Page 38 of The Pumpkin Spice Romance
FELIX
“I hate these chairs,” I said, trying to find a comfortable spot and failing. Today’s coffee shop had some good points, but the furniture wasn’t one of them.
“I hate all the blonde wood,” said Maddie. “I feel like I’m being attacked by Scandinavian rip-off design.”
“I’d prefer to be attacked by actual Scandinavians,” I agreed. “Pillaging Vikings would at least be interesting.”
“God, I’d hate to be pillaged.”
“Did you just quote The Pirate Movie?” I asked, trying not to laugh. Barely anyone remembered the goofy 1980s Pirates of Penzance-based farce, and Maddie was definitely too young to remember it.
“No, absolutely not. That would imply that I owned a VHS player.”
“You do not,” I said, laughing.
“I do, actually. I had an uncle who owned a Blockbuster franchise. After he passed, we found stacks of VHS tapes in hisbasement, and my parents thought anything that was a musical was probably appropriate for kids.”
I laughed. “But it really is not.”
“Nope. Didn’t stop me from watching it on repeat. I didn’t even get the pillaging joke until I was in college, and then I was kind of offended. How did you find it?”
I didn’t want to admit that, due to Shifter aging, I’d actually seen it in theaters.
“There was a period when I only had rabbit ears in college. They used to play it on some channel on repeat for the midnight movie for some reason.”
I hoped thatrabbit earswere still a reference that made sense.
“It is a movie that would make more sense while stoned,” agreed Maddie, leaping to the natural college inference.
“Rude of you to assume. Not incorrect, but still rude.”
Maddie grinned unrepentantly. “I should add it to the Deja Brew movie club list.”
“There’s a movie club?”
“And two book clubs. I put movies on a list, and then people vote. Once a month, we open after hours for popcorn and movies, but we always have someone who looks up facts andshares little points of interest. People like sing-along movies. The point is to have a group experience and make friends.”
Once again, I was struck by the way Maddie had gone out of her way to build a community. I wasn’t sure how we were going to bottle that for a second location. I thought we needed to create some systems that would make Maddie’s ideas easy to handle. It would also probably take a manager who fully embraced the Deja Brew ethos.
My phone buzzed, and I glanced at it. It was a text message from my brother.
I tried to call, but I think I messed up the message. These phones don’t have proper buttons. Would like to talk. Can you call me?
And that explained the blank voicemail. I’d assumed I was a butt dial and put the call out of my head.
“You look kind of worried,” said Maddie. “Is everything OK?”
“My brother wants to talk to me, and I have no idea why.”
“Maybe it’s something good?” she offered, looking worried on my behalf.
“Honestly, I have no idea.” I looked at the phone again, trying to decide if I wanted to call and get it over with or put it off and do nothing.
“I think we should go, and then you can call at home, where you’ll feel less anxious.”
I opened my mouth to deny that I felt any anxiety and then realized she was right.
“I’m starting to think you’re psychic,” I said, and she froze.
