Chapter 19 Lola
Chapter Nineteen
Lola
Roman.
No. I’m sorry. That was a mistake. You and I will never be Lola. It can’t happen. Ever.
- Conversation between Lola, age 18 and Roman, age 25
“He did what?!”
Varnish splatters onto my top, flying off the brush in Skyler’s hand as she spins to face me.
We’re sitting on the floor, varnishing the front of the coffee counter and, apparently, my T-shirt too. It’s an old, oversized one that I got in Vietnam, so I don’t really care but I’m tempted to flick varnish back at Skyler anyways.
“Don’t sound so surprised, will you? Is it really that unlikely that he’d kiss me?”
She rolls her eyes. “What’s unlikely is that the sexual tension between you two didn’t just combust and leave you walking bow-legged.”
Henry makes a distressed sound from where he’s fixing sections of the wooden world map to the wall.
I make a poor attempt of suppressing my smile and say, “What do you know about walking bow-legged?”
Skyler shrugs. “Just cause I’m all about the girls doesn’t mean we can’t—”
“I’m begging you not to finish that sentence. Please.” Henry’s cheeks have turned a ruddy brown, his eyes wide.
Skyler and I burst into laughter. “How are you liking your first professional job, Henry?” I tease.
He pulls off his bandana and quirks a brow at me. “There is nothing professional about you, Lola.”
I cackle and my smile stays on my face even as we pull ourselves together and get back to work.
Henry was only joking but a couple of weeks ago, a comment like that would have sent me spiraling into self-doubt. I don’t know why I was a wild child, it’s not like I had any major trauma I was trying to process, I just had big ideas and no desire to play it safe.
The consequence of that though, was how everyone else perceived me, and what teenage me never realized is that opinions stick. Once a wild child, always a wild child.
But I own a freaking coffee shop now.
The flooring is all done—a beautiful beech wood paneling.
The bottom half of the walls are layered with wooden slats while the tops are painted a blue so pale it’s almost white, and the light fittings are all in.
There are five different ones hanging from the ceiling with various styles from across the world.
We still have a way to go. We’ve got to finish staining the counter and the coffee bars against the window, install the kitchen counterspace and hook up all the equipment but everything is coming together.
We’re on track to open in two weeks and I’ve never been more excited in my life.
I love the thrill I get from skydiving or white-water rafting, but this is on a different level entirely.
I made this happen. I had an idea and worked for years to bring it to life and I’m literally watching it appear around me.
Yesterday I spent a whole ten minutes just staring at the shop front. The day before, a few hours after the kiss happened, Roman and, in a complete plot twist, Mase, came and put up the sign he’d made for me.
I’d spent the rest of the evening drawing the mountain and forest design onto the windows with a chalk pen and playing every second of the moments leading up to the kiss over and over in my head.
Even after four hours lost in thought as the sun set on Main Street and the old-fashioned streetlamps flickered on, I still couldn’t figure it out.
I spent six years chasing adventure, but nothing made me feel as alive as kissing Roman.
It was like parts of me I didn’t even know existed woke up and started screaming for attention.
The real kicker though, the reason I’m so mad at myself for letting the kiss happen, isn’t the way my heart pumped, or my skin heated, it’s the fact that being in Roman’s arms felt right.
I felt settled in a way I’m not sure I ever have before.
My constant desire for excitement fell away because all I needed in that moment was Roman.
And I’m terrified I’m never going to have him like that again.
It’s been two days now and nothing but radio silence from Roman. My inner teenager was stressed I might jinx it by saying it out loud, but I caved because I need help decoding the whole, crushing mess.
“He was mad that I’d lied about not remembering that night,” I say. “Like never seen him that angry mad.”
Skyler rests her paintbrush on the tray and leans back on her hands. “Bad angry?”
I bite my lip. “Hot angry.”
Skyler smirks.
I sigh, remembering the way my core clenched as I realized my mistake. As his heated eyes burned into mine. “Should we be more concerned that we’re apparently attracted to toxic traits?”
Skyler shrugs. “Probably.”
I shake my head, pick up my own brush, and go back to staining the wood. “He can’t have had feelings for me for six years Skyler.” The bristles hush against the surface, the silky varnish soothing my mind a little. “He just can’t. That’s insane. He turned me down.”
“Yeah but…” Skyler twists her lips.
“But what?”
Henry drills a bolt into the wall to secure the bottom of Africa then walks over to us and grabs the wooden piece of Europe. “But,” he says, “you’re his best friend’s little sister.”
I stare at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he’s serious. Then I dump the paint brush in the tin and bring my hands to my head. “Oh my god, my life is the shitty part of a romance novel.”
“Plus,” Skyler adds, “six years ago you were eighteen and he was twenty-five. It’s kind of decent of him to wait.”
“It’s not decent, it’s infuriating!” I exclaim. “He can’t have been pining after me for six years. That’s ridiculous. At this point it’s quite possible I lost my mind and hallucinated the whole thing.”
