Page 3 of To Love the Stars too Fondly

“There you go,” I said, with my standard barista wink.

“Thanks, uh…” He glanced at my name tag. “…Terra. That’s a unique name.”

“It’s a bit different, yeah.”

He lingered. He certainly had the aura—and looks—of a man who was used to collecting phone numbers on coffee cups. Even if I’d thought it would get him moving, Barbs was behind me with the espresso machine and a line of drink orders, and she was a stickler on anything resembling fraternizing. But Liam had called in sick, and Barbs wasn’t a sadist who called off-duty employees at 5 AM on a Saturday asking them to work.

“Next,” I said, and that finally ushered him along.

Of course, Alex stood in the doorway. Even on a Saturday, though she wasn’t dressed to immediately go at it with a punching bag, or whatever it was she did to get those damn biceps. Unfortunately, she instead wore a fitted button-down that somehow didn’t look like a frumpy barista uniform, as well as annoyingly tight slacks.

Liam wasn’t even here to make it funny. “Good morning,” I sound, doing my damndest to sound like the irritating animatronic I was paid to be. “Welcome to Tortalgan Coffee Co.”

Alex’s stupid fuckboy grin was all my brain could even compute. “Hey, Princess.”

Forget her grin. What I was never prepared for were her pretty blue eyes—

“What did you call my employee?”

I stiffened as Barbs suddenly joined me at the counter, her unmistakable voice that of a smoker past her prime. She never smelled of smoke though, more like incense, but in her coke-bottle glasses, Alex’s reflection was one of mild panic.

“Oh, uh...” Alex dithered, her fluster almost endearing. Almost. “It’s just a game between us.”

Game. Sure. Liam had called it sexual harassment. I called it assholery.

“Terra, do you know this woman?”

The shift in power was delicious. I put on my own best fuckboy grin. “She’s a regular.”

“Are you bothered?”

One word, and Alex would never enter this establishment again. I kinda wanted to, if only to keep seeing her pretty eyes looking a little scared and sad. But….

Dammit.

“No,” I replied, and I wished it were a lie, truly. “Like she said, it’s a game.”

Palpable relief shone in Alex’s countenance. Beside me, Barbs looked less than convinced. “Fine. My apologies. Whatever your regular wants is free today.”

She returned to her station beside the espresso machine.

Feeling high and mighty, I leaned coolly against the counter. “Guess it’s on the house. The usual?”

“Sure.” A pause; before I could yell back the heinous order, Alex said, “Look, if it bothers you that I called you Princess—”

“No. No, it’s fine.” What spell was compelling me to be nice? “My manager is protective, that’s all.” I turned back to Barbs. “One triple shot black coffee.”

I lingered just long enough to witness Barbs stiffen in disbelief.

“It’s just…” Alex chuckled, oddly out of form. “It’s stupid, but when I first met you, I thought you looked like Princess Aurora. And then you dyed part of your hair blue, and now it’s pink. It just fit.”

My blonde hair did, in fact, ombre down to pink at the ends, the result of a cheap box dye and a helluva lot of commitment. I bit my lip.

“Anyway,” she continued, “that movie was my favorite as a kid. I always wanted to be Prince Phillip—to, you know, fight a dragon and stuff.”

Dammit. Why was I smiling? “And kiss me while I’m fast asleep?”

“T-That’s not what I was trying to say,” Alex managed, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her stammering. “That’s just why I call you Princess.”