Chapter 5 #2
My resolve held strong through the night and into the next morning, which was as much of a sign that I was on the right path as anything. I showed Gilbert and Diccon the change as the three of us ate breakfast before heading to work.
“It’s about damn time,” Diccon said, throwing up his arms in exasperation.
“I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal of this,” Gilbert said before slapping me on the back and heading to the counter for his second cup of coffee. “It’s just Brian. It’s not like you’re trying to ask someone like Kyle Jameson out.”
“Jameson?” I wondered why my brother would bring up the man’s name at all.
“Now that would be a problem,” Gilbert went on. “That would definitely be sleeping with the enemy.”
I filed that comment and the flush that had risen to Gilbert’s face as he’d delivered it to the back of my mind as the three of us tidied up the kitchen and headed out to work.
The café felt somehow lighter once we reached it and opened the place.
Maybe it was because construction hadn’t begun for the day yet and things were quiet, or maybe it was the buoyant feeling I had, now that I’d made the decision to make a move with Brian.
A distinct feeling of possibility filled the air, and I wanted to capture it and run with it.
The first thing I did was to print out the newly revised page of the employee handbook.
We kept a hard copy in the office, but I had other reasons for wanting the words on the page in front of me.
Fresh from the printer, I highlighted the changed section.
It seemed like such a silly thing to do, but I smiled at the bright yellow lines on the page that gave me permission to take a chance on something that could be big.
Of course, I then had to wait through the entire morning rush to do anything about it.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt like the Friday crowd was a little bit bigger, maybe thanks to the games nights.
I wasn’t out working the counter, but I could hear through the open office door just how busy it was.
“Large double-shot espresso!” Diccon’s voice rang out with gusto.
“Large double-shot espresso!” Brian echoed with just as much energy, making me smile.
“Large double-shot espresso for whoever’s clearly got insomnia!” Hannah added from her kitchen.
That made me laugh out loud. We had such a great morning crew, such a great Common Grounds family overall. My brothers were probably right about Brian adding to that instead of being some sort of a risk.
My bliss dampened a little once construction started up for the day next door. They were done with the jackhammer, but as it turned out, there were plenty of other ways to make a heck of a lot of noise on a construction site.
I wasn’t the only one who was annoyed by it all either. When I finally got up to check on the end of the morning rush and to see if Brian was free to talk, I was disappointed to find the café mostly empty.
“The noise chased them all away, did it?” I asked in concern as I approached the counter.
“Someone said they had to block off the end of Glenside Ave to bring in a crane of some sort,” Diccon reported with a frown as he wiped down the counter.
I frowned and hummed in concern, but then I turned to where Brian was wiping down the coffee equipment, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Hey, could I see you in the office for a second?” I asked, anticipation and adrenaline zipping through me.
Brian glanced at me with a look of surprise, checked with Diccon, who was having a hard time hiding a grin, then back to me. “Sure,” he said.
Heart doing crazy things, I headed back into the office to wait for him.
Less than a minute later, with the sound of some kind of big machine beeping on the other side of the wall, Brian walked into the office.
“What can I do for you today?” he asked, cheeks flushed slightly as he smiled.
“Do you need me to go next door and tell the neighbors to keep the racket down?” He gestured to the wall with his thumb.
I laughed. It was half nervous reaction and half enjoyment of his humor. “No,” I said. “I just wanted to show you something.”
His expression turned cute and cagey. “Are you sure that’s appropriate for work?” he asked, redder by the second.
I laughed, then reached for the highlighted printout of the new section of the employee handbook. “No,” I said. “I wanted to give you this.”
I held out the paper.
Brian’s gaze dropped from mine to stare at the paper. His smile dropped. In its place was a look I couldn’t decipher. Whatever it was, it sucked the humor right out of him. “Oh,” he said, stepping forward and taking the paper.
I crossed my arms, mostly to keep the buzzing energy inside me from spiraling out and causing me to say something stupid, and watched as he read the new rule.
At least, I think he was reading the new rule. He mostly just stared at the page, his eyes scanning back and forth across the text in an almost erratic pattern. He brought the page closer to his face and squinted. I suddenly wondered if maybe he needed glasses.
After a really long time, he lowered the paper and looked anxiously up at me. “Am I in trouble?” he asked in a haunted voice.
I blinked. That wasn’t even close to the reaction I would have expected from him over the new rule. “No, not at all,” I said, stepping closer to him and taking the paper from his hands. “I’ve rewritten the rule about employees dating,” I said, feeling suddenly vulnerable.
“You have?” The light started to come back to Brian’s eyes.
“Yeah,” I said, my face heating. “See? Right here. ‘Relationships between employees of Common Grounds are permitted, provided that they are disclosed to management.’”
“Oh!” Brian’s smile grew even wider. “That’s…that’s great.”
Something tickled at the back of my mind, but I was already psyching myself up for what I was about to ask, so I let it go.
“Maybe it was self-serving of me to change the rule for my own benefit, but I feel like we’ve been circling around the obvious for way too long now,” I said, heart pounding so hard it rivaled the noise of the machines outside.
“What have we been circling around?” Brian asked, every sweet, innocent part of him that I was so attracted to rushing to the surface along with an adorable blush.
“That we’re good together,” I said, setting the paper aside and walking right up to him. I rested my hands on his waist. “That we deserve a chance to see where things could go.”
“Yeah, we have kinda been circling around that.” Brian’s smile grew by at least a thousand watts.
“So what do you say?” I asked, shifting into the cool, suave, older guy role. “Do you want to go out with me tomorrow night? Dinner, maybe a movie or something after, maybe just a walk.”
“I’d love to,” Brian said on an enthusiastic exhale. “I would have asked you out myself sooner, but I didn’t think it would be…you know.”
“Well, now we don’t have to worry about any of that,” I said, cupping the side of his face with one hand. “I shouldn’t have let a few words in an employee handbook hold me back anyhow.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Brian said, beaming up at me.
I really wanted to kiss him, but as I leaned in to do just that, Gilbert stormed into the room.
“I swear to God, this construction is going to turn my hair grey and drive me to an early—oh. Shit.” He pulled to a stop as soon as he saw how the two of us were standing. “Do you two need a few more minutes to—”
“No, we’re good,” I said, letting go of Brian and taking a step back. My brothers really needed to stop interrupting just as things were getting interesting for me. I grinned at Brian and winked. “We can finish this business on our date tomorrow night, right?”
“Right,” Brian echoed, beaming.
Gilbert threw up his arms. “It’s about damn time.”