Chapter 5 #3
I release her hand and continue making the coffee, spying on the car crash happening in my shop in real time.
“I made the reservations,” she says, nervously biting her bottom lip while Owen still hasn’t answered. “We’ll be on the water by nine-twenty if we leave now.”
“Reservations?” I ask, peeking over the brass cappuccino machine. “Are you guys going somewhere?”
The girl keeps giving me these confused, awkward glances like she’s trying to piece together why I’m getting involved. I don’t know why either. I just can’t help but try and smooth this disaster out.
“We’re going kayaking,” she says, looking Owen up and down. “Do you have a change of clothes?”
“I’m not going kayaking,” he says with a bit too much blunt force in his tone. “What are you even talking about? I have no idea who you are and I certainly have not made any plans to spend time with you.”
My heart aches as I see her shrinking in on herself. She steps back, her face turning pale.
“Who asked you to go kayaking?” I ask, hoping this is all a big misunderstanding. Maybe there’s another guy named Owen in matching hiking gear on his way here right now.
“Owen did,” she says, looking like she might be sick, burst into tears, or both.
“I did not,” Owen snaps.
Something is not right. My spidey-sense is tingling.
“What do you mean Owen asked you?”
That confused look she’s been giving me melts away and she turns to me like I’m the only one in the world who’s making any sense.
“We matched on FirstSpark,” she says, showing me her phone. “We messaged all night and he invited me to go kayaking today.”
“That’s a lie,” Owen says. “I did nothing of the sort.”
“I took work off for this.”
She starts tearing up and I resist the urge to go around the counter and hug her. When I first started here, the owner reprimanded me for hugging too many customers. I promised to keep my hugging to a minimum.
“Can I see?” I ask. She opens the app and places it on the counter between us.
“Faye,” Owen says, completely uninterested. “My coffee. Please.”
“One second,” I say as I scan the messages. It’s a full conversation, sent from Owen’s FirstSpark account, but none of this sounds like it came from him. In the messages, he’s thoughtful and kind and asks her numerous times about her feelings. Yeah, none of this came from him.
“We had such a connection,” the girl says. I see her name on her account. Monica. “He said he loved hiking and white-water rafting.”
“I did not,” Owen says with a snort. “I would never do anything as reckless as shooting down a violent river in an inflatable raft. Is that seriously your idea of fun? Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“Take it down a notch,” I tell him, giving him a look. “The poor girl is upset.”
He opens his mouth to say something but then thinks better of it.
“Did you lose your phone or something?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Does anyone else have access to your account?”
His face drops.
“What is it?”
“My brother,” he says. “That foolish imbecile. I told him I didn’t want that chatbot uploaded onto my phone.”
“Chatbot?” the girl says, looking defeated. “I got catfished by a chatbot? God, dating sucks.”
She drops her head and turns to the door, shuffling out in a dejected funk.
I feel so bad for her. She took the day off work, got dressed up all cute, and was so excited for an adventurous date with someone she had a connection with…
“Hold on,” I call out. “Monica!”
“Faye,” Owen says. “My coffee. The espresso has been sitting out far longer than ten seconds...”
“You’ll survive,” I say, shooting him a warning look as I run around the counter.
I catch up to Monica and grab her arm in the doorway. “Do you still want a hot date?”
She smiles awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I’m straight.”
“Not with me,” I say with a laugh. “Come here.”
I pull her to Ethan’s usual table by the window. It’s Thursday today and he’ll be in for a cold brew before his rock climbing class.
“Sit here,” I say, practically pushing her into the seat. I hurry over to the bookshelf and grab the ragged copy of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
“Read this,” I say, thrusting the book into her hands. “Trust me.”
She looks up at me like I’m completely crazy. Maybe I am. Or, maybe I’m a genius.
“If you want to meet a hot, adventurous guy, you’ll do it,” I say, pleading with my eyes. “Good things are going to happen to you today. I can feel it.”
She gives me a long look and then opens the book halfway and starts reading.
“That’s the spirit,” I say, heading back to the counter with a grin. “Your knight in shining Under Armour will be here soon.”
“You’ll have to start over,” Owen says all frustrated when I return. “The espresso is way too cold.”
“Phone,” I say, ignoring him as I hold out my hand. “And open the FirstSpark app.”
“But my coffee…”
“Won’t get made unless you open your FirstSpark app and hand me your phone. I want to see what’s going on.”
He takes a big, dramatic breath and then opens the app and hands the phone over.
My mouth drops in shock.
“What is it?” he asks.
I just shake my head as I stare at him in horror. “You might need to call that Hollywood makeup specialist after all.”