Chapter 10 A Fresh Coat of Paint
ten
A Fresh Coat of Paint
Two days of cleaning, scheming, and learning all I can about coffee has me haggard but fired up at the same time. I’m so ready to whip this place into shape and get it open for business.
Ace is in a flurry when I emerge from the bathroom.
“What is going on?” I ask, toweling my hair.
He pauses, looking at me expectantly.
“First day of school,” Nai Nai says.
The hot sting of failure snaps across my insides. How could I have forgotten?
“Sorry, buddy, I’ll be ready to go in a few—”
“Don’t bother, there’s a bus,” he says, rushing to collect the last of his things.
“Hey!” I snap in Chinese. “I am taking you to your first day of school, Zixin.”
Ace drops his head, his eyes shimmering and cheeks flushed.
Nai Nai sighs, shaking her head as she packs a sweet potato wrapped in aluminum foil.
I pull him toward me and give him a strong hug.
“I care, okay? I’m sorry I get distracted sometimes, but I care.”
He nods. “Yeah, I know.”
“Okay, get your stuff,” I say, giving him a playful shove.
Nai Nai stuffs a boiled egg into the brown sack in her hands. I tsk as I come into the kitchen and reach for the bag.
“He can’t take a sack lunch to the first day of school. I’ll give him a few bucks.”
“This is for me,” she says, holding the bag close to her chest.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“The library,” she says. “I want to use the computer to email our neighbors and let them know we’re doing well.”
“You know you can use my computer, right?”
“I want to go to the library,” she says, putting a package of seaweed chips in her bag.
I arch an eyebrow. “I thought you wanted to paint?”
She sighs dramatically. “Could you paint? I’m tired today.”
This damn old bat knows things; I can feel it.
“Yes, I can paint,” I say, grabbing one of the freshly boiled eggs.
I crack it along the center and each snap of the shell reminds me of the percussive force of Rhazan’s hand. My skin remembers the prickle of his palm and the heat of his possession. My mouth remembers the hot breaths taken over his leg.
“Did you forget how to open an egg?” Nai Nai asks.
“No!”
I pull off the shell and shove it all in my mouth. Nai Nai just smiles knowingly. She’s not tired. She’s orchestrating something. Rhazan said he would be coming to help me craft wards today, but she wasn’t there for that agreement.
Hell, I hope she wasn’t there for that agreement.
“I’m going to be late!” Ace yells as he runs down the stairs.
I grab my wallet and my keys, then usher Nai Nai toward the door. “Do you have what you need?”
“Lunch, notebook,” she says, holding each up.
“Phone?” I ask.
She pats down her pockets. “Somewhere.”
“Jade!” Ace calls from the bottom.
Shit.
“Okay, well, if you don’t have it, I’ll write my number down for you,” I say, helping her toward the stairs.
She takes them quicker than she has in the past months and we’re all loaded in the car in short order. The engine gives me some grief but starts on the second try. Before long, we’re buzzing down Main Street toward Ace’s school.
It’s a gorgeous two-story colonial-style building made of red brick and white plaster.
Only two other cars are dropping off students, and the rest of the kids are piling out of three yellow buses.
Mental math puts it at about a hundred or so students.
It’s going to be difficult to break into this small of a crowd, but I’m sure he’ll find someone worth hanging out with.
Plus, this is temporary. We’ll be back home soon, and he can hang out with his friends.
“Have a good day, Little Sprout!” Nai Nai calls.
Ace pulls his black hood down lower and runs for the front door.
“You’re going to ruin his reputation.”
“He’ll be all right,” she says with confidence.
I put the address of the local library into my phone and see it’s only a few blocks away. Within minutes I’m dropping Nai Nai off at the front. I want to walk her in, but she says she doesn’t want me to ruin her reputation.
Damn old lady’s so snarky.
Anticipation swells in my gut as I drive back to the café. There are hours ahead of just Rhazan and me, alone, in the café. The thought I had neatly wrapped away days ago unfurls itself and reminds me this is temporary. I can’t get invested in this ifrit or the business. We’ll be going home soon.
Maybe.
Armhurts did say it could take months before he goes on trial. Maybe even years.
Shit…
That’s a long time to be trapped in a café with an infuriatingly sexy ifrit demon I can’t get involved with.
“So what’s a little fling if you’ve got that much time?” I ask myself as I pull up to the building.
