by Cody Ryder
There was a crowd gathered outside the front entrance—an actual line. He’d never seen a line outside of the shop, even during its best times.
“What the hell?”
“Come on,” Julia grinned.
She parked the car across the street, and the two of them made their way up to the front of the store. Through the front windows, Bruce what he initially thought were big white curtains done up throughout the whole shop. A red carpet made a path out the front door, and a velvet rope was keeping people organized. A girl that Bruce didn’t recognize was handing out small sandwich samples to the people in line.
Bruce pointed. “Who is that?”
Julia took his hand and pulled him through the crowd into the shop.
Bruce was overwhelmed. The place was bustling with an energy that he’d never seen before, not even on the shop’s busiest days. He gaped at the walls, adorned from head to toe with drapes of white roses. The people waiting in line snapped photos of the lavish arrangements, some people posing for selfies in front of them, and others taking a moment to smell their fragrant aroma.
Then Bruce saw who was manning the place. There were four workers whom he’d never seen before, and behind them in the kitchen was Marcos giving out orders and helping them cook sandwiches. From the way the two who were operating the espresso maker worked, Bruce could tell they were experienced barristas. Then he saw who was at the cash register, and it all made sense.
He couldn’t stop it. Any last remnants of anger and resentment quickly vanished as he saw him standing there in his usual dress attire, a bandage stuck over his chin. A wide grin spread over Bruce’s face as that beautiful feeling of warmth rushed throughout his body.
“Joe!” Bruce shouted.
Joe looked over from the customer he was helping, and broke out in his own wide grin.
“I’ll take the register,” Julia called out, hurrying over to take Joe’s place.
Joe came over to him. “I’ll be out of your hair after today,” he said. “But I wanted to do this one thing for you, at least. If you don’t want to see me, I understand. But I hope you—”
“Shut up,” Bruce said, and then threw his arms around Joe. “I’m sorry I hit you.”
“I deserved it,” Joe said. He squeezed Bruce against him, and a feeling of blissful relief washed over the both of them.
“No, you didn’t,” Bruce said. “I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
Bruce slipped his hand around the back of Joe’s neck and pulled him in for a long kiss. A few awws rose up from the crowd around them. It felt like as if everything was melting away and being replaced with the most potent love they’d ever felt—the love of forgiveness.
“Do you like what I did with the place?” Joe grinned.
“I don’t understand how you got all these people to come,” Bruce said.
“I honestly hadn’t expected it. I had the flowers brought in for you, and people just started to come to look at them, and I ran with it. I brought in a few of my staff, and with Julia and Marcos’s help, we turned it into a bit of an event. Crowd brings a crowd.”
“This is incredible.”
Joe touched his forehead to Bruce’s. “I love you, Bruce LeFlorette. I want this to be our new beginning.”
“I love you too, Joe,” Bruce said, grinning. He kissed him, and felt the tears coming back to his eyes—but this time, they were tears of joy.
They stood there quietly for a moment, just enjoying each other’s presence. The crowd had turned eyes on them, and the occasional aww drifted out. People had started taking photos on their cell phones of the sweet scene in front of them.
“I’ve got a business proposition for you,” Joe whispered softly into Bruce’s ear. “Would you like to hear about it?”
Epilogue
Four Years Later
“Oh, and I spoke with Julia this afternoon. She’s got nothing but praise for the Tokyo staff. Seems like we could learn a thing or two from their customer service.”
Bruce sat in his office, his legs kicked up on his desk as he pumped a stress ball in his hand.
“It’s next level over there,” Lyle agreed. He was on speakerphone from his office in San Francisco. “So, it’s come to the point where our sandwiches have started to outsell our coffee at our flagship. Investors are trying to convince me it’s a good idea to open up a separate line of stores just for the sandwiches.”
Joe laughed. “I’ll talk to Bruce about that one.”
“Mm. So how our things down there? Life-wise. How’s Callie?”
“She great. Stressing me out, but great. She just started pre-school. You know, I think she’s going to be an artist? I know all kids love to draw, but you should see her. How’s Angie?”
“She’s a little brat, that’s what she is.”
A little voice came from somewhere off in the distance. “Dad! I am not.”
Joe laughed. “Is she there with you?”
“Take your daughter to work day,” Lyle said. “Angie! Say hi to Uncle Joe.”
“Hi Uncle Joe!”
“Hi, Angie. Don’t stress out your dad, only I’m allowed to do that.”
“When can I see Callie again?” Angie asked, taking over the line.
“Uncle Bruce and I would like to come visit soon,” Joe said. “But it’s hard with our business, you know? Next time your dad comes down, you should come with him. You can stay over at our place.”
“Okaaay. Here’s dad.”
The line shuffled for a second as the phone transferred hands. “Hey, bro. Alright, I’d better get going. Lots to do.”
“Yeah. Talk soon.”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye, Uncle Joe!”
Joe smiled and hung up the phone. He set the stress ball down on the desk next to the framed photos of him and Bruce on their wedding day, and of the family portrait they had taken when they’d adopted Callie. He left his office and went downstairs into the café, and dipped into the kitchen to get to Bruce’s office. He waved to Marcos, who was watching over two trainee cooks as one grilled a sandwich and the other worked on a bowl of pasta.
He knocked lightly on the office door, and Bruce opened it.
“Hey,” Joe said, giving him a quick kiss.
“Hey, babe,” Bruce said. “How’s it going?”
“Just got off the phone with Lyle. How’re those new recipes coming?”
“Great. The pastas are doing well. I definitely would like to focus on them before trying anything else. They just aren’t perfect yet, you know?”
“Fair enough, you make the call.” He came into the office and poured himself a cup of water from the filter that Bruce had in the corner. “So, Lyle told me an interesting little bit of news.”
“What’s that?”
“Investors are pushing to consider opening up a separate line of sandwich shops.”
Bruce looked at him, and then laughed. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Joe said. “What do you think about that?”
Bruce rested his hand on Joe’s thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Babe, I think we’re everything we need to be right now.”
“We could open a new LeFlorette’s. We could even buy back the original location.”
Bruce shook his head. “It wouldn’t be the same. It doesn’t matter, anyway. It’s not about the location. Everything that mattered is still living on, you saw to that. We’ve got it all right here.”
Joe smiled and took Bruce’s hand and kissed it. “Our little family.”
“That’s right,” Bruce said. “Our little family.”
Also by Cody Ryder
Wrecked car, wrecked movie, wrecked image. That’s Christopher Lawton: Hollywood’s latest celebrity wreck. After decking Hollywood’s most powerful producer in the face for blacklisting his movie, he’s hidden himself away at a secluded mountain resort called the Constellation Lodge to avoid media attention until the whole thing blows over.
He expected to be bored out of his mind. He didn’t expect to meet Jackson.
Jackson Baker hates the film industry. His whole family is big in the business, but he wants nothing to do with the hollow, toxic world behind the glitz and glam. Self-exiled to the Constellation Lodge, he needs to finish his second novel and prove that he can succeed without the assistance of his well-connected family.
Christopher loves that Jackson has no clue of who he is, but he can’t keep his celebrity a secret forever. Will the truth ruin a connection that seems to be written in the stars?
Check out Chasing Stars with Kindle Unlimited!
