Page 10 of Strong Coffee

“I’d like that as well.” I typed my number into his phone, not meeting his gaze. As much as I was attracted to him, something was niggling me that this was too soon and definitely way too damn fast.

“Good.” If Cam noticed a change in my mood, he didn’t say anything about it. The guy was busy, so he probably brushed it off as us not overly knowing each other. I realized something then. He never asked me anything about myself. Maybe he didn’t want to know.

“Did you want to do something tomorrow night?” I blurted before I could stop myself.

Cam tilted his head. “Oh yeah.”

My cheeks burned. “That’s not what I meant but that would be nice too.”

He chuckled. “We’ll set something up. Now get your sexy ass out of here before I change my mind,” he demanded gently as he left the couch and walked to the large leather chair behind his desk.

“Yes, Sir.” I laughed, shaking my head. Okay, maybe things weren’t that weird between us.

“Hmm…” Cam sat, spinning back and forth and rubbing the scruff on his strong jaw. “I like the sound of that.”

SIX

Brady

“I heard you havea date tonight.”

My head lifted from the espresso machine I was currently trying to fix. Jasmine, one of our baristas, stood a foot away with a wide grin on her tanned face. She had spent time at the beach the day before and the sun had kissed her skin, giving her a healthy glow.

I opened my mouth to respond when Shane came out of the office.

“I heard that too,” he said, looking down at a clipboard in his hand.

“Who has a date?” Presley Serrano and Noah Paige asked at thesame time.

We went to the same college and moved into our apartment right out of high school. It was small, barely having enough room for the four of us but it was perfect, and we made it work.

“There is no date,” I was finally able to get out. It probably was a date but with the guy I used to fuck currently standing there, I didn’t want to rub it in or make things more awkward. He had been weird ever since our phone conversation the other night. I still regretted asking him for advice over a guy I didn’t know but wanted to fuck. I should have called Noah or Presley.

“Are you going out for food?” Noah asked, coming up to my side and gently pushing me out of the way. He took over trying to fix the espresso machine when I clearly hadn’t been doing a good job of it. Truth was, I couldn’t get Cam out of my head. Even while I slept the night before, my dreams were on a rolling loop about the delicious man who had generously invaded my body only a few nights ago.

“Maybe?” I crossed my arms under my chest, leaning against the table and watching Noah work. “He’s picking me up at seven and then I don’t know what we’re doing.”

“You should come here,” Presley suggested. “That band you like is playing. What do they call themselves again?”

“Voodoo Machine?” Shane flipped through the papers on the clipboard. “Voodoo Priest?”

“Doesn’t that band exist already?” Presley asked, muttering a curse as a piece of the machine broke off in his hand. “I think we need to cave and get a new espresso machine.”

“We don’t have the money. Not for the type you want anyway.” Shane was our bookkeeper. He usually complained the whole time about money and how we weren’t making enough but he did love the job of keepingtrack of our finances. He just really loved complaining too.

“Maybe we need to sit down and discuss other ways of making money. We could have bands play on other nights besides Friday,” Noah suggested. He pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his dark blue jeans. A frown pulled at his eyebrows.

“What is it?” I asked, not liking this sudden nervous energy coming from him.

“Nothing.” He sighed, shoving his phone back in his pocket. “It’s fine. Everything is fine.”

Before I could ask any more, he left the kitchen and went out to the main area of the café.

“Do you know what that was about?” I asked Presley and Shane.

“Nope.” They both answered at the same time.

“But I did hear that Noah is seeing someone. He just won’t talk about it.” Presley shrugged. “Who knows?”

---