Chapter 24
Bee
“I still can’t believe you got stuck in the tram. Everybody is talking about you going to the police station, but I feel like not nearly enough people are focused on the bigger issue,” Deckard said as he followed me, bundled in his winter coat.
“Wait, who’s talking?” I asked, pulling out my keys to Grizabella’s.
“How is that even allowed?” He went on, looking a little ill. “How many people ride The Can every day? There has to be safety protocol.” Deckard’s mismatched eyes looked hazily into the distance, his shaggy brown hair mussed.
“You’d think,” I said, remembering Benny Jr.’s stuttering apology when I’d brought that up.
Deckard continued his anxiety spiral as he followed me into Grizabella’s back entrance for employees. He always kept me company in the café the few minutes before opening on the days he went to work. My phone remained text- and call-free from Owen. And every time I checked, the old insecurities crept to the surface.
When I turned on the main lights, I was met with a chorus of meows. The cats were never really alone, but you wouldn’t think that with how they reacted to my arrival.
“You’re not starving,” I said to the closest few as they rubbed against my ankles and hopped onto nearby shelves to get my attention. “I missed you too.”
It was nice to be back, nice to have the familiar routine, but a little black cloud hung over my head that I couldn’t outpace. I tugged down a black-and-silver streamer that had been missed by whoever cleaned up from the party. When I’d left here on New Year’s Eve, I’d been so down but so determined to change. I had imagined that when I returned in the new year, I would be a new person. But I still felt like me, just with a new haircut. I checked my phone again, and my heart twisted in disappointment. I shoved it to the back of my bag so I wouldn’t keep looking at it.
“What a wild ride, literally.” Deckard bent to pet Godzilla. “I’m glad you’re back safe. You must have been so scared.”
“For some parts, yeah. It was pretty bananas, but Owen made sure I was okay,” I said.
I felt his stare on the side of my face. “Is that right? I heard they found you two at the Hookup Hut.”
“From who?” I asked, but then added, “A lady never makes out all night, comes a bunch of times through several rounds of very active and enthusiastic lovemaking, and then talks about it,” I said coyly. No reason to be gauche.
Deckard tilted his head, squirming slightly. “Good for you both, I guess?” He picked up one of the cats, Maximus, and scratched behind his ear. “You really like him? I only ever knew him as the scary muscle that worked for Benny Jr. But he’s good to you?” Deckard watched me.
I nodded eagerly, hands clasped under my chin. “He took really good care of me even though I was—well, you know how I can be.”
He nodded too enthusiastically for my liking.
“Also, all the aforementioned orgasms,” I added just because of the enthusiastic nodding.
Deckard held up his hand. “Yep, okay, got it.”
I counted the till, started brewing a carafe of coffee, and put out the pastries from Trailside Treats next door. Seriously , what was with this town and alliteration? Lazy wordplay, really. Very little creativity. “He even busted me out of the clink.” More or less. Or he had tried.
“I had heard that.” Deckard came to the counter as I prepared his usual order before he went to work.
“Seriously, from who? How have you talked to so many people already?”
He shrugged and waved off my question. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to talk to so many people in such a short time. “I guess.” He hesitated. “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me about your big New Year’s plans? I could have helped you.”
I slid his muffin over with his Americano. “Exactly.” I patted his hand when he looked crestfallen. “I needed to do it on my own.”
He nodded. “So, now what? Do you feel changed?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t feel the need to prove myself to Slippery Slopes anymore.”
“You never did need to.”
“I’m starting to understand that, but it’s easy for you. The whole town knows and loves you,” I said.
“I’m one of six siblings, and my mom is the town mayor; I understand a little bit about wanting to make my own path,” he said with tension gathering around his eyes.
“I know you do. But you’re still seen. You have to be aware of how the rest of the town never notices me. At most, I was Deckard Sparks’ weird little friend.” A dark thought occurred to me then. Would I only be Owen’s weird little girlfriend now? Had I only succeeded in attaching myself to another man? Not that it mattered what they thought. I just wanted to make a name for myself.
“You are a wonderful person, Bee Perkins, and plenty of people see it,” Deckard said, meeting my eyes.
“Thank you. Ditto.” I gave him a half smile. “But now I feel all these insecurities popping up. Maybe he’s already forgotten about me. Maybe without the extremely real threat of frostbite, he’s not as willing to snuggle. Because he said he’d call, me but?—”
“Maybe he just?—”
“And then that night was just so wonderful. I can’t explain the instant connection that we had. It was a sort of magic.” I sighed.
