Chapter Eight
T he nervousness of heading to Bellham’s Café was different. Last time, it had been for her first date with a stranger, her first foray into the unpredictable world of online dating, and especially anonymous online dating. This time, August didn’t understand the nerves. She and Piper had spoken almost every single day since they met. Their conversations flowed easily. She wasn’t sure what there was to be nervous about. Maybe it was that fear of being rejected again. Sure, it was platonic, but, arguably, being rejected as a friend hurt more. There was no sexual attraction muddying the waters. If someone didn’t want to be with her romantically, it hurt, but it could just be a mismatch of attraction or goals. If someone didn’t want to be her friend—especially after weeks of talking—that felt so much more personal and damaging.
She parked in a lot that was about five minutes from the café, just as she had last time, and pulled her scarf tighter as she stepped out of the car. It was bitterly cold and she didn’t doubt for a second that the forecasted snow would be on the way later. She only hoped she’d manage to get home again before it got too bad.
There weren’t many people out in such cold temperatures, and those who were hustled quickly from warm, bright interior to warm, bright interior, keeping their heads bowed against the weather while they were outside. August didn’t think twice before joining them in striding quickly towards Bellham’s. Its soft, yellow light was like a glowing beacon, calling to her, and, even with the turmoil in her stomach, she was more than happy to heed its call.
She closed the door quickly behind her and shivered as the warmth washed over her while she wiped her boots on the doormat. The memory of how she’d looked desperately around for her unknown date the first time she’d been here flooded through her. She found herself doing the same thing this time, but at least she knew who she was looking for.
It didn’t take long to spot Piper—red lipstick and matching nails popping against her light skin. They matched the beret she’d been wearing the last time they met here. This time, however, she’d swapped it out for a black knit hat with a faux fur bobble on top that looked somehow both adorable and stylish.
She smiled at August, pushing away from where she’d been waiting by the community notice board. “Pretty sure you’re who I’m meeting this time.”
August laughed. “Hm. I don’t know… Maybe we should have come up with a code word or something. Just to be sure.”
“Oh? Do you prefer ‘peaches’ or ‘kiwis’?”
August groaned and hung her head. “Ugh. Neither.”
Piper laughed and gestured towards the counter. “What are you having?”
“You know, I think it’s hot chocolate weather,” she said, relaxing now that they were here, she hadn’t been stood up, and their conversation was coming just as easily as it did by phone.
“Ooh. Good choice. It’s supposed to snow later.”
“So I heard.”
“Push notification?”
August waved her hand in midair. “Sort of. I did get one, but, mostly, it was from Ford. He loves the snow more than anyone I’ve ever met.”
Piper grinned in a way that told August she loved snow too. “Hermes will be so disappointed.”
August shot her a look as they shuffled forward in line. “Why?”
“Well, I was going to wait until we sat down to bring it up, but here I am.” She laughed and shook her head. “Without going into too many details, I mentioned what was going on with Ford, and, well, Hermes lives about fifteen minutes from where Ford works and he has a spare room. He also happens to hate snow.”
August blinked, staring at Piper and not registering a single thing the barista was saying to them. Luckily, Piper was a little more cognizant.
“Two hot chocolates, please,” she said with a grin. “Large. Thanks.”
It wasn’t until she was taking out her card that August snapped out of her daze. “Oh. I can—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Piper waved her off, swiping her card. “I’ve got this.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” She smiled and led the way to the pickup point.
Every single time August was at this counter with Piper seemed to be something surprising.
She took a deep breath and looked at Piper. “Hermes, your friend, has a spare room that he’d be willing to let Ford rent?”
“Yeah.” She said it like it was the most straightforward thing in the world.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why would either of you do that?”
Piper grinned. “I didn’t really do anything.”
“You… cared enough about someone you’ve never even met to… talk about him and bring me an alternate solution.”
Piper shot her a puzzled look. “We’re friends. You care about Ford, so I care about Ford.”
August felt like an alien. She’d had friends before, plenty of them. She had friends now. But she wasn’t used to having the kinds of friends who just… stepped up like that. She wasn’t really sure what to do about it. A friend of her friend was willing to live with Ford simply because he trusted what Piper had said, and she trusted August.
