Page 31 of Cups of You

“What? He does. Are you alright?”

Benjamin brushed off his concern. “I’m fine. Just had a late-night last night.”

“So we heard.” Sam gave him a look. “A certain neighbor mentioned seeing you park over at Ms. Jackie’s place.”

Dangit,Benjamin thought. He had been planning on telling Randy and Sam about his dinner with Jackie and Amber, but clearly gossip moved faster in the town than he did.

“Yeah, I went over for dinner. Ms. Jay and Amber taste tested some new muffins for me.” He could see Olivia looking back and forth between them with a growing smile. “New recipes will probably start next month.”

“That’s great,” Sam said sounding sincere, but Benjamin was still wary. He knew her. She was like a dog with a bone when she focused on something. “But the bit of news I found particularly interesting is how your car didn’t move again until eight this morning.”

Olivia’s eyes went wide. “Dad! You were late to work?”

The question was not what Benjamin was expecting.

It startled a laugh out of him and once he got going, he couldn’t stop. He flopped down on the couch beside her as his huffs of laughter slowly fell away.

“That is what you…never mind. Yes, I opened the café a bit late this morning.”

Randy opened his mouth but before he could say anything, Sam stopped him before gesturing at Olivia.

“Liv honey, I think we need to have a bit of adult chit chat with your dad.”

Olivia shrugged and stood up. As she gathered her things from the coffee table, Benjamin stared in shock. If he had asked her to do the same thing, he would have gotten an attitude a mile long. He watched her head up the stairs before turning to gape at Sam in disbelief.

“How did you do that? She would have chewed my head off for trying to dismiss her like that.”

Sam smirked. “It’s an aunt thing. Now, spill it.”

Randy sat forward in his chair. “I want to hear every sordid detail.”

“You’re perverse. Nothing happened, honestly.”

“So why do you look so tired if you didn’t have a night full off—”

“What Randy means to say,” Sam cut in. “Is, why are you dragging today? Did something happen?”

“Just too much wine.”

Randy wrinkled his nose. “Wine? Why were you drinking wine? You hate that stuff.”

Benjamin shrugged. “Yeah, but Amber doesn’t, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’m not good at holding anything but a bottle or two of beer. I stopped after two glasses.”

“Which means you were almost under the table.”

“Pretty much.”

“Man. You are whipped already,” Randy said. He shook his head. “Didn’t you tell her you are a light weight?”

“I know I should have,” Benjamin conceded. “But after she came back looking so sad, I just, I didn’t want her to be sad, so I joined in.”

“Oh,” Sam breathed out her voice pitched low. She nodded as if she knew what was going on. Then again, she normally did so Benjamin wouldn’t be surprised if she had already figured out why he was so hesitant to decline the glasses of wine when they were offered to him.

“What?”

“Bad breakup.”

Randy frowned clearly not understanding. “What bad breakup?”

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