12
After Lonnie had left the night prior, Alexis tried to work quickly to get all the orders done, but she was tired. She didn’t get out of the shop until almost two in the morning, and then had to be back there at five to get started on more orders.
When Melissa walked in a few hours later, she stopped short and stared wide-eyed at Alexis. “What happened? Were we robbed?”
Alexis dragged the back of her forearm across her forehead and sighed, looking around at the mess before her. She hadn’t had time to clean up the extra mixing bowls and decided that was a problem for another time. But she was getting dangerously low on supplies.
“Nope. This is just me trying to hurry.”
Melissa walked to the kitchen and put her hands on her hips as she looked around. “Okay. Okay. No big deal. We’ve got this. Where are you with orders?”
Alexis tipped her head toward the daily order summary they always kept on hand. They made it a habit to always mark things off in stages so that if either of them walked into the kitchen inthe middle of an order, they would know where the other was in the process.
Melissa looked it over and nodded. “Okay, you’re making great progress. Stop stressing. I’m going to load the dishwasher to take care of some of the mess, and then I’ll get on the next order.”
“Thank you.”
Melissa filled the dishwasher and got it running before filling up the display case and then moving to the next order. They didn’t talk as they worked, but Alexis barely noticed. She was stuck in her own head about the night before.
Lonniekissedher. She hadn’t been kissed since Vic. And had never been kissed likethat. Her face heated at the thought, and she pulled her lip between her teeth to fight the smile.
The bell above the door jingled, and Alexis looked up. She hadn’t even realized Melissa had unlocked the door for customers.
“I’ll get it,” Melissa said. She walked to the front counter and greeted the customer.
Alexis half expected it to be Lonnie since he was usually one of the first customers in for the day, but it wasn’t him. All she could see was the same strange man who had been in the day before, and his eyes were zeroed in on her despite her being toward the back of the kitchen. The hair on her arms immediately stood on end.
“Is this all you’d like?” Melissa asked.
Without taking his eyes off Alexis, he nodded and handed over the cash.
“Have a great day,” Melissa said.
The man turned and walked to the door, looking back at Alexis once more before disappearing out the door.
Alexis gasped for air as soon as he was out of sight. She hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath, but somethingwas seriously wrong with that guy. She racked her brain to see if she recognized him, but came up empty. As far as she knew, he didn’t work for Vic, but just because she didn’t recognize him didn’t mean he didn’t.
“That was weird,” Melissa said. “Did you see the way he was staring at you?”
Alexis could barely register what Melissa said as the bell above the door jingled again. Lonnie stepped inside and immediately frowned.
“Are you okay?”
Melissa shook her head. “This really weird guy was just in here. He gave me the creeps, and he just stared at Alexis the entire time. It was seriously the weirdest thing.”
Lonnie moved back to the door and opened it, looking up and down the sidewalk before coming back inside. “What did he look like?”
Melissa shrugged. “There wasn’t anything special about him. He was just some guy. Dark hair. Wearing all black.”
“Have you seen him before?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so?”
“Yes,” Alexis said. “I have. He was here yesterday morning. Right after you left.”
“Was he acting weird then too?” Lonnie asked.
Alexis nodded. “Yeah. He stared at me then too. He was just really creepy.”
