Page 17 of Espresso Your Love
“Unit 3, we’ve got a report of a loose chicken causing a disturbance at Sweet Sisters Bakery. The owner says it's attacking customers. Can you respond?”
The brunette barista, whom I now know as Ashley, calls our name at the same time. I nod my head to Mitchell to grab them. He shakes his head, and I nod more aggressively with wide eyes for him to go. He finally does. I watch him nervously walk to the counter.
“Dispatch, copy that. En route to…uh…the chicken situation,” I respond.
Is there a code for chicken disturbance? If there is, I’ve definitely never used that one before.
Ashley smiles at him as he grabs the cups and says something, but I can’t hear. Mitchell walks back to me and hands me my coffee, donut, and pup cup for Max.
“That wasn’t so bad, huh?” I gently nudge his arm as we start walking out the door.
“It was bad.”
“What happened?” I ask as we turn the corner back to town square.
“She said, ‘Nice weather outside, huh?’”
“Okay…I don’t see the problem.”
“My response was ‘I like coffee.’ Then I held up my cup and walked away.”
I spit out a little bit of my coffee as I try to hide my chuckle. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I wipe my hand over my mouth. “Mitchell, you’ve just got to relax and be yourself.”
“Easy for you to say.”
I bend down to let Max eat his pup cup. It’s just a cup of whipped cream as a little treat for him. “I get nervous with Cassie too.”
“Ha! I knew you liked her. Step one is admittance.”
“This isn’t a program.” I chuckle.
“It’s part of theloveprogram.”
I shake my head. “Okay, what’s Step 2?”
“Step one: Admittance. Step two: Action.”
“Like asking her out on a date?”
Max finishes his treat, and we start walking again toward the bakery.
He nods. “Step three is accepting the inevitable heartbreak when she rejects me.”
“Mitchell, you gotta give yourself more credit. You face danger every day. A beautiful woman shouldn’t scare you.”
“I’ve known Ashley most of my life. I was friends with Cassie’s older brother so I was over at their house, and since Ashley and Cassie are best friends, I would see Ashley quite a bit too.”
My head snaps to him. “Best friends?”
“Yeah, since birth.”
Hm. I didn’t know. There’s still so much I don’t know about her. I’m moving too quickly and need to slow down my thoughts here. I just met her! Forget what I said; I need to be sane.
He continues, “It wasn’t until recently that I started having feelings for Ashley. She was just Ashley, my friend’s little sister’s best friend. Best friend-in-law if you will.”
We arrive at our cruiser to set our coffee inside while we deal with the chicken.
He continues, “And it seems dumb. I mean—I’m a decade, plus change, older than her so it probably won't turn into anything.”
