Page 21 of You've Got Male

Evie

Evie never considered death by shock a realistic scenario. That was until she pushed through the kitchen doors and re-entered the shop and saw the crowd of people. And it wasn’t just your average crowd of coffee-goers, it was overflowing with men in suits and ties, holding roses.

She, however, was so not rose worthy. As she carried a tray of toasty bagel balls in one hand, with a dollop of frothed cream on her right boob, her face glistened like a glitter bomb from sticking her head in the coffee bean roaster.

It took everything Evie had not to bolt right back through those swinging double doors, down the hallway, and lock herself in the office—where her dad was known to keep a bottle of bourbon in the bottom drawer—and devour this fresh batch of balls. But that’d probably only give Julie more camera fodder.

The shop was busting at the seams with customers. Every chair was taken, every inch of standing room filled. Then there was the intimidating line, which went out the door and down the street—nearly every eyeball was zeroed in on her. And standing at the back of the room, holding hands and looking delighted with themselves, were her parents.

A hush settled over the crowd and the room stilled. Evie’s stomach sank. Ignoring the whispers, she worked her way through the crowd and walked straight up to Julie, who was doing double duty on the espresso machine and steamer like it was an Olympic sport.

“What did you do?” Evie whispered harshly.

“Me?” Julie said and didn’t bother to look apologetic in the slightest. “Why do you think I had anything to do with this?”

“Because there are men holding roses, people staring at me, and you reek of guilt.”

“Fine. I think it’s from the last video.”

“What last video?” Nothing from Julie. Not even a peep. “Whatlast video?”

“You’re going to hate me,” her friend said with a gigantic smile. “But I posted a video of you holding Waverly the other day. It was such a picture-perfect moment.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because there was so much demand from your fans that I had to give them what they were begging for.” Julie made a swooping gesture to the crowd that had their phones aimed at Evie—likely recording. “Plus, your mom forced me to.”

She glared at her parents. They waved back.

“Before you unfriend me, let me point out that your fans love coffee. In fact, this is the busiest day we’ve had since I started working here. A bunch of them voted for Grinder as their favorite coffee shop in Denver.”

“I don’t want fans. I don’t want the male species coming in and complicating my already complicated day. And I don’t want roses.” But she did want to win Denver’s Best Coffee House, so a little of the irritation faded at the possibility of being one stepcloser to her goal. “How many people voted?”

“We ran out of flyers. Plus, every hour I offer half-off drip to anyone who shows proof that they went online and voted for us.”

Well, that was something.

“How many votes do you think we’ve accumulated?”

“Today? Hundreds.”

“Hundreds?” And it was only lunch. If they kept up this kind of pace they might really stand a chance of winning. “You could have at least warned me about the ambush.”

“And risk you bolting? No way. Not to mention that your mom would kill me if I spilled the beans. She’s been vetting bachelors all morning.”

“Vetting?” Evie spotted her mom, who was talking up a tall, dark, and handsome man. Her dad was squeezing the man’s bicep, giving it a test drive. Evie wanted to remind them that she didn’t do tall, dark, and halfway-out-the-door anymore. But what was the point? They were fully committed to the cause and Evie was starting to worry that they wouldn’t stop until they married her off.

“No losers in this bunch,” Julie said reassuringly. Evie didn’t feel reassured. “Now, get out there and show them what a catch you are.” With a resounding smack on the rump, she shoved Evie out from behind the counter and said, really loudly, “Bring on the bachelors.”

Evie turned to flee and bumped into a blond Gen-Z-er who looked cheer-squad peppy and Instagram ready. “And here she is now,” the coed said into her phone, which was on a selfie-stick and streaming live. A bright light beamed in Evie’s face. When she blinked away the floating dots she noticed someone holding a ring-light on them.

“Evie of You’ve Got Male!” The woman pushed up next to Evie, shoving her phone in Evie’s face until she was front and center on the woman’s screen. Evie took in her appearance,and it was worse than she thought. “I’m Tasha Hart and my ClickByte handle is LoveByte, a profile dedicated to exploring love on social media platforms, and you, Evie, have been bitten by Cupid.”

She’d like to bite Cupid right back.Hard.

“Once bitten, twice shy,” Evie said with a forced smile, smoothing her stray hairs back into her ponytail. It didn’t help.

“Well, your fifty thousand follows disagree.”

---