Page 1 of Before We Were Us

one

. . .

Brynnlee

“I’ll have an extra shot and let’s go with a little whip and caramel drizzle on top.” I tap away at my text message, hitting send before looking up. Marco is smiling at me with a gleam in his eye from the opposite side of the countertop.

“Are you feeling a little adventurous today?” he asks with a smirk and one brow lifted as he waits for me to respond.

“No,” I sigh, dreading my day and it's barely started. “I’m just about to go meet with a possible new distributor and I hate these meetings.” I shrug. “A bunch of men tossing around dick jokes and eyeing my chest until they realize I’m the big guy's daughter. Then they want to backtrack and by then I’m already reminded of how I wasted time I can never get back.” I point to the coffee he’s currently making for me. “I thought maybe this treat might help me get through the morning and make everything more tolerable.”

“Where is your sidekick this morning?” Marco leans a little to the left as if he actually thinks I’m hiding someone and looks past me. “The two of you rarely leave your place without the other.”

“She had an early meeting.” Taylor is not a morning person, in fact, she is a bear before ten a.m. “And she woke up late. Ran out of the apartment like her ass was on fire, grumbling about her dickless boss.” Marco chuckles. “Believe me, you didn’t want her stopping here first.”

I could go to the Starbucks two blocks down, but I prefer Marco’s. He’s hilarious, so the company is always memorable, but he’s also genuine and kind. From the day I met him, I’ve loved him. His small little coffee shop sits directly across the street from the apartment I share with my best friend, Taylor. Marco also lives in the loft space directly above his shop. So our little corner is like the three of us having our own little island.

Marco isn’t only my go-to for my morning coffee and occasional pastry, even a quick afternoon pick-me-up, he’s one of my best friends. He’s also very into men, so his opinion can be a great help, even when I’m not asking for it. I swear he has a sixth sense for dirtbags. He’s weeded out many of the dont’s for both Tay and I.

My phone chimes in my bag and I dig it out once more to find a message from my brother, Sebastian.

Seb: Meeting is off, Dad said that our current distributors got wind and made a killer deal. Locked in for three years.

“Thank God!” I mumble, shooting a message back to my brother and tossing my phone into my bag.

“Good news?” Marco asks with a smile as he places my freshly made coffee on the counter before me.

“No meeting.” I smile happily. “Seb says Dad locked in a discounted rate and we are good for several years.”

“Mm,” Marco sighs. “Seb, his name alone manages to give me chills every time I hear it.”

“You do understand my brother is very engaged to a woman.”

“I know.” He puffs out his lower lip. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he is yummy and has starred in a few dreams of mine.” He wags his eyebrows suggestively.

“TMI.” I shiver. “Ciara is small but fiery. You’d have one heck of a fight on your hands if you tried to steal her man. I have a feeling she could go gangster if she had to.”

My future sister-in-law is adorable and sweet, she’d most likely laugh and tell Marco he can look but please don’t touch. Seb is the complete opposite of Ciara, he is hard, inheriting my father’s temper and can be extremely unreasonable more often than not. Unless it's Ciara, she is the only person I know that can give him one look or a gentle glide of her hand over his arm and he melts. It's hilarious to see him thaw instantly in her presence. It's like a superpower, one I want to possess.

“Now that you don’t have your dreaded meeting, what’s your plans?” The bell above the door rings and I realize that Marco has a new customer.

“I’m gonna take this perfectly made cup of coffee.” I grab the cup and lift it in the space between us. “Maybe take a little walk.” I offer him a wink. “Make sure you're ready by eight tonight, remember we have plans.” I back away, not giving him the chance to argue. I hear him welcome his new customers as I push open the door.

Stepping outside into the streets of Chicago I’m met with the sounds of city life. My mother was from a small town in Wisconsin, meeting my father when she and a few friends came to the city for a girls’ weekend. She left and he chased after her, it's a sweet story that I’ve heard a million times. My father doesn’t seem like the type to chase, and when they tell it I swear they are making it up. But seeing them together, more than twenty-five years later, they are still so in love. That is one thing I am grateful for, to bear witness to their love.

My father, much like Seb, is hard to read, strong-willed and determined, and at times can be a little scary. Yet my mother walks into a room and his outer shell disintegrates. There isn’t a person in the room that doesn’t feel the love he has for her.

It’s beautiful.

Again I am alerted of a new message as I reach the corner that is opposite my apartment and pause to check my messages.

Taylor: Pre-drinks, our place. This day sucks dicks!

She tends to be a little overdramatic.

Taylor: Drake got the new Lunar account and I am his assistant. Me! I, who landed the account in the first place get to assist the owner’s fucking son!

My stomach feels like it drops. She’s been killing herself for weeks to gain a Lunar Enterprises account. She’s worked through the night, she’d stayed for hours and hours offering unpaid overtime and now this. It’s like a kick to her metaphoric nuts.

---