Outside the changing rooms was a central rack for uniforms to be hung and then private changing rooms to the sides. Elena left her work uniform here twice a week for the complimentary laundry service. Otherwise, she’d never be able to get rid of the smell of coffee. She guided Marco toward the central rack. The one downside of leaving your uniform was someone else could take it if you didn’t label it.
“What size are you?”
Marco took a seat on a nearby bench. “Don’t waste your time,” he said. “I already called my driver. If my dad thinks I’m going to work here, he really doesn’t know me.”
“Your dad sent you?”
“No. I volunteered for this wonderful part-time job.”
“Your brother said that I should train you, like any other employee.”
“Look,” Marco said. “I know you don’t want me here. I’d be interrupting whatever thing is going on with you and the blond guy at the register. So, if I go, we both benefit. If my dad calls to check in, you tell him I trained and that way we don’t have to deal with each other.”
“That would be a lie,” Elena said. If Felipe Silva had sent his son to train, she’d have to train him. “And I have a no-lying policy for my employer.”
“Whatever,” Marco said. He pulled his phone out. “My driver will be here soon.”
“You said that already.”
There was knock and Lucas walked in.
Elena turned.
“Your driver won’t be coming,” Lucas said. “On Dad’s command. So, I think you should change and get ready for your shift. Will said you can start by learning how to take inventory in the back. Tomorrow you can work on baking and then eventually taking coffee orders.”
Marco stood up. “Dad called off Greg? Are you kidding? What did Abby tell him?”
Elena cleared her throat. She wasn’t going to spend her shift on family drama. She grabbed her uniform off the rack, or at least one that looked like her size, and turned to a changing room, the farthest one from the Silva brothers. Lucas gave her an apologetic look, before he went back to his conversation with Marco.
Elena barricaded herself in the changing room. She just wanted to get through this shift without thinking about Cecilia and Will, or having to deal with Marco. She forced herself to remember that every hour she worked was another thirteen dollars toward any part of Bee’s rent they might not be able to pay, and that was the only thing she needed to focus on now.
Chapter 6
Everything smelled like coffee.
Marco pinched his nose as Elena counted bags of coffee grounds. She finished counting, added the amount to her tablet, and then turned to look down at him.
“And that’s how you take inventory,” she said. “If we’re running low on a certain type of coffee, Laura, our manager, gets an alert and she’ll reorder it if we need it sooner than our next shipment. Around this time of year we always run out of our pumpkin-mix.”
Marco sighed. He kept to his corner of the storeroom, arms crossed and with what he hoped was an annoyed expression on his face. How could his dad have cut off his access to his credit cards, to his driver? He’d been in the middle of making Cecilia’s flower order when the woman on the phone had told him his card had been declined. It had been mortifying. He’d gone through all his cards, until he realized this wasn’t a case of fraud. It had been his dad’s doing, which in turn meant it had been Abby’s doing.
“Marco,” Elena said. “What are you even doing here?”
“Look, just go back to counting your inventory. I’ll stand here and pretend I’m listening.”
“You’re not even pretending,” Elena said. She sighed and set the tablet down. “What did you do?”
She asked the question with a familiarity Marco didn’t like. He scanned Elena, not because he wanted to but because she was literally blocking his whole view. The storage room was high, but narrow. She wore her short brown hair up in what would barely pass as a ponytail. She was looking at him like she wanted an answer.
“Nothing that concerns you,” Marco said. He didn’t remember meeting Elena, not the way he remembered meeting Cecilia. He figured he’d probably seen her around the historic district, and then eventually walked into Bee’s to buy books for his vovô. It was simpler than buying directly from collectors. His grandfather had a fascination with the works of Preston Blanchard. He lit up any time Marco bought him a first edition.
“You’re right. I’m sure whatever you did, you probably deserve to be here.”
Marco’s jaw tightened. “Are you trying to pick a fight with me? I have to warn you, today’s really not the day.”
