Page 3 of Purple Scales & Coffee Tales

With a heavy sigh, all the fight went out of her. I hated watching her curl in on herself like this. That wasn’t my Maeve—the strong, sassy human I admired from afar.

“Got a shit ton of money to buy this place?” she told her iced latte in a defeated, flat voice.

I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. I had so much money, I would never run out. My wealth grew all by itself, and there was no one or anything to ever spend it on. Besides the art I hoarded, but even that got as boring as stale bread. It was a clear sign that I needed to change my life when I no longer found joy in my art collection.

“Well, actually, I do.”

Chapter Three

Maeve

Ihad said it as a joke, but seeing Taran’s eyes light up and his demeanour change made me feel all fuzzy inside.

You like this guy. No shit, Sherlock.

“I only said that because I really like this place,” I hurried to explain.

The cafe was like my second home. I had pretty much ditched uni this year. I tried to make myself believe it was only for the money, but that wasn’t entirely true. Uni drained all my energy. I had gone withgraphic design as my major because I thought it would give me a solid, well-paying job. I wasn’t bad at it, but my heart just wasn’t in it at all.

Losing my job—this place—would hurt. I had poured my heart into the menu, made new recipes, and done all the decorations. I had played a major role in making the cafe what it was.

It sucked that all our loyal customers would find somewhere else to go—maybe to that soulless Bean Me Up place next to the theatre, with their clueless baristas and greedy corporate bosses.

God, I hated that idea.

I was surprised to see Taran still there, smiling at me, when I came out of my own head.Hey, beautiful.

“Sorry?” I felt like I had missed something he had said.

“I said ‘That’s why I asked.’ I really like this place, too. The atmosphere is great and I feel pretty…safe here. You think the current owners might be up for selling?”

I was sure old Harry Reynolds would be thrilled to exchange a big wad of cash for all his problems.

“I’m pretty sure he would. But seriously, Taran, I was just joking.”

“Would you want to work here in the future? You know everything about this place, don’t you?” He cocked his head at me in a strangely cat-like demeanour, which was so weird considering his species.

Maeve, don’t get too excited! No one ever keeps their promises.

They didn’t really enjoy teasing me, but people would say things out loud and my brain would think they were promising something.

I really wanted to trust others, but it sucked when nobody ever followed through.

“I would, but don’t worry about me.” I shrugged. “Finding a new job is no big deal.”

Trying to find a job I actually like? Now that feels impossible, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Any business would be lucky to have you,” he muttered between two sips of his Brewce Lee, then cleared his throat loudly. “Anyway, aren’t you studying? I think you mentioned it at some point.”

Who do you think you are, Scales? My mum?

Or not. My mum, after all, came from a working-class family. She didn’t really get what I did at uni or why I’d had to go in the first place. Education was important to her, but making money always came first. Graphic design had seemed like a good idea. I’d always been artsy and once I had gotten into the program, I had known I was going places.

“I’m about a year away from graduation,” I told him evasively.

Kat, the solutions architect from the agency across the square, had dropped some major hints about wanting to hire me at BetaworthIT after I finished school. At first, I had felt flattered. But as my time at uni was coming to an end, I got more and more nervous and ended up working a lot more at the cafe. I’d barely been to uni in the past few months.

“You don’t like it much?”

---