It was definitely weird that she was so touched by the gesture.
“I will warn you, though,” Piper said as their drinks were slid across the counter to them, “Hermes asked if Ford was hot. So, you might want to keep that in mind.”
She let out a startled laugh. “Is that something I should be concerned about?”
“No.” She grinned. “I’m sure he was just teasing. Although, you know, he is gay, so I’m sure he would notice if he thought Ford was hot.”
August shook her head, being careful not to spill her drink as she followed Piper towards the window bar seats they’d planned to sit in last time. “They’re both adults, but I don’t want to think about that.”
“Fair.” Piper pulled her hat off, leaving her hair adorably ruffled. “But, yeah, he said they’d have to meet to check it was a good match, but, assuming it was, his spare room is available.”
August’s whole life had been about self-sufficiency. Her parents’ whole philosophy was about that. It was part of why they were being so hard on Ford. They said they’d have helped more if he’d gone to college when he was ‘supposed’ to, or if he was doing something they considered valuable, but she’d done what they wanted and it had still come with the expectation of self-sufficiency—which was fine as an idea, but sometimes you needed other people. Ford needed her, she needed Ford. They needed to be there for each other—and maybe they needed other people to be there for them too.
“Are you okay?” Piper asked, gently placing a hand on August’s forearm.
“Yeah…” She shook her head and focused on Piper. “Having a revelation, I suppose.”
Her brow furrowed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Ha. Just… approaches to parenting and… finding your people, I suppose.”
Piper smiled softly, like she understood what August meant without it needing to be spelled out. Maybe she did. Maybe that was part of finding your people.
August took a deep breath. “I don’t know if Ford’s ready yet. He still seems determined to ride this thing out, and, after the way they’ve all been banding together and trying to pay the bills lately, I think he feels like he owes them something, like they’re in this thing together. And, you know, he still doesn’t want me moving so we can live together, but, maybe if it’s just a random roommate, not his sister, he’d be interested. Someday.”
“I’m sure the offer will still be there when he’s ready,” Piper said, her voice soft and gentle, yet it sounded like the clearest thing in the bustling café.
August placed a hand over where Piper’s was still resting on her arm. “Thank you, though. I don’t even know what to say.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I’m getting that.”
August laughed, a little awkwardly. “I didn’t mention what was going on because I was hoping you’d come up with something like this.”
“I know.”
“Huh. You really are just… nice. And so is Hermes, I guess.”
“Oh, don’t let him hear you saying that out loud. He’ll be worrying about his reputation.”
August stared at her. “Does he have a bad reputation?”
“Not at all.” She laughed. “He just likes to pretend he’s all cool and stoic and snarky—well, he is snarky, but so are most of the Brits I know. Pretty sure that’s a love language there. It is for Hermes, at least.”
August laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind if I meet him then?”
“Probably. And he’s very eager to meet you, so, you know, anytime you want to…”
“He is? Why?” August could not wrap her head around Hermes, but maybe he’d prefer it that way.
“Oh, uh, our friend group is kind of like a family, so, you know, when any of us gets a new friend, the family wants to meet them.”
August was again left wondering about the friendships in her own life. She wasn’t sure she’d ever had a friendship like that. Sure, she had friends and she was close with them, but there seemed to be something different about Piper’s friendship group. Being around them, being part of that group, even in a tiny way, sounded like something August wanted to experience. Without even knowing them, they were already stepping up to help her and Ford. That was a kind of love she felt like she’d been looking for in her life.
She nodded slowly. “I’d love to meet them too.”
“Right now?” Piper asked with a laugh. “Because I’m sure they’d come charging through the door if I said you wanted to meet them right now.”
“Uh. Maybe not right now. But soon. I really want to thank Hermes.”
“I’m sure he’s going to love that.”
August nodded again, breathing in. Maybe Ford wouldn’t go for it, but just the fact that someone cared enough to offer was amazing. “Wait. Hermes does know Ford’s a student, right? He won’t be able to pay… expensive rent.”
