AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 1
12 years later...
San Francisco at 7:30 am on a Friday was a bustling metropolis of people scurrying to make it to work on time. I was no different than the rest as I stepped outside of my building and immediately had to dodge an oncoming man dressed in a business suit who had his phone held up to his face as he facetimed with someone. I nearly shouted at him to watch where he was going. Instead, I just sighed and joined the throng of people, doing my best to keep up with it as it swept me along. Icouldhave pulled my car out of the garage and just driven to work. But I preferred to walk since the office wasn’t far. Besides that, driving meant no morning coffee, and I absolutely refused to miss my morning coffee.
It was chilly outside, and fog still hung heavily in the street. Add in the icy breeze blowing in from the bay, and I was glad that I had opted for the thick sweater dress and tights that I was wearing. They kept most of the cold out, and the brisk pace that I set took care of the rest.
As I rounded the corner of my street, my phone chirped, letting me know that I had a text. More chirps began to blow up my phone, and I already knew, without looking, who was texting before I even opened my messages. Tibby and Eloise were the only people who would blow my phone up this early in the morning, and one glance at the messages popping up on my home screen told me that I was right.
TIBBY:Madeline. Madeline. Madeline.
ELLIE:Madeline! Are you free for dinner tonight?
MADELINE:...Uhhhh no sorry, I’ve got a work thing.
TIBBY:Boo. Is a work thing more important than a family dinner? I feel like we haven’t seen you in forever.
I hadn’t been to any family dinners in the past few weeks. I was starting to think that I was in a bit of a funk, and watching my friends be happy with their packs made me feel like an odd woman out. Guilt gnawed at me as I responded.
MADELINE:Sorry, I haven’t really been going out with my coworkers, and being social is a part of my job. What if we did family dinner on Sunday night? I wanted to come over and squeeze my niece's chunky cheeks anyways. :) :)
ELLIE:That works for us! Tibby?
TIBBY:Yep, Aria says that we’re free then too.
MADELINE:Awesome, see you guys on Sunday! Xoxoxo
They sent back the appropriate kissing face emojis and a picture of Vivienne, my three-month-old niece. I hearted the picture and stepped into Golden Gate Grind, my favorite coffee place in the entirety of San Francisco. Not only was it the perfect mid-point between my apartment and the office where I worked, but it served the best caramel macchiato that I’d ever tasted.
Golden Gate Grind was located on the corner, a block away from my job, and took up a large chunk of the bottom floor of the building that it was in. The inside was filled with warm woods, and plush furniture that made it a popular study spot for college students. Everything about the inside screamed of warmth and comfort, a welcome change from the otherwise dreary morning.
As soon as I stepped inside of the shop, the smell of coffee and baked goods greeted me...and so did the line that was so long that it nearly reached the door that I had just opened. I scooted inside, nearly bumping into the person in front of me, and closed the door. I hoped the line moved before someone else came inside and we were forced to stand with the door open.
While I waited in line, I distracted myself with my phone, answering emails from clients who wanted me to change things about their wardrobes since we were starting to gear up for the holiday season, and scrolling through the new catalog that management had sent down to the stylists. My world was about to be filled with red and green velvet and other holiday clothing that would make my clients stand out at their various high-brow holiday parties.
“Hi, Madeline,” a familiar low rumble made me look up from my phone and right into the dark eyes of Rio Malik, the owner of Golden Gate Grind.
“Good morning, Rio.” This was the usual interaction we had every morning when I came in for coffee. I had been coming to Golden Gate Grind for almost six months now, and I had been nursing the tiniest of crushes on this alpha for almost as long...okay it was a bit bigger than tiny. Rio was mouthwateringly handsome. He had shiny black hair and a neatly trimmed black beard that twitched whenever he smiled. He was also tall, making even my five-foot-eight frame feel tiny. Today he was dressed in his usual combination of jeans, long-sleeved black shirt, and the dark orange Golden Gate Grind apron that he always wore. His sleeves were rolled up to reveal the corded tendons of his arms and his long fingers that I always blushed at when I stared at them for too long.
“Busy morning?” Rio asked, nodding to my phone which was still clutched in my hand. “You don’t usually start answering emails this early in the morning.”
Rio knew what I did for a living. Over the past six months, we’d had a two or three-minute conversation every morning and, in those tiny snippets of conversation, we learned quite a bit about each other. He knew that I worked at Poleman’s, the premiere professional dressing firm on the West Coast, and I knew that he was a part of a pack of alphas that had high-power jobs—though I never asked who they were, and he never asked who my family was. That was an unspoken boundary that we’d set with each other.
“Holiday season is ramping up, so that means I’m going to be busy all of the time,” I said and pulled out my wallet. “Can I get....”
“A caramel macchiato, two pumps of caramel?” Rio pulled a cup from underneath the countertop that already had my name on it, “I made it a few minutes before you came in....” There was a hint of a sheepish blush on his warm brown skin, and I found my own cheeks warming in response. This was definitely an escalation from our usual conversations.
“Thank you, how much do I owe you?” I opened my wallet to pull out my debit card, but Rio held up a hand with several silver rings on it that glinted in the dim light of the coffee shop.
“It’s on the house,” he told me, and I opened my mouth to argue, but he didn’t let me. “Take it, Madeline, I’ve been meaning to start a punch card anyway, and you’ve purchased more than enough coffee to qualify.”
I closed my mouth and picked up the warm coffee cup and couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across my features. “Thank you, Rio...see you tomorrow?”
Rio nodded, looking a little bit dazed when he finally spoke again. “Tomorrow, Madeline.” His words sounded like a promise, and they sent a little thrill shivering down my spine. I left the coffee shop in more of a hurry than I needed to so that I didn’t embarrass myself, our interaction had left my skin buzzing with anticipation and excitement because, yep, I definitely had a crush on the cute coffee shop owner.
“‘I’ve been meaning to start a punch card,’huh?” Melanie, one of my part-timers, teased once the morning rush had finally died down.
“Shut up,” I grumbled as I sprayed and wiped the counter down. “Ihavebeen meaning to start a punch card.”
