Red Red Rose

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  “Entitled prick,” I muttered under my breath, going to my fridge and popping the top off a Corona before taking a long pull. Rather than waste my night asking myself what I’d ever seen in him, I took my beer out to the living room and settled in on the large sectional, scrolling through the cable guide on the TV. Finding a late night marathon of Castle, I kicked off my hot pink Chucks, and put my feet up on the coffee table. I took another pull from my bottle and tipped my head back. It wasn’t long after I finished my beer that I dozed off.

  I woke long enough to shoot a text off to Reggie reminding him to pick up the bakery order in the morning on his way in to open the shop, before stripping down and climbing into bed. It would save me the delivery fee since he lived just down the street from the small bakery that supplied all our baked goods.

  Like every night over the past couple weeks, my last thoughts before I fell asleep were of Emily, and hoping that wherever she was, she was okay. I just wanted her to come home.

  Two

  Adele was rocking out the shop, accompanied by Reggie and Cassie, when I walked in the next afternoon. I took a cursory glance around the place before heading back to the small office/break-room off the kitchen. We had a couple students from Western with their faces buried in text books and computer screens, and a group of local retired firefighters that met for coffee every Thursday at eleven. A few other customers occupied tables and cozy chairs around the shop, and one customer was at the counter waiting for Reggie to make his drink and enjoying the lip sync show he was getting in the meantime.

  “Reggie, less ass shaking, more coffee making,” I called on my way to the back.

  “Aye, aye el capitán.”

  I dumped my purse on the small desk and draped my jacket over the back of the chair. I spent the next twenty minutes working up the newest schedule, inputting hours into my payroll program and writing out checks for bills. They were usually tasks Em handled, but with her gone . . .

  I sighed and grabbed a clean apron from the drawer. Today’s featured a Batman bod, complete with six-pack abs. It was one of my favorites. There were no uniforms at Urban Grind, but we had a selection of random aprons from neon to novelty to funny to borderline inappropriate, like the bikini body one Reggie was currently rocking.

  Adele had switched over to Ashes and Embers by the time I stepped back out into the front of the shop, and when I heard my favorite song playing, A Little More Time, I turned the volume up on the sound system and then jumped behind the counter to join Cass and Reggie. A short line of customers had formed while I was in the back and the three of us worked in tandem to get them all through the line as quickly and efficiently as possible.

  When I handed off the last salted caramel mocha, the tip jar was already looking healthy and I gave a nod to my team. “Good work guys. Reggie, why don’t you take your fifteen before we get the lunch break rush.” Being at the center of several local businesses, we had a lot of professionals that would stop in on their lunches for that midday kickstart.

  He tugged his apron off and slung it over a hook by the sink and rounded the counter to pull up a seat with our retirees. It wasn’t two seconds after he sat down that that whole group busted up with laughter. That was Reggie. A total goof and beloved by everyone. He was black, gay and fabulous. The chocolate color of his skin– a few shades darker than Cassie’s Asian and African-American blended complexion– was obvious, but your gaydar had to be finely tuned to peg him, as he didn’t fit the flamboyant stereotype. As for the fabulous part, that was his personal opinion, but most tended to agree with him. He and Cassie had both been with me from the start and I wasn’t sure what I would do if and when they moved on.

  I took the slow moment to cart stuff back to the kitchen and run it through the dishwasher while I left Cassie in charge at the counter. I had just slammed the top down on the commercial washer and listened to it kick on when I heard Cassie shout, “Nora, you might want to get out here.”

  I hurried to the front and saw Cassie with the TV remote in hand, turning up the volume on what appeared to be a press conference where the mayor and police chief were making a statement. I hurriedly snatched up the sound system remote and powered it off so I could hear what was being said on the TV.

  “As we’ve stated, we can not release the name of the victim until the family has been notified, but at this time we do not believe that the body found near Whatcom Lake this morning belongs to Emily Raynes. The physical description is not a match.”

