9. Carter
CHAPTER 9
CARTER
I practiced my line on the drive to the coffee shop. It was a very easy thing to say, what I wanted to say, if the cute girl from before was there, yet no matter how I tried to phrase it, it didn’t seem to come out right.
I didn’t want to come across as a creep.
I knew I was overthinking it. She probably wouldn’t even remember who I was. After all, I was just one guy, one customer out of the hundreds she must have seen since then. Maybe in my efforts to keep from being creepy, I was instead proving my creepiness by expecting that girl to recall who I was.
Shit, I sighed, pulling up in front of the coffee shop. Why had I done this to myself? Brian had been the one to suggest coffee for the morning meeting. He’d been offering to pick some up. What dumb part of me had spoken up and decided to do it myself? Furthermore, what part of me was so eager for either punishment or attention that I had to go to Effervesce when Starbucks had been much closer? Now the meeting would be late because of me.
No time to change my mind. I’d already arrived. I’d only waste more time in backtracking.
I went into the shop.
I saw the cute girl in an instant, her beautiful long hair down and her glasses on the tip of her nose. She pushed her glasses up using her shoulder. The lenses had fogged up from the steaming milk she was bent over. Her forehead creased with concentration, watching the milk frothing up to a sturdy foam.
She looked up as the door slid shut behind me. Her eyes went wide behind her glasses and suddenly all my concerns were vindicated. She knew me.
My pulse rushed in my ears. I walked to the counter, bracing my hands flat on top.
“I’ll be with you in a moment,” she said, voice wobbling. She added, “Sir,” her cheeks flushing.
I noted the one other customer, waiting at a table. I had never seen anyone so much in need of a strong coffee as he was. His back bowed and no wonder. The black bags beneath his eyes must have been carrying bowling balls.
“I’m not in a hurry,” I said. “Take your time.”
She flicked an uncertain stare at me.
To make her feel better, I started browsing through the displays of chocolate and coffee beans near the register.
She turned away and continued making a coffee.
I kept most of my attention on the fancy chocolates. Only through a heroic effort could I even manage that. She was such a captivating girl, swift and certain when operating the many strange coffee devices. Her fingers worked in quick, dexterous flicks. And, just as enchantingly, her rump swayed while she bustled around. If I hadn’t already been attracted to her, now I absolutely was.
“Carter!” she called.
I jerked my head up so fast I felt something strain, a few multicolored speckles dancing in my vision.
The girl held the coffee out across the counter, which the other man accepted with a grunt. At last, it was only the two of us.
“That’s funny,” I said, stopping my inspection of the candy displays. “Carter is also my name.”
The girl looked even more uncertain than the last time I had seen her. She kept flicking me those little sideways looks, like she was a dog who thought I might strike her. A quiet fell, thick enough to be tasted, a bitterness separate from that of the coffee.
I didn’t exactly know what to do. I’d never felt so helpless in front of anyone before.
The girl’s throat worked. “I know who you are,” she murmured.
“You do?”
She started, like she’d said something wrong. She settled down in an instant though, perhaps realizing she hadn’t made whatever mistake she’d thought she had. “I do. Last time you came in, my coworker. Suzie. She made it…uh… pretty clear.”
I laughed.
She didn’t.
I cleared my throat. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Right now I’m only a customer.”
“Oh,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. What would you like?”
“Do you recall what you made for me last time?”
“I do,” she said, smiling a bit.
“Can I get that again, but with two shots of espresso? I need that extra kick so my employees don’t all want to quit to get away from the grumpy boss.”
She laughed. I grinned. Her laugh was so genuine, I could tell I’d snuck past her defenses, right to her funny spot. Something did bother me, but I was too busy watching her, the way her nose crinkled and the corners of her eyes creased up.
“Anything else?”
“Just a regular mocha. Oh and, uh, these.” On a whim, I snatched up a bag of chocolate-dipped pretzels from the display case next to me.
“Oh, those are really good. The chocolate has coffee grounds mixed into it.”
“Sounds great. After that coffee you made for me, I’d trust your opinion of anything.”
She took my card and smiled a little. “You might not want to be so hasty. I hate caramel.”
“So do I!”
She laughed again and gave me my card back. Our fingers brushed together, just enough for a spark of warmth to pass between us. “I’ll get those ready for you.”
