Page 38 of Forget Me Not
Bas looked up in horror and the look of anguish he found made his stomach turn. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“You never truly know when your ticket will be punched. I toldhimthat. I know Dez left you every goddamn thing he owned becauseI told himto,”he growled.
“I—I can’t—”
“Don’t be fucking stupid. You can. Get over yourself.” Cyrus clapped Bas on the shoulder before turning to leave the shop. “Oh, and Bastien?” He called from the doorway, “Happy Birthday.”
Then he was gone.
It may have been the anniversary of the day he entered the world, but it was not his birthday. That died with Dez.
Syve
Aimithoughtshewasreally funny for cueing up New Moon the second she stepped into the loft. She kind of was. The two women were curled up on the couch waiting with the movie on the title screen when Cam came running up the stairs.
“I’m here, I’m here! Tyler stopped for a drink on the way home because he forgot it was girl’s night. I literally had to call him a million times before he even fucking answered his phone—he’s out of his mind if he thinks he’s sleeping anywhere other than the couch tonight.” She rapidly fired off, still slightly out of breath from the stairs.
“Girl. I’m going to say this again, because I have to. Tyler is a piece of shit. If he doesn’t pull his head out of his ass, you and the kids can just move in with me and he can suck eggs.”
Aimi fumed. This was not the first occasion Cameron’s husband had forgotten something important in favor of going to the bar with his coworkers.
“I love you, and if he decides being married to his job is more important than being married to me, I will kick his ass out and you can move into the spare room. Then no one has to live in that tiny ass studio apartment of yours,” Cam promised.
“Hear, hear!” Syve added.
‘Studio apartment’ was rather generous for the glorified closet above The Glass.
“Oh! Okay, so as much as I would love to sit and talk shit about Tyler all night, because I would, I’ve got a tale to tell.”
Aimi clapped out the last words and sat up taller, crossing her legs under her. Syve and Cam both grabbed a bowl off the table, immediately shoveling their chosen snack into their mouths as they settled in for ‘Story Time with Aimi’.
“You guys know how busy the three o’clock rush is, right?” She waited a second for acknowledgement before continuing. “So...Toni and I are slogging through it, when we run out of cup sleeves—I don’t even know how that happened, but it did. So, Toni runs back into the storage closet to grab more, but it takes like, God only knows why, fifteen whole minutes. Thesecondshe walks away, I hear the chime ringand this guy walks in. I’m mad already, because he is disgustingly attractive. Seriously, tattoo’s, piercings, man bun and he ishuge—like someone plucked this man right out of my wet dreams.”
Cam started choking on her pretzels.
“I’m not even kidding! So, anyway, he gets in line. I make two whole drinks before this man justjumps over the counterand starts man-handling my espresso machine.” She eyes Syve and Cam, to make sure they are listening.
“I’m just standing there like…what in the actual fuck, right? So, I say to him, ‘Excuse me, can you not?’ Because what the hell else do you say? And I’m not even kidding you, this man—” She paused, inhaled and exhaled quickly, closing her eyes and held up a hand. “This. Man. He says to me, ‘I’m not waiting four years for a mediocre cup of coffee, Daisy. You should tell your boss to hire more help.’”
“No! What?!” Cam screeched.
“You didn’t call for bail money, so you obviously didn’t throat punch him,” Syve added.
“I was so dumbfounded, I just stared at him like a fucking idiot. So, then he says, ‘I can show you how to make a real coffee—I bet your boss would thank me.’ I can’t make this shit up.”
Cameron was gasping along with the story, hanging on Aimi’s every word. Syve could not keep from shaking her head at her friend’s animated retelling.
“So, whatdidyou do?”Cam probed.
“Well. I was holding a cup in my hand, just about to hand it over to Jasper, one of my regulars, and instead, I walked over to this guy and dumped it on him.”
Cam burst out laughing again.
“No, you did not!” Syve was pretty sure there were tears in Cam’s eyes now.
“I fucking did! But this man is undoubtedly a whole-ass foot taller than me, so the best I could manage was to splash it on him.” She rolled her eyes.
“Did he bail with his tail between his legs?” Cam asked between giggles.