  Another body had been found. Whatcom Lake, that wasn’t far from Bellingham. Much further from Seattle than the others had been dumped. All of them had been found near a body of water, though. That they didn’t think it was Emily was a relief, but my heart broke for the family of Laney Benson, the most recent girl to go missing, because the body they found more than likely belonged to her.

  “Change it,” I said softly and she did. She switched it over to some talk show and I hit the music before returning to the kitchen. “Dammit, where are you Em?” I muttered softly to no one and busied myself with the next load of dishes until Cassie poked her head back into the kitchen to let me know we were low on fat free milk. I had a delivery scheduled for the next morning, but it wouldn’t be good to run out before then.

  “I’ll run to the store as soon as Reggie’s back on.”

  I did a quick check of the fridge back here where we keep the extra milks, creams and perishables that wouldn’t fit in the under-counter fridge up front, to see if there was anything else we were low on, but didn’t note anything.

  I waited for Reggie before cashing a ten out of the register and heading for the little corner market down the street. The sun was shining outside, but I should have known better, because in January, the sun is deceiving. As soon as I stepped outside, I was wishing I had grabbed my coat. I hurried toward the end of the block.

  “Nora!” someone shouted and I turned my head to see Will crossing the street toward me. I stopped and waited for him. “Where you headed?”

  “To the corner store for milk.” He fell in step beside me and we crossed the street when traffic cleared. “Working hard today?” He was in his usual shorts, cutoff shirt, and Nikes, the unofficial uniform of a personal trainer. He also had a stocking cap pulled low, hiding his close-cut blonde locks.

  “Yeah, business is always booming after the New Year.” He worked at the gym two blocks down and had the physique to prove it. Almost six-foot, he was fit and strong and I had no doubt that using him as a poster child would be good for drawing in clientele, especially of the female variety.

  He followed me into the little corner grocery and carried the milk for me. On impulse, as we walked past the candy aisle, I reached for a Snickers. He shook his head. “When are you going to get a membership to counteract the garbage you put in your body?”

  I smiled as I set the candy bar on the counter and he did the same with the milk so the checker could ring us up. “I’m always working, when do you think I have time to work out?”

  “I’ll give you that. You are in serious need of a day off.”

  “Preach it.” I slapped the ten on the counter to pay and turned to Will. “I actually have Saturday off. It will be my first full day off in a month, but I want to go back to your comment about what I eat; are you trying to tell me my ass is getting fat?”

  He chuckled and reached for the milk again as I was handed the receipt. I slipped it in my pocket and immediately tore open the candy bar. His eyes took in my backside.

  “Trust me; your ass is just fine. It’s the inside of your body I worry about. Do you feed it anything besides chocolate and coffee?”

  We made our way back outside. “Occasionally beer and pizza.” I took a big bite of the candy bar and then gasped. “Look at that.” I held it up. “Are those peanuts in there? Peanuts are nutritious are they not?”

  Another chuckle. “I don’t know how you look like you do, but please don’t tell my clients you get that body from junk food and caff
eine.”

  “Deal, as long as you don’t try to steal anymore of my customers.” He’d managed to reel in two of my most loyal mocha consumers and put them on strict diets while he trained them. “Besides, mister hypocrite, you’re in my shop almost every day.”

  “I come for the smoothies and those bran muffins, not the cookies and frou-frou extra-shot, triple chocolate, death by sugar, frappuccino lattes you consume.”

  “That’s not even a real drink.” I pushed my way inside the shop only to come up short when I realized who was at the counter. Will almost ran into my back and then leaned over my shoulder to mutter in my ear when he saw who I was staring at.

  “Seriously? I would have thought you learned from the last one how to spot trouble.”

  I jabbed him with my elbow and then took the milk from him and, cool as a cucumber, made my way behind the counter.

  “Can I have him?” Reggie whispered in my ear, looking longingly at my tall, dark Thor, who was being helped by Cassie.

  “Down boy.” I put the gallon of milk in the fridge under the counter and then couldn’t help but let my gaze drift back to the prime male specimen who probably caused every woman and gay man within a half mile radius to go into heat just with his presence. Will may have been right; he definitely looked like trouble, but that wasn’t going to stop me from letting my eyes drink it up.

