Page 14 of Suck My Puck

Lauren squeezes my hand. “You’re going to own your own coffee shop someday. And it’s going to be amazing.”

She glances around the cozy seating area of Sweetie’s Coffee Cafe. We started working here in college together. The owners are a kind older couple who don’t micromanage the workers. They promoted Lance and Lauren as managers and let them run the day-to-day business how they want. And they were nice enough to let me start picking up shifts here again after I moved back to Denver.

Emotion flashes in my best friend’s eyes as she looks at me. “You’re gonna make your dreams come true, Bella. I know it.”

I sigh, my shoulders sinking. That dream feels impossible now.

“All I need to do is win the lottery,” I joke.

Lauren frowns. “Don’t say that. It’ll happen.”

I let out a sad laugh. “How? I spent my life savings buying a house I couldn’t afford in the first place with a boyfriend who lied about wanting a future with me. Now I’m a broke twenty-seven-year-old who can’t even pay for my apartment.”

Before she can say anything, a half-dozen customers walk in. I hop up and help Lance at the counter. A few minutes later, Lauren joins us.

“So, how is it living at your aunt’s place?” Lauren asks as she steams milk for a London fog.

“A million times better than staying with my parents,” I say. “Except for my neighbor.”

“What’s wrong with your neighbor?”

I tell her how he woke me up with his music blaring the other morning.

“Ugh. Noisy neighbors are the worst.”

“He’s also a hockey player. He plays for the Bashers.”

Lauren makes a disgusted face. “Double ugh.”

“He’s a regular at the bar I started working at, too.”

“No way, seriously?”

I nod. I tell Lauren how my boss at Spanky’s said that a lot of the Bashers players come to unwind after games and practices.

“What the hell? It’s like the universe is tormenting you by surrounding you with hockey players,” she says.

“My boss says they’re always nice and polite and tip generously.”

I think about my random run-in with Braden last night. It was honestly kind of fun talking to him about music. For a moment, I forgot he was a hockey player. But then he mentioned hockey, and a group of pretty young women—puck bunnies, probably—walked in, hollering for his attention.

And just like that, my mood soured. I instantly thought of Matt and all the awful things he did behind my back.

I was pretty snippy with Braden as I served him the shots he ordered. But that didn’t phase him. He seemed kind of amused by it. And I can’t believe he tipped me one hundred percent. Especially after I was so snippy with him.

Lauren raises her eyebrow. “How generous of a tip are we talking?”

“He tipped me fifty bucks on a fifty-dollar tab.”

Her hazel eyes widen. “Really? Wow.”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked.”

“Was he hot?”

I look at Lauren. She shrugs. “It’s a legitimate question.”

“Of course he’s hot. He’s a hockey player. They’re all hot.”

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