There’s no harm in just fooling around, right?
“But with your virginity?”
I turn off the car.
Virginity doesn’t mean anything. This is the twenty-first century.
“Yeah, but it’s special kinda, right? Would you tell Ace it’s not special?”
No…
“Right so…should we fool around?”
A tap-tap-tap on the driver’s window makes me scream. I clutch my chest as I take in the woman standing outside my door. It’s Lacey. She’s in beat-up jean overalls and a ratty gray T-shirt.
I shake away thoughts of spankings and virginity, and get out of the car.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask.
She beams. “Mrs. Feng called and told me you would be painting today.”
That scheming hag.
“Yeah, I am,” I say, smiling. “Come in.”
“Just you?”
“Yeah, Nai Nai decided she wanted to go to the library and Ace is in school.”
“Oh, fun, just some girl time, then,” she says with a laugh.
She really is a giggle sprite.
“And your wife? Is she coming to paint?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Jamie works a nine-to-five. She bought the craft shop for me as a hobby because I was getting stir-crazy.”
Just bought her a whole-ass shop because she was bored. Bonkers.
“Are you ready?” she asks with way too much enthusiasm.
“Yep, let’s get it,” I say, nodding toward the cafe.
“Yay!” she squeals and grabs a bucket from the back of her car.
This woman really is just the embodiment of hearts and stars.
Her eyes round when she gets closer. “You already cleaned up so well.”
“Kinda have to if we want to paint,” I say.
“I thought I was going to be in for a real long haul,” she says, her lower lip pouting. “I even brought all my cleaning supplies.”
I shake my head with a snort. “You’re crazy.”
She grins. “Yeah, I know.”
I set out the paint and open my notebook on the counter. Lacey leans in, her face lighting up with excitement.
She turns to me with a huge grin. “This is going to be so amazing!”
I huff. “I hope so.”
“I know so,” she says, and her eagerness washes away the last of my doubt.
I put on some tunes for work. We surprisingly agree on a playlist titled “Dark Obsession” and of course the subtitle reads, “For all the SmutSluts out there.” We talk about the books we’ve read while we tape the whole place up and lay drop cloths.
She’s into romantasy too, but leans more on the sapphic side, for obvious reasons.
By the time we’ve exchanged our favorite recommendations, we’re starting in on the ceiling.
The black base goes on easily, so we start on the walls.
There’s wood paneling behind the service station that we paint a simple cream color.
White would show off coffee stains like mad, but more black would turn this place into a cave—
Or a sexy volcanic bar.
I shake the thought away before I make a horrible painting error that will call attention to my wandering mind.
We use a soft blue to accent the wall with the big windows, and cream for the other two.
I decide to do the bar trim in cream while keeping the half wall that same blue color to sort of mirror the window wall.
It’s well past noon when we break for lunch.
“I’m ravenous,” Lacey says as she cleans off her paint rollers.
And I have nothing to eat except sweet potatoes and boiled eggs, and no money to go out. School lunches are one thing, but takeout will be too much.
“Hey, you okay?” Lacey asks.
I shrug. “Yeah, sorry. I just didn’t know you were coming so I don’t really have anything for company to eat.”
She raises a manicured eyebrow. “You guys are eating, right?”
“Of course, it’s just…congee, cruller, sweet potatoes, and eggs.”
She smiles. “I know what two of those are, but I’d be more than happy to try something new—if you wanted to share your food! I’m so sorry for just inviting myself to eat here.”
“No, no! You’re good,” I try to assuage her worries. “I want to share, especially after all this work you’ve put in.”
“Are you sure? I can just go get us lobster rolls. Have you had one yet? They’re, like, the signature Maine food,” she says.
My mouth waters at the thought of what I’d smelled the other morning from the Clam Stand. I love congee for its versatility, but it’s been days straight of it for almost every meal. Even with all the accoutrements, it can get a little stale.
She grins. “You want lobster rolls. I can see it.”
“No. I mean, yes, but I don’t have any money, and I know lobster isn’t cheap,” I say, cringing at the way it sounds.
“That’s fine. And we’re the lobster capital of the world, so it’s not that much, I swear. Once you get this place going, you can hit me with some free lattes,” she says as she grabs her keys. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
She’s out the door before I can protest any further. I cross my arms with a huff and watch her bound off to her car.
She’s really nice.
Maybe too nice.