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Greer tips her book so I can see her newest rough draft of the characters in her graphic novel. “This is for book five. Can you believe I’m working on a fifth book? The first one isn’t even out yet. I am so freaking tired.” Greer is one of those people who hyper fixates and will not sleep for days while working on a project unless someone takes it away from her.
“That’s incredible.” I touch the page to follow a line of a character’s face. “It looks computer generated. I can’t draw a straight line to save my life, but you create this by hand. It seems unfair.”
“I hope you can cut a straight line because I’m going to need those expert handy-woman skills you offered last night.” Rowen’s voice from behind me has heat crawling up my cheeks.
“Here you go!” Harlow hands me my comics and her eyes land on Rowen. Her cheeks pink too. “Hi, I’m Harlow. Can I help you with anything?” I can’t blame the girl one bit. Rowen is gorgeous.
“Hey. Rowen.” She reaches for a fist bump and Harlow delivers. “I just came to introduce myself and talk to Janet.” Her shoulder bumps mine and I stop breathing for a second. What the actual fuck is wrong with me. I’m a grown woman, but my body thinks I’m fifteen with my first crush on a girl. Harlow makes heart eyes at her and Greer smirks at me. I pull out my wallet and hand Harlow the money for my three comics, but Rowen picks them up before I can and studies each one in the clear plastic sleeve. Brian’s is the first in the stack, his Agent Immortal series has been my favorite since it came out, then there’s a Batgirl and Supergirl. Yeah, I’m an overgrown child. Rowen smirks at me and my face heats again. This is getting ridiculous.
I clear my throat. “Rowen owns Cover to Cover now,” I say, trying to take her intense gaze off me.
Greer’s face falls. “I’m sorry for your loss.” We all know about Matilda dying, and we all knew someone would inherit her things, but this was Rowen’s family and that sucks.
“Thanks. I’ll definitely miss her, but we hadn’t seen each other in a while. She was a force in the world for sure.” Rowen blinks and sniffles. My hand moves out and rests on her arm. I didn’t tell it to do that, but here we are, my hand gently resting on her arm.
“Thanks for these.” I hold up my comics to Harlow who’s smirking at me like she knows a secret.
“Bye. Nice to meet you.” Greer waves and goes back to her sketchbook, Harlow opens her novel, and I take a step back, hand falling away from Rowen’s arm in the process. She moves with me, walking toward the front door.
“I was actually going to text you.” She pauses, her steps faltering with her words. “Can I buy you a coffee?” I stop too, turning to look at her. Her cheeks are flushed, and she’s nibbling her bottom lip.
“Yeah. Coffee sounds great.” I back track, turning to follow Rowen to Second Breakfast.
“What’s good here?” She leans in close, almost whispering in my ear, our bodies brushing slightly.
“Do you like coffee coffee? Or coffee drinks?” I whisper back, approaching the counter where Tuesday is staring into space at nothing. To be a functioning member of society, it’s weird how often I see her do this, and considering I’m only here once a week, it’s even more astounding. Tuesday rhythmically wipes down the counter, not paying any attention until we’re right in front of her.
“Oh! Hey! What can I get you?” She tosses the rag in a bucket behind her and smiles at us. I asked her once what she was thinking about, and she said her characters were talking to her and she was listening. I guess being an international bestselling author comes with fun perks, like zoning out to listen to your characters.
Rowen stares at the menu board, clearly overwhelmed. “What’s good?” She looks at me, then at Tuesday.
“Two drinks of the month,” I answer for her, sidling in close so our bodies brush again, sending the surge of electricity through me.
“Which one?” Tuesday points at the other side of the board and my eyes move with her fingers. One side has the As you Whip, a whipped cream topped caramel latte. The other side has the Queen of Tarts, a strawberry tart flavored latte.
“As you Whip,” I say with finality and study the board. The drinks of the month are done in chalk by Greer with Buttercup and Wesley fromThe Princess Brideon one side and the Red Queen fromAlice in Wonderlandon the other.
Tuesday starts our drinks and keeps talking. “February is a weird month when it comes to drinks. Some people love the romance inspired drinks, others get salty because they’re single, especially after speed dating. So, we had to do two options, and this is what we came up with. How do you two know each other?” Tuesday suddenly freezes, a cup in each hand and stares at us, a tilt to her head that makes her look like a curious bird.
“Rowen was my Uber driver last night,” I answer, looking over at her with a smile on my face that I know is transparent as hell.
Tuesday sets the cups down and slides them toward us. “Ah. Well, welcome to the nerd zone, Rowen. I appreciate you not firing my husband for being obnoxious. Good luck working with him, Amelia is a saint.” Tuesday says the words, but her eyes are all starry and in love when she says fiancé. I don’t know the whole story because I’m only here once a week for comics, but it sounds like Leo and Tuesday fell in love when they were kids and finally came together recently. From what I can gather, Leo was way worse before they gave up trying to pretend they weren’t in love. It’s hard to imagine.
“I’ll try not to fire him in the future.” Rowen grabs our drinks and carries them to a small table away from the group of women setting up a card game near the front. We take a seat, and she hands me my cup. “He asked me if I knew alphabetical order this morning. I know I look young, but I did make it through kindergarten,” Rowen whispers so Tuesday can’t hear her.
I almost choke on my latte. “That sounds exactly like Leo. He really doesn’t mean to be that way though. So, what brings you across the street, and why are you working over there?” I lean in, hands around the warm paper cup. Up close and in the light her sea blue eyes have flecks of gray in them, and I am completely mesmerized.
“I grabbed Tuesday’s, Tyr’s, whatever. I grabbed the book.” She pulls a large hardback out of the bag across her chest and sets it on the table. “Amelia said to come here for her to sign it and we started chatting about Leo. Then I saw you come in and here we are.” Her cheeks turn pink again and she sips her drink. “What are you doing here?”
“Collins, sorry, Wyatt, my partner, got me into comics recently, so I come here and grab the new releases once a week. They’re a standing order.” Rowen stares at me blankly for a second then looks at her cup.
“Your partner. Wyatt.” She nods slowly, chewing her lip. It takes me a solid five seconds to process what she gathered from what I said.
“Wait. No. Partner. Like at work. Sergeant Collins is my work partner. Not my… oh ew. Not that he isn’t great, but I… he’s not mytype.” Rowen’s cheeks go from pink to bright red and her eyes are looking everywhere but at me.
“Yeah, I mean, I know. Obviously.” Her eyes go wide. “Not obviously, but I mean. Fuck.” She shakes her head and drops her head into her hands and laughs. “I made this so awkward.” I reach out to touch her hand, but she raises her head and stares at me, face still red. Rowen eyes my hand on the table, then my face. “So, I was planning on texting you today once I figured things out at the bookstore and to see when would be a good for you to come look at a few things that need fixing up. I’m handy, but this is more than a one-person project and I am so overwhelmed. I’d also really like to sleep in a bed at some point but the heat in the upstairs doesn’t seem to work so I’ve been on the couch with a space heater. The house needs… cleaning. So much cleaning. I was not equipped for what this move meant professionally or personally, and now I’m vomiting my issues all over you.” She stops talking and takes a sip of her drink. “I just don’t know anyone here and I had no idea what I was getting into.”
“I’m off today and tomorrow. It’s still early, and unless there’s a huge emergency, I’m all yours to check it out.” My phrasing isn’t lost on me or her. Her lips pull into that mischievous smirk and my inner lovesick girl swoons. I lick my lips and wait for her to respond.
