I couldn’t track his eye movement, but the subtle tip of his head and the way he inhaled let me know that he was perusing me. Studying my entire body.
I quickly sent a silent prayer up to the sky for good measure.
Please, if there is a deity out there,pleaselet this GQ model of a man know where the clit is. If I hook up with one more man who doesn’t know how to get me off, I will literally burn this shop to the ground.
During my prayer, the man’s eyebrows almost hit his hairline, and I wondered what he was thinking as he pressed his lips together in thought. He was about to open them to say something right when the back door was thrown open, causing a loud bang to echo in the shop. All of us jolted at the sound, so I turned toward the back hallway just in time to see Emma storming in and throwing her bag down on the counter.
“Whoa there.” I rested a hand on my hip to look at my employee. “What’s with the ‘tude?” Before she could sneak back into the kitchen, she turned to look at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed. Tears had already streaked down her cheeks, smudging her mascara as she glanced at me. She wiped a hand under her nose and continued into the back kitchen.
Shit.
I glanced back at my handsome stranger, whose name I didn’t even have yet, and lifted my finger up at him. A silent command to wait. Then I followed Emma back into the kitchen.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked in a softer tone. She was angrily tying her apron on, sniffling and agitated.
“Brody cheated on me.”
Ugh, men.
“What an ass.” I stepped up and threw my arms around her shoulders. She didn’t finish tying her apron. She gave up entirely as soon as I wrapped her much smaller body into my own. Dysregulation wasn’t a fun thing to experience. I hated that some tool would think to cheat on sweet Emma, but I wasn’t surprised. His name was Brody. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see this coming a mile away.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured as I squeezed her tighter. She sniffled and managed to wrap one arm around my waist. Emma was only a couple of years younger than me, but I loved her. She started working at my shop fresh out of high school, and I considered us friends as well as colleagues.
Ten minutes passed with me consoling her, double-checking that she was able to work her shift today. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she couldn’t, but she insisted that she needed something to do, so she didn’t focus on Brody. When I finally emerged from the kitchen, I visibly frowned when I saw that my mystery man and his not-date had disappeared.
“They left?” I asked Shane, who was back to reading his paperback.
He nodded, not bothering to look up from the pages. His dark brows pinched in thought as he read.
I groaned. “Dammit, I wasconfidenthe was going to ask for my number this time.” Emma, still with excellent timing, emerged from the kitchen right as I said that. Her wide eyes and pouty lip were hurting my heart.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured.
I shook my head and pointed at her. “Don’t you dare. It’s fine. If he’s interested, he’ll be back.”
She sniffled. “Are you sure? I feel so bad—” I shook my head and gave her another side hug and squeeze, before continuing on with our workday.
God, I hoped he’d be back.
Chapter 11
Karaoke night at the Sun Bean was a couple of nights later.
Perks of owning a coffee shop included doing whatever the hell I wanted, which meant that I could go out of my way to host community events in the space. As someone who often felt desperate to find things to do as a teenager, unsure of when the system would ship me to a new family to live with, I attempted to give back to my community. To provide relatively safe opportunities for teens and young adults that Audrey and I had learned to seek out ourselves when we were younger.
The night itself was free, which was worth it when people bought drinks. I think the live-band karaoke was what brought the crowd, though.
A college student just finished his performance of some old school rock song that, frankly, he killed at. When the drummer for the night hopped off the small stage and ran over to the counter, I already had a bottle of water waiting for him.
“How’s it going, Kyle?” I asked him.
He used both of his hands to push his sweat-slicked hair back. The sweat made the blue he dyed it shinier.
“That kid has some pipes,” Kyle breathed. The crowd was young enough that no one had recognized him or his husbandyet. No one here knew that they were currently singing karaoke with two members of the world-famous rock band,Carbon Cut. “I’m so glad I made Tom get a babysitter.”
I smiled. “Enjoying child-free time?”
“We alwaysmissthem.” Kyle gave me a warm smile before snagging an extra water bottle for his husband, who was tuning his bass. “But we enjoy pretending we’re still relevant, too.”