  “Fine, you can have the mysterious stranger and I’ll take Mr. Blue-eyed, buns-of-steel over there.”

  I couldn’t hold back my laugh. “Sorry, I don’t think Will rolls that way. Besides, don’t you have a boyfriend?”

  “Why do you have to spoil my fun?” he pouted.

  I grinned, knowing that despite his eyes that liked to wander, Reggie’s heart was true and loyal. “I’m sure there are dishes that need to be done before you take off for the day.” I gave him a shove in the direction of the kitchen.

  “Killjoy,” he pouted some more, but ducked inside the kitchen.

  I slipped past Cassie filling a cup from the pot, and then looked up to see dark eyes on me. I managed a hint of a smile while my insides heated about ten degrees.

  “I see you’ve gone back to your boring cup of coffee,” I pulled off the teasing remark rather smoothly I thought, and then I veered right past teasing and kept on going. “Are you sure I can’t tempt you with something else off our menu? You might be surprised by how good I can make a cup of coffee taste.”

  Cassie coughed beside me and I felt the flush crawl up my neck to my cheeks, but my friend with the unrefined coffee palette simply leaned closer over the counter. The corners of his mouth curled upward in a grin that made his eyes twinkle as well. “Sweetheart, you could tempt me with a lot of things, none of them on that menu you have up there on the wall.”

  Oh damn.

  “Here’s your coffee.” Cassie’s hand shoved between us. “Can we get you anything else? Like Nora’s number? She’s single.”

  My eyes bugged out and shot to her. “Cassie!” I hissed, and elbowed her not so discreetly, then looked back to see he-who-shall-not-be-named-simply-because-I-still-didn’t-know-his-name chuckling under his breath.

  “The coffee will do. For now. Thank you, ladies.” He shot me a wink before retreating with his coffee. When he made it to the door he turned, “By the way, nice bod.” His eyes flitted briefly to my apron. He smirked and then pushed the door open.

  “Hey,” Cassie called after him, and I worried I was going to have to fire her for whatever came out of her mouth next. “You got a name?” she asked when he looked back over his shoulder.

  “Shaw.”

  “That a first name or a last name?” I asked.

  Another smirk and then he was out the door.

  Damn. Damn. Damn.

  “You two will make beautiful, beautiful babies,” Cassie rested her chin in her hand and stared after him until he was out of sight of our large windows.

  “We would, wouldn’t we?” I leaned my own head on my hand, indulging her fantasy. Okay, maybe it wasn’t entirely hers.

  “I can’t believe you two,” Will cut into the moment. “For all you know, he could be the Northwest Strangler.”

  I let out a little huff and straightened. “Way to kill my moment.”

  “I just don’t see it.” Cassie frowned. “I mean, evil like that; you’d think it would be in the eyes.”

  “Tell that to the girls he killed,” Will arched one brow at her pointedly.

  “You know what, I don’t even think I’d care if his face was the last thing I saw before I went,” Cassie threw out there, earning another displeased scowl from Will.

  “You’re hopelessly pathetic.”

  She drew open the sliding door on the back of the baked goods display and pulled out one of the awful bran muffins, shoving it toward Will. “Here, just take your muffin and quit trying to bring me down.”

  He took the muffin with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t forget my smoothie.”

  “Extra kale?” Cassie wrinkled her nose and he nodded.

  While she was blending his smoothie, Will leaned closer over the counter. “You two are like a bad episode of Gossip Girl.”

  “Hey, don’t worry, I just got out of one disastrous relationship; I’m not looking to jump into another. It’s just fun to imagine the possibilities.”

  This time I got the scowl. “You’re as bad as she is; letting a pretty face distract you.”

  I snorted, “You’re one to talk. How many times have you taken advantage of your pretty face and smile to charm an unsuspecting female?”

