AllFreeNovel
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“Time to leave the side of the 7-11?”
“Damn straight.”
I could see Zane getting excited. I had to admit I was pretty excited myself.
“Holy shit, could we actually do this?” asked Tyler.
“Well I’m pretty sure I’m done at the lumberyard,” grinned Axel. “And GreatSkates is going to shut down soon, anyway.”
“If it doesn’t collapse first,” Zane rolled his eyes.
“So if you’re up for it, and Ari’s coming with us…” Axel beamed. “Yeah! Why the hell not?”
There was a hug, and a toast, and another hug even tighter than the first. And after that we drank our faces off, before staggering back to the loft to celebrate in other, more carnal ways.
In the end though, it was the camaraderie that decided our future. The solidarity of four interwoven destinies moving forward with the same common goal. It was a goal I knew we’d ultimately achieve, no matter where we went, no matter what challenges we faced on the unknown horizon.
As long as the four of us faced them together.
Epilogue
ARIANA
“Ummm… miss?”
“Yes?”
“There’s a dick in my coffee again,” said Axel. He looked down. “Three dicks, actually.”
Still wiping down the espresso machine, I smiled coyly. “So?”
“So what do you have to say for yourself?”
I dropped the rag and stared back at him. Axel’s expression of mock outrage was so silly, we both broke out laughing.
“Hey,” I shrugged, when the laughter died down. “I draw what I know.”
We finished shutting down the place, and Axel helped me turn the lights off and lock up. The short walk to my Jeep was in near pitch darkness, and swept by frozen winds. Because if I’d learned one thing over the past year, and one thing only, it was this:
Rochester was cold.
“How’d you do today?” he asked.
“Not bad actually. Big rush in the morning, as always. But there was a good afternoon crowd today as well.”
“Anything Instagrammable?”
It was cute, watching him ask such questions. Axel knew very little about social media, but he knew it was important to me. In fact, support from my fans had made the place I’d just locked the doors to even possible.
I turned and looked back at my humble little coffee shop. Steam Queen was named after my TikTok and Instagram handles, which had turned into Twitter and Facebook and everything else. I’d been able to rent this cute little corner of the building with money made from chronicling my journey as a coffee shop owner over social media. That, plus my borderline racy (but hilarious) creations, had won me more than a million followers in the last six months alone.
Sure, it wasn’t an art studio. But one day it would be. Maybe not this building, or even this part of the city. But in time, I’d get there. I knew I’d make it happen.
“We picking up food?” I asked hopefully.
“Nah. Tyler’s cooking.”
“Oh really?” I chuckled.
