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So basically, her usual expression.
“Welcome to Books & Beans,” she said with little enthusiasm. “What can I get you?”
Reid stepped up to the counter and studied the menu sign. “It’s my turn to do the coffee run for the station,” he told her before pulling out his phone and reading off the order.
Her sister came over and smiled at him. “Hey, Reid! They send you on the coffee run?”
Nodding, he said, “Yup. And I was wondering if maybe I should bring back some muffins or something. I’m the new guy and I don’t want it to look like I’m trying too hard, but I figured it couldn’t hurt, right?”
“Absolutely,” she told him. “The captain obviously likes the lemon pound cake—tell him I’m baking his as we speak…”
Laughing softly, he asked, “He ordered another one?”
“This is actually the third one,” she said with a proud smile. “As for the other guys, they tend to lean toward either the muffins or the brownies. But since it’s only nine in the morning, I’d say go with the muffins.”
“Okay, then. Let me get a half a dozen muffins for the guys, and a brownie for me.” He winked at her. “It’s for later, I promise.”
“Sure, sure…”
Meanwhile, Ashlynn was making all the coffees and labeling them before putting them in a travel tray. “How was your weekend?” he asked her.
“Good,” she replied, her back still to him.
“I’m coming to your place tonight around six,” he said casually, and that got her attention.
“What?” she cried, and he was certain she could have whiplash from the speed with which she turned to glare at him.
Nodding, he leaned on the counter. “Oh, yeah. Six o’clock. I’m meeting with Janice from the rental office. She’s showing me a one-bedroom apartment and I think she said it was the one right above yours.”
“Great,” she mumbled before turning back to the coffees.
“If you’re not doing anything later, maybe I can stop by afterwards and we can hang out and catch up.” He noticed Billie watching in wide-eyed fascination, and he winked at her again. “What do you say, AJ?”
This time when she faced him, her shoulders were slightly sagging and expression was weary.
“Look, what is it with you, huh?” she asked as she stepped forward. “Do you honestly think I’m playing hard to get here or something? You genuinely insulted me the other night and I really have no interest in catching up with you because you already proved that you have zero respect for me.” She slid the final coffee into its sleeve before looking at her sister. “Can you please ring him up? I’m going to talk to Jade.”
Leaving him utterly speechless.
“Um…Reid?” Billie said when she stepped up to the register. “Just a little FYI…you kind of came back to town at a really crappy point in Ash’s life. So if I were you, I’d lay off the teasing and…everything else.” Then she paused. “Unless you’re not really the jerk she thinks you are and you genuinely want to get to know her.”
“So maybe all that anger isn’t solely directed at me?”
“I’m not sure I would say that, but I think a lot of it is because of…you know…the incident.”
He let out a loud huff. “Okay, I realize I shouldn’t have laughed the other night when her skirt blew up and she flashed me, but considering it wasn’t the first time, I thought it was a little funny. Hell, I thought we could both laugh about it…”
“She flashed you? More than once?” Billie asked in disbelief.
“Um…you…” Pausing, he realized what he just did. “You had no idea what the incident was, did you?”
“Nope.” And yeah, she was trying not to laugh.
Crap.
Crap! Crap! Crap!
I just keep digging a deeper and deeper hole…
