Page 8 of Mochas and Minotaurs

The door to the coffee shop opened with the chime of a bell, and two women walked in just as I asked the question. Griseldapasted on a smile to greet her customers, who both seemed to be regulars because Nick and Gigi already knew their orders.

“I’ll take care of this,” Nick said. “You get our new neighbor all caught up.”

Gigi looked toward the door and I took the hint. She didn’t want to talk in front of her customers.

“Why don’t you come over and see the progress I’m making to the gym renos?” I suggested.

I felt two new sets of eyes move up and down my body in appreciation.

“Oh! You must be the owner of the new gym next door,” one of the women said. “You don’t happen to be looking for a Zumba instructor, are you?” She looked hopeful.

There was a round of introductions and a quick exchange of social media accounts, and soon Gigi and I were making our way over to Bullseye Fitness.

Griselda started her story the moment we were alone.

“My last shipment of beans was destroyed en route. Basically, it's the same story as yours. The thugs held up the van and destroyed every coffee bean in it. Then they left. Didn’t steal anything and made no comments. Just fucked up the beans. It was shortly after you bought the two units.”

“I see.” Thatwasmighty fishy.

“It cost me a pretty penny too. Ended up having to repurchase the beans, and I have it set to deliver through a private delivery service. One that knows what happened to the previous shipment. It makes it prohibitively expensive to run my business. Especially with that asshat outside scaring everyone away except for my most dedicated regulars.”

“Yeah, we need to do something about that guy. I’m guessing he’s not really homeless.”

“Nope. Nick and I call him Faux Hobo. Drives a new Lexus.”

“Does he now?”

“Yup. Saw him get in myself. Parks it around the corner.”

I nodded. “I’ll see what I can do about it.

Gigi frowned. “Don’t do anything to get yourself in trouble.”

She was worried about me? That had the bull part of me wanting to buck with happiness. Ridiculous! Because up until just two weekends ago, I was one hundred and one percent enjoying the permanent bachelor life.

“Don’t you worry about me,” I said. “I pride myself on maintaining a perfect record. You know I’ve never even had a speeding ticket?”

That didn’t mean I didn’t get things done. I was just extra creative when it came to always making sure that nothing came back to me. I hadn’t fought for my freedom just to get stuck behind bars over something silly.

“Never?” She raised a meticulously drawn and perfectly arched brow.

“Never.”

She squinted at my head. “I don’t see a halo.”

I couldn’t stop the smirk. “You of all people should know I won’t have one. Or do I need to give you another demonstration?”

A blush pinkened her pale cheeks ever so slightly, and the scent of her lust blossomed between us as she said, “I remember.”

The blushing surprised me as she’d been no shrinking violet that night. The burst of lust was a good sign. She was still attracted to me. It hadn’t been my performance, though I hadn’t thought it was. So why had she left that morning?

“Look, Marcus. I know we started out on the wrong foot, and that’s probably because of me, but we’re stuck in this together. Based the research I had done on them, Arcane has a shit ton of money and a lot of magic too. We have to work together if we want to beat them at their own game.”

She was probably right. They didn’t seem the types to back down easily.

“Can we please forget whatever happened between us and start fresh?” she asked.

I frowned. That wasn’t what my minotaur wanted. I didn’t think I could ever forget what happened.

---