Bobby shrugged and set his coffee down on the counter. Then he took the hairnet and stretched it out, pulling it down over his messy hair so it made his ears stick out.
Suddenly our little round caps didn’t seem so dumb.
Lee led Bobby through to the kitchen, and I was tempted to follow because I knew Lee would say something about me. But then the door opened again, and a bunch of old ladies swarmed the place like hornets, and I had to stay and help Tyler.
“Did you know there’s a mad goose tied up outside?” one of the ladies asked, fanning herself. “It’s a danger to the public!”
They weren’t from here if they didn’t know Lucille. Maybe Bobby had been right and a bakery would bring people to town.
“That’s the mayor’s goose, ma’am,” Tyler said with a grin. “Kind of the town mascot, right, Chase?”
Like he had any clue either, but he wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah,” I said. “A Goose Run institution.”
“Oh, good heavens,” said the old lady, but she said it in a tone of voice like she really wanted to say,What the actual fuck.
I gave them some free cookies to sweeten them up and stared pointedly at the tip jar. If I was going to get fired any secondnow, which I probably was once Lee had talked to Bobby, then I at least wanted to make some decent tips first.
But when Bobby came back out of the kitchen, he didn’t say anything about firing me. He just picked up his coffee, held it up in my direction in a kind of a toast, and said, “Yeah, I knew I had the right team for the job!”
Lee, who had followed him out, snorted. “Thanks for stopping by, Bobby.”
Lucille screeched again and Bobby said, “I promised Lucille a treat. Grab me a couple of those apple Danishes to go, Chase? She’s partial to apples.”
I bagged the Danishes and handed them over, and Bobby beamed at me and sauntered out the door. Tyler stared after him—which, again, was a common reaction to meeting Bobby for the first time. “And he’s the mayor?”
“Yep,” I said.
“And he owns the bakery?”
“And the gas station, and the Adventurama, and a bunch of other stuff.”
“And he has a lucky goose,” Tyler said slowly, like he was waiting for it to make some kind of sense. If he was anything like the rest of us, he’d be waiting a long time.
I glanced at the clock and saw that my shift was almost over—my paid shift, anyway. But because Lee was a hard-ass, I was going to be stuck here until I either figured out the stupid coffee machine or broke it completely.
At this stage it could go either way.
When I finally got to flip the sign from Open to Closed at two, I didn’t ball my apron up and throw it at Lee. Instead, while Tyler worked the mixers in the back making whatever it was they needed to be ready at ass o’clock in the morning, I stood behind the counter and watched as Lee showed me how to work the machine.
“You have to preheat the machine,” he said. “Tyler and I start before you, so we’ll turn it on when we come in.”
I jerked my chin in a nod.
He pointed to the bits on the machine. “Steam wand. Steam valve. Hot water valve. Hot water spout. That’s mostly for teas. Okay, let’s start with the grinder.”
“Oh, I’m acquainted with Grindr,” I said, lifting my chin. “Are you?”
He didn’t take the bait. “You’re making yourself a macchiato. Put the beans in the hopper and select the size to grind them.”
“How am I supposed to know the grind size for a moccalato?” I asked, annoyed that he hadn’t reacted to the Grindr thing.
“Do you mean a macchiato?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Whatever.”
“Pick fine for the grind size,” he said.