  His mouth curled up at the corners in a sly grin he tried to hide by shoving a bit of muffin in his mouth.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Cassie returned with his fresh fruit and vegetable smoothie, and I took it from her, holding it out to Will. “Take your super smoothie and your little jealous man feelings and go sit down.”

  “Jealous man feelings?” His eyebrows shot up, partly in amusement.

  I chuckled. “Go. Sit.”

  “He’s single, right?” Cassie asked, once he was out of earshot.

  I gave her a look. “I don’t think you want to go there, Cass.”

  “Come on,” she whined. “Pleeeease, you guys are friends. You gotta set me up.”

  “I can feel him out for you, but in all the time that he’s been coming into the shop,” which was the same amount of time I’d known him, “I haven’t known him to have a steady girlfriend. He goes on lots of first dates, and a few second dates, and even fewer third dates, but I don’t think it goes too much beyond that.”

  “Why do all the good looking ones have to have wandering dicks?”

  I snorted. “Tell me about it.” A quick glance at the clock told me her shift was almost over “You have class today?”

  Cassie was in her junior year at Western on the road to becoming a social worker.

  “Just one class today, but I have two papers to write over the weekend.”

  I missed writing papers about as much as I missed Nathan. “Why don’t you do a quick check of the bathrooms, and then as soon as Mitch gets here, you can take off a little early.”

  With a nod, she flitted off to the restrooms and I went to the register to check our numbers for the day.

  “Hey Danny,” I heard Cassie’s cheerful voice, and looked up to see our most loyal customer coming in the door. He gave her a bashful wave before she ducked inside the bathroom and then he claimed one of the fat cozy chairs in the corner with his stuff before making his way over to me at the counter. I’d already started on his drink, and couldn’t hear over the sound of the steamer when he started to make small talk.

  “What was that?” I asked once the milk was steamed.

  “I asked how your day is going so far.”

  “Not bad. I took the morning off so I haven’t been here long, but it looks like it will be another busy day. You have lots of work to get done?”

  “Always.”

  I snapped the lid on
his cup and slid the sleeve over it before handing it to him. “Anything else for ya?”

  “I’ll try one of those strawberry strudels.”

  I retrieved one from the case and slid it into a sleeve. “Do you want it warmed?”

  “Yes please.”

  I popped it in the small microwave for a few seconds.

  “Did you know that strawberries aren’t actually berries at all?”

  I gave him a curious look. “Really?”

  “Yes, but bananas, kiwis, tomatoes, avocados, pomegranates and even watermelons are all berries, which are any simple fruit stemming from a single flower with one ovary.”

  “Interesting. Well, then what would be a proper name for strawberries?” I handed him his strudel and waited while his face turned up in a puzzled frown.

  “I don’t know, I’ll have to think on that.”

  I chuckled as he walked away from the counter, back to his workspace. There was no use in ringing him up yet when it was likely there would be many more drinks and snacks after that one. I just started him a tab for the day.

  “He’s so odd,” Cassie commented, back from her check of the restrooms.

  “Maybe, but he’s sweet, and harmless. He just has a thing for weird trivia facts.”

  Shortly after, Mitch came on for his afternoon shift and I let Reggie and Cassie go. Mitch had been with me almost since the beginning like Cass and Reggie. He was an alright worker, on the quieter side compared to the rest of them. It was obvious though, that working in a coffee shop wasn’t his life dream, but he was friendly enough and did his job. I’d had higher hopes when I hired him. He’d been persistent about getting the job, coming in almost every day to check, so I gave him a shot despite his lack of coffee experience. The experience he picked up, the enthusiasm and passion for coffee and customer service, not so much. I couldn’t complain too much though. I’d worked in restaurants with co-workers that had much worse attitudes than him. All in all, my team was pretty solid.

  Together, we covered the counter until Carlie, my youngest and newest employee, showed up once her high school let out for the day. When she walked in, I noticed her new hairstyle right away. She was always changing it up, and now she’d gone with a platinum blonde that faded to a black ombre at the end of her long ponytail. “I like the new do,” I told her. For the last few months she’d been a redhead, before that, it was blonde with purple in the underneath.