brewery with a completely redone menu, add mead if he can get a liquor license, rename itThe Hive, and keep a wall of board games for regular gamer nights.”
Jack makes a noise.
I know that noise.
That’s a noise ofhe’s building my idea of heaven.
Decker reaches around me and shoves him. “Shut up.”
“No, I get it.” I sigh. “It would sound interesting if he was doing it toanother building.” I’d go there and destroy the triplets in a round of Settlers of Catan every once in a while if we had a gaming hangout in town. Instead, I have to do it in the privacy of one of our houses.
Boring.
“And I think he’s planning on putting beehives on the roof and I heard his assistant say something to him about finding a place that can make the fiberglass bee that he wants to mount on the building,” I add.
“Isn’t Chandler deathly afraid of bees?” Laney asks.
“Yes.”
“Does your new boss know this?”
“I don’t know. But I got the impression he doesn’t like Chandler.”
“Fuck, that’s funny,” Decker mutters. “I hate this guy. I’m not supposed to think he’s funny if he’s a dick to our family and the café. How did you pick up on all of this and I didn’t today?”
“You didn’t get the same emails I got.”
“What else do you know about him?” Laney asks me.
“Not enough. I’m working on cracking Zen, his assistant, but I don’t think they trust people easily. It’ll take me some time.”
“I’m googling,” Decker says.
“I’mgoogling,” Jack adds.
Decker’s on a MacBook. Jack’s on a PC laptop. Donotget them started on whocomputersbetter.
“We got you, Sabrina,” Decker says. “By the time we’re done here, we’ll know everything from his social security number to his favorite brand of socks.”
He wears socks with pandas on them.
At least, he did today, andfuck you again, Greyson Cartwright, for making me swoon over your ridiculously cute socks.
The worst part about havingDukein my everyday life now?
I get it. I totally understand why he’s mad at me, and there’s nothing I can—or will—do about it. I’ll apologize, and I’ll be a good employee so long as Bean & Nugget exists, but that’s all he gets from me.
