Chapter Five
When Wyatt walked into Clearwater Coffee on Thursday morning, Chrissy wasn’t all that surprised to see him. Honestly, she’d half expected it. While she wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone else, she would’ve been disappointed if he hadn’t shown up after seeing him every morning since the birthday party. Unfortunately, between the morning crowd and his hurry to get to his own job, there was little time to talk and discover the reason behind his increase in visits.
Thursday evening, after eating dinner with Mom and Emma, they settled down in the living room to watch an episode or two of their favorite streamed show.
Emma had been dealing with a cold all week. Chrissy glanced at her, concerned about the dark circles under her sister’s eyes. Chrissy had already decided that, if Emma didn’t feel better in another day or two, she was going to insist on a doctor’s visit.
After going to so many doctors over the years, Chrissy understood why Emma was hesitant. But after a heart transplant, Emma really did need to take every precaution.
Chrissy tried not to flinch when Emma sneezed. Instead, she rested her cell phone on the arm of the couch and did her best to focus on the show. When that didn’t distract her from worrying about her sister, her mind turned to Wyatt. Just thinking about him coming in every morning with that friendly smile of his made her feel a little better.
She finally picked up her phone and texted him. “You’ve sure been in a coffee mood this week.”
Chrissy really didn’t expect him to text back, but maybe a minute or two later, her phone pinged. She switched it to silent when Mom glanced at her, then she pulled the text up to read it.
“I’ll be there tomorrow, too.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that then smiled as she typed out, “If you do, you should try something besides your usual.”
“Why fix what isn’t broken?”
It was the winking emoji at the end of his post that made her grin.
Another text came through. “Are you busy Saturday night?”
What?!Chrissy glanced at Mom and Emma who both seemed unaware of her texting conversation with Wyatt. “Why do you ask?”
“LOL Are you or not?”
“I’m never busy on a Saturday night.” Or a Friday night, either. Sadly, that was the truth. In fact, what she was doing now was likely to be on repeat through the weekend. Not that it was a bad thing. She enjoyed hanging out with her family. But when she said it out loud—or in text—it sounded lame.
“Then you’re free to go to dinner with me.”
Chrissy’s jaw dropped, and she closed her mouth with a snap before anyone else noticed. What? He wanted to go to dinner? Was he asking her out on a date? Surely not.
She must have taken too long to respond because another text came through.
“I’d like to officially thank you for going to Gran’s party. Nothing fancy. Pizza maybe?”
He’d already paid her; he certainly didn’t need to take her out to dinner to thank her. But if that was his reason, then this wasn’t a date. Which meant agreeing to go would be okay, right? Besides, pizza did sound good.
“Pizza would be great.”
“Can I pick you up at six?”
Chrissy ignored the bubbles of excitement in her chest as she typed her response. “Sure.”
“Awesome. Have a good evening, okay?”
She stared at the words on her phone and couldn’t stop smiling. She was going on a non-date with Wyatt.
~*~
Yes, Wyatt was stopping by Clearwater Coffee for the fifth morning in a row. The caffeine fix certainly helped him face whatever was going on at the country club. But more so, there was something about the smile Chrissy greeted him with that put him in a good mood for the rest of the day. It probably wasn’t a good thing that he was starting to get as addicted to that smile as he was to his daily cup of coffee.
He only realized how addicted he was becoming when he walked into the shop and spotted someone else behind the counter in place of Chrissy. He waited in line like he planned. After placing his order, he casually asked, “Is Chrissy working today?”
The woman with a name tag that had “Lil” written on it shook her head. “She was supposed to, but we switched shifts. She called me early, early this morning.” Lil put a lid on his cup of coffee and handed it over. “Said she had to get to an unexpected doctor’s appointment or something. Anyway, she should be here tomorrow.”
