Page 13 of Can't Help Growling in Love
He lets the words hang between us, an unspoken offer.
I give him a smile. “It won’t. But thank you.”
He stares down at me for a long moment, his dark eyebrows knitted together in a frown. Then he nods and stalks back tothe car, but he doesn’t drive away. He stays right there, orange blinkers winking at me, until I lock up my bike, give him one last wave, and walk inside.
I decide there and then to put all thoughts of Asher Summers aside. He might think I smell good, but he didn’t ask me for my number so he could call, nor did he ask me out, so I guess that’s that.
The twinge of pain behind my breastbone tells me I’m right to put a stop to this silly infatuation before I become any more involved.
But when I reach my locker and hang my waterproof gear up to dry, I find a message waiting for me.
It was great to meet you in person.
Chapter
Seven
ASHER
You, too. Look, my colleagues are lovingDracula. Tia thinks it’s hilarious—she’s a vampire.
Attached to June’s message is a photo of the nurses’ station. A tall Black woman on the left and a shorter white man on the right are leaning toward a small speaker on the desk, as if listening intently. I like this snapshot of June’s work life, but I enjoyed her selfie more, not that I can tell her that without sounding like a creep.
I already nearly fucked up our first live interaction. I shudder at the memory of how betrayed she’d seemed when she realized I saw her but didn’t walk over to say hi.
Ithinkshe forgave me for being an idiot, but I can’t tell. She didn’t say anything about wanting to see me again, and I didn’t want to presume. But I thought about her throughout my shift, to the point that I almost missed my time slot for the Nightly News. It would have been bad, too, because Stella had asked us to keep the programs going as usual until she finds a buyer for the station.
Last night’s meeting had been sad, if expected.
“I understand you’ll want to find new jobs,” she told my colleagues and me. “But as long as we’re running, I can keep paying you, so you’re welcome to stay on until the end.”
Marcos told her he’ll have to start searching for a new job soon to cover his expenses, but Natalie and I assured her we’d stay with the station until she calls it quits. Stella got emotional at that and ended up pulling the other two in a hug. Knowing I dislike having people in my personal space, she pressed my hand lightly between her warm, dry palms, and thanked me for everything.
It felt strange, having herthank meafter everything she did for me, and I told her so, but she insisted I would have achieved everything I have without her. It was a lie, but I let her have the last word because she looked like she might cry, and I didn’t want to upset her more.
The fact is that I haveput my life together. I don’t have to work at the station nowadays—my narration work would cover all my expenses and leave me a tidy sum to save up every month. My agent sent an offer to narrate a nature documentary into my inbox just this morning, and the proposed payment for that one had me raising my eyebrows in surprise. I won’t starve because Stella is selling the station. But I will lose the few connections I managed to make here in Harmony Glen, and not having to go into the studio every day will upset my routine.
This means I’ll have to build new routines before the sale forces me to change my life. That’s why I’m dressed and ready an hour before I’d usually leave for work, and why I put on a fresh pair of black joggers and a leather jacket instead of my oldest sweatshirt.
I’ve decided to visit Cool Beans every day before my shift begins as a way of getting myself out of the house for something that’s not my job.
The fact that I met June there yesterday has nothing to do with it.
I snort, then scrub my hand through my short hair. Leo wouldn’t want me to lie to myself, so I suppose I should admit it—I’m hoping June will come in for coffee again.
If she doesn’t, I’ll look like a fool sitting at the crowded coffee shop on my own, hogging a table, but I’m prepared to take that risk.
Just as it did yesterday, noise assaults me the moment I cross the threshold. Most tables are full, and there’s a group of teenagers in the line in front of me, chatting loudly, debating their drink orders and playing videos on their phones. Feeling like an old man, I try to remember if I was ever like this—before I enlisted in the Army at eighteen. I don’t remember being this free, this casual, but maybe my memory is faulty.
A trio of guys put their heads together to watch something on a phone, and I decide that I definitely never had that. Being an Army brat is difficult for anyone, but I was never good with people. It made sense to keep to myself whenever we moved and I had to change schools again. It was easier to not make friends. And if the other kids thought I was a weirdo, it didn’t matter, because we’d relocate again a couple of years later, and I left them all behind.
Before moving to Harmony Glen, I’d never lived in one place for longer than three years. Putting down roots here, buying a house instead of renting, renovating the interior to suit my needs—it was all an attempt to build a new life for myself. In part also to defy my father’s expectations of me, as Leo so eloquently put it. I didn’t like to think that way. I just wanted the security of knowing exactly where I lay my head to sleep each night.
The teenagers place their orders, arguing loudly over whether the diet caramel syrup still has calories or not, andshuffle off to a booth by the windows, crammed closely together. How do they stand it, touching each other all the time?
“Hey, welcome to Cool Beans. What can I get for you today?”
The nervous barista from yesterday is absent today, and I blink at the peacock woman standing behind the counter. Her blue hair is stunning, as are her feathered arms and teal eyes. She raises her eyebrows at me, as if annoyed at my hesitation. I don’t blame her—the line behind me has reached the front door, and she doesn’t have time for inefficiency.
