Page 34 of Christmas Coffee

Celyn

Iused the find my iPhone feature and tracked Nova to McDonald’s only to see her barraged by birds. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed her when she told me. If she told me. Nova has some secrets. She has to. No one that age walks like that, like the world has beat them down. Like she knows about pain and suffering. Like she knows all too well how shitty life can be. Most teenagers think they’re invincible. Death isn’t part of their life. That wasn’t the case with me. It started with losing my dog and then my dad. It sobers up that teenage defiance and dulls down the need to go it alone against the world. With the luck Nova has, I’ll have to make sure she’s not standing next to me during a lightning storm. I snort, thinking I’m an idiot, but the thought still makes my heart race. A fierce desire to protect her floods through my veins.

I slam my hand on the steering wheel of the car and scold myself. She’s a kid. We have nothing in common. Even if she had a hard life, so did you. There’s no way she’s right for you. Stop thinking with your dick.

I should have told her. I should have said something. She thinks this is a permanent gig. It’s not. She has a seasonal job with a shitty boss and a coworker that has some serious PMS. If Shannon isn’t there when I get back, I’ll fucking freak.

When I pull into the mall parking lot, I can see a swarm of people by the hut. As I get closer, it’s easy to see that all these people—women mostly—have their necks craned, trying to see something at the end of the hut. The crowd is about five rows deep and pressing in toward that one point. I pull into a parking spot and cut the engine.

I slip out of the car quietly, and make my way to the back of the crowd. That’s when I hear Shannon, his voice nearly an octave deeper, telling a story. At first, I think he’s retelling the night before Christmas, but when I hear what he’s saying, I nearly stroke out.

The woman in front of me says over her shoulder, as if she knows me. “I’d like to have that dick before Christmas.” When I don’t laugh, she turns toward me and flinches. A rosy flame lights up her face as she smiles sheepishly. “I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

“Mmm, I gathered that. How long has he been doing this?”

She shrugs, “I got here about half an hour ago and he was already up there, sitting on the hood of that car, and reciting. He’s done a few different stories, but the crowd likes this the best.” She beams at me. “Isn’t he talented?”

“Yeah, he’s amazing.” I push through the crowd toward Shannon just as the crowd begs him to tell it again.

Shannon holds up his hands and bobs his head, letting his hair fall freely around his face. “If you insist.” He clears his throat and begins, “It was the dick before Christmas and all through the—” Shannon’s eyes flick through the crowd and land on me. “Awh, shit.”

I’m glaring at him. My arms are folded over my chest to keep from strangling him. The guy attracted a ton of people, but there’s not one cup of coffee in sight. He didn’t sell a thing. “Story hour is over. Get back to work.”

“Lame.” Shannon frowns and the women begin to complain and look at me like I’m Satan. The guy slides off the hood of a car and smiles at the young blonde standing closest to him. “It’s okay, my little admirers. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

The crowd mills about even after Shannon goes inside the hut, but no one buys anything. They linger by the window, talking. I’ve about had it. I want to fire the guy so badly, but my evening employee hasn’t shown up yet. I’m going to be stuck here all night.

The mob of estrogen surrounds the hut like they’re planning a siege and Shannon is the prize. They whisper as the sun dips below the horizon. Shannon uses my last drop of patience when he asks, “Are you going to get more of those cookies? I’m starving.”

I blink at him. “Not until tomorrow.”

“Too bad, because they were fucking awesome. I could eat another tray for dinner.”

I can’t help it. Something inside of me snaps. “When did you eat a cookie?”

“I ate an entire tray, man. While you were gone.” He laughs at me and points to his head. “You need to put your listening ears on, dude. It was all good.”

Tension lines my jaw and I swallow hard to keep my temper even. “Your shift is over. If you take coffee or food, hell if you take anything from this place ever again, don’t come back. It’s stealing. You can’t eat the inventory.”

Shannon holds up his hands, palms toward me, and behaves like I’m overreacting. “Slow down there, I’m no panhandler. I don’t need your cookies, okay. I only took them because that girl took one.”

I narrow my gaze at him. “Nova took a cookie?”

“Yeah, I saw her eating it inside the mall. It was one of yours from the hut.”

She didn’t pay for it? That would be odd, but I did see her with a cookie now that I think about it.

When I don’t say anything, Shannon adds, “Check the receipts around three o’clock. There’s no order for a solo cookie or that coffee she sold her girlfriend. I’m pretty sure Hot Girl is gay, because a piece of ass that fine overlooking this Adonis body—well, ‘nuff said. Am I right?”

I want to punch him in the face. I could ball up my hand into a fist and just crush his arrogant face. The satisfaction of ruining that perfect nose would be worth it. Focus. You can’t beat the shit out of the staff. I’m pinching the bridge of my nose and shaking my head. My finger points toward the door. “Get out. Your shift is over and you’re so close to getting your ass fired. Do me a favor and leave before I tell you to not come back.”

Shannon flinches. “Damn man. Take some Midol or something. I’ll go, just thought you should know. I wouldn’t have taken shit if that girl didn’t do it first. I was following her lead.”

“I heard you. Go.”

Shannon is down the steps without another word. He pulls off his vest as he walks into a small group of women that lingered behind, waiting for him. He puts an arm around the shoulders of one woman and then hooks another. He glances back at me. “Get laid, man. Take some of the tension off.” He smirks and the women giggle.

I turn toward the receipts and don’t pull them apart until Shannon is out of sight. There’s no way Nova stole anything. That’s not her type. But as I dig through the paper slips, I find the orders from that timeframe and there’s no single cookie on any of the orders. Shit.