Page 18 of Welcome to Fae Cafe
“Maybe if you return with answers, the Queene won’t destroy you for leaving the Ever Corners before her daughter’s wedding,” Mor said. The comment was loaded with the wrathful reminder of the promises Cress had broken.
7
Kate Kole and the Class that Changed Everything
Kate stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. A girl with dark, wine-red hair in a messy bun, tired hazel eyes, and a ridiculous, bruising scratch on her forehead stared back. The face was one she barely recognized in this state. She ripped her elastic out and her wild hair billowed free over her shoulders. Frankly, she looked like a cross between a clown that hadn’t slept in seventeen days and a Barbie that had been melted in the microwave.
Kate hadn’t been watching the girl across the street this week. The redhead wasn’t home much, but when she was, Kate spent too many hours spying like a lunatic and trying to muster up the courage to go over and say hi. Kate had moved into this apartment six months ago, and her tongue still felt fat when she thought about going over to tell the girl who she was.
Now, after the forehead-bashing alley incident, Kate probably just seemed like an idiot who flung herself into a bad situation for no reason. She slapped a hand over her eyes as she thought about how in the world she was going to introduce herself after that gong show.
Also, she killed someone yesterday morning. So, there was that life-altering event to take into consideration, too.
“Hi, I’m Kate. I meddle in other people’s business because I can’t stop myself from getting involved. Oh, also, I kill people sometimes. I probably won’t kill you, though. Hopefully.”
“Was that really only yesterday?” she mumbled to herself as she ran a cloth under cold water.
She winced as she dabbed it against her throbbing forehead.
When she was finished, she leaned with her palms against the counter, staring into the mirror where she saw monstrous turquoise eyes instead of tired hazel ones. Even after the long, exciting night, she couldn’t shake the blue-eyed guy from her head. He would have been pretty if he wasn’t so frightening.
“What’s wrong with you?” she whispered to the girl in the mirror, wondering how she could think such a thought after he’d stormed into her café and pushed her against the wall. She couldn’t stand pushy guys. Though, it was him telling her flat out that hewanted her to diethat was the real dealbreaker.
Even after Kate had smoked her forehead on the wall in the alley, her first thought had been ofhim. It was like she wondered if he’d seen it. Though she couldn’t imagine why she wondered about him at all. If her life was a horror novel, this was the part where she’d run screaming into the forest, and he’d stalk her through the trees to her gritty, gruesome end.
She grabbed her brush off the counter and began yanking it through her hair. There was no point in bothering with makeup today when her forehead looked like a glowing red beacon.
Thirty minutes later, Kate pushed out the café door. She half-jogged down the street, balancing a piping hot latte as she took the long way around the block to avoid Ben’s convenience store. She flicked through red-tag flights on her phone as she moved. She’d never been on a plane before, but Greece was starting to sound like a good option for a trip. Or forever.
Her heart began to feel less heavy as she made a plan. She could sit by the sea and eat Greek salads while sipping on cool, fresh fruit drinks. Maybe they had cafés in Greece. Maybe she could open a café there instead with French pastries and English tea and goodies from all over Europe like a cozy Travel Romance novel.
Her phone buzzed, and she stifled a yawn as she answered it. “Mm?” It was more of a moan than ahello. If she thought she was capable of sleeping, she would have gone back to bed this morning. But she didn’t want to be in the café building alone.
“We had to let him go, Kate.”
Kate stopped walking. “What?”
“Not to sound judgey, but the guy was pretty adamant about his story. Are you sure you didn’t step into that punch?” Lily asked.
Kate chewed on her lip. “Maybe a little.”
“Kate, I know how worried you get about the girl across the street, but she’s an adult. She can handle her own problems. This guy doesn’t really fit the profile of someone who randomly punches people.”
“He was yelling at her while she was crying!”
“Well, that girl doesn’t have a single mark on her body to show us. I don’t have any evidence an assault happened because you didn’t come in with them, and the girl is agreeing that you basically forced him to strike your shoulder.”
Kate released an exasperated sigh and set her latte on a bench. She dragged a hand through her hair. “Maybe he’s learned his lesson already just from getting taken in.”
“Kate,” Lily said.
“Yeah?”
“Stop trying to play God. Let me chase therealbad guys.”
“Fine,” Kate said through a mixed mumble and grunt. She rigidly adjusted the fit of her yellow sweater.
“There’s another solution, you know.” Lily’s phone cut out for a moment, and Kate turned toward the distant cell tower like that might give her a better signal. “You can join the force like I’ve always said you should. Then you can catch all the bad guys you want.”
