Page 7 of Mochas and Minotaurs

“With extra whip,” I added.

“Can’t forget the whip. Just for you today?”

“Yeah, Declan actually had to go into work today.”

She reached for a to-go cup.

“For here today, please.”

I hadn’t originally planned on enjoying my shot of caffeine here, but just one look at her and my minotaur was demanding that I stay. I might as well stay anyway; there wasn’t anything I could do until those mirrors arrived. They were supposed to have arrived this morning, but morning had come and gone and it was now midafternoon. There was still no sight of them.

“Which bean?” she asked, gesturing to the two canisters of beans.

I frowned. Did that matter? “Which one do you usually use?”

“We cycle through different ones so that my customers can try different beans from around the world,” she said. “This one from Ethiopia has more fruity notes, and this Colombian one has hints of nuts.”

I leaned in to read the full descriptions. “Medium light roast. Well balanced. Citrus brightness with a hint of caramel. And this one is…” I furrowed my brows so hard that I was sure my bovine features showed through the mass-produced glamor spell I wore. “… thermal shocked? With hints of caramel and pistachio, reminiscent of vanilla cake. Okay, now I’m even more confused. You choose.”

“Let’s go with the first one. The citrus and caramel work well with the chocolate.”

I watched her intently as she made my drink, brewing a shot of espresso while she melted the chocolate before combining it all together with hot milk and finally topping it with whipped cream.

“I had no idea there were so many steps.”

“How did you think we do it?” she asked, amused.

“I don’t know, drip coffee and some hot chocolate powder?”

There were simultaneous gasps from both Gigi and her employee, whose name tag readNick.

I put my hands up in the universal sign of surrender. “Hey, I mean no offense. Instant coffee is all I know. I can’t even make drip coffee.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” said Nick. “Instant coffee? Well, don’t you worry, we’ve got you covered. You just throw that garbage out and come here from now on.”

“Your mochaisthe best I’ve had,” I admitted, which seemed to be the right thing to say.

“Welcome to the dark side,” Gigi said and handed me my drink.

“Fuck!” I slammed myfist down on the table before I could stop myself. Realizing I wasn’t alone, I looked sheepishly over at Gigi. “Sorry,” I said, patting the table and glad it was made of tough stuff.

I reread the message on my phone. The mirrors weren’t coming. When I’d called the vendor earlier asking about them, they’d sounded positively panicked, so I’d thought maybe they’dforgotten and had been scrambling to get them out. I was wrong. The mirrors had made it out of the warehouse on time; the holdup happened after.

“What’s the matter?” Gigi’s voice sounded closer than I expected, and I looked up to see she’d come around the counter to stand in front of me, concern on her face.

“I just got an email from the company saying one of their trucks was hijacked today. They destroyed every mirror in the shipment. Left all the windows, which weren’t for me, untouched.”

Which didn’t make any fucking sense. Who the fuck held up a delivery truck just to break my mirrors?

Gigi exchanged a look with Nick.

“Someone hijacked a delivery vehicle just to smash up your mirrors?” Nick asked.

“Yeah. Unbelievable, right?

“Not unbelievable,” Griselda said before they exchanged another look. “I wonder if it’s our friends from Arcane Development,” she said.

“What aren’t you two telling me?” I asked, because there was something there.

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