Steamy fog sprayed from the espresso machine as Spencer slammed the
lever all the way down. She shouldn’t have had to work, today of all
days. But the universe obviously hated her and it was punishing her.
That was the only explanation.
“Stop moping,” her best friend Cia said, shoving a tray of mugs beside the gurgling coffee machine. “Your boyfriend’s here.”
Spencer
groaned and rolled her eyes. She tried not to be angry with her friend
but refused to look at her. It was all right to be upset, but not good
to show it. Although, technically her shift hadn’t even started yet, but
Cia’s cute friend
just had to have a latte and couldn’t wait, so Cia let him in, without asking Spencer first.
This left just enough time for
him to
show up and squeeze his skinny frame through the doors, according to
Cia. Spencer would bet that Cia held the door open and even waved him
over.
“
Not my boyfriend,” Spencer told her through gritted teeth.
“But
does he know that?” Cia asked, smirking in that annoying way she did.
One side of her mouth turned up and her brown eyes went dark, almost
black.
Spencer looked around the machine to see she was right.
Josh, she thought his name was, stood at the counter taking off his
gloves, eyes finding hers instantly. A smile lit up his face, although
his cheeks had a slight color from the cooler December air. Spencer only
nodded and went back to finishing up the latte order.
Josh was
kind of cute, light eyes, strong chin. Although he had to be in his
mid-twenties and he was just a touch creepy. He was in here every day
and he stared when he thought she wasn’t looking. He would sip at his
coffee and she’d feel his grey eyes on her. And he’d always be toying
with this pretty blue pendant he wore on a black rope around his neck.
Spencer only caught a glimpse of it one time, because he kept it hidden
under his shirt or in his hand most of the time, but it was pretty. Some
pitchfork looking thing.
“She will be right with you, Jeremy. She’s just finishing up an order.”
Jeremy, that was his name. Right. She never remembered his name.
Yeah, an order that I shouldn’t have to make for another… Spencer’s eyes went to the little clock on the wall in the back.
Half an hour.
Spencer just wished that this guy would let someone else serve him, but no. If she was on shift, he would wait for her.
Why
did she have to work today? At least, no one told him it was her
birthday today. For some reason, she didn’t want him to know.
As
luck would have it, the next words Cia uttered were, “She’s grumpy
because she had to work on her birthday.” Spencer noticed that Cia
leaned in close to him and pretended to whisper, even though Spencer
heard her quite clearly.
Mainly because there were four people in the shop and only one person actually working.
“On her birthday? That’s too bad.” Jeremy smiled from ear to ear, running his thin fingers through his thick, black hair.
Yeah, and I thought I was lucky enough to have the day off school today. Then Cia’s parents had to call and shatter that hope.
Spencer
decided she might as well get this part of her day over with so she
could celebrate her day, tossed a lid on the latte, called out for Cia’s
friend and then made her way over to Jeremy.
She offered him a
smile, but it was robotic at best. Normally, she dismissed Jeremy’s
actions as a bored guy with nothing better to do, but today, she didn’t
feel like dealing with him. She just wanted to go out and hang out with
her friends, do fun stuff. After all, she was seventeen today. But when
her parents wouldn’t help her get a car, she decided that she’d get the
thing herself. Fast forward to today, and she was stuck working.
“Hi,
what can I get for you?” she asked, finger hovering over the computer
screen, taking in the scent of his cologne. It wasn’t terrible, but it
was too much, too powerful. It almost made her gag.
“No polite chitchat today?” he questioned, still smirking.
Spencer
shuffled uncomfortably. The way he was looking at her made her insides
crawl. Couldn’t her best friend in the whole world see how uncomfortable
this guy made her? “Bad day. Would you like the usual?”
“Plain black. Straight cup of joe.”
“Anything else?”
His
smile faltered a bit, but he still aimed his grey eyes at her and he
was leaning over the counter so he could be closer to her.
Seriously, Cia should see something is wrong here. Thanks for nothing, Cia. “I don’t suppose you’d give me your number.”
A loud bang from behind Spencer made her jump. Cia called out, “Sorry.”
Spencer
used the opportunity to sneak away and grab Jeremy/Josh’s coffee order.
On the off chance that he’d forget what he asked and she’d be home free
by the time she slinked back over to the counter to bring him his
coffee.
Spencer poured, noticing her hand was shaking. Normally
she didn’t let it get to her but today seemed different. She couldn’t
say why, but he seemed to crawl deeper under her skin today. She
shivered and prayed it was almost time to open the shop. With people
impatiently waiting on their caffeine fix, she didn’t have time to talk
to him and Spencer liked it that way.
She stalled as long as she
could. When Cia came out from the back with a stack of to-go cups,
Spencer turned and gave the guy his coffee. He held out a twenty and she
took it silently, hoping they didn’t have to talk anymore.
But then Cia went back to the back of the shop.
Spencer
gave the guy a strained smile as she reached over to give him his
change. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him. “You should
give me your number, Spencer. We’ve been dancing in circles for too
long,” he whispered.
Spencer’s heartrate changed, sped up. She
felt herself begin to sweat and shallow breaths were the only ones to
reach her lungs. He was so close she could see his pupils dilate.
She tried to jerk her arm free, but he refused to let go.
“Just give me your number, Spencer. No need to play shy.”
Spencer shook her head and grabbed his hand to remove it.
It
all happened so quickly, she could have blinked and missed the entire
moment. Josh… or Jeremy… or whatever his name was, stood before her, a
six-foot solid gold statue. The grey eyes that had just dilated in need
for her and creeped her out, were now cold, metal and unseeing. A gasp
slipped from her throat. She wanted to scream or cry. She wasn’t sure
which.
The hand gripping her arm hurt and that’s where she decided
to focus. It took her a few tries to twist her wrist from his grasp,
but as soon as she shook loose and jumped back, Cia came back to the
front of the shop.
She squealed and dropped the handful of coffee
bags she’d been holding. “What the heck happened here? I run to the back
for supplies and suddenly there’s a gold statue at the counter.” She
stared at the statue, not looking over and seeing the terror on her best
friend’s face.
Spencer couldn’t speak. She couldn’t open her
mouth to form words. Her brain wouldn’t even form any words. If it was,
it wasn’t relaying the message to her mouth.
Finally, Cia turned
to Spencer and must have noticed the horror on her face. She took a step
closer, kicking at one of the coffee bags. Spencer watched it slide
along the tile until it hit the baseboard and bounce less than a
centimeter. She backed away from Cia, for her own good. It was too risky
and Spencer didn’t want to be touched. She didn’t understand what had
happened and there was no way she’d risk hurting her best friend.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Spencer
shook her head and shrugged. “I… I-I think I did that to him.” Spencer
pointed, but she couldn’t quite look at the guy… the statue. “He…
grabbed me and… I don’t know.”
“Him?” Cia’s eyes went from the
statue to her friend and back. “Is that… That’s Jeremy?” She squinted at
the statue and then it seemed like she was finally starting to
understand. “He grabbed you?”
Spencer nodded, unable to continue speaking. Tears filled her eyes, causing her vision to blur.
“Good thing we haven’t opened yet,” Cia muttered. “Hey, do you think maybe we could melt him down and sell him?”
