Page 79 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Oh, I’m sorry, Charlie. Can you wait a moment? I’ll be right back,” she said, pattinghis hand.

“Yeah, okay,” Charlie said, clutching his third tissue already. Then before she disappeared he added. “No sugar in mine. I… I am supposed to be watching my intake.” And he broke down crying again.

Helena decided to just leave him be for a moment. Getting him coffee would probably help more. In the kitchen, she beelined past Rafferty to go over to the cupboard above her stove. “When the circle cl—when you had to leave the ‘city’ real fast, my coffeemaker got destroyed, so I went out and got you this.” She pulled out a glass carafe with a plunger in a lid out of the cupboard, the purchase tag still swinging from it, and presented it to him.

“Ta-da! French press!” she said grinning, wishing she could have given her gift under better circumstances but still eager for his reaction allthe same.

Rafferty’s eyes lit up. “Oh yes,” he said, taking it to slide the lid off and look inside at the netted component at the end of the plunger. “Oh this is perfect. I will be able to make you a decent cup of coffee now!” Then his face shifted. “That is if you bought the whole beans and not the pre-ground stuff.”

She laughed at his reaction and then reopened the cabinet to show him. “I even got French roast,” shequipped.

Pleased her gift was received so well, Helena moved up to him to steal a kiss, which surprised him as much as the coffee press. “I love you,” she whispered and then turned to go back to administer to her wounded friend.

Chapter 41

ImprovedLavender

Creamer

By the time she came back, Charlie had calmed down again, and they were able to talk. She told him everything she knew about what Chris had been up to, and she learned that Charlie had discovered what had happened when the woman, whose name was also Charley, short for Charlene, called looking for Chris. At that point, Rafferty brought them the coffee.

“He’s literally replacing me with the female version of me! It’s just sick!” Charlie bemoaned, not unjustly. Helena had a difficult time wrapping her head around it.

“I never actually asked her name,”she said.

Charlie sniffed again and took a thoughtful sip of his cooling beverage. “The thing is, I don’t think she had any idea about me either. I… I feel bad for her. Is it alright for me to feel badfor her?”

“Yes, but that makes Chris seem even worse,” Helena said, shaking her head, holding her cup in her hands but forgetting to drink it, even though it was amazing coffee.

Then Rafferty appeared beside her and poured somethinginto it.

“What did you do?” she asked as he turned to go back into the kitchen.

“I fixed it,” he reported, which clarified nothing.

So she took a sip. Vanilla danced on her tongue, but after she swallowed, she realized he had added her lavender creamer. Or his version of her lavender creamer.

“Why didn’t you tell me when you found out?” Charlie asked softly, shakinghis head.

She swallowed. “At first, because I was in shock, and I wasn’t sure if I would make things worse or better and I didn’t want to act—”

“Until you had the right answer, yeah. That makes sense,” Charlie said.

She took a breath, in for a penny, in for a dollar. “And then Chris said he would tell you himself, and for me to give him time, which I could understand, but then he threatened me.”

“He threatened you?” Charlie asked, furrowing his eyebrows harder.

“To tell everyone in my life about some personal secrets that I have and he knows,”she said.

Charlie’s face popped open to big Os, both his eyes and his mouth. “Oh God damn,” he said as he leaned forward to prop his arm on his table and cover his mouth with his fist. “No, he didn’t.”

“Yeah, he did,” she confirmed.

“God, Helena, I’m so sorry,” he said, setting his hand on her leg and squeezing hisapology.

She covered his hand and smiled gently. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I told my boss at work and she’s aware, so if he tries anything, she’sprepared.”

“Oh crap,” Charlie added, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have had to do that. He has no grounds to break your trust like that.”

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