A Lover Like Him (The Perfect Lover book #2) (Espresso CRK)

Chