She gestured toward them. “You go ahead. I've got some shipments in the back that I need to start working on. I swear my mom orders enough books for half the nation.”
I grabbed the keys from my pocket and sorted through them as I walked to the door. I found the right one and went to unlock it. “Shit.” I muttered while fighting with the lock. I wiggled the key back and forth, trying to get the lock to unlatch so I could open the store. “Hey Brandon!” I called over my shoulder. “The stupid door won't unlock!”
He looked up from behind the counter. “You've got to pull on the door while you're trying to unlock it, otherwise it will keep catching.” He shrugged and went back to stacking coffee cups.
I tried pulling and pushing on the door to unlock it. It was pissing me off. Nothing makes you feel more incompetent than your inability to open a door. “Stupid freaking door! I swear I will rip you off your hinges if— you— don't— open!” I yanked hard and flew back with the momentum of the pull as the door finally unlocked. “Damn it!” I looked up with a glare on my face as I heard a laugh from the doorway.
“This isn't funny!” I was getting ready to lay into whomever had the audacity to laugh until I saw who it was. I felt like laying back in utter embarrassment but instead I felt my face flush as I quickly rose to my feet. Figured the pizza guy would show up here eventually.
“Why do I always find you either about to fall, or falling for me?” he asked.
“Ha ha, aren't you funny? Well, at least I don't have pizza on my face this time.” I snapped back, blushing furiously.
“Yeah, that is an improvement.” His small smile reached all the way up to his amber eyes, causing the gold flecks to sparkle. He ran his fingers through his thick hair as he looked me over. “So, I see we've got a new employee here.”
“You don't work here too, do you?”
He laughed outright at the look of horror on my face. “God no. I just come here a lot.”
“Well, I haven't seen you in here yet.”
He leaned toward me and lowered his voice, “I'm not in here yet because you're blocking the door.”
I felt a blush spread across my entire body as I moved back and waved him in. “Then by all means, do come it.” He laughed as he passed me by, heading toward the coffee counter.
“Gabe! What's up man?” Brandon called out to him.
“Not much, just coming in for some coffee.”
“Ah, the usual?”
“Yeah, if you don't mind. So how’s the new girl doing?” he gestured over his shoulder to me.
“The 'new girl' is right here, you know.”
Brandon raised his eyebrow at him. “She's a feisty one, that's for sure.”
“Really? I haven't noticed.” Gabe sent a grin my way. I thought my face would catch on fire with how much I blushed around him. Real attractive.
Brandon looked between me and Gabe. “So, how's Jenni doing?”
His smile faltered a little bit. “From what I hear, she's doing well. Coming back from vacation in a couple of days.”
Brandon finished up Gabe's order and handed it to him. “I bet you're happy she'll be home soon.”
Distracted, Gabe took his drink. “Yeah, it'll be fun.” He sent a soft smile my way then straightened and started heading out. “See ya around guys.”
I was momentarily distracted as I watched him leave. When Gabe was fully out of sight I turned to Brandon. “What was that about?”
He scratched his head, looking uncomfortable. “Well, that's Gabe.”
“Yeah, I gathered as much.”
He looked behind me and bellowed out. “Rose! I need ya here for a minute!” He waited for Rose to arrive, refusing to say anything more on the subject.
“Geesh, it’s going to take me forever to organize all those books.” Rose said while wiping her hands on a towel. “What are you hollering about?”
“Gabe was here.” He stated simply.
She raised her eyebrow and waited for him to continue. She let out a huff when he remained silent. “What about it?” he looked pointedly at me. I looked at Rose in confusion and she looked between the two of us, trying to get the point. I felt like we were in a tennis match as our eyes darted around each other. This was ridiculous. Her eyes widened as she finally caught on to what he was silently communicating. “Oh, I see.”
I stared them down. Brandon fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable, while Rose looked delighted. “Will you two please tell me what the hell this is all about?”
“It's quite simple really. That was Gabe Morrison, Prince Charming extraordinaire and current play thing of her royal bitchiness—”
“Total hag.” Brandon added.
“Jenni Miller.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Well, you noticed how he's completely built and drop dead gorgeous, right?” Brandon asked.
“Yeah, would be kind of hard to miss.”
“Well, he's off limits.” Rose stated, calmly picking at her nails and looking for all the world like this was a normal conversation.
“And I would be interested in whether or not he's off limits because?” I was beyond irritated. Why couldn't they just get to the point?
Brandon's eyebrows shot up. “So you wouldn't be interested in him?”
“Like, seriously. You don't want to know Mr. Hottie?” Rose's voice starting to rise at the end in shock.
I looking at them like they were growing arms out of their foreheads. “No, I'm not. Look, he's hot, I'll give him that. But I just moved here and I'm not looking for someone to know.” I emphasized, looking pointedly at Rose.
“Huh, I may just decide not to kill you after all.” She muttered to herself.
“I heard that, you know.”
She waved me off. “It doesn't matter. I'm just shocked you're not slobbering all over him like all the other slut bags around here.”
I rolled my eyes and started to organize some of the products on the counter. “Wasn't it you who used my virgin status as an insult earlier?”
“Oh yeah, forgot about that.”
“How can you forget? That was like, twenty minutes ago!”
She shrugged and started to head back to the storage room. “What can I say? If I'm not battling someone all the good bits of info just fly right out of my mind. My bad!”
I felt like my eyes would pop out of my head. “Did that seriously just happen?”
“What, her being nice-ish?”
“Yeah.”
“Welcome to the Twilight Zone.” He laughed and walked away, humming the theme song.
Chapter Twelve
I sat in 'my' chair, as I began to call it and stared up at the ceiling, waiting to start where we left off. James was once again sitting at his desk, pecking away at his keyboard. While he was busy, I decided to study him and compare him to Gabe. I knew they must be related because the resemblance was uncanny. “Do you have any kids?”
He looked up briefly then went back to typing. “Yes, I have three actually. My oldest, Gabe, is in the same grade as you in school. You should run into him since you're taking a lot of the same AP classes.”
Ah ha! I knew it! I was feeling rather proud of myself until the rest of his sentence entered my mind. “What do you mean AP classes?”
“Oh, your mother didn't tell you?”
“This look of shock,” I gestured to my face, “would lead one to assume that no, she didn't.”
He finished up and closed the laptop, giving me his full attention. “Well, you remember the testing you had to do before signing up for school here?”
I thought back and remembered the test they had me take before the move. “Yeah, what about it?”