Page 27 of Latte Girl
I don’t know why I thought Jordan would be any different. To him, I’m just a distraction from a boring job, a guilty pleasure to grope in the boardroom when no one else isaround.
I’m just a fuckingcupcake.
Turning the tap on, I splash cold water onto my face and try to get the puffiness under my eyes to go down. After a few minutes my face is still a bit blotchy and red, but I head to the meeting roomanyways.
By four o’clock I’m finished unpacking the Catering Mobile at Dark Brown, after returning from my second meeting over at the bank. I’ve kept Jordan out of my mind by staying ridiculously busy. In between meetings, I scrubbed every baseboard in the cafe and re-organized the entirefridge.
After running the last of my catering trays through the dishwasher, I head to the storefront to check up on things before I plan to shut the espresso machine off a bit early and give it a long overdue deepcleaning.
Trisha is busy stocking some napkins, and Brittney gives me a nod from behindthecash.
“Do you mind giving the tables a quick wipe?” she asks. “I’m in the middle of brewing something and a few of them aredirty.”
I whip out the cleaning cloth I always have on me and take a dramatic bow. “At your service,Madame.”
I’m scrubbing at a particularly persistent stain when the bell over the door dings. I turn my head to see who it is, but don’t even have time to register the face of the person walking inside before he’s callingmyname.
“Hailey? HaileyWarren?”
It takes me a minute to place him. He’s grown up a lot in the past three years. The image I associate with him is that of a lanky teenager, but the man standing in front of me has filled out. His shoulders look broad and strong under his navy suit jacket. The boyishness is gone from his face, and while he was cute back when we were dating, the only word to describe him now ishandsome.
Or hot. He’sdefinitelyhot.
“Steve?” I ask, even though I’m now certain it’s him: Steve Benoit, my ex-boyfriend.
“Hailey! This is crazy. I don’t even know what to say.” He comes over and holds out his hand for me toshake.
“Oh come on, Steve. Has it really been so long that we’re on hand shakingtermsnow?”
I open my arms a bit and we give each other abriefhug.
“So what brings you to Dark Brown Coffee Co?” I ask when we breakapart.
“I started an internship next door about two weeks ago,” he tells me. “I finished my undergrad, spent the summer working for my dad, and then landed this thing just when I was starting to wonder if having a degree was actually going to get me anywhere. I’m applying to start my MBAnextyear.”
He sounds proud of himself and is probably expecting congratulations, but I barely heard past the firstsentence.
“Next door?” Irepeat.
“Yeah, at Knox Security. I’m indistribution.”
“Oh,” I reply, not sure why the news is such a shock to me. “I’m there all the time, cateringmeetings.”
“Really? Crazy! Maybe I’ll be lucky and you’ll cater oneofmine.”
An awkward silence falls between us. I pick up my cleaningcloth.
“Well,” says Steve, after clearing his throat, “I should probably go order a coffee. It’s really good to see you,Hailey.”
I nod and give him a smile. “You too,Steve.”
He moves up to the cash and I head into the kitchen to grab the cleaning solution for the espressomachine.
“I’m cleaning this out now,” I tell Brittney and Trisha, “so make sure you let any end of day stragglers know we only have brewed coffee for the rest oftheday.”
Trisha mimes wiping sweat off her brow inrelief.
I load the machine up with solution and start pulling empty trays out of the display case while I give it time to sit. Looking up from my work, I find Steve standing in front of me on the other side of thecounter.
