Page 8 of A Spot of Tea
“How’s that going to help?” She drew her eyebrows together, her eyes focused.
“I don’t know. We can fly around looking for him?”
He stared at her, unblinking.Say yes. I need you to say yes.
She stared back at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m going to get your tea.”
She disappeared again, and this time, Joey could swear he saw her smiling as she turned the corner.
Four
It always came back to the robbery. The robbery, the bank, money, money, money – it was all Eliza could think about. She didn’t want to talk about it, too.
Back in the kitchen, her lemon-blueberry cupcakes were cool enough to frost. It was her fifth batch this week, and she’d finally achieved the golden-brown shade Granny’s were known for.
Eliza spent hours obsessing over recipes, reading how temperatures of butter or milk affected a bake, tweaking here and there, trying to make them absolutely perfect.
Cupcakes were pleasant to obsess over. Much more pleasant than her mortifying, world-famous trip to the bank two weeks prior.
Eliza knew she’d messed up. She’d helped a guy rob a bank. She’d carried his bags. She had dumpeda bombonto the ground!
The ATF determined it was a fake bomb after the fact, but still. She’d done it.
It was so bad, the ATF agent who interviewed her found it hard to believe she wasn’t involved with the robbery.
“Are we really supposed to believe you’rethatstupid?” the agent had asked.
Eliza didn’t know how to answer that, so she said, “Yes.”
The agent had thought Eliza was being sarcastic, but nothing could be further from the truth. They eventually let her leave, but that question echoed in her mind day and night.
She picked up a teapot and added three teaspoons of loose tea, stooping to breathe in the cinnamon before pouring in the boiling water.
It was a lovely tea. She’d already had two cups that morning, but one more wouldn’t hurt. She loaded her serving tray, adding two lemon blueberry cupcakes.
“All right, one hot cinnamon spice and one cupcake.” She set the teapot and plate in front of him.
Joey peered up at her. “I didn’t know it came with a cupcake.”
“It’s on the house. One of my new creations.”
“Are you going to join me?” He nodded toward the second cupcake. “To discuss our reward?”
Eliza scoffed. “I can’t help you, but I wish you the best of luck in finding the guy.”
He picked up the cupcake and bit into the top, icing dotting his nose. “Wow.”
“That bad, huh?” Eliza put her hands on her hips and sighed. “I never promised they’d be as good as my Granny’s.”
“No, it’s not bad. It’sincredible. This is literally the best cupcake I’ve ever had.”
“You must not eat a lot of cupcakes,” Eliza said.
“I eat themallthe time. I had the alleged best cupcake in the US, and yours blows it out of the water.” He took another bite and, with his mouth full, asked, “Can I get three more?”
Eliza laughed. “Sure.”
She popped into the kitchen, grabbing a plate of cupcakes and her cup of tea.
