“I know they work here, but I’m after him,” the woman behind him added. “I’m sure it’s hard work being a server. And caffeine would help with that. Even so, they don’t get to cut.”
“I make coffee for who I make coffee for when I wanna make coffee for them, and I don’t take lip!” Tex boomed from behind the steam.
The customers shut up.
Raye told them, “We aren’t cutting.”
I asked Tex, “Have you heard from Byron?”
“Who?” Tex asked while wrenching a portafilter off the machine so hard, the entire counter shook.
“Byron,” I repeated.
“Who?” Tex asked, more irritably this time.
“You know, corner table Byron.”
“Oh, right,” Tex said. “No clue.”
Raye and I looked at each other again.
We stepped back into the restaurant, and I said, “He had a date with Dream last night.”
“Date three? In one week? Whoa,” Raye replied.
“I know. I think they dig each other.”
We shared a smile.
After we did that, I asked, “Even when he’s on a mission with this stuff about Knox’s mom, I don’t think he’d miss the date. Should I call her? See if he showed?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. I’ll connect with Cap. See if he knows anything.”
We took our phones out of our aprons and I called my sister.
“Oh. Hey. He’s here,” she said as greeting.
“Wait…he spent the night?” I asked in a happy-things-are-progressing-nicely way, and Raye stopped typing out her text to Cap.
“Hang on,” Dream said.
I hung on.
My phone went with a text.
It was from Dream.
I opened it and stared at a picture of Byron sitting at her kitchen table. His hair was standing on end. There were three empty coffee mugs by his laptop. He was bleary-eyed but fiercely focused on his laptop screen.
I heard Dream’s voice coming through the phone, so I put it to my ear and caught, “…all night, doing something important for you.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said.
“It is,” she agreed. “He’s sweet.”
“This didn’t mess up your date?” I asked.
“Oh no. He’s hot when he gets all focused and I got to make him dirty chais. He says I make great chais. Even if I use oat milk.”
