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“Your shitty attitude.” He grinned. I hated how much his amiability bothered me. No one should be that good-natured all the time.
I grumbled something rude under my breath, but he ignored me.
“I suppose I’ll have to get used to it.” He lifted his arms and stretched, taking an exaggerated breath in. “Ahhh, nothing like the warmth of a loving brother filling my space with hominess.”
Flinching at his comment, I tried to soften my hardened expression. Despite all our differences and my resigned demeanor, he truly was trying his best—a lot more than I could say of myself.
“Thanks for letting me stay, Ollie,” I said, sincerely this time.
He smiled and patted the shoulder he had just smacked. “Thanks for coming.”
Chapter Four
CHARLIE
“Thankyou so much for coming out, everyone. Join our newsletter if you want to hear more about upcoming events, and don’t forget to join us on Sunday for our weekly hike.”
A chorus ofthank yousechoed from the dozen or so women in the coffee shop as I gave a small smile and wave.
Two women around my age approached the table.
“Oh my god, I just moved to the city, and this group is perfect,” one said.
The other nodded excitedly. “It’s so hard to meet friends at this age.”
I smiled at their praise. “That’s exactly why we—” I gestured to Lila. “—decided to start ConnectHer. It’s so great to have a group to try new activities and network with.”
“Yes,” Lila chimed in. “We wanted to make it as accessible as possible so no one feels intimidated to join.”
“You succeeded. We’ll definitely be signing up.” They took a few of our business cards and exited the shop.
I turned to Lila, and we both let out an almost silent squeal.
“We’re getting more sign-ups every day. I can’t believe it was just us two and your cousin a year ago,” I said.
Last summer, Lila and I had come up with the concept of an organized women’s meet-up group. The result was ConnectHer, a platform dedicated to fostering a sense of community among women—whether they had lived here forever or had just moved to the area. It’s funny, the idea actually came to us at the office. We had stupidly pitched it to Don who—unsurprisingly—shot it down instantly. “Women go online to meet men, not each other. No one would use that,” he’d said, laughing maniacally. Well, maybe not maniacally but that’s how I chose to remember it—him with his head thrown back swiveling around in his office chair like some James Bond villain.
“This was our best morning coffee turnout yet,” Lila whispered excitedly. “I swear, at this rate, we’ll have doubled our numbers by Christmas.”
“Ugh, that would be a dream. I’m totally adding that to my vision board.”
She took down the sign from the window as I cleared away the business cards we had set out. We weren’t sure an early morning weekday meet-up would be popular, but this was the thirdCaffeine and Connectionsevent, and judging by everyone’s approval, there would be a lot more in the future.
“Seriously though, it’s more than a dream,” she said. “We’re really building something here. I know we aren’t making ‘quit your job’ money yet, but I think we’re close. We just need to invest a little more time and money into expanding this.”
I sighed. “Easy for you to say. They’re working me like crazy at the office.”
“Hey, they’re working me too. I just have priorities and my passion is one of them. We shouldn’t feel guilty for pursuing our own venture.”
“You’re right,” I said. “God knows those tech bros would cut us loose without a second thought if it was in their best interest.”
“Speaking of tech bros, I doubt our workload is going to get any lighter with the Pulse death lords descending upon us today.”
I snorted and slapped a hand across my mouth to stifle the sound. “I thought you were excited to have some new eye candy in the office.”
She smirked. “We’ll see how I feel after they open their mouths.”
“Shit,” I said, glancing at my phone. “Speaking of them, we’ve got to go or we’re going to miss their big introduction.”
