“Sam. Sorry, Mateo already called us, but we’ve been falling from one job into another.”
“I understand. But if I can’t get the registers to work, then I might as well close shop. And I don’t want to cut in line or anything, but… Gandalf isn’t working properly.”
“Wait. What? Really? Reliable Gandalf? If you can’t even pull a decent cup, then it must be the end of the world.”
“Ha ha. Seriously, Rick, I’ve tried everything, but there’s something wrong that’s beyond me. It’s not just Gandalf; it’s the grinder and the cash register too.”
Zane held up three fingers.
“Correction. It’s all three registers.”
Rick sighed on the other side of the line. “I can’t make promises, but someone should be there in the next fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks.”
Rick must have heard my frustration in my voice. “Sorry for making light of it. I shouldn’t have. How busy is it?”
“We’ll manage. I know you’ve had tech problems for a while now. Just didn’t expect them here.” I ran my hand through my hair and nodded when Lucy raised a questioning thumbs-up. “It’s the start of shift, so it’s empty right now, but with early guests and morning regulars, I’m going to need at least one working register and coffee machine ASAP.” And Gandalf had better not be broken.
“I know. I know. Don’t worry; someone’ll be there in fifteen minutes max.” Another sigh. “Our glitches shouldn’t have any effect on the café at all. This doesn’t make sense. None of it makes sense.”
Hedidsound frayed at the edges. “I’ll let you get back to work. If your tech can fix this before the rush, I’m opening a free tab for the hub for the next five days. And a box of Théo’s finest.”
“Yes on the pastries. But, please, set a two-per limit for the coffee. Can’t have my staff bouncing off the walls.”
I rang off and faced Zane and Lucy’s questioning expressions. “He promised me fifteen minutes. Guess all we can do is get all non-tech stuff ready in the meantime.”
“And hope the ovens don’t go…” Zane added, mimicking an explosion with his hands.
I glared at him and crossed my fingers he hadn’t just jinxed us.
Not much later, Adri walked in.
“Good morning.” I couldn’t stop the goofy smile, as if it’d been minutes, not hours, since we’d kissed. “You’re early. I thought Rick said you were swamped?”
It amazed me how gorgeous he looked after such hectic nights. No frown. No puffy cheeks. Just glowing, iridescent skin, bright cerulean eyes, and a disarming, quiet smile. Niren genes were great.
“Hi.”
The hitch in his voice—as if he lost his Wi-Fi connection for a second—just made me want to kiss him again. “There are no swamps in Princedelphia.”
“It’s an expression. It means too busy for a break.” I was about to add that Gandalf wasn’t up for an espresso when he held up a toolkit.
“I’m not on break. Rick said you had problems?”
He sent Adri? Not that I wasn’t happy to see him. “I thought you were working on the west wing?”
“I was. Rick considered my skills the best-suited.”
Huh. Or the fastest. “I take it he mentioned the free coffee offer?”
Adri’s mouth curled into a smile. “In a hub-wide message, stressing the two-cup limit. Riley replied ‘YES’ in all caps, bracketed by coffee emojis. Five times.”
I clenched my arms to my side to keep myself from reaching out. “I bet she did.” She did love her flat white. “I don’t want to keep you past your shift, so I’ll let you get on with it.”
“I had a brief rest two hours ago. I’ll be fine.”
An image of him sitting at his desk with his fingerswrapped around the nearest socket popped up in my head. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent an hour researching Niren physiology after the kids went to bed. That, combined with the warped dreams of the glowing energy networks beneath his skin and his twisted, fiber-optic tapered legs wrapped around me, had my imagination running away with me.
