A hand landed on my shoulder. I shrugged it off sharply and spun to find Lee behind me. I stared at him wide-eyed and waited for him to fire me in front of half the town.
Instead, he took a half step back and lifted his hands in the air. “Sorry.”
I barely bit back theFuck youthat was second nature to me, but I knew he could see it on my face.
His gaze flicked between me and the pile of orders, assessing, and then to Tyler, who was lurking in the doorway to the kitchen, and he said, “Okay. You stay on the counter and serve while Tyler mans the espresso machine.” He sounded kinda pissed, and I didn’t blame him.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, acting like I had a choice.
Tyler stepped past me and scooped up the first order and a moment later the grinder burst into life. Before I knew it he’d lined up the remaining orders and was working his way through them.
And sure, it was humiliating being told what to do like I was a little kid, but right now I didn’t even care because that crushing weight in my chest had lifted, and I could breathe again.
There was still a line at the register, but now that I was just taking orders and serving without the pressure of working the coffee machine, I found that it wasn’t as intimidating as it had been. I even managed to remember to smile when I handed out the free cupcake samples, though I probably wasn’t very convincing. And when I had a second in between the seemingly endless supply of customers, I tucked my hand in my pocket and rubbed a thumb over Cash’s good luck charm. Maybe the dumb thing was working after all.
Tyler worked like a goddamn machine, and I caught a glimpse of the tattoo on his forearm whenever he slid a coffee toward the register. It was some sort of Army tattoo, with numbers and letters underneath that I couldn’t understand. No wonder he was cool under pressure. It was probably a lot easier to deal with a bunch of people who wanted coffee instead of a bunch of people who wanted to shoot you. Shots of espresso instead of shots fired.
By the time the crowd had thinned out three hours later, my feet hurt, my strained smile had faded into a frown, and I was ready for a break. But I hadn’t sworn at any customers or handed out the wrong change or threatened to punch anyone, so I was taking it as a win. It was probably the only one I’d get today, though.
When I looked up, there were no customers, and I let out a long breath. “That was crazy.”
“Right?” Tyler said, casting me a sideways glance. I figured he was still trying to work out how he’d been saddled with a barista who couldn’t use a coffee machine. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Lee came out from the kitchen, and he shut it again.
Lee glowered at me, probably because he’d had to do both his and Tyler’s jobs in the back while Tyler did mine. “Tyler, take a break.”
Tyler nodded and headed to the back.
Lee looked around to check we were temporarily customer free and then said, “What the fuck was that?”
Time to lie my ass off. I gestured to the machine. “This is a different machine than I’m used to,” I said.
Not exactly an explanation but not an apology either. An apology would imply I’d done something wrong, and I wasn’t owning up to anything until I knew what Lee planned to do.
He reached out and grabbed a take-out cup off the top of the stack. He shoved it at me and nodded. “Make me a drink, Chase.”
“What?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Make me a drink.”
“Uh, okay,” I said, taking the cup like I was afraid it would explode. “What sort do you want?”
“I want a latte,” he said. “Large. With oat milk and an extra shot of espresso.”
“Uh,” I said again and stared at the machine. Then, hoping that maybe I’d learned how to work the machine by osmosis since I’d been standing beside Tyler all morning, I pressed a button.
The machine made a hissing, burbling sound, and a hot jet of air burst out of a tube at the end.
“That’s for steaming the milk,” Lee said.
“Am I… am I not supposed to be steaming the milk?”
Lee drew a breath. “Chase, can you actuallyusean espresso machine?”
“Technically, I?—”
“It’s a yes or no question.”
“No,” I said, my face hot with either anger or embarrassment or both of them together. I scrunched his cup up. “No, okay? Fuck you. I quit.”
