11. Colin
Chapter eleven
Colin
I had Christmas Day off and the store was closed, but the next day, I had the early shift to make sure we were up and ready for opening. People would be out shopping or, more likely, returning gifts, and they would probably want coffee. The college students were still off on their winter break, but sometimes, that meant afternoons were busier since there were no classes. I parked and made my way through the back. “Andy! I’m here.” I was a little early. “Should I go ahead and clock in?”
Andy came out of the office room. His eyes were red like he’d been crying or partying all night. “No. Uh…”
“You look terrible. What’s wrong?” I put my arm around him. He had done so much for me. The least I could do was offer comfort and be there for him.
“I, uh, just got off a conference call. With the owner and the franchise rep.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Do you need to sit down?”
Andy pulled me into a hug. “Come in here.” He shoved me into the side chair. “I hate this. You have to know that first. Okay?”
“What?”
“I have to let you go. They say we have to cut back. I’m letting Brant go, too. It’s going to be only me and June.” Brant was the quarter-time barista he hired to replace Levi when he got all hooked up with his daddy. June was the other full-time barista who had been around longer than I had.
“What? How?”
“I know. This sucks. Maybe in the spring, when things pick back up, I can hire someone else, but not now. And this is a terrible time to do it. It’s fucking Christmas.” He flung his hands to the side and balled them into fists. I knew he was mad about it, but it wasn’t his fault at all.
“No. That’s okay. I’ll live. Do you want me to work out this week or this shift?”
He shook his head, looking sadder than I had ever seen him. Hell, I hadn’t even known his lips could dip that far down in the corners. “Effective immediately.”
“Well. Okay. I get it. I don’t blame you at all. We’re still friends, right? I mean…”
He jumped me, hugging me hard. “Of course. You’ll always be my friend.”
Andy was my best friend. I didn’t think I was that for him, but for me, losing him would be worse than losing a stupid job. Maybe he didn’t know that. I hugged him back. “You’re my best friend, Andy. You’ve been there for me so many times. You’ve made me a better person.” That was true. He pulled me out of my shell, gave me confidence I didn’t know I had, and even if he didn’t hook me up with a daddy, he helped me realize I didn’t need one.
Only now, I did. More than before.
Shit.
“You’ll be okay. We all love you, Turtle-Dove.” I couldn’t even complain about the nickname. “Plus, you have Rourke. I promise he’s not going to kick you out or anything.”
If only he knew. Rourke was so busy trying to get me to move into the big house that I knew for sure I wouldn’t get kicked out. That wasn’t the point, though. “No, no, he won’t. I’ll be fine. But I really have to figure out what I’m doing. You know? What do I want to do with my life? This job was only ever supposed to be temporary. I just…”
“Got lost along the way?”
“No, more like I’ve always been searching for the right path and haven’t been able to find it, so I stopped looking.” It was time to start looking again. What did I want? Who did I want to be? And how did Rourke fit in with that?