Will
Chapter Forty-Three
For someone whose existence was as reliant on caffeine as Elsie’s was, it surprised me the difficulties she had trying to turn an espresso machine on.
“I know how to use normal, old school ones,” she said, reminding me of the ancient Mr. Coffeepot that had been sitting on her counter. “Not this bizarre modern machinery.”
“This bizarre modern machinery makes that coffee you like so much,” I pointed out.
“Which is why I’m willing to learn,” she grumbled, pushing buttons frantically.
“Okay, that’s enough of that.” I moved her hand away. “Pressing it a hundred times isn’t going to make it go faster.”
“I just don’t understand why it’s so confusing!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe they force teenagers to operate this crap for minimum wage. It’s inhumane.”
“Who’s forcing teenagers to do what?” Ava came around from the back, ready to stock the pastry shelves.
“All those fast food coffee shops using teens for their cheap labor.”
“What?” Ava asked, looking to me for clarification.
Yeah, sometimes Elsie’s tangents needed a trained ear to decipher.
“I hardly think Starbucks is holding high schoolers at gunpoint and forcing them to make coffee,” I told her. “Job applications are usually done willingly.”
“Whatever. The point is, you’d need some type of advanced engineering degree to figure out the inner workings of something like this.” She stared down the machine as if it were her Everest.
“Or,” I said, “you could sit down and I’ll bring you a coffee, like I always do. No meltdown or engineering degree required.”
“No.” She deflated. “I have to learn.”
“Why?” Ava asked.
“Elsie wants to learn how to open up the café,” I told her, a little proudly.
“Really?”
“I just think it would be useful to know, so I can help you guys out if you ever need it.”
“Oh,” Ava said, attempting a smile. “That’s nice.”
“Yeah, then you could take more days off for yourself.” Elsie beamed, thinking Ava would view it the way any other normal person would.
Like a relief.
But I knew Ava, and I already saw the walls sliding back up into place within seconds, as if she were under attack.
“We’re closed on Mondays,” she told Elsie, a small frown forming at the corners of her lips.
“I mean, an extra day off.” Elsie laughed.
“If the café is open, I don’t see any reason I shouldn’t be here.”
“So you could have some time to do something you enjoy,” Elsie chirped, and I watched as she tried to make sense of Ava’s stubbornness over taking time off.
“What I enjoy is making sure everything is running smoothly here,” Ava said, clipped and final. “But thank you anyway.”
“Oh.” Elsie nodded, quickly picking up on the fact that Ava wasn’t about to bestow her with gratitude for offering to pick up some of the slack. “Okay. Well, that’s good then, because you do a good job of that.”
“Thanks,” Ava said, abruptly putting an end to any opportunity for further discourse.
Elsie slipped her hands into her back pockets, leaning back on her heels as she watched Ava with meticulous precision.
“Sorry,” Elsie said, turning sideways in an attempt to make herself as out of the way as possible. Ava slid past as if she weren’t even there.
I shot a glare in Ava’s direction, which she pointedly avoided, before she headed to the back to finish things there.
As soon as Ava left, blonde ponytail swishing in her wake, Elsie slumped in defeat.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked, and before even bothering to check if anyone was watching, I was taking a step closer, reaching out for her hand to tug her closer in a way I never would’ve dreamed of doing in public before I met her.
But I found things like my aversion to PDA or what I thought had been a hatred of physical touch didn’t match my need to console her.
Some part of me wondered if it even applied to her at all.
I certainly didn’t mind the way she sunk into my chest, even though there were a handful of customers watching us curiously.
Hell, it was only Colbridge. Nothing about this place had ever been reliant on formalities. It was like one big family reunion from hell that never seemed to end.
They could handle seeing me comfort my girlfriend in my damn café.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, leaning down to peek at her face.
“She hates me,” she groaned into my chest.
“She doesn’t,” I tried to console. “It’s more about me than it is about you.”
“Right.” Elsie nodded. “And whatever secret history exists between the two of you.” Then, upon hearing her words, she winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. It’s none of my business.”
But it was. It affected her. She was part of my life now. I owed her an explanation.