I took my bag of pretzels off to wait, watching her from my peripherals while pretending to answer some texts. It would have been better for me to actually respond to the messages, since Brian was hounding my ass over the delay, but I couldn’t find it in me to focus on anything other than the cute coffee girl.
The drinks were ready much sooner this time. That Suzie wasn’t there to get in her way.
“Do you want a drink tray?” she asked.
“I’ve got it all, I think. Do you take tips?”
“Ye-es,” she said slowly. She pointed to a little cup on the counter. “It’s not necessary.”
“I want to. Can I tip just you?”
She hesitated even more. “I… Yes.”
I set my drinks back on the counter and pulled out my wallet. “Here.” I passed over a folded $20.
She looked at the bill. “Do you, uh, want change?”
“No.” I reached over the counter and took her hand in mine, curling her fingers around the money. “You have been nothing but a delight and I want you to have that. Please don’t put it in the shared tip jar as soon as I leave. It’s for you. You’ve earned it. Okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Put it in your pocket.”
She did, and then rubbed her fingers together, like they tingled.
“See you soon,” I told her, and took my drinks out to the car. I knew the money had embarrassed her, of course. She’d have to get used to it, because I was going to keep coming back and buying coffee.
Working with artists, I understood that a lot of people in the world didn’t appreciate effort. So many people saw only the end result, the final product, and used that to figure its value, completely ignoring the hours of practice, the hours of work, the lifelong dedication. While that girl wasn’t painting or composing music, she was crafting coffees while dealing with customers, not all of whom would be nice. She was on her feet for hours in a hot kitchen, creating products with knowledge she’d worked to acquire.
But all anyone would ever see was their coffee.
I would give her the tips I thought she deserved. I had that ability and I would use it.
Brian met me in my office when I finally arrived, fuming, his face red. “Did you go to Italy to get that coffee?”
“There was a long line,” I lied. I handed him his drink. I held up the bag of pretzels. “I got these.”
“Those are definitely going to make this delay okay.”
I shook my head. “Brian, I am in way too good of a mood to let you ruin it. I’m the boss. I can be as late as I want. You know I’ll get it all worked out in the end.”
Brian nibbled on his lower lip and then sighed. “Yeah, sure. I know. You’ve just never been so damn late before. What happened?”
“I told you what happened.”
“Try again, this time with the truth.”
I sighed. “You’re pretty pushy. Okay. I went very far out of my way to get to Effervesce and spent some time talking to that girl behind the counter. The cute one. The line was not long at all.”
“Yeah, I thought that was it.” Brian sipped at his mocha and sighed back at me, in a mock dramatic fashion. “But there’s more.”
“I tipped her a $20 and had to convince her to keep it.”
“Damn! Just handing out money, huh?”
“She deserved it,” I said, defensive. “And then I drove slow coming here. Too busy thinking to focus on the road.”
“Thinking about what?”
I drank some of my coffee, fiddling with the papers on my desk. Something had been nagging at me for quite a bit, ever since I started talking to the coffee girl. “I have this suspicion,” I said. “I don’t know how to phrase it other than that.”
Brian raised his eyebrows at me and motioned for me to continue.
“Her laugh.” I swallowed, hearing it again in my mind. “It reminds me so much of the laugh of the girl at the Halloween party. The princess I was with before she was chased away. Their hair looks pretty similar. And if I imagine the princess without makeup… But the coffee shop girl had glasses on.”
“So she wore contacts for the party.”
I could have slapped myself. I’d forgotten about contacts.
Brian grabbed my shoulder. “You really, really think it’s her?”
“The more I think about it…” I felt dizzy. “The more I really think they’re the same person. And that annoying Suzie girl who works at the coffee shop? She was the one who interrupted me and the princess at the party. And the princess knew her.”
“It’s all circumstantial evidence,” Brian noted. “We need to investigate deeper. We’ll have to keep going to Effervesce to see if we can figure it out.”
I wish I could just ask her.
If only she wasn’t so shy. I didn’t want to scare her away.
Brian cleared his throat. “As much as I’d love to continue talking about this, we do have a meeting that’s long overdue.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
With some difficulty, I pushed the girl, my potential Cinderella, to the back of my mind, though she was reluctant to stay there and kept intruding. The meeting adjourned quickly, too quickly. I was too distracted to get anything done.
I couldn’t blame myself, though. I had never felt like this before.