She heard Tess say, "Freakishly boring which is why I said no for tonight but I might hang out with him tomorrow if I have nothing going on, you know?"
Eloise looked at Bess with a question on her face pointing to Tess who had her back to them and Bess shrugged.
She'd had Bess pick up whole bean coffee at the grocery store and the strong odor of overly roasted beans that were dry, a bit greyish in color, and old had her shaking her head. Luckily, most coffee addicts couldn't distinguish between bad and excellent espresso or mediocre equipment like the inefficient chop blade grinder she saw them using this morning. When she asked why they weren't using the expensive burr grinder, Tess said it hadn't been working for a few weeks and that the blade grinder worked "great."
Eloise felt a rush of excitement. The challenge to teach and help them harness the skills to create unparalleled coffee was thrilling. But, that would have to wait for better coffee and working equipment, so she helped them prep and open so that she could see their routine and then dove into the orders in the office. Now that she had emerged, hungry and needing a caffeine boost, she decided to stay away from the bad espresso and opted for a green tea with honey. Also, not great, but still better.
"Is it usually this slow on a Saturday?"
Tess shrugged and Bess said it depended on the weekend though this was unusually slow.
"Tess, if you want to head out, you're good."
The blonde brightened and her tall willowy frame bounced as she threw the rag into the sanitizer bucket. "Sweet! You're not as bad as I thought you were going to be at this."
As she flounced away Eloise turned to Bess and asked, "Do I give off a bad boss vibe?"
Bess tilted her head and regarded her seriously. "I mean, you have this intense vibe, like...I wouldn't be surprised if you knew Russian because you were there during the space race."
"The..." she paused as shock rolled through her. "How old do you think I am? I came decades after the space race. I have onlyvague memories of theendof the Cold War, thank you very much."
"She's not wrong though," a deep voice said from the other side of the bar.
Eloise and Bess turned to see a smiling Detective White leaning against the counter. Seeing her accidental date standing there made her pulse trip over itself. His easy lopsided smile was attractive, but she was still trying to rub off their last encounter. When she had mistaken him as her blind date.
"You think I look like I'm old enough to have been alive, let alone a spy, during the space race?" She asked with an incredulous look on her face. "I, like all women in my generation, were taught to avoid the sun like little vampires and put on moisturizer at night until we look like a glazed donut and while I look fairly good for my age, with a few new lines because perimenopause is a nasty little sucker and I love laughing," she said pointedly at Bess who was smiling as she leaned back against the counter, "there is no way you can mistake me for being a Russian-speaking adult from the fifties and sixties."
Taylor laughed and Bess shrugged one shoulder. "I'm honestly not great at history. You good if I take my fifteen? I need to call
She shooed her out of the cafe and turned to a smiling Taylor. He was the kind of man who carried himself easily, which was inviting.
"I meant that you do have this mysteriousness mixed with a boldness that is very interesting. Like a spy," he explained. "You certainly do not look like you could have Medicare."
She considered his words with suspicion then nodded. "I'll take it. What can I get for you, detective?"
"So you just hated the coffee so much you decided to work here?"
"I have a control problem."
"Which is?"
"I take over if I think something could be done better."
He laughed, the sound rolling through her.
"I have some experience running a coffee shop," she explained with a shrug. "And Bess said Shellee is going to be gone for longer than expected and I have nothing to do while here so," she pressed her lips together and lifted her hands in a gesture of conclusion.
"Yeah, Jenson mentioned Ursula's friend came to town."
She frowned. "How do you know that I'm Ursula's friend?"
"You're new to town, Jen Wilson is one of her good friends, and since you assaulted me with a blind date," he was cut off by her holding up a hand.
"Assaulted?I assaulted you with my reasonable assumption because you were a male sitting alone with a red flower?"
"It was a pleasant assault," he amended.
"That is not a thing. You're a terrible detective."