“Elsie—”
“Hey,” she said, suddenly pulling free from my arms. “I’ve got some stuff to do at home, so I’m gonna get out of your guys’ way.”
“You’re not in the way,” I said adamantly.
Still, she moved to grab her bag, heading toward the door. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Elsie.” I reached for her wrist. “You’re not in the way.”
“It’s just an expression, Will.” She brushed it off. “I have to go check on Creamsicle, get some writing done…”
She was making excuses. We’d been at her house that morning feeding the damn cat. He seemed more irritated than anything, honestly, every time we intruded upon his solitude.
But I saw she’d made up her mind to leave, and I wasn’t going to be able to stop her. The only thing I could do was tell her the truth later and hope that it gave her some understanding.
“Okay.” I sighed in defeat. “I’ll call you when I’m closing up, okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. “That sounds good.”
I watched as she said goodbye to everyone in the café before promising she’d be in tomorrow to see them all.
She was part of the town, whether or not she knew it. They’d accepted her as one of our own, and there was no getting away from it now.
I watched Ava watching with thin-lipped aversion, and I couldn’t stop myself from going over to her.
She’d always been like this. The need for control. The obsession with being a part of everything up close and personal. It was almost as if she felt threatened when someone else tried to take the reins. Hell, if someone else even tried to look at the saddle in the first place.
And for Ava, who had been running the café as my only full-time partner since Matthew died, the sight of another woman behind the counter seemed to make her feel like she was under attack.
I didn’t even really think it was Elsie she disliked so much as the idea of anyone coming in to take her place.
But promise or no promise, to start off on a new foot with Ava, I wasn’t going to let her run Elsie off because she hadn’t dealt with her own shit yet.
“What’s the deal?” I followed Ava to the back of the shop so our conversation wouldn’t be broadcast to the majority of the town.
“I’m doing inventory.”
“You know what I’m talking about.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I thought we’d fixed things between us. I thought after the other night, it meant you were going to stop being a dick to Elsie.”
“I didn’t know that fixing things between us directly correlated to me being best friends with her,” she muttered sarcastically, too focused on her task to even look at me.
“I don’t need you to be friends with her. I just need you to stop making her feel like you can’t stand to breathe the same air as her.”
Ava snorted. “That’s dramatic.”
“You’re dramatic, Ava. Always have been.”
She chewed her lip.
“I’ve been abrasive,” she admitted. “I don’t hate her, Will. I don’t. It’s just that she seems to be everywhere all the time lately. I’m trying to get used to it.”
“It’s Colbridge. Everyone is everywhere all the time. Usually, you don’t mind socializing.”
“I guess it’s just a little off-putting how obsessed with her everyone is. It’s like we’re all in high school and no one can help fawning over the new girl.”
“You know, just because they like her doesn’t mean they like you any less.”
She exhaled deeply and then looked at me with apologetic eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling her hands from the dishwater to rub her face. “I’m acting like an idiot.”
“A little bit.” I stared at her cautiously.
“It’s just been a change. Having her here. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s been hard. Things changing. You changing.”
I remembered the night of the Fall Fest, and how even I had been acting like an asshole because of emotions I had no control over. It wasn’t an excuse, but at least now I had a bit more understanding of what it meant to have your feelings get the better of you.
“I guess I understand that.” I sighed, trying to be more tolerant than I felt. “But Ava? I need you to try harder.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know,” she insisted, wide-eyed and surprisingly genuine. “So, looks like you guys worked things out then, huh?”
“Looks like it,” I agreed, not wanting to discuss anything about my relationship with Elsie with her.
It felt private. Like something sacred to protect.
“So, she’s staying then?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“I hope so,” I told her bluntly. “But I don’t know. And I don’t want to give her any excuse to not, so whatever it takes for you to be okay with it, I need you to do that. If you want things to be good between you and me, you need to fix things with her. Okay?”
She stared at me, as if sizing me up—trying to see just how much I meant it.
But I wouldn’t waver. I was more serious about this than I’d been about anything else in my life.
I guessed Ava could see it because when she responded, it was one word. Acknowledgment and acceptance, all at once.
“Okay.”