Piper waved her hand. “I’m going to leave the details to Hermes to tell you, but he knows what it’s like to need a hand in life, and he knows what it’s like to get that. He’s never stopped being grateful for the breaks he was cut, and he cares a lot about the people who helped and loved him. He’s not going to screw Ford over.”
As if August didn’t think Piper was interesting enough on her own, now she came with this whole group of fascinating people. She realized she couldn’t imagine anyone else surrounding Piper.
None of this was what she’d been expecting when she’d signed up for Hummingbird Dating but she was unbelievably grateful for it.
“Okay,” she said, blowing out a breath. “We should probably talk about something else before I’m sobbing uncontrollably in a café and people have questions.” She looked intently at Piper. “Thank you, though. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you.”
Piper gazed back and, understanding August’s need for a change of tone, wiggled her eyebrows. “So, you’re saying that meeting me through Hummingbird is better than meeting some guy asking about fruits?”
“Oh, my god. This again?” She shook her head. “Yes. Yes , meeting you is infinitely better than that.”
“Well, you know, there isn’t an infinite supply of sapphics in the area, maybe one day we’ll actually meet on the app.”
August laughed. “You know, I had thought about that. Interesting that it’s not profiled us as two people it wants to connect.”
Piper hummed, a far-off look entering her eyes. “Maybe it knew we were destined to be friends instead, and maybe we’d have missed that if we’d just been matched together.”
“Yeah, maybe.” August shot her a look. “Or, maybe, there’s something horrifying in my profile that you’ve made perfectly clear you hate.”
“Oh, you’re assuming it would be that way around? Not that I might be a secretly horrifying monster?”
“Weird way to come out as a vampire.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I just touched you. You don’t think you’d have noticed if I felt ice cold?”
August shrugged. “Hey, I’m not up to date on vampire technology. Maybe you can stay warm these days.”
Piper laughed. “Actually, did you ever watch that show Moonlight ? It had a vampire private eye in it and I don’t think he was cold to the touch. Did sleep in a freezer, though.”
“I did not, but I’m not the vampire expert here. Clearly.”
“I’m not an expert either. I just had a tiny little vampire phase as a teenager.”
August smirked. “Oh, just a teeny, tiny, little phase?”
“Yes!” She laughed, looking incredulously at August. “You’re the one who brought up vampires. Kind of a weird turn in the conversation if they’re not always at the forefront of your mind.”
“I’m sure if we surveyed all of these people and asked them to name a monster, a good half of them would name vampires.” She watched Piper, amused, as she sipped her hot chocolate.
“Ugh. Insufferable.” Piper shook her head, but she was grinning the entire time.
She had the prettiest smile August had ever seen. So bright and warm and genuinely happy. It probably didn’t hurt that she just was pretty—unbelievably so.
August couldn’t help but think she was having a much better afternoon than the last time she'd sat in these seats with someone from Hummingbird Dating.
“Brunettes are always trouble,” Piper said into her mug, as if she, too, weren’t a brunette.
August laughed. “I don’t think that’s a known saying.”
“It should be.”
“Oh, should it indeed?”
“Yes.” She waved a hand at August. “Case in point. Maybe I’ll contact the dictionary, send them your picture.”
“Have a lot of reasons to contact the dictionary, do you? Got them on speed dial?”
“Oh, yeah, for sure. Got to send in the regularly updated definition for vampires, after all.”
August laughed. “You’d be a terrible vampire. Giving up all your secrets this easily? Absolutely wild.”
“Ah, no. Don’t you see? It’s the perfect cover. Nobody would ever suspect me.”
“Except me.”
“Eh. I like you. I don’t think you’d sell me out.”
“Hm. Just make sure I don’t find the number for your contact at the dictionary. Otherwise, I’ll have to get them to update the definition for vampires with your picture.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would.”
“Diabolical.”
“Indeed.”
Piper looked away, gazing out of the window and watching where the snow was starting to come down in thick flakes. Something lit up in her expression and she looked back at August. “Let’s go for a walk in the snow.”
“Right now?”
“Ha. No. When we’ve finished our drinks. It’ll be all fresh and crisp and amazing.”
August smiled. Piper was worse than Ford. “Sure.”