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“Oh, no,” I said, leaning back on my knees. I couldn’t help the small laugh that burst out of my mouth. “I’m sorry! It’s not funny.”
He glared at me as I tried to stop smiling.
“Honey, you are beautiful,” he said, reaching out to touch my cheek. “And I fuckin’ dig you in a big way.”
“Okay,” I said, a little confused at the change of subject.
“But I’m gonna go sleep in my own bed before I’m seriously injured.”
My mouth dropped open in surprise as he started to smile.
“Fine,” I said, pulling the pillow out from under his head. “Go then.” I smacked him with it.
“You’re a goddess,” he said, sliding out of bed. “So fuckin’ gorgeous.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I replied. We were both laughing by that point.
“You’re just a terrible person to sleep with,” he said, backing up with his hands in the air. “Not sure how I forgot that.”
“You weren’t complaining the other times,” I said, throwing the pillow at him.
“I think the other times we ended up spoonin’ and I could keep ya somewhat contained,” he said apologetically, still chuckling. He tossed the pillow back to me.
“See you in the morning?” I asked, hiding my disappointment quite well, I thought.
“You want me to stay?” he asked, pausing at the doorway. “We can figure somethin’ out so—”
“It’s fine,” I said, waving him off. “Really. I’m going to crash for like twelve more hours and catch up on all the sleep I’ve been missing. I can see you tomorrow.”
He leaned down and grabbed his clothes and shoes before striding back to the bed. “I had a good time tonight,” he said, leaning forward to kiss me softly. “Until the sleep Mortal Kombat, that is.”
“Me too,” I replied, pushing him away. “Go. Let me get my beauty rest.”
“Night, Honey,” he said as he opened my bedroom door.
“Goodnight, Beauregard Augustus Bishop.”
He was shaking his head as he closed the door behind him.
For all the assurances I’d given about how I was going to fall right back asleep, you’d think that I would’ve been able to actually go back to sleep. I didn’t. By the time Bishop had left my room I was wide awake. My body must’ve gotten used to just a few hours of sleep at night after the last few weeks of non-stop work.
I curled back up under the covers and stared at the ceiling, the calm of earlier completely lost. I was in some serious trouble with my business and I had no fucking clue how to dig myself out of it.
At first, I’d thought that it was a fluke that we weren’t bringing in as much revenue as we had before. I told myself that it was the weather, the full moon, the fact that the shop had switched owners and people were unsure if we would be the same little coffee shop they’d come to know and love.
Me and my dad had gone over the statements Mal had given us again and again, looking for any discrepancies. I’d never believed it, but dad had suspected that she’d fudged some numbers so she could increase the sale price of the cart. It turned out she hadn’t though, not unless she had someone cooking the books that was better at it than my genius father which was unlikely.
I’d let two baristas go while I tried to find the leak in the boat. Kara was able to cover some of their shifts and I took the bulk of them. It was partly because they were lazy and never showed up to work on time and I just didn’t like them in general, but it also meant that I didn’t have to pay them. If I was paying myself for only forty hours of work while actually working closer to seventy—well, that wasn’t anyone’s business. I knew it wasn’t sustainable, but for now, it was my only option.
Fewer and fewer people were coming to the cart. It was so confusing. We’d had a solid customer base when I’d taken over. Lately, I hadn’t even seen some of the regulars that knew us all by name.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I spent hours of my day posting shit on social media, making sure all of our signs were visible from the road, hell, I’d even added Christmas lights to the cart so we’d attract more attention—and still I hadn’t been able to make a dent.
I felt like I was swimming against the current but I refused to give up. I’d put all my savings into the fucking coffee cart. I’d been so sure that I could make it more successful than it had been before.
I really hated that I seemed to be tanking the entire business.
I also really hated that my fantastic night with Bishop was over and I was back to stressing about what the hell I was going to do about the business. I rolled over to my stomach and yelled quietly into my pillow. Then, I remembered what was in my purse.
