Page 2 of The Good Luck Cafe
Ugh.She didn’t have a free hand to swipe it away, so she blinked through the curtain of dark hair, spotting her car up ahead.
“In a hurry?” someone asked.
The unexpected voice startled her. She whirled to find its source, her subconscious already matching the deep voice to a name before she looked into the man’s bright blue eyes. The sudden movement made her bagel tumble off the top of her coffee cup, where it was balanced. Moira tried to snatch it out of the air before it hit the pavement, which made her coffee slip from her grasp.
Gil Ryan attempted to catch the bagel and drink as well. He lunged toward Moira and stretched out his hand, bumping his forehead into hers.
“Ow!” She straightened and pressed a hand to her forehead, her eyes open to see the rest of the ordeal pass in slow motion.
Gil caught the bagel—success!—but the coffee hit the pavement and exploded like a water balloon, dousing both of their shoes.
Not my new Converse sneakers! Coffee stains will be the death of them.
Gil straightened, holding the bagel with one hand and his forehead with the other, his gaze trained on her. “At least your breakfast was salvaged.”
Moira hesitated before taking it, feeling awkward. She’d always felt this way with Gil, knowing he had a crush on her that she didn’t reciprocate. “I wouldn’t have dropped any of my breakfast in the first place if you hadn’t startled me,” she snapped. The awkwardness frequently made her come off as defensive and maybe a little cold. She knew this about herself. “Of courseI’m in a hurry. That’s why I was walking so fast. Reason would tell you not to call out to a person who looks like they’re on a mission, unless you have something important to tell them.”
It was like she couldn’t control her mouth when Gil was around.
“I’m sorry. Why don’t you let me buy you another coffee?”
Gil was pretty much a saint. Everyone thought so. She’d never known him to do anything wrong, unless he could be found guilty by association with his former roommate, whom Moira wished she’d never met. A person couldn’t rewind time though. If they could, she’d dodge the handsome town mayor and have her coffee back this morning.
“I have to get home for work at nine. In fact, thanks to you, I’m running late.” She turned and started walking toward her car without a proper goodbye, which made her feel like a jerk. She immediately regretted the whole interaction with Gil, but if she turned around now, she’d be late to dispatch. So she kept walking.
***
Gil stepped inside Sweetie’s Bakeshop and headed toward Darla behind the counter.
“Hey, Mayor Gil,” she said with a broad smile. Unlike her daughter, Darla was always happy to see him.
“Morning, Darla. Can I get a hot coffee with a squirt of chocolate syrup?” he asked.
“Only you.” She laughed, reaching for an empty cup off to her side. Then she prepared his drink as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “I had a little run-in with Moira before walking in.”
Darla glanced over her shoulder as she poured from the pot on the back counter. “Oh? She was just in here.”
“Yeah. We bumped into each other. I kind of spilled her coffee. Or she spilled it, but she firmly blamed me.”
Darla chuckled. “Well, you know Moira,” she said, as if that explained her daughter’s attitude.
He did know Moira. She was as nice as her mother, to everyone except him. Somehow he’d found himself on her bad side, and that’s where he stayed no matter how hard he tried to win her over. And he did try.
Gil was a people pleaser, and he knew it. It bothered him when a person didn’t like him, especially someone whom he’d grown up with. And admittedly he’d had a crush on Moira Green since kindergarten when she’d sported long, black pigtail braids with green ribbons tied at the bottoms. While the other girls declared pink as their favorite color, Moira had always chosen green. While those pink girls had played hopscotch and dolls, Moira had dominated the swings and monkey bars.
Moira didn’t do what was expected, especially back when she and Gil were growing up. She was an outlier, which some might call a negative. Not him though. Moira had caught his eye when they were only kids. “You know what, Darla?”
Darla slid his coffee across the counter toward him and raised a questioning brow. “What’s that, Mayor?”
“Can you make me whatever kind of coffee Moira had this morning? She didn’t have time to come back in and get another. It’d be a shame for her to work her shift without caffeine.”
Darla’s green eyes narrowed. “You’re going to drop it off at her house?”
Gil nodded, warming up to the idea. Maybe he’d finally win Moira over this morning. She didn’t have to reciprocate his attraction, but getting off her bad side would be nice. And he kind of was to blame for causing her to dump her coffee. He’d called out to her, seeing that she was obviously in a hurry. What was he thinking?
“I don’t know, Mayor Gil. My daughter doesn’t like unannounced visitors.”
He could guess as much. Moira wasn’t an introvert, but she was a private person. “I won’t stay. I won’t even go inside. I know she’s working. I just want to bring her a replacement coffee. She can’t fault me for that, can she?”