“That sounds really great, Bee. I’m actually envious, but?—”
“And then he’s so deep and thoughtful. People can’t see him as he is at all. I’m trying so hard to think that he isn’t ignoring me because if you were there, if you felt … I mean, it felt so real.” I raised my eyebrows meaningfully.
“Bee, please.”
“And that connection was so deep , if you catch my drift.”
“Dear God, make it stop.”
“We had such an amazing night, and now he’s gone. I just don’t know where he could be,” I said with a sigh and went to the front door.
“Bee!” Deckard shouted, coming to stand in front of me, arms flailing.
“What? Yeesh, no need to yell.”
I flipped the sign to open quickly and turned to him, my back to the door.
“It’s not even been a day,” Deckard said.
“I know. I never thought he’d be one to play hard to get.”
“Yeah.” Deckard looked to the side and made that face like I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’d show him not thinking clearly. He must have seen something in my features because he held up his hands and patted my shoulders. “I’m just saying he may have needed a minute. Had to get some ducks in a row.”
“What ducks? What’s with all the bird metaphors?” I groaned.
“It’s not even been twenty-four hours since you two left each other,” he said.
“Yet more than twice the duration of our relationship,” I mumbled.
“Give him a chance to prove himself.” His gaze moved back over my shoulder and snagged. “Whoa. Looks like a morning rush.”
I spun to see a line already formed up front, large for the small town. They looked at the door, little puffs of breath coming out as they chatted eagerly with one another. “Maybe because we were closed yesterday? Aw, everybody missed the cats.”
Deckard laughed at that for some reason. Deckard moved to his usual table to do his job as I started helping the stream of nonstop customers.
The first order was with the town’s biggest gossip and local hairdresser, Tess. She gasped when she saw my hair. “Oh my God, you look so chic.”
“I know, thanks.” I touched the tips of my hair and thought of Owen’s quiet focus as he cut my hair. How gentle and kind he’d been.
I glared at where my phone sat in my bag.
I didn’t think Tess would have been able to pick me out of a lineup yesterday. She dove into questions right away. She said that she heard from Deb at Deb’s Diner (of course) that Samuel Clemens saw me taken to the police station in handcuffs.
I glanced up to share a look with Deckard. He shook his head with a silent laugh.
“See. Not a ghost,” he mouthed. He’d been right. Slippery Slopes was buzzing with Bee gossip. This was my time to shine.
“Yeah. I spent time locked up.” I sucked in my lips and looked to some distant horizon. “I can’t really talk about it.”
I didn’t need to look to know that snort was Deckard.
After that, the next few customers asked similar thinly veiled questions about why I was in jail. Wait a dang minute … People weren’t here for the cats at all and, in fact, were only here to learn some gossip about my time in jail or what was going on with Owen and me.
“You’ve really made a name for yourself, Bee Perkins,” Maybel said when she came for pastries and coffee for her B and B.
“Really buzzworthy,” I said.
She threw her head back and laughed. “Also, loving the new look.” She patted her own hair where my hair ended. “You had that long hair forever, this suits you.”
“I’m just winging it,” I said.
“Oh, because bees.” She blinked. The joke sank in, and she started laughing.
Maybel remembered my long hair. And in fact, the more people who came through, the more I understood that I wasn’t a total apparition.
Hour after hour, the customers kept coming. It seemed the whole of Slippery Slopes had not only heard about Owen and me getting stuck in the tram but that alone was not nearly shocking enough. But the mystery of why I ended up being in jail the following morning really ramped up the rumor mill. Someone even asked if I had taken Owen “out.” And they didn’t mean as a date, they meant, like, murdered him. So silly.
At one point, Natalie, a pretty woman our age who worked for the mayor’s office, walked in with her shoulders set with her typical determination. I’d thought she’d come pick up her usual order for Mayor Sparks and herself, but the second she headed toward Deckard, about two feet behind his back, she stopped, went sort of pale, and left. I glanced to Deckard to see if he’d clocked her odd behavior, but he was lost to his work, as always. It was strange, but there wasn’t time to dwell because more customers kept coming.
The more I told the truth in bits and pieces (it really wasn’t their business), the more I got into this role as being the subject of the town’s attention, at least until the next gossip stormed through town.
And in this town, there was always some fresh drama.
I may have embellished some parts the more times I told the story.
