Part of me wanted to hide in the office and not give my baristas more ammunition. Instead, I shadowed Adri as he checked the system logs and traced the walls of the café with his fingers. He held a small device in his other hand. The screen was off, and not a beep came out of it. Yet, Adri reacted as if it fed him plenty of information—nodding, frowning, turning, and tracing the same piece of wall five times. Then he did the same behind the counter. And all this while the screen was off.
I thought about saying something, but I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of my baristas. So, I kept it to myself when he placed his fingers against Gandalf’s side and when he checked the non-working screen, tilting his head like he was listening. I held my breath as he moved his fingers along the cable, from the plug toward the wall, as if smoothing out wrinkles, until Gandalf hissed.
He turned to me. “Try it now.”
My fingers shook as I prepared an espresso. Gandalf sputtered a little, but the shot was perfect. One wasn’t enough to satisfy me, so I made another, and another. Those were perfect too.
I let out a sigh of relief and held the cup out to him. “Thanks. What about the rest?”
Adri inhaled the espresso—I would never tire of the sight—but didn’t take the cup. “I won’t be able to tell until I scan them. I need to keep my systems clean for that.”
“Of course. I’ll make you one when you’re done. It’s on the house, remember?”
Adri huffed a soft laugh. It lit up his face. I almost pulled him in for a kiss. Heat traveled up my neck as I put the espresso down. “I’ll let you get to it.”
He treated the other coffee machines the way he had Gandalf—running his fingers along the sides and the cables until they hissed. That one of them didn’t was a bad sign.
Adri’s drawn brows confirmed my suspicion. “The middle one is fried. The other one is sluggish, but it works.”
Sluggish was better than not at all. “We’ll manage.” Those machines weren’t as finicky as Gandalf.
Adri nodded and moved to the closest cash register and card reader. While outside the world burst to life, inside, time slowed with every brush of Adri’s fingers along the register. It wouldn’t be long before our first customers would come in, but the longer Adri lingered at the register, the more I convinced myself we might as well close shop.
Zane and Lucy stood in the doorway, ready to disappoint customers when Adri finally announced, “This one will get you through the day. I’ll have to come back later for the others.”
I sighed. After he’d rested, I assumed, since his shift was almost over. “Thank you.” It would have to do. I’d told Rick one machine and one register, and Adri gave me two machines.
“You heard it, folks. We have two machines and one register. Be polite but firm when you explain orders will be slow today. Offer a ten percent discount for the inconvenience, or a free slice of whatever Théo has on offer.”
“Yes, Boss,” they answered as one.
This was going to be a long shift.
“I’d like to run a few more scans before I return to the hub. Do you have a place I can sit other than a booth?” Adri asked when I turned to him.
I showed him to the office. “You can use thecomputer in here.”
The beautiful smile he threw me undid me. As he put his toolkit on the desk, I imagined closing the door with my foot and reaching for him. My heart raced at the way he’d gaze at me, then at my hand. My mouth went dry at the thought of even trying to speak. How he’d take my hand and give me the tiniest nod to allow me to pull him against me. Hunger wrapped itself around me as I imagined him kissing me?—
“Are you all right?”
I blinked, embarrassment heating my face. “Sorry. I zoned out.” I needed to get out of here before I forgot to ask him if he wanted it, too.
The way he stared at me made me wonder if he knew what I’d been thinking. “Can you log in?”
“Of course.” I moved slowly, want coursing through my body, then fled the office without checking if he needed anything else. I cursed myself for letting my mind run away with me as I checked in on Théo—still happily baking without issues—and joined my baristas.
We found a slow but steady rhythm, filling order after order, offering discounts and pastries to those who waited. No one complained that service wasn’t quite as usual, that the machines took a bit more coaxing, and that the register beeped even when its buttons weren’t pushed.
In the growing throng of customers, Adri disappeared through the side door without a word. Disappointment hit me hard, but he was probably trying not to interrupt the flow.
A flow that kept us going until the early morning rush passed, and even the machines sighed in relief.
“Man, that was tough.” Zane wiped the sweat off his forehead and leaned against the counter.
“Ditto,” Lucy chimed in before chugging down water. “And our shift isn’t over yet.”
“Any word from IT?”
