Page 8 of Believe in Caloosa Springs

Mandy flipped me off, but had to bite her lip to stave off a laugh.

“You didn’t tell me we were going to a farm. I thought we were hanging out in a weed store all day.”

“Is that what you think I do?” Mandy laughed. “Just sit around and sell weed? I’m second-in-command of the largest cannabis producer in Colorado.”

“Well, excuse me…” I snapped my finger. “I didn’t realize you were, like… agirl boss.”

I actuallydidknow that, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to twit her. I put my cards back into the sack and stuffed it under my pillow.

“What’d you pull?”

I picked up my coffin-shaped cross body and slung it over my shoulder before toeing into my Vans. “The Chariot.”

Mandy snorted behind me. “I fuckin’ told you.”

“Shut up,” I spat playfully.

Within the length of a song, we’d driven from Mandy’s driveway to a parking spot on the far corner of the lot holding a building that looked like it had been pulled straight out of a black-and-white movie.

“I feel like this whole town is stuck in some sort of time vortex or something.”

“I agree. I tell Cassie that all the time, but she insists she continues to get older.”

I snickered and held the door to the diner open for Mandy to pass through. “

Why thank you, kind sir,” Mandy teased, clutching at a string of invisible pearls around her neck.

Walking into the diner filled my soul with warmth. The smell of brewing coffee and bacon frying somewhere on a griddle felt better than a hug. I was suddenly starving, which was unusual. I normally wasn’t able to eat anything before at least an hour of consciousness and two cups of coffee. There weren’t many people in the diner, and soft music floated from ancient looking speakers. The space had been lightly decorated for the fall, with decorative pumpkins of varying sizes bundled together amongst a pile of fake orange and brown leaves on the corner of the counter.Fall really was just the best.

“Morning, Mandy,” the guy behind the counter greeted as we walked up. He was slight, with a shock of white-blond hair and a welcoming smile.

“Morning, Cameron. This is my cousin Tian.”

I smiled and gave a quick wave.

“I don’t think he had moved here yet the last time you visited,” Mandy said to me. “He and his baby brother are newer to town.”

“Nice to meet you, Tian,” Cameron said, giving a friendly nod as he finished putting a fresh pot of coffee on the percolator. ”I just need a few minutes on coffee; the breakfast rush kind of wiped us out. Shouldn’t be long.”

“No worries. I think we are going to do chai lattes, anyway,” Mandy said.

“Oh, yum!” Cameron’s eyes crinkled when he smiled again. He seemed like an extremely nice guy. “I’ll get started on those now.”

“Well, I don’t know what you want me to do, Sam!” A frustrated man’s voice could be heard from behind the kitchen doors. ”The blackberries were the best I could do this week.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s really helpful, Frank. Blackberries will be aperfectsubstitution for tomatoes in mylasagna, you fucking jackass,” another voice boomed.

“Uh-oh,” Mandy said quietly.

Cameron snorted and rolled his eyes, “Those two have been going at it for 15 minutes.”

”What’s new?” Mandy answered as the voices in the kitchen began to increase in volume.

“You rejected the tomatoes last week, that’s why I didn’t bring you any today. Why the fuck would I carry them all the way out here just to have your picky ass tell me to go fuck myself and have to just load them right back up?”

“Well, if you brought me tomatoes that didn’t look like they'd already been digested, I wouldn’t have to reject them! I told you to stop spraying that shit all over them!”

”That is 100 percent certified-organic pesticide. It’s either that, or there won’t be any tomatoes because the goddamn hornworms will eat ‘em all before I can pick ‘em!”

---