“I’m not,” Elena said. And he was glad, because he really didn’t have the energy to argue more with her. She picked up the tablet. “If you’re going to keep pretending to learn, then follow me to our freezer, where I can show you how to take inventory of our cookie dough tubs. It’s fascinating information.”
“Why are you training me? I told you, I can go and you can lie and say you did what Lucas asked.”
She gave him a tired smile, tucking the tablet closer to her body. “Your brother said your dad called off your driver, so technically you don’t have a way of getting home, unless you take a cab. Which I’m guessing you can’t pay for, which is why you’re here, right? Also, I’m just doing my job, even if that means having to train you.”
Marco slipped his phone into his pocket. Well, she caught on fast. “Show me the freezer,” he said. He had nowhere else to go until Lucas picked him up and took him back to his apartment.
Elena led Marco to the freezer room.
“It’s recommended you always come to the freezer with someone else,” Elena said. She pressed a hand against the thick, metal handle. “It can get stuck sometimes and it’s impossible to open from the inside.”
“You’ve had workers trapped in the freezer?”
She shook her head. “Not for more than a few seconds, thanks to our ‘don’t enter the freezer without a partner’ policy. I doubt you’ll be here past today, but in case, just remember to bring someone with you, or let someone know you’re here if you’re taking inventory. Okay?”
“Sure,” Marco said. Elena held the door back and showed him inside. She went over how to take the inventory and then they were out. It took him a few minutes to feel the tips of his fingertips again. He wasn’t really paying attention to any of it. It wasn’t that Elena was terrible at explaining things, it was simply that he couldn’t care less. She handed him the tablet and left him in charge of taking the rest of the inventory while she went outside to the cafe to take orders.
Marco sat in the back storeroom, looking through all his accounts which were still frozen. His dad had been thorough, he’d even blocked the smaller accounts Marco hadn’t touched in years. He’s only left Marco’s personal checking account so he could get paid for his new job at Melo’s. It meant he couldn’t buy or plan anything for his big confession to Cecilia. Eventually, Lucas popped out of nowhere.
“Hey, shift’s over. Get changed, I’ll wait in the car.” Then he shut the door.
Marco groaned as he got up. He’d barely done anything and he still felt depleted of energy. His arms ached, and his legs weighed him down as he walked to the changing room. When he walked, a strong coffee smell, worse than the one in the kitchen, struck him. He fought back nausea, already sure he wouldn’t touch a cup of coffee again. Then he took off the uniform shirt and threw it in the dirty clothes pile. He looked around for his school uniform.
What if someone had hidden his clothes because he’s showed up like this? He doubted very many of the employees liked him, jealous he was the owner’s son.
He heard a door open. Oh great. There was someone else there. Marco looked around, but didn’t move. He heard footsteps coming toward him.
“What are you doing?” Elena asked. She had a folded uniform in one hand, and a denim jacket in the other. “You need to go to a changing room.” Her eyes widened more, and Marco realiz
ed she was looking him up and down.
More voices emerged, but from the outside of the room.
“Oh no. That’s Will. I think it’s Laura too.” Before he could respond, Elena grabbed Marco by the arm and pulled him away from the shared changing room area. He barely had time to grab his phone. She shoved him into a changing room, closing the door behind them.
The cold wall stuck to Marco’s back. He looked down to see Elena’s hand wrapped around his forearm, her fingers warm, her grip tight. She had her ear pressed to the door, but the rest of her body was pressed into him.
“Um-” he began.
Elena placed a finger to her lips. He stopped talking. The voices were louder now.
“I’ll think about it,” someone said, a guy.
“Well, let me know,” a girl said. “The position is yours if you want it.”
Then it sounded like they walked in opposite directions to other changing rooms. When the doors closed, Elena eased her grip on him. Marco swallowed, still very much aware of how close she was.
“Could you back up a little?”
