"Okay…" I reached for a random bottle. "So let's start with the part youdo.What happened? Was it something at work?"
She made a face. "Yeah. A difficult customer." She said "difficult" like someone had taken a chainsaw to the espresso machine.
I asked. "Anyone I know?"
With a bitter laugh, she replied, "Let's hope not."
"What doesthatmean?"
She uncrossed her arms and launched into it. "So mid-afternoon, I'm doing my thing, right? Wiping down the counters, checking the pastry case, thinking that it's been a pretty good day. And then…hewalks in."
I waited for her to elaborate. When she didn't, I asked, "He, who?"
She gave me a long sideways look. "Your new employee's friend."
Thatgot my attention. "You mean the blond guy?" I still didn't know his name because Griff and I had never discussed him. In truth, we hadn't discussed a lot of things, mostly because Griff wasn't forthcoming.
He'd been working at the shop for only two days, but it was long enough to know that he wasn't exactly chatty. Of course, it didn't help that I couldn't seem to stop making a fool of myself.
Stupid Buick.
Next to me, Tessa let out a long, unsteady breath. "His name is Ryder."
"Ryder?" I let the name rattle around in my head. "Is that his first name? Or his last?"
"Heck if I know, but that's what he calls himself. Anyway, he comes in and orders a dozen pastries – all with raisins, by the way – for delivery to the bike shop."
I blinked. "Wait, you meanmybike shop?"
"That's the one."
I was still assembling the pieces. "So…I'm guessing they were going to Griff?"
"In theory," she said, looking disgruntled. "And he tells me to include bagels, too."
"And that's a problem?"
"Of course it's a problem," she said. "That first morning, they didn't even order bagels." She leaned back with a dramatic groan. "Griff probably hates them."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because if he wanted bagels, he would have ordered bagels." She turned sideways on the sofa to face me. "Do you want to hear something terrible?"
"What?"
"That morning when they both came in together? I gave them bagels anyway." Her tone grew ominous. "Cranberry. On purpose."
"Huh. I didn't think you sold cranberry bagels."
"We don't. That's the point."
"It is?"
"Yeah. I had to use plain ones, except I frosted them with cream cheese to make the cranberries stick. And I usedtonsof them."
I couldn't help but laugh. "You're kidding."
Tessa's mouth tightened. "It's not funny."
