I watch as Aspen hands over the order before us as her coworker asks us what we would like to order. I can’t seem to pry my eyes away from our girl long enough to answer her though. When she doesn’t hear another order come, Aspen looks up and I watch as her eyes widen when she sees Roman and I standing there.
I grin at her and she rolls her eyes before she looks to Roman.
“We missed you last night, Kitten.” I say and her eyes narrow at me.
“Yeah. Sorry, I couldn’t make it.” She says dryly.
I only grin wider at her reaction.
“Two large coffees, one black, one with one sugar, one cream, a blueberry muffin, two coffee cakes, and two bacon, egg, and cheese croissants please.” Roman rattles off.
I want to hit him because by telling her coworker our order, Aspen now has a reason to ignore us. She turns from the counter and starts to bag up the pastries and heat up our sandwiches. While they heat, she pours two coffees, adding sugar and cream to one. She places everything on the counter in front of us, making sure to not touch us like yesterday, before turning and grabbing the hot sandwiches. I want to smile at that. I knew she felt something yesterday. She stuffs the sandwiches in the bag with the pastries and sets them down next to our coffees.
“Hey B, I’m going to take my break now.” She says before Roman and I can get a word out.
My ears perk up that she’s taking a break. Maybe we can get her to take her break with us, I think as I watch her take her apron off and hang it up. Before I can ask her to sit with us though, she’s moving down the hallway and out of our sight. We both stare after her and I don’t know if I should laugh at our clever girl for getting away without talking to us, or disappointed because we didn’t get to talk to her.
I look over at Roman who is staring at the hallway she disappeared down with a frown. He meets my eyes and we both turn back to the other barista.
“Where does that door lead to?” I ask.
The other barista looks us over before she answers us.
“What do you want with Aspen?” She asks.
“To take her out.” I answer easily.
“Aspen, she’s, well she’s got enough going on in her life. She doesn’t need any more trouble or heartbreak and you two have that written all over you.”
“What’s going on with Aspen?” Roman asks abruptly.
Roman has always had a knight in shining armor, hero complex and as soon as she said that Aspen was in trouble, I knew that he was hooked.
“She just has enough to worry about without adding either of you guys to the mix.” She says dismissively.
“We’re not trying to cause her any trouble. We just wanted to take her out. Show her a good time, you know?”
Her coworker studies us for a minute before she finally answers.
“The hallway leads to the door to the alley.” She says, “head around the building and down the alley, there’s a space after the dumpsters where we take our breaks.”
“Thank you!” I say gratefully as we grab our coffees and the bag of food and head out the door.
We jog around the edge of the building and down the alley, slowing to a walk as we get to the dumpster. There she is, sitting on an overturned milk crate, texting on her phone. She looks up at the sound of our footsteps and I see her shoot a glare towards the back door, probably figuring out that her friend was the one who told us where she was.
“Hey, Kitten.” I say cheerily as I take the empty milk crate on one side of her.
Roman leans against the wall, sipping his coffee as he watches her.
“You didn’t come last night.” I say, “We really did miss you.”
“Yeah, I was busy.” She says as she tucks her phone back into her pocket.
“How about tonight?” I ask.
“I have plans.” She says, avoiding eye contact.
She pushes herself off her milk crate and heads to the back door. Roman straightens from the wall.