Skyler raises a brow, her smile lopsided. “Hallucinate getting pushed up against a tree and kissed stupid a lot, do you?”
My cheeks heat furiously. I pick up the brush again and stare at the half-painted counter like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. “I never said it was against a tree.”
“Oh my god, I was right, it was totally against a tree!” Skyler cackles.
“Shit,” Henry swears.
Skyler and I shut up and twist to face him because Henry doesn’t swear.
He grips his phone in his hand, staring gauntly at the screen. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“Henry, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Jaya, she’s gone into labor but it’s too soon.” His free hand latches on to his low ponytail. “She’s only at eight months.”
“Shit, okay. Okay. Is she at the hospital?”
Henry nods. He’s lost so much color his face is gray. “Her mom’s taking her in now. I need to go.”
Skyler jumps up and swipes her keys off the counter. “Come on, I’ll drive.”
Henry shakes his head. “No, no it’s okay. You guys need to get this place ready.”
“You’re shaking, Henry. We’re coming with you.”
Henry glances at me, his eyes wide. He’s twenty-two but right now he looks seventeen and scared as fuck.
I shrug. “What she said.”
Henry calls Jaya from the back of the car as Skyler drives.
The second he hears her crying he settles himself and works on calming her down.
He talks to her about the honeymoon they’re going to go on, walking barefoot on the beach and swimming with turtles.
I feel like I’m intruding, and I try not to listen but my heart hurts at how intimate it sounds.
I want that. I want what they have. And I want it with my brother’s best friend.
Jaya gets to the hospital before us and Henry and I rush up to the obstetrics ward while Skyler parks. He panic splurges to the nurse at the desk until she takes him to the delivery room.
He comes out a half hour later wearing a pink paper gown and gloves, his hair sticking to his forehead. “They have to operate. I can’t— They won’t let me…” He chokes on thin air and tears off the gown before sinking to the floor.
Skyler and I join him against the wall, one of us on either side of Henry. We peel the latex gloves off his wrists and clasp his hands in ours.
Henry’s fear permeates off of him and I do my best to stay calm. “You know I was born prematurely?” I say. “Gave my parents a real scare but the doctors were great, and I was home in a week.”
Henry squeezes my hand.
“Yeah,” Skyler adds, “doctors can do amazing things these days. She’s in good hands.”
Eventually Jaya’s mom comes over to us with a cup of coffee and Henry stumbles to his feet. The two of them sit down across the waiting room from us, talking in hushed voices. Skyler and I stay on the floor, stress eating M&M’s.
“Can you distract me please?” she asks, her face pale. “Hospitals and me aren’t the best of friends.”
“Uh, sure. Want to see a photo of Scott’s ridiculously attractive new girlfriend?”
“The guy you met traveling? Yes.”
I pull up the photo Scott sent me last week and show Skyler, who whistles low. “Okay you failed to mention Scott was descended from Norse gods. He looks like he’s AI generated. No one has skin that flawless in real life.”
I laugh quietly. I guess I stopped seeing it, but Scott is very attractive.
“Did you and him ever…”
I twist my lips. “We dated briefly but nothing serious. Honestly, I slept around so much the first year I was traveling, after I met Scott and found coffee I kind of lost interest in dating.”
“Like completely?”
I shrug. “I met a few guys over the years after Scott and I called it off, but I think they could probably tell my heart wasn’t in it because none of them went anywhere.”
“Probably a good thing, because you’ve got Roman now and Scott has…” Skyler points at Michelle, with her high cheekbones and pencil straight dark hair. “Okay she’s definitely AI. Seriously this photo is like a fake advertisement for Paris tourism.”
We’re both distracted by the photo and Scott’s supermodel beautiful girlfriend for a few more minutes, but then the doctor appears and calls Henry’s name.
Henry stands up, gripping his mother-in-law’s hand.
“Jaya did well,” the doctor says. “She’s in recovery now but she’s going to be okay.”
“And the baby?” Winona, Jaya’s mother asks.
“She’s in the NICU. She’s got a long road ahead of her but she’s a fighter.”
Relief washes over me like a wave as Skyler and I clamber to our feet.
Henry’s chest heaves as he sucks in a breath and lets it go. He brushes away his tears. “Can I see them?”
The doctor nods, her smoothed-back ponytail bobbing. “I can take you to them now.”
Henry goes to follow but stops when he gets to us. “Lola, I’m so sorry. The shop—”
I wave a hand through the air. “Don’t even think about it. The shop will be fine. Go be with your family.”
He mouths a thank you then follows the doctor out.
“She’s okay,” Skyler says.
“She’s okay,” I repeat. Except now the crisis is over all the thoughts that hadn’t occurred to me creep into my mind.
I’m so happy for Henry and he can have all the time he needs to be with Jaya and the baby. But I’m pretty sure I must be a horrible person because I can’t help thinking that I’ve got a half-finished coffee shop opening in two weeks and I just lost my contractor.