Maggie frowned. “The Wandering Bloom is perfect. What would you possibly change?”
The shop was beautiful. The perfect combination of vibey, laidback library and modern coffee-shop aesthetic.
“I know,” Polly gushed. “But I’m bored. And the office is brown and dull and depressing. Maybe I’ll renovate that.”
“Well, if you need help, I’m great with a paintbrush.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I plan to put you to work. I’ll pay you in matcha.” She picked at the croissant. “How’s the business thing going?”
“Good. I’ve already had a ton of inquiries.”
“Of course you have. Your followers love you. What did you end up doing about that comment?”
It was hard for Maggie not to stiffen. “Well, I went to block them, but they’d already deleted the comment and their account.”
“Good.”
Was it good? She’d been hoping Ethan would be able to do his super-tech thing and figure out who was behind the fake account. Now they had nothing to go by.
The voices behind grew louder. “What if it’s one of those new guys in town? Gerome was saying some of them were dishonorably discharged from the military.”
Another woman gasped. “I heard that too! Apparently, one of them killed someone.”
“Probably PTSD-induced psychosis. You know that Ethan guy got here a year ago. His timing works.”
Maggie spun around. “That’s not true. Any of it. And if you were smart, you’d ignoreanythingGerome Ward says.”
The blonde frowned. “Are you listening to our conversation?”
“I can’t exactlynotlisten when you’re right behind me and speaking loud enough for the entire café to hear.”
The brunette huffed. “We’re done anyway.”
Thank God.
As they packed up their things, Maggie turned back to Polly. “Sorry. That probably wasn’t good for business.”
“The fewer dumb customers, the better. Anyone who would assume Ethan or his team would do this obviously has bricks for brains. Those guys are great. Well, most of them. Do you know what Joel started calling me yesterday? Sunshine.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yes, it is, because I’mnotsunshine. Not to him. That’s why he uses it.”
“Uh, so he’s being ironic.”
“He’s being a jerk.”
Maggie bit her bottom lip to stop the grin. Because she swore there was barely a conversation with Polly these days where her best friend didn’t mention Joel by name. And honestly, she couldn’t remember a time when Polly had spoken aboutanyguy this much. Polly prided herself on not being affected by men.
“And you know what else—” Polly stopped, her gaze catching on something by the door. “Oh, brother.”
“What?” Maggie turned and groaned at the sight of Gerome and one of his friends stepping into Bloom.
They went to the counter, but of course when he finished ordering, Gerome turned and went straight to Maggie and Polly.
Maggie started to pack up her things, because clearly she was not getting work done in here today.
She was too slow.
