Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Michelle pushed open the front door of Morning Brew and took a deep breath of the fragrant, nutty aroma of coffee.
She loved visiting the cozy coffee shop, and after the rough day The Birchwood House had the day before, she was treating herself to a maple nutmeg latte and preparing to settle down at one of the corner tables for a couple of hours with a good book.
Morning Brew offered a cozy, bustling atmosphere, and Michelle had found that sometimes she could get lost in the world of a book better if she was surrounded by noise and movement.
Perhaps it was the way the hustle and bustle reminded her more fully that her book was an escape from reality, and it made her enjoy it that much more.
I’m glad everything has been worked out at the hotel, but man that was a stressful day, she thought as she approached the coffee shop’s counter. I could really use a little “me” time. I can’t wait to snuggle down with a delicious beverage and the last hundred pages of this mystery.
She ordered her maple nutmeg latte and settled down at her favorite corner table with her book. She’d only read half a page before her name was called, and she retrieved her drink from the counter, noticing how lovely the latte art looked in the cheerful oversized yellow teacup.
She was fully engrossed in her novel, imagining the settings and characters vividly, when all of a sudden something outside her book caught her attention. She looked up, unsure of what it had been, and then she saw Theo standing at the counter talking to the barista.
I heard him talk, and it snapped me out of my book? she thought, surprised. I’ve been tuning out everything else for almost half an hour. I guess his voice really is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
She laughed at her own joke, which she knew Theo would have appreciated since it was in the vein of their longstanding “frenemies” relationship.
Theo turned and looked at her just as she chuckled, and she could tell by the look on his face that he’d already known she was there and had looked over at her several times already.
She wasn’t quite sure how she knew, but his expression had a hopeful, puppy-like quality to it rather than a surprised one.
“Yes?” the barista asked him. “What can I get for you?”
Theo tore his eyes away from Michelle. “Yeah, hi. Um, sorry, could I talk to your manager? I’d like to hang this poster up in your front window if I can.”
“Oh sure,” the barista said. “Go ahead. It’s for an event?
If you want, we can put another one up here by the drink specials board.
Yeah, you can just prop it up like that.
” She laughed, and Michelle had a feeling that Theo was doing something comical even though she was forcing herself not to look at him.
Finally, the barista’s laughter became so hard to ignore that Michelle tore her eyes off the page of her book—which she hadn’t been reading anyway, since she’d been too busy listening to the conversation between Theo and the barista—and looked to see what Theo was doing.
He was posing dramatically next to the poster, striking a new pose every few seconds.
He was a superhero, then he was playing an invisible guitar, then he was crooning into an invisible microphone, and then he was lassoing with an invisible rope.
When she looked in his direction, Theo stopped posing and grinned, making it clear to Michelle that he’d only been doing the poses in the first place to get her attention.
He seemed to think her second glance in his direction was enough of an invitation to go over to her table, so he thanked the barista and sauntered up to Michelle, holding a stack of posters.
“Interested?” he said, not bothering with hello.
He held up one of the posters, which featured an impressive black and white sketch of a guitar along with edgy, dark red font announcing a concert at the Brick Oven the following evening.
“My friends and I are giving a performance. You could come if you’re not too boring. ”
Michelle wrinkled her nose at him. “Well, unfortunately for you, I am too boring. I’m going to be too busy with managing The Birchwood House.”
“On a Monday night?” he countered, leaning against the wall near her table and crossing his arms with an attitude that could only be described as saucy. There he was, leaning again.
“You’d be surprised,” she said primly. “Lots of people stay during the week, and besides, right after the weekend is when we have most of our cleaning and reorganizing to do.”
“Yeah, too bad you have to work there all by yourself and there’s no way someone could cover for you or you could just wait and do some of your work another time.” Theo’s tone was cheerful, but Michelle saw a serious glint in his eyes.
Does he really want me to go to this thing? she wondered. I have to admit, I do feel curious. I didn’t realize that he played in a band.
“I mean, I do have important things to do,” she said, not wanting to give in too quickly.
“Yeah? Like staying busy romanticizing your patrons’ lives?” Theo teased.
Michelle wrinkled her nose, feeling annoyed.
“Don’t make fun of me,” she said tersely.
“I really have a lot on my plate. My work isn’t a regular nine to five like what you have—there are always things that need to be done.
Besides, I take my job seriously. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. ”
A regretful expression flicked across Theo’s face for a moment, but he simply shrugged and smiled at her, playing it cool.
“Well, you’re missing out. You should have fun occasionally—I remember you were like this in high school too, always taking things too seriously and overachieving.
I guess you’re still boring and not up for social interaction. ”
He was clearly teasing, his tone light and affectionate, but Michelle felt a variety of emotions in reaction to his words.
Although she felt another twinge of irritation, she also felt sorry about the way she’d snapped at him.
Although his words had been disguised as a jab, she could see the disappointment in his eyes.
She was used to Theo teasing her and saying things he really shouldn’t in a way that made it all seem like good fun.
Their good-natured rivalry was nothing new, and he’d said plenty of things to her before along the lines of what he’d just said.
This felt different, however. She could tell that he truly wanted her to come to his show, and he simply didn’t know how to say that to her in a straightforward way.
She tried to push aside the way she was feeling a desire to not disappoint him, and go to his show even though she’d said she wouldn’t. She almost opened her mouth and told him that she would think about it, but then her pride thought better of it and her lips stayed clamped shut.
“Well, see you around,” Theo said, lingering as if he was reluctant to leave.
“Bye. Have fun at your concert.”
They waved to each other, a little awkwardly, and Theo walked to the front of the coffee shop to tape his poster in the window.
Michelle watched him for a moment but looked away quickly when she saw him turn back in her direction.
The next time she looked up, she could see Theo through the front windows, walking away down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets.
She let out a long sigh and then took another sip of her latte. She returned to reading her book, and although she continued to enjoy it, she wasn’t able to focus on it the way she had been before. Her thoughts kept jumping up toward Theo, as if they were puppies that wanted to be near him.
The interaction that she and Theo had just shared was sticking in her mind more stubbornly than any other interaction they’d ever had.
One time he’d insisted on driving her back to the mansion in his truck when she’d been carrying heavy bags, and that had been something she’d had trouble not thinking about.
She’d also had trouble not thinking about the way he’d stared at her with a withdrawn expression after he’d seen her talking and laughing with a handsome young librarian named Marcus at the library.
But the way he’d just looked when he’d been trying to get her to come to his show seemed to be haunting her imagination, and she felt something fluttering in her chest.
I want to make him happy, she realized with a pang. I don’t like the thought of disappointing him.
Michelle looked up from her book for three whole minutes, staring into space and wondering what she was going to do.