Page 5 of Quit Playing Games with My Heart

“What can I do for you today?” I asked, trying my best to keep it professional. Strict professionalism didn’t feel like the right way to interact with Brian either, though.

“I think I have an idea,” Brian said, scooting forward on his seat and leaning toward me.

“I love a good idea,” I replied with a smile.

I was not flirting. I absolutely wasn’t flirting.

Brian’s smile grew, and the light in his eyes sparked toward inspiration. “Okay, so we need to bring more people into the café, right?” he began.

“Right,” I nodded.

“And we need to bring them in after construction hours, when things are quieter and people aren’t driven away by the noise and dust.”

“Definitely,” I said, resting my elbows on the arms of my chair and steepling my fingers.

Brian opened his arms in a wide gesture, as if he’d already found the solution before saying anything. “We can hold a games night,” he said, sitting a little straighter.

“A games night?” It wasn’t a half bad idea.

“Yeah,” Brian went on like he thought I didn’t understand what he meant, inching closer to the desk. “You know, a night where we invite people to come to the café to play some of their favorite board games, either with friends they bring with them or with strangers.”

“I get the general idea,” I nodded, enjoying Brian’s enthusiasm as much as his suggestion. He positively glowed as he pitched the whole thing.

“I got the idea the other day, when I dropped by in the afternoon and saw two old guys playing chess at one of the window booths,” he went on.

“Stanley and Marvin?” I knew the two guys well. “They’ve been bringing their chess set into Common Grounds for years now.”

“They’re smart, then.” Brian’s enthusiasm grew. “Watching them for a while made me think. We’ve got such a great space, especially in the back, but we don’t have performances or open mic nights every night. I think Tuesday and Thursday nights are open right now. We could pick one of those nights and have a games night.”

“Specific games or just anything?” I asked.

Brian shrugged. “Maybe a little of both. I know there are a bunch of board games out there for adults, games that rely on things like strategy and planning. Or people could play things as simple as Monopoly or chess or checkers. If we advertised it widely enough, we could bring in a lot of different people, maybe even people who don’t even know Common Grounds is here and who would start coming back for their coffee during the day instead of going to one of those chain places.”

I nodded, getting caught up in Brian’s enthusiasm. It wasn’t hard for me to get caught up in anything Brian presented to me. “We could host tournaments of various games.” I picked up his idea and ran with it. “I’m sure there are some local chess clubs in the area that would love an invitation to play here. Stanley and Marvin would know.”

“Or we could invite people to drop by with their own games and offer the space for whatever anyone wanted to do,” Brian said with just a hint of challenge in his beautiful eyes.

“That sounds a bit chaotic,” I said. Sometimes Brian was a bit chaotic. Not in a bad way, mind you, just in a way that needed someone maybe a little older and wiser to rest a steady hand on his shoulder and guide him a bit.

Warnings pinged inside me. I shouldn’t be having those thoughts. Once again, I had to remind myself that Brian was an employee who I was responsible for, not a tantalizing young man who I could flirt with and ask out and explore things with.

“It’s not chaotic, it’s just diverse,” Brian said, his grin making my head spin. “If we advertised the whole thing like a general game night, we could appeal to a wider bunch of people. Who knows? We might even get some D&D groups coming in to play.”

“Maybe, but D&D campaigns usually run longer than the café would be open.”

“That’s another thing,” Brian went on, scooting even closer to the desk, like he would melt right through it and sit on my lap to tell me the rest of his plans…which was an image I should not be entertaining. “We could keep the café open slightly later on those nights and maybe offer a special menu.”

That shifted me firmly back into business mode. “Keeping this place open later might increase operational costs. Same with offering a special menu.”

“Couldn’t we figure out a way around that?” he asked, a hint of vulnerability returning.

God, Brian was tempting enough when he was confident and proactive, but I was a complete sucker for him when he had his flickers of doubt. It wasn’t a good sign for me at all. I needed to remember the employee dating rules and all the reasons we had them in place to begin with.

But instead of putting up the walls I knew needed to be there, I said, “We could probably come up with a work-around. We need to be super conscious of every expense we have until business picks up a little.”

“I’m sure a games night will bring in loads of people,” Brian said. “We could advertise at the local colleges, places like bookstores, all the places where people who like to play games hang out. We could set up Common Grounds as a place where people come to play games.”

I don’t know why his statement hit me that way, but all I could imagine as Brian spelled out his idea was the game of pursuing him and making him mine. It was silly and had more than a few outdated ideas about relationship roles tangled up in it, but it appealed all the same.