Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Aw!
“You’re just a customer,” Dream dismissed him too.
“The big guy can hear a mouse fart three blocks away, and he’s a huge grouch, but he’s made it clear he cares a lot about these women, so you think you’re winning him over right now?” Byron inquired.
Dream made a face.
“He’s right! I can!” Tex shouted. “And you’re not!”
Dream made a bigger face.
I beat back a smile.
“I’ll get your dirty chai, Byron,” I offered, moving to the espresso machine. “You can go back to your table. I’ll bring it.”
“And I’ll talk to Tex and Tito, Dream,” Luna said (man, she was such a pushover, but then again, that was part of being a fab sister). “But just so you know, Tito has all the patience in the world, though on that spectrum, Tex is the exact opposite. If they let you take some shifts, you’ve got to be cool.”
Dream assumed a wildly offended expression. “I have mouths to feed, of course I can be cool.”
“I’m not convinced!” Tex boomed.
Dream grimaced.
I shot some hot water onto the tea bags.
“Let me work on it, and maybe go out the back so Tito can do his thing out front?” Luna suggested.
Dream hesitated a beat.
We all hesitated with her, for my part, hoping she’d express some gratitude to her sister for being so nice.
But then she just said, “Whatever. I’ll go out the back. Later.”
Then she and the dozing Harmony swanned toward the doors to the kitchen.
Luna sighed.
I dumped the shot of espresso into the tea and started to steam milk.
Tito silently shuffled back to his corner “office,” but he did this looking at Luna, shaking his head, and waving his hand palm down. I didn’t know what that meant, but I assumed it meant that Tex was still a no on Dream. But Tito was going to work on him.
Since she was asking for weekends, and I didn’t work weekends, and Luna seemed unscathed by Dream’s most recent visit to The Surf Club, I finished up Byron’s dirty chai and walked it to him.
“Thanks,” he muttered, nabbed the mug from the saucer and drank a quarter of it.
I flinched in camaraderie with his mouth, which he had to have just burned to all heck.
Then he put the cup back into the saucer and declared, “You’re kind of like my little sister too.”
“Thanks, Byron, that’s sweet.”
“Do you have a bitchy older sister?” he asked.
“No, I have a golden boy older brother,” I told him. “You?”
“None to speak of,” he said evasively.
What a weird answer.
Then again, none of us knew what Byron did. Like he said, he came in every day. He drank multiple dirty chais every day as well, so I suspected he got about .425 hours of sleep a night. And he just threw down for Luna.
Other than that, we knew nothing about him.
Raye thought he was an international hacker wanted by Interpol, and he was on his computer when he wasn’t sucking back caffeine, so she might be right.
The rest of us had no clue.
“If you need anything else, just yell,” I said.
He picked his cup back up and saluted me with it, not taking his eyes from his computer.
Well then.
It was time to make some tips.
So, belatedly, I set about doing that.
ELEVEN
“LOVE STORY”
(TAYLOR SWIFT)
That evening, I was in the kitchen at SC, pulling big sheets of plastic wrap from industrial-size boxes to cover my fresh-from-the-oven pigs in a blanket, when Jessie stuck her head in from the staff room.
“Javi’s outside,” she told me.
I got happy warm all over and smiled at her.
“When you go out, can you tell him I’ll be right there?” I requested.
Eric appeared out of the shadows at her back. He was her ride that evening.
He was wearing a very un-Eric-like scowl.
Javi and I could have taken her home to the Oasis, and I offered this, but apparently, Eric didn’t want Javi’s bodyguard attention split in two, so he nixed this idea.
Inner caveman indeed.
It was gas wasted, but if he wanted to be assured his woman was covered, who was I to argue?
“Will do. See you at the Oasis,” she said and ducked out, Eric disappearing with her after giving me a chin lift.
Yeah.
Totally caveman.
I quickly finished up with the pigs, covering the plastic in foil in an effort to keep them a modicum of warm before I hurried to grab my bag from my locker, back I went to the kitchen for the platter, then I headed out.
Javi hadn’t dropped the groceries for me to make them. When I texted what I needed, he texted that he was “on something” and couldn’t get away, so Cody was going to drop the stuff.
Cody did.
He didn’t seem happy about it, but he did.
I ducked into the kitchen forty-five minutes ago to do my duty for the Oasis meet.
And now I was walking out the door, balancing my platter, watching Javi jumping down from his truck that was idling just outside.