him, Stefan had had the exact same employees. They were good at what they did. Which, I got the feeling, entailed handling coffee and handling Stefan in equal, loving measures.
‘First, tell me how you know about this place and why,’ he said.
‘I have tickets.’ I waved them in the air as if he could see them on the phone, and then was glad no one could see me do that.
‘You … have tickets.’ He mulled this over for so long in silence I would have thought he had hung up, except I could still hear the sounds of coffee being made in the background. ‘Pray tell, how did that happen?’
‘It’s a very long story,’ I said.
‘And one that I’m sure I’m going to hear very soon.’ It wasn’t a question. It was a very sweet, very Southern form of blackmail.
‘You are?’ I agreed hesitantly. ‘But where exactly is it?’ I had so many questions, but that seemed like the one I needed an answer to first and foremost.
‘Promise me you’ll come and have some coffee before you go and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Bring that boy of yours, the cute blond one.’
‘I’m –’ I was about to say ‘– planning to come there tomorrow anyway and the cute blond one is not really very happy with me,’ but Stefan cut me off.
‘OK, I’m going away now to save the coffee shop from –’ here his voice raised, clearly not meant for me ‘– the scoundrels and bandits who are running it into the ground, yes?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Thanks, Stefan.’
‘Love, thank me with something besides words.’ Which pretty much meant, ‘Promise to come in and spend some time with me when you don’t actually need me for something.’
I hung up, and felt slightly better for having a plan. Tomorrow, work all day, go to Cream to meet with Kyle, talk to Stefan while I was there, go to strip club … no, wait … find strip club, then go to strip club, then discover whatever it was Davian was sending me there to find out by talking to some chick named Kitty.
What a horrible plan.
* * *
Any week that starts off like this week did is just bound to keep getting weirder. And that’s pretty much what happened.
The next morning, a regular brought his first-edition book back, citing that it had stains. Which it did. Because it was a first-edition book and about a million people had owned it before him. Then I mixed up the shipping time on someone else’s book, so it didn’t arrive when I said it would. Lily was cranky because her date had gone badly. I had Kyle and Davian and some chick called Kitty on my mind.
All in all, it was one of those days.
By the time I got home, I was stressed, on edge and later than I would have liked. I had less than twenty minutes to dress and get to Cream to meet Kyle. Hopefully I could figure out what I was going to say to him before I got there. You know how you have those conversations in your head and everything sounds fantastic? Well, I hadn’t had a single one of those yet. So far I’d been alternating between ‘You know I really like you, but marriage isn’t something I’m interested in’ and ‘Can’t we just have sex?’ Neither of which was even close to what I really wanted to say and both of which just sounded stupid.
I also wanted to get to the show at the Cat House early so I could have some time to scope the whole thing out. Maybe, in retrospect, it wasn’t a great idea to go with Kyle, either way. I was supposed to be doing research, supposed to be paying attention and, I don’t know, getting some woman I didn’t know to talk to me about a man I barely knew. But Davian had given me two tickets.
Ugh. What had I got myself into? Some days I longed to be a person in a novel instead of a person in the real world. They always said smart, funny things. And didn’t run away from the man who loved them. OK, maybe that wasn’t true all the time, but they usually had it figured out by the end. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to figure it out.
Either
‘First, tell me how you know about this place and why,’ he said.
‘I have tickets.’ I waved them in the air as if he could see them on the phone, and then was glad no one could see me do that.
‘You … have tickets.’ He mulled this over for so long in silence I would have thought he had hung up, except I could still hear the sounds of coffee being made in the background. ‘Pray tell, how did that happen?’
‘It’s a very long story,’ I said.
‘And one that I’m sure I’m going to hear very soon.’ It wasn’t a question. It was a very sweet, very Southern form of blackmail.
‘You are?’ I agreed hesitantly. ‘But where exactly is it?’ I had so many questions, but that seemed like the one I needed an answer to first and foremost.
‘Promise me you’ll come and have some coffee before you go and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. Bring that boy of yours, the cute blond one.’
‘I’m –’ I was about to say ‘– planning to come there tomorrow anyway and the cute blond one is not really very happy with me,’ but Stefan cut me off.
‘OK, I’m going away now to save the coffee shop from –’ here his voice raised, clearly not meant for me ‘– the scoundrels and bandits who are running it into the ground, yes?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Thanks, Stefan.’
‘Love, thank me with something besides words.’ Which pretty much meant, ‘Promise to come in and spend some time with me when you don’t actually need me for something.’
I hung up, and felt slightly better for having a plan. Tomorrow, work all day, go to Cream to meet with Kyle, talk to Stefan while I was there, go to strip club … no, wait … find strip club, then go to strip club, then discover whatever it was Davian was sending me there to find out by talking to some chick named Kitty.
What a horrible plan.
* * *
Any week that starts off like this week did is just bound to keep getting weirder. And that’s pretty much what happened.
The next morning, a regular brought his first-edition book back, citing that it had stains. Which it did. Because it was a first-edition book and about a million people had owned it before him. Then I mixed up the shipping time on someone else’s book, so it didn’t arrive when I said it would. Lily was cranky because her date had gone badly. I had Kyle and Davian and some chick called Kitty on my mind.
All in all, it was one of those days.
By the time I got home, I was stressed, on edge and later than I would have liked. I had less than twenty minutes to dress and get to Cream to meet Kyle. Hopefully I could figure out what I was going to say to him before I got there. You know how you have those conversations in your head and everything sounds fantastic? Well, I hadn’t had a single one of those yet. So far I’d been alternating between ‘You know I really like you, but marriage isn’t something I’m interested in’ and ‘Can’t we just have sex?’ Neither of which was even close to what I really wanted to say and both of which just sounded stupid.
I also wanted to get to the show at the Cat House early so I could have some time to scope the whole thing out. Maybe, in retrospect, it wasn’t a great idea to go with Kyle, either way. I was supposed to be doing research, supposed to be paying attention and, I don’t know, getting some woman I didn’t know to talk to me about a man I barely knew. But Davian had given me two tickets.
Ugh. What had I got myself into? Some days I longed to be a person in a novel instead of a person in the real world. They always said smart, funny things. And didn’t run away from the man who loved them. OK, maybe that wasn’t true all the time, but they usually had it figured out by the end. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to figure it out.
Either
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