Everybody Hurts

Chapter 4

 Sam pushed open the door to the small cafe, breathing in deep, letting the smell of cinnamon and coffee soothe her after a restless night. Millie glanced up from behind the counter, a wide smile crinkling the corners of her eyes at the sight of her standing in the doorway. She lifted a hand, waving Sam over, already pulling a warm cinnamon roll from the bakery display.

"I told you that you'd be back," she teased, placing it in a bag and on the counter.

"You did and you were right. Best cinnamon roll I have ever tasted, hands down," she laughed, pulling her wallet from her purse. "It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning."

Well, that wasn't entirely true but she'd rather not admit that she'd been thinking about something else that was almost the same shade as cinnamon alright, but it wasn't a baked good. It was those eyes, intense and burning, challenging her own across the flames. She didn't even want to admit to herself how much he'd managed to get under her skin, crawling and burrowing deep.

"You want a latte to go with it?" asked Millie.

"Yes, please," Sam responded, impressed that she remembered her drink of choice after one time considering how many orders she must handle in a day.

"So, did you get to explore much of our town yesterday?" the sweet lady questioned as she foamed the milk for Sam's coffee.

"I did, actually. I went to the library and grabbed a couple books and then I went down to the lake for a bit. I stopped into the Hawkins diner to grab a late lunch and wound up making some new friends."

"Well, that's wonderful," beamed Millie, slipping a sleeve onto the paper cup and handing it over to her, her fingers darting across the keys of the cash register to ring up the sale. "And who are these new friends?"

"I don't know if you'd know them..."

She laughed, waving her hand dismissively in Sam's direction, "Darling, I have lived in this town my whole damn life. There isn't anybody I don't know within the town limits. Where do you think they all get their coffee from?"

"Oh...well, I met Max Mayfield at the diner and she invited me out to a bonfire with her friends at the lake last night. There were a whole bunch of people there. Umm...there was Robin, Steve, Mike, El, Lucas, Argyle, Jonathan, Nancy, Will, and this guy named Eddie."

Her cheeks blazed hot as she spoke his name and Sam found herself once again questioning why. It was like she had no control of her body's reaction to even the mere mention of him.

Millie's lips flattened against one another and she nodded, "You met yourself a nice group of people then. I get pizza from Argyle's every single Friday night. Boy could use a hair cut but he makes a mean pie. Who ever heard of pineapple on pizza? But I'll tell you, he knows what he's doing. And I take my little Bella to Robin's grooming place every month for a shampoo and a cut. And Officer Harrington is just the nicest guy. He's always in here picking up donuts for the station. So, what did you think of everyone?"

Sam had the distinct impression that Millie was fishing for something specific but what she hoped to catch, she couldn't be sure.

"Oh, I loved them. They were a great group of people. I thought they were all really nice. Well, most of them were anyway. Eddie didn't seem to like me all that much."

"And why would that be? You seem perfectly likable to me."

"I don't know," Sam admitted with a shrug. "I didn't do or say anything. I mean, at least I don't think I did. Well, I may have after he was rude to me but he said stuff first. He was kind of a jerk from the moment he saw me, acting like I was some intruder on his little group and wasn't welcome."