“And so I said to Benny Jr., you can take me to jail, but you’ll never take my freedom!” I held my balled fists in the sky, completing my story, this time to Azi (who came with flowers to apologize and see what happened after I was taken away). Deckard met my eyes where he sat by the door, his blue and green eyes rolling hard at me. I shrugged.
“Wow. You are really something, Perkins.” He leaned in, and the smell of his cologne tickled my nose. “I was thinking, maybe sometime I could take you out?” Azi asked.
Deckard’s eyebrows shot up, matching my own.
“Aren’t you like nineteen?” I asked Azi.
“Twenty-one in April. Aries, baby.”
“Um, flattered but no?—”
“Azi.” A deep voice growled from behind him.
Azi’s eyes widened, and he spun around quickly.
“Never mind. Gotta get back to it.” Azi left so fast that there was practically a cloud in the shape of him. I fought not to fling myself over the counter and into Owen’s arms.
“I thought you didn’t want people to be scared of you?” I teased, even as my heart leaped, and I held the counter with a white-knuckled grip.
“He should be scared,” Owen said. Here, in the light of day and standing in Grizabella’s, I saw a flash of the man he projected around town, a brief glimpse of his intimidation tactics.
He was as cute as a button.
“Green doesn’t suit you,” I said and grinned.
Owen looked into my eyes, and the whole rest of the world faded away. I leaned forward. He leaned forward. Our lips hovered inches away over the counter that separated us. Owen’s eyes went soft as the smile spread over his lips. I missed him so much. The relief of having him here relaxed muscles throughout my whole body.
Even after just one night, it was such a relief to see him. It didn’t make any sense, but I wasn’t going to question it.
“Hi, I’m Deckard.” Deckard stepped in front of me, blocking my view of Owen.
I was about to throw a croissant at my best friend’s head.
“Owen.” The two men shook hands. Standing next to Deckard, who was pretty tall in his own right, Owen’s massive build was all the more pronounced.
Deckard smiled between the two of us. I hinted for him to leave with a subtle tilt of my head and lifting of my eyebrows, but he wouldn’t look at me.
He was looking down on Owen in what might be an attempt at intimidation.
It quickly melted away, and Deckard stuck to the easy affability that trademarked his personality. “Well, anyway, I just wanted to meet the man who saved my friend.”
“First, he kidnapped me,” I said.
“Wait, what?” Deckard asked.
At the same time, Owen said, “No, I didn’t. She attacked me.”
Deckard’s head tilted from side to side. “No offense, Bee, but that does seem pretty in line with your MO.”
I clicked my tongue but didn’t argue.
“I’m sorry it took so long to get to you,” Owen said, and I gave Deckard a pointed look that conveyed see I was right about the long passage of time. “I had to get some ducks in a row,” Owen finished.
Deckard returned a similar, and I was right too face. Freaking bird metaphors.
“Well.” Deckard cleared his throat. “I better get back to my work business. You two carry on.”
Owen’s eyes briefly left my face, where they’d been since he arrived, I would like to point out, to glance around the café. As if just the awareness of his surroundings brought on symptoms, his eyes started to water.
His head tilted when he spotted Francois the pug. “That is a dog.”
“Shh. Don’t you dare. He’s a cat,” I whispered.
He brought his focus back to me, eyes narrowing seductively, sending little tingles up my legs. That or he was about to sneeze.
“Bless you,” I said.
“Thank you. Do you have a minute? I’d like to show you something.”
Mel had come in for the closing shift, and things had slowed way down. “You two kids go for it. I’ll woman the shop,” she said with a wink.
Owen sneezed. “I’ll bring her back soon,” Owen said.
Then he sneezed again.
She waved us off without worry as I got on my hat and coat. I was so happy to see Owen, I didn’t even take the usual twenty minutes to say goodbye to each cat. (I’d be back and would rectify that before I went home for the night.) He raised an eyebrow at the bright green poof on my winter hat.
“Don’t judge the hat.”
“I’m not. I’m just happy to see you do own outerwear.” He flicked the ball on the top. “It’s the same color as your bikini.” His voice was low and gravelly as heat flooded me.
He grabbed my hand to loop through his arm, and I smiled big up at him. We strolled across the street into the town square, where the large gazebo was still decorated from Christmas. Families were out rolling giant balls for snow people and throwing snowballs at each other in the grass town square. Owen and I walked hand in hand, my chin held high, knowing without a doubt that this town wasn’t going to forget about me anytime soon.