“I blame the obscene amount of coffee you drink on a daily basis. I’m sure you have caffeine poisoning.” He looked around the coffee shop. “Why are you working tonight?”
My heart rate had slowed and I took several deep breaths before I spoke. “There’s no such thing as caffeine poisoning.” I picked up the rag I’d been using and threw it into the laundry bin we kept just inside the back office door. The promise I’d made my aunt was weighing heavy on my mind. I couldn’t tell anyone where she was, especially not Josh. “Can I get you a drink or maybe a slice of cheesecake?”
“I just had my dinner, and I’m not thirsty. So, where is your aunt?” Josh peered at me through the layers of fat around his dark brown eyes. “She’s okay, right? She’s not in the hospital or ill, is she?”
A little white lie formed and was out before I could stop it. “Aunt Jackie wasn’t feeling well so she decided to turn in early. She’s probably already asleep. I’m sure a good night’s sleep will fix her up.”
He considered my words, and for some reason, I felt like he could feel the falseness in the statement. Or maybe it was my inability to look him in the eye. No matter, he finally nodded and headed to the front door. “You should follow me and lock up when I leave. It’s not safe for a woman to work alone this late at night.”
I did follow him and lock the door after he left. However, I didn’t tell him that five minutes after nine wasn’t late for most adults. I stood, watching his retreating figure disappear into the dark. Aunt Jackie owed me big after this. She could have warned me about Josh’s nightly ritual. The man would do anything for my aunt. And if she chose Harrold over Josh, the loss of her would break his heart.
I turned off the last of the lights and checked the locks one more time. Then I walked toward the light coming from the back room, hoping for the first time that my aunt wouldn’t break up with the portly antique dealer.
The next morning came too quickly, and as I dressed for my shift, I remembered the exhaustion I’d felt when I’d run the shop all by myself. All I did was work the first few years after I’d opened Coffee, Books, and More. Work, read, and a weekly lunch date with Amy, that had been my life. And even though it had been hard, grueling work, it was ten times better than the hours I’d spent as a corporate family law attorney.
I let Emma out and filled my travel mug with coffee. I had twenty minutes before I opened the shop. Time enough to throw a load of jeans into the washer and make sure Emma had food and water on the porch. I’d kept her in the house last night during my shift because of the coyotes Greg had seen while he reviewed security tapes of Main Street. Apparently at least one pack of wild dogs was making itself at home late at night in South Cove. A fact that explained my often overturned trash cans behind the shop.
I stifled a yawn as I gave Emma a hug and locked up the house. Maybe I’d wake up on the walk into town. The fog was still heavy and it made the road look as if I was out in the middle of a field covered with snow, instead of on a city street. The street lamps glowed in the fog like the old-fashioned gaslights they’d been constructed to resemble.
When I reached town, the sidewalks were still eerily void of people. I hadn’t even heard a bird chirp or the sound of a passing car down on the highway. In the middle of tourist season, these streets would be filled from sunrise to way past sundown. People liked to wander through South Cove. They’d leave their room at the bed-and-breakfast where they were staying, pick up an iced coffee from my shop, or an ice cream cone from Diamond Lille’s. Then they would walk down past my house and enjoy some time on the beach. I understood the attraction.
Today looked like it was going to be slow in the shop. I should have time to order Justin’s books and maybe make a flyer to send to the geo club. I’d been thinking about his promotion idea, and it just might pull in a few visitors, like the train books I stocked for Harrold.
Thinking of Harrold made me think of my aunt and her date. I hurried the final feet toward the shop and quickly unlocked the front door, turning the sign to OPEN. I started the first pot of coffee, then dialed my aunt’s number using the shop phone. Leaving it on speaker, I started working on brewing the hazelnut coffee.
“Hello?” Aunt Jackie sounded sleepy, and for a second, I wondered if she was alone.
I stepped closer to the phone and began stacking more sleeves of cups near the register. “How’d your date go last night?”
I heard rustling and I knew I’d woken her. “It wasn’t a date,” she snapped. “Why are you calling so early? Is there a fire? Do I need to evacuate the apartment due to a swarm of tarantulas?”