Coffee and Spice | Harvey | Stardew Valley

-9-

"I didn't think that it was possible to be this hot," Hailey groans over the beat of the music, fanning herself with a magazine. She's draped across a reclining chair, protected from the worst of the sun's rays by the oversized straw hat over her wavy blond hair and the huge umbrella stabbed into the sand. She rouses herself every ten or so minutes to slather another thick layer of sunscreen on her pale skin and complain about the heat.

Emily raises her sunglasses to glare daggers at her sister. "You could always just go home if it bothers you so much."

"But then how would I annoy you?" Hailey asks sweetly, kicking a bit of sand towards where Emily and I are laying on beach towels. "I don't even know why you bother trying to tan, you know you'll just end up burnt."

"A girl can dream," Emily sighs. "Not all of us can be naturally tan like Caira."

I snort at her melodramatic tone and flip onto my back, throwing an arm over my face to block out the sun. Despite the skyrocketing temperatures, the little strip of beach south of town is nearly deserted besides us and Leah, who has been walking up and down the shoreline picking for shells. People are evidently choosing to stay in their air-conditioned homes rather than cook outside in the heat. As soon as I had stepped outside my house at dawn to start on farm chores, I had already felt like I was swimming in the humidity, and it had only gotten worse throughout the day.

"I-I think you look lovely, Emily."

I lift my arm at the unfamiliar voice. A bearded man with shaggy hair is standing over us, beads of sweat trickling down the sides of his face. He's panting, obviously affected by the mugginess of the day, and yet he's wearing a black turtleneck and jeans. I recognize him from the bar, but we've never actually spoken to each other as he tends to keep to his own corner. As we all stare at him in surprise, he hooks his finger around the neckline of his shirt and tugs it away from his skin with a wince.

"Oh, thanks, Clint!" Emily exclaims once she has recovered from his unexpected arrival. "How are things at the shop?"

"Uh, fine," he answers shortly, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I just came over to ask, um, if you were working tonight."

"Hmm, it's Saturday, right?" She muses, sifting a hand through the sand by her towel. "So yep, I'll be there."

Clint's mouth works into a strange formation, something between a pained smile and a grimace. "Oh, alright...I'll see you there then, I guess."

Before Emily can respond, Clint turns and hurries away, his boots flinging up sand behind him. Once he's out of earshot, I look at Emily with my eyebrows raised. "What was that about?"

"Clint is obsessed with Emily," Hailey informs me, squeezing out a golf ball-sized glob of sunscreen onto her palm. "Always has been."

"Clint's a good guy, he just..." Emily trails off, her voice defensive.

"Can't take no for an answer," Hailey finishes in a hard voice. "I've told you before, Em, you need to stay away from guys like that."

"Speaking of guys," Emily drawls, clearly wanting to move away from the Clint subject. "Alex couldn't keep his eyes off you the other night, Caira. What's going on with that whole thing?"

Hailey pauses in the act of coating her arm and stares at me.

I roll my eyes. "Nothing is 'going on.' He just bought me a drink and then talked my ear off about sports for an hour."

"Well, it looked like he was into you," Emily counters with a shrug, watching Leah walk into the water with a wistful expression on her face. "Oh, and what did Harvey want the other night at the saloon? Shane said he saw you guys go outside together."