Page 2 of Beta and the Beast
"When will Henry be here tomorrow?" I ask. Sam gives me a confused look, so I continue. "To look at the ventilation system? I can't have him coming in when I have customers. I assume you told him that?"
Sam rubs the back of his neck, giving me a sheepish look that tells me he didn't think about that. "I'll call him now and tell him to be here early."
"Four a.m."
"What?" Sam sputters as I follow him out of the building toward his car.
"He needs to be here at four a.m. I'll have to air out the store before customers arrive at six. Depending on how smelly he is, it could take an hour." I give Sam a look that I hope conveys how he should've thought of all of this already.
"Four a.m." Sam nods before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I'll check with him right now."
"You do that." I shake my head and wrap my brother up in a big hug. "Get home safe. And I'll see you tomorrow evening. Do I need to bring anything for dinner?"
Sam holds the phone up to his ear as he releases our hug. "Not that I can think of. Maybe some of that wine you know Janie likes. That'll make her happy."
I open my mouth to tell him I'll bring it, but his attention is caught by the other end of the phone.
"No, sorry. I'm talking to my sister." Sam gives me a small wave before jogging down the street a few yards to his car. I stare after him until he pulls out of the parking spot, waves again, and then heads home. Once his car disappears, I walk over to the building next door.
The windows are covered in brown butcher paper, and they've been that way for the last six months since the little cupcake store moved locations. The six businesses in this strip have been beta only for as long as I can remember. Even the apartments above the businesses are beta only.
When the property next to my coffee shop was left vacant for a few months, I knew the strip's beta-only perk would disappear. I just didn't think it'd be my brother making sure alphas infiltrated our perfect little safe space.
This won't be that bad—at least, I hope it won't be that bad. There's a good chance my customers are too scared to come to my shop because of the alphas next door. Maybe they won't notice it, though, or the marketing from the Young Alpha Center will be discreet. It's not like they need to advertise boldly that there are alphas now in our used-to-be beta-only space.
Not to mention, if the alpha working with Sam is as good as he says, then maybe he is a decent guy. I imagine he has to be somewhat good to go into this endeavor with my brother. It's a money sink for the most part, but Sam believes in what he's doing. It would be nice if he believed in it far away from my business, though.
I press my hand against the glass window and let out a long sigh. This could be worse. It really, really could. It could be an alpha club or a rut clinic going in next door. There's no space for it, and they'd have to do major renovations, but that would be worse than the bakery my brother wants to open.
I frown at my reflection in the glass because I'm the one who helped him come up with his plan for the bakery. Had I known Iwas helping a stranger move in next door, I might not have been so keen to assist Sam. Instead, I was all too eager to help him sink my profits.
No, I can't think like that—not until I know for certain that the presence of the alphas next door will negatively impact my business. For all I know, my customers won't care about the alphas in the bakery and will keep showing up to support the little shop I've been running for five years.
I head back to my coffee shop and finish my closing duties. I'll know more tomorrow about how my customers feel about it. According to Sam, Henry will be over there all day working on stuff with contractors. If he's going to have an impact on my shop, it'll start tomorrow.
I swallow down the lump in my throat, certain that this is going to ruin my shop and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Even if I told Sam how much I hate this, he's right that another alpha-owned business will take their place. No, this is the best of a bad situation. I just need to figure out how to survive until everything smooths out. My coffee shop can survive this.
I think it can survive this.
2
Henry
Idon't think I've ever woken up this early in my life. Have I stayed up until four a.m. during college? Yeah, but there's something different about staying up that late and being forced to wake up that early.
Should be asleep.Romulus grumbles in our shared mind.
He's not wrong, either. We should be sleeping for four more hours, but we promised Sam we'd see his sister's shop this morning to get the measurements for the contractors to get the new filtration systems in place. I didn't think about her owning a beta-only coffee shop and that it might impact when I could speak with her for the first time.
I want to make a good impression. She's Sam's little sister, and I need Sam to trust me as much as possible since I'm taking over most of the Young Alpha Center while he's busy opening the freeclinic. Not to mention, I'm about to be near his sister every single day, and even if alphas are rude to everyone else in their lives, they usually care about their family.
"Just thirty minutes, and we can go back home and take a long nap," I say out loud as we walk down the sidewalk.
When we moved here a few weeks ago, Lucas and I purchased an apartment in the city. It's close to the gym he trains at, the Young Alpha Center, and the bakery. I don't even need a car or to take public transport so long as I don't mind walking a little bit.
Still too early.
Take a nap, then.
