Page 31 of Amber: Deja Brew

“Yeah, lucky.” Sapphire takes some of the paper towels from me, dabs at her shirt, and gets to her feet.

“Sapphire, wait. I’ll make you another one, free of charge,” I say quickly, though I’m pretty sure I can kiss the five star review goodbye. That and a bunch of our raspberry syrup and espresso.

“Free? Then I’ll be back. As soon as I’ve changed.” Sapphire starts toward the door, then pauses and bows dramatically to the customers waiting in line. “Hope you enjoyed the show.”

Only the pink-haired girl has the audacity to clap. Julian takes her order next, while I mop up Sapphire’s mess and head to the sink. I drop it in the sink, turn on the tap, and water shoots everywhere.

“Oh no!” the pink-haired girl shrieks, and I hear a loud thud. “Turn it off! Turn it off!”

“I’m trying!” I shout back, twisting the knob to the left, then to the right. The water keeps spraying, first in my face, then over my left shoulder, then over my right.

“Let me see.” Julian rushes to take my place and then sputters as the trajectory of the spraying water changes and hits him straight in the face, too.

I jump back and turn my back to the sink, but the pink-haired girl is nowhere to be seen. By the half-horrified, half-fascinated looks our customers are shooting the cafe floor, I can guess where she went.

“Are you alright, dear?” Violet asks from her perch on her walker, and I wonder if the girl’s fainted.

“What happened?” I call out and rush around the counter. When I see her, my eyes widen in surprise.

Somewhere in the background, I hear Julian yelling as he tries to fix the sink, but I can’t bring myself to care. Because right there on the floor, in the middle of Jewels Cafe, is a mermaid. A gorgeous, flopped right out of a book, too magnificent to be real, mermaid. She’s all iridescent, pink fish scales from the waist down, and thick, flowing pink locks covering her from the waist up. And no clothes, at least not any as far as I can tell.

“You’re a mermaid?” I gape at her.

Sure, I’ve known that mermaids are real, I’ve just never seen one myself. There weren’t any at the academy—or in my hometown, or Julian’s—since they need a large body of water to survive. I didn’t think there were any in Silver Springs, either, but here she is, flopping around on the floor like a fish out of water.

“Obviously, I’m a mermaid!” The girl cries. Then she looks around, her eyes snapping from one drenched, gaping customer to the next. Everyone in the cafe is completely soaked, and they’re all staring at her like they’ve never seen a mermaid before, either. Her cheeks turn a mortified pink hue, matching her hair, and she starts to shout. “Don’t you have any respect? Stop staring at me and get out of here, go!”

My heart sinks, and I realize that Jewels Cafe can kiss a good rating on Screech goodbye. We got six drenched customers standing in line, one soaked granny sitting on her walker, one flopping mermaid turning pink with rage, and a vampire storming home covered in coffee.

Even if whoever Wes spoke to at Screech takes down all the fake reviews, there will be plenty of real ones to take their place. Plus, once we count up the money we lost today with our half-off sale... let’s just say, this day couldn’t get any worse.