13
Mysti
My feet feltheavy as I pushed my tray onto the countertop and turned back toward the seating area of the cafe. Junie and Callie were sitting at the tables near the front window, talking with a few of our stragglers while PJ, one of our newest servers, listened from nearby. I went toward her and pulled out two chairs at the table across from Steve, offering one to her.
Clarence sat with his arms crossed over his chest while Evie chattered on like she lived for this attention. Beside me, PJ leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand.
“Oh, cheer up, Clarence,” Evie chided after seeing the near-frown on the old man’s face. “You’re always so glum.”
PJ jerked her head back and her eyes went wide. “You’re the grumpy one and the sunshine one!”
Clarence harrumphed, while Evie scrunched up her brow. “What was that?”
But Junie was nodding, a wide smile growing on her face. “You’re right, PJ,” she said with a light chuckle, giving Clarence’s arm a bump with hers. “The grumpy one is sweet on the sunshine one. It’s a common trope in romance books.”
“You read romance?” Both Callie and Evie said it at the same time, then turned to each other and laughed. Beside me, PJ had her head lowered and her chin tucked to her chest.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” I told her, leaning closer. “Callie and Junie are huge fans.”
“And Clarence is the grumpy one,” Junie declared from her side of the table. “And Evie—”
“Evie is the sunshine.” It would be wrong to say I didn’t swoon with the other ladies as Clarence turned his warm brown eyes on his wife. You could almost see the smile on his lips. Almost, but not quite.
“Aww, my grumpy bunny,” Evie said, leaning into her husband’s side, her frail fingers gripping his jaw as she pressed a sweet kiss to his cheek.
He harrumphed again, but when he finally cracked that smile, that sunshine Evie wore like a second skin came radiating out of him too.
“Calvin and I are friends to lovers,” Callie announced loudly, tossing a glance toward the kitchen where her boyfriend and Corabelle had been finishing up the last of the dishes.
“That’s only because the big oaf refused to see what was right in front of him,” Corabelle called back through the window. She grabbed a towel from her shoulder and came through the door into the main room. “Everyone else here could see how completely nuts you were over him.”
Callie shrugged, although her eyes never left Calvin in the back.
“What about you, Junie?” PJ asked, her voice a little less meek as the pinkish tinge on her cheeks began to fade. “How did you and Corabelle meet?”
“That would be forbidden romance.” Junie’s lips pursed, even when Corabelle wrapped her arms around her shoulders from behind.
“Brother’s best friend’s little sister?” Corabelle grinned. “Is that a thing?”
“That should be a thing,” Callie said, shifting her chair to make room as Calvin came to join us. “I love your story, no matter how big of jerks your brothers were.”
“It’s those kinds of things that make for the best stories,” PJ said.
“What’s your story, PJ?” Corabelle asked as she sat herself down in Junie’s lap.
PJ ducked her head again and ran her thumb across the seam in her shorts. “I’m not sure I have a story.”
“No love interest?” I asked, but PJ shook her head.
“I’m pretty sure he hates me.”
“Ooo! Enemies to lovers!” Callie let out a laugh that was muffled as Calvin tried to silence her with his hand over her mouth. Junie and the others laughed at them, and even Clarence’s walls broke down.
PJ’s smile was weak, but at least it was there. Her eyes met mine. “I’m pretty sure we’re just enemies. He’s always such an asshole when we’re around other people. And we’re never not around other people.”
“Have you told him how you feel?”
The girl shook her head. “I’m afraid of what will happen if I do.”