Page 6 of Allured By Her

I thought about it, but I didn’t want to. As much as I couldn’t stand her, I’d feel sympathy for just about anyone in her position. So I punched in the order and did a little finagling to make it free. When her order was ready, instead of slapping it on the counter and calling her name like I usually did, I picked up her order and stepped around the counter to bring it to her.

She looked up when I set it down in front of her.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Your daily croissant and our new macchiato. You’ll like it, I promise,” I said, feeling weird standing there.

Tenley looked at the drink and then up at me again, blinking in a confused way.

“Now you say ‘thank you’ and I say ‘you’re welcome’ and then we both go back to work,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said automatically.

“Uh, you’re welcome,” I said. I considered asking her if she was okay again, but that was way above my pay grade, and I needed to go help Lark.

I pivoted and headed back behind the counter, glancing back to see Tenley pick up the macchiato and take a tentative sip. She swallowed and then sucked the rest of the drink down before tearing viciously into her croissant. Guess she liked it.

* * *

Today I was off my game and it was all Tenley’s fault. She wasn’t doing a whole lot of typing, but she was doing a lot of staring off into space. She hadn’t come up for another drink, or to pay for the first one I gave her.

“She looks like a social media ad for depression,” Lark whispered to me as we made drinks next to each other.

“I know,” I said. “I wonder what happened? You’d think if things were that bad she’d stay home.”

“Maybe her routine is the only thing she has,” Lark said.

“My, that was very introspective of you,” I said with a laugh.

“Thank you, thank you,” Lark said. “I’m working on it.”

An odd sound made us both look up as Tenley stared at her phone and then ran to the bathroom. Luckily for her, it was unoccupied, and she slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Whoa,” Lark said, turning to me. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”

“Seriously,” I said, staring at the closed bathroom door. I couldn’t hear anything, but my guess was that Tenley was still crying.

“Guess everyone has bad days,” Lark said, heading over to give a refill to one of our regulars.

I did my best to ignore the Tenley situation, but it wasn’t easy. My eyes kept flicking to the bathroom and then the clock, because she’d been in there for a while.

“Should we check on her?” Lark asked. “Would that be too much?”

“We should at least make sure she’s okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

“Good luck,” Lark said. She could handle the counter on her own for the time it would take me to knock on the door.

I took in a shaky breath before raising my hand and knocking on the door.

“Tenley? Are you okay?” I asked.

Loud sniffing greeted me first. “Go away,” she said, her voice thick with tears.

“I will, I just wanted to check on you,” I said, trying to hear through the door.

“I’m fine,” she growled at me before sniffing loudly again before I heard what sounded like her blowing her nose.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll just, uh, be out here if you need anything.”

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