“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Theo’s shoulders slumped and he started to shuffle aside to make room for her. “You can go ahe—”
“No, Theo, you were here first.” Audrey let her usual mask fall and glared at the woman before turning back to him. “What wouldyoulike?”
He held up a trembling hand. “No, it’s fine, I can wait, I’ve got time. I—”
Patricia shoved him fully out of the way and stepped up to the register, and Theo stumbled back with an anguished grunt, grabbing on to the counter with his left hand and barely managing to stay on his feet. His right leg buckled. “I want my usual.” She jammed her finger onto the counter. Demanding.
No.
Absolutely not.
“You don’t have a usual,Patricia,” Audrey snarled, “you order something different every time. And it’s not your turn.”
“Then I want a venti caramel macchiato Frappuccino, upside down, extra shot, three extra pumps of vanilla, and made with heavy whipping cream.”
“It’s not your turn and this is not a Starbucks,we don’t have ventis or make Frappuccinos,” she hissed.
“Well, I’m friends with the owner andyou need to make me the fucking coffee I ordered, you little bitch!” Patricia shouted.
“HEY.”
Theo rested a hand softly on Patricia’s shoulder. “Don’t talk to her that way,” he growled. “I think you need to leave before—”
“Is that a threat?!” Patricia shrieked as she whirled around and pointed a finger in his face. “Howdareyou touch me! And why are you still wearing a goddamn mask? Get that off your face so I can see who you are to report you!” She reached up, grabbed his mask, and yanked.
“Hey, don’t you touch him! That’s assault!” Audrey cried, running for the gap in the counter to get to the front of the café. Josh was already in the back calling the police.
Theo jerked away from Patricia’s hand, but she had too good of a grip on the mask between her clawed fingers. The elastic ear loops snapped, and it fell away from his face. His eye widened in horror and he scrambled to catch it, but it was too late. It dropped on the floor and everyone froze.
And Audrey finally got a good long look at him.
He was handsome.Reallyhandsome. He had a wide mouth, and full, plush lips, with deep indents carved around it where dimples might appear if he smiled. Large moles intermingled with the delicate freckles skipping across his cheeks, more constellations of beauty marks contrasting brightly against his pale skin and high cheekbones.
But those features were all overshadowed, all marred by the thick, red, vicious scar crackling violently across his face, not quite healed and obviously devastatingly fresh. Whatever had wounded him had cut deep—verydeep. His skin was still puckered around the edges of the scar where some of the dozens—no,hundreds—of stitches had only recently been removed, and parts of it were still scabbed over.
It crept up from under his collar along his neck, and her eyes traced the length of it. The part that disappeared under the thick, dark waves covering his right eye was still stitched closed with black sutures twisting deep into his skin. He must have been split open to the bone.
Whatever happened had hurt, in more ways than one, and that hurt was reflected now in the way his lovely mouth dropped open in fear and how horror darkened the one eye fixated on Audrey’s face.
“Theo—” She stepped up to him and tried to put her hand on his shoulder, but he stumbled away from her touch. Patricia stayedsilent and rooted in place, gaping openly at him as if he were some sort of freak. As if he were a monster. The look of disgust on that woman’s face made Audrey feel sick. “Theo, are you okay? I—”
He couldn’t look at her. He covered his face with his arm and bolted for the door, shoving it open with his free hand and disappearing out into the street.
The café was completely silent. Everyone had seen.
Audrey looked down at her feet. He’d dropped his little black notebook. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he’d leapt away from Patricia, and she picked it up and clutched it to her chest, fighting back tears for him.
Josh had Patricia arrested for assault. The whole thing was caught on the café’s security cameras and by the customers working in the lounge on their phones. At least one of them posted it on social media, and it caught like wildfire. The incident even briefly went viral on TikTok.
Tim, the owner of Déjà Brew, called both Audrey and Josh into the admin office in the back the next day. He was mortified by the kind of attention the café was getting online and had already written a scathing response to someone on Reddit about it—particularly since Patricia was, predictably, a liar. They weren’t friends, he had no idea who she was, and while he wasn’t thrilled with how Audrey had escalated the situation, he wasn’t going to hold it against her. He permanently banned Patricia from the premises for the assault. She didn’t try to come back to Déjà Brew after that.
But neither did Theo.
He didn’t return to the café the next Tuesday.
Or the Tuesday after that.
Or the Tuesday after that.
