Page 33 of Believe in Caloosa Springs

Cameron was pretty easy to look at with his angular features and shaggy hair, especially when he smiled. He had a really nice butt, too. It was both strange and nice to see cute twinks in the wild. Not something I was used to seeing back home. I was honestly surprised at the quantity of cute gay boys here. For such a small town, it sure seemed like they had more than their per-capita share.

I sighed and flexed my sore hand under the table. I don’t know why I was thinking about cute boys, anyway. I clearly wasn’t very good with them. The one cute boy I’d gotten to go out with, Icompletely humiliated myself. I wouldn’t talk to someone who had poisoned me, either. Probably the worst way you could start a potential courtship.

I huffed through my nose. One thing was for sure… I wasnevergetting a boy flowers, not ever again.

Cameron reappeared at the table with a mug in one hand and a pad of paper in the other. He set the cup down on the table and pulled a pencil from behind his ear. Goodness, he was like something out of that show my sisters used to watch.Gilmore Girls.Just a small-town cutie.

“What can I get ya?” His voice was upbeat and cheerful, and his smile was light and carefree. He was clearly having a much better morning than I was, and for that, I was glad. As lousy as I felt, I found myself smiling along with him. He was contagious.

I hadn’t grabbed a menu, and he hadn’t offered one. I guess people just generally knew what they wanted. My head was still spinning, and I wasn’t even sure I could stomach food at the moment. Nevertheless, I racked my brain for a list of generic diner breakfast options and blurted: "Omelet?”

“Ham and cheese?”

I nodded.

“Hash Browns?”

“Sure.”

“White, wheat, sourdough, or a biscuit?”

“Sourdough. And a side of salsa, please.”

“Hot sauce or table salsa?” Cameron asked.

“Table salsa, thank you.”

Cameron nodded before turning away and heading back behind the counter.

I pulled out my phone and thumbed through my contact list. There were five people total. That, in and of itself, seemed pathetic. I only hadfivepeople’s phone numbers, and two of them were my parents. Then Henry, Tian, and Tyler.

Tian wasn’t responding to any texts, I highly doubted Tyler wanted anything to do with me at the moment. Henry was the very last person I wanted to see or speak to just then—I had pretty much made up my mind to blame him for all of this mess, fair or not. And I was still ‘on the lam’ from my parents. After depressing myself even further with my lack of human connection, I swiped over to the web browser and started looking for hotel rooms in the area. I didn’t have a whole lot of money left, but I could at least get the fuck out of this town.

What about Henry?

What about him? If he wanted to stay, he could figure it out on his own.

I was so engrossed in my search, I startled a bit and nearly dropped my phone when I looked up to see Tyler sitting in my booth staring at me from across the table.

“Jeez, man!” I exclaimed. “You’re like a ninja or something.”

Tyler squinted and chuckled. This close, the brim of his black cowboy hat showed signs of long-wear around the edges.

“My apologies. Didn’t mean to startle you. Was just coming in for a cup of coffee, and saw you sittin’ here. Thought you might like some company.”

I laughed nervously. “I would think I was the last person you would want to hang out with.”

“Oh…?” Tyler hedged, raising a bushy eyebrow, “Why’s that?”

“I can’t imagine you are too happy with your employees fighting.”

Tyler sighed. “I’m not. But to be frank, Jake had it comin’. The only reason I interfered was because you started knocking my plants over. I’ve been wanting to have a go at him since he started. I’m not oblivious to the banter and the bullshit that slips out of that ignorant mouth of his.”

“Really?”

Tyler nodded. “I wanted to fire him after the first day, but Oliver wouldn't let me. He said we had to give everyone a fair chance.” Tyler scoffed. “Always the optimist, my husband.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the love-dumb look Tyler got when he talked about Oliver.I wanted that.

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