Elena seemed to finally return from panic mode. She scanned him again, and this time her eyes stopped on the only piece of clothing Marco had on, his boxers.
“Oh,” Elena said. Her eyes shot to the wall behind him. “I wasn’t-”
When she moved back, it wasn’t very far. The changing room had obviously been built for one person. Marco took a second to breathe out, now that she’d finally let go of him.
“Can we get out of here, now?” he asked.
Her cheeks flushed. “Will’s outside.”
“You don’t want your boyfriend to find us,” Marco said. He remembered the weird embrace he’d witnessed Elena and the Will guy in as he and Lucas had walked up to Melo’s. “Then you shouldn’t have followed me into the changing room.”
“I wasn’t thinking,” Elena said. “And you should’ve used a changing room to begin with.” She sighed. A door opened.
“Elena? You ready to go?”
Marco froze. It was her boyfriend. He cleared his throat, but she put a hand on his mouth, before he could speak.
“Yeah,” Elena said. “I’m almost done changing. I’ll meet you up front so we can walk back together.”
There was a pause. Marco waited, all too aware of Elena now. He looked at the wall this time. It wasn’t that he even found her attractive, they were just so close.
“Okay,” Will said, finally. “I’ll get us some hot chocolate to go. Think your dad will want anything?”
“I think that’s fine,” Elena said. “Thanks.” Then Will left, at least Marco thought so by the sound of the distancing footsteps.
Marco came to his senses. He grabbed Elena’s hand and moved it away from his mouth.
“Can you get of my changing room now?”
Elena nodded. She reached for the doorknob.
Another door opened.
“Elena?” It was the woman’s voice. “Have you seen Marco? I think he left his school uniform in the to be washed pile. I’ll leave it out here for him to find.”
Elena’s eyes snapped to Marco. She sighed. “I think he was finishing up inventory. I’ll let him know if I see him. Thanks, Laura.”
Marco really didn’t like the setup of this changing room. The Laura woman left too. Elena kept an ear on the door, until everything fell quiet. She turned.
“This never happened,” she said. “I’ll get your uniform. Stay here unless you want to have another employee see you.”
Then she bolted out the door. Marco waited. He crossed his arms over his chest, each second feeling like an eternity. Finally, the door opened. Elena held his school uniform out to him.
“This never happened,” she repeated.
“Your boyfriend won’t hear a thing about you taking half-naked guys into changing rooms from me.”
“My what?”
Before Marco could answer someone appeared behind Elena. She followed Marco’s gaze and turned.
Lucas stood in the changing room, a curious look on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“No,” Elena said. “It’s not like that.”
Lucas waved off her comment like it was no big deal. He cleared his throat and turned to Marco. “I was going to tell you to hurry. I thought we could grab dinner at, um-” He cleared his throat again. Marco watched his brother’s tan cheeks blush. “You know what, I’ll be in the car.”
“Lucas,” Marco called out, but his brother was already gone. He walked with the speed of a child who’d walked in on his parents in an inopportune encounter.
Elena’s shoulders sank. She turned back. Her face was red, redder than Lucas’s. “Well that was mortifying. Please clear it up with your brother that nothing happened here.”
“You did drag me into a changing room-”
“To keep you from having the rest of the employees see you like you are now.”
“So you do admit to dragging me into a changing room?”
“Goodnight,” Elena said. Then she too was off, leaving Marco shivering in the changing room. He slipped on his San Mateo Prep uniform in under a minute and was out the door. He didn’t think, just fast walked to Lucas’s car until the coffee smell was far behind him.
“Should we talk about it?” Lucas began. “Or is this one of those things where you two knew each other and there were lingering feelings that happened to come out right now. Because if that’s the case, I really think you should invite her out to lunch or a movie, instead of making out in changing rooms.”
Oh my god. Was his brother trying to give him some sort of talk?
“Nothing happened,” Marco said. “First, she’s not my type. And second, I was changing and she was the one that pulled me into a room. I couldn’t find my uniform, and it just, it looked like something it wasn’t. Okay? So can you drive me home now?”
Lucas nodded. He turned up the radio. “You know Dad’s still not letting you back home. So for now, it’ll be my apartment. He went with Vovô for a quick business trip to Boston. They’ll be back for Thanksgiving. Maybe you can talk to him then?”
“Well, I’ll need to borrow one of your credit cards,” Marco said. “I need to buy a few things.”
“Dad said to let you live off what you earn at Melo’s. Well, aside from food and anything for school. He’ll know if I give you a credit card.”
“Are you serious?” He shook his head. “So not only did he cut me off, but he told you not to help me either?”
“Maybe if you apologize to Abby, things will smooth over faster.”
“It’s not bad enough that he made me come train here,” Marco said.
“How about this,” Lucas said. “I’ll give you the money you would’ve earned today. So that’s fifty dollars for the afternoon.”
Marco leaned his head against the window. Fifty dollars wouldn’t even buy one bouquet for flowers for Cecilia. “Forget it,” he said. “I’ll call Vovô tomorrow.”
Because if there was one person who could command Felipe Silva, it was his father, the creator of Melo Coffee himself. And Marco just happened to be the favorite grandson.
His grandfather wouldn’t let the punishment go on for any longer.
Marco knew his freedom and credit card access was one phone call away. He’d give his dad the night to reconsider the punishment, and if he didn’t, then Marco would call his grandfather in the morning.
Vovô had always been an early riser.
Chapter 7
Elena looked at the amount in her savings account.
She had $2000. That wasn’t even enough to cover half their rent. She exited the bank app and set her phone down on the floor. That was worst case scenario.
Bee’s was empty, now. Which was expected since it was Thanksgiving and none of the stores in the historic district had Black Friday sales. Her dad had made some good sales the past Saturday. Elena couldn’t help but wonder, though, what would
happen if they fell behind on another bill? She stood from her hiding spot behind some bookshelves where she’d been trying to finish an essay for her AP Literature class. So far she had one glorious sentence.
At least she had the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend to finish it.
Jingle bells rang. That would be Will. He’d been working a shift at Melo’s that morning, but had promised to come over for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Hey,” Elena began. She hadn’t asked him more about Cecilia. Elena had heard about Cecilia from Mia. She wasn’t a terrible person, just the daughter of one of the wealthier families at San Mateo Prep, who traveled around quite a bit and knew more languages than the average polyglot. There might have been one incident where she helped Mia avoid a hazing prank they did on new scholarship students; which actually made Cecilia Hollace a good person and would explain why Will liked her.
Elena sighed at the thought. She pulled a smile on her face as the jingle bells rang and the door closed. There weren’t heavy bootsteps. Maybe they did have a customer on Thanksgiving.
“Welcome to Bee’s Books,” Elena began, the line almost ingrained on her tongue.
Mia stood near the door. A thick, knitted beanie covered her long black curls.
“Hi,” she said.
Elena couldn’t find a proper greeting.
“Hi,” she said. “How… Your mom… Dulce Street?” Yeah, her thoughts weren’t coherent.
“My mom asked me to bring this over,” Mia said. “She was busy delivering orders, so she couldn’t stop by herself.” Mia held out a pie box, with the Dulce Street logo on the cover. “It’s an apple pie.”
“Thank you.” Elena took the box from Mia and then stepped back. Apple pie from Dulce Street was her dad’s favorite.
A silence enveloped Bee’s. Mia’s eyes bounced around the book shop.
“You rearranged those,” she said, pointing to the three bookshelves behind Elena. “It looks nice.”
“Thanks,” Elena said. She wanted to ask Mia how San Mateo Prep was, how her college search was going too. Why she’d said she’d needed space when Elena hadn’t done anything to her. Unless, Mia had somehow figured out that Elena liked Will.
Call It One-Sided Page 4
