“I am not.” Nick craned his back to them so fast his ankle popped. “I was watching for customers because I’m running a business here. Now, are you going to help out, or should I ship you to the orphanage?”
“Ha ha.”
“Put a sign around your neck. ‘One teenager to a good home. Warning, constant eye rolls and sass.’”
Skylar didn’t respond to his long-standing and toothless threat. She was nose deep in her phone like every damn teen. Swaying back and forth, she said in a sing-song voice, “You get rid of me and you won’t learn why everyone’s beating down your door for a crusty old latte.”
“What?”
“Here.” She passed him her phone and Nick’s jaw plummeted. On one of those social square things was the image of his mistletoe latte. He’d taken that picture, struggling to pour just the right cup for the online menu. She’d kept racing back to the kitchen to get him another…
His scowl deepened, and he scrolled. The lingering happy memories combusted on the spot as he read the drivel caption from whoever stole his old pic. “‘Once a staple of Lake Holly, a quaint town in the UP,this latte was believed to be as elusive as Nessie herself. But I hear it’s back at Brew 4 U. Even better than the fabled nutty and intoxicating flavor, there’s a legend that if you drink a mistletoe latte—”
“Nick, you prickly pear, what you got on tap?”
The mechanic’s request threw him off, but he read the closing order to the sycophant’s cultists. “‘Get there quick, caffeine addicts, before the magic runs out.’” Great, so some damn influencer was making shit up about him. “Skylar, who wrote this article?”
“Posted. It’s a post. Your bones must be dust.” She took back the phone as he poured a to-go cup for Daryl. “Says the account’s owned by a Miss B.”
“Who’s that? Why isn’t there a picture up in that circle there”
“Because the account is anonymous,” she said. Nick kept glaring at her, waiting for her to do her teenage magic. They were more terrifying than Big Brother at tracking down the latest persona non grata. Skylar gasped and clasped her phone to her chest. “I’m sorry, do you want me to…dox them?”
Nick groaned. “As that’s probably a bad thing, no. Can you just figure out who it is?”
Skylar rolled her eyes and walked away, muttering under her breath, “Were you born before coffee was invented?”
“You’re a big help as always!” Nick shouted to her before he capped off the cup and handed it to the mechanic.
“See you tomorrow,” Daryl said with a tip of his finger before taking a long drink.
“Sure,” Nick muttered. He had to find whoever that Miss B was and get them to take down their post before the ‘followers’ started getting more insistent.
It wasn’t until Daryl said, “And call you tomorrow,” to Emma that Nick was yanked from his vague revenge plans. She smiled at him but didn’t chase after. Some romantic rendezvous to make her wait all day, talk for five minutes, and run. Damn it, her shoulders were hunched, and she’d dipped the brim of her hat down. He had to do something.
“You okay?” Nick asked. He approached her tentatively, ready to offer a hug or run out and hogtie Daryl to drag him back.
“Yeah.” She put on a happy face he knew was a bald-faced lie.
He ran out of ideas on what to do and looked to Skylar. But she glared back and jabbed her thumbs at Emma from behind her. Did he tell her it’d get better? That there were other fish in the sea? Less mummified ones.
His mouth opened without him knowing what to do when she said, “It’s my car.”
“Your car?” Sweet lord. Nick nearly slapped himself in the forehead. Mechanic. Car. Of course.
“It sounds bad. Something about a catalytic comforter, I think. He won’t know the state of it until tomorrow, so I have to find somewhere to sleep tonight. Hope for the best the next morning.”
“Wait, he left you waiting here all day just to tell you that?”
“He said he was busy.” Emma offered up an excuse for Daryl, a man she didn’t even know. He couldn’t tell if she was that naive or too kind for her own good.
“He ain’t that busy. Maybe it’s time I call in his tab if he’s got so much business.”
“Please don’t punish him on my account.” In pleading for her jailer’s life, she caught Nick’s hands in hers. He stared at her skinny fingers gliding back and forth over the tops of his, his brain buzzing and throat falling numb.
“You should stay at our place.”
Nick yanked his hands back at the same time Emma dropped hers, both adults turning to the teenager wearing a Cheshire grin. Skylar waved a hand to Emma. “Sounds like she saved your ass today. It’s the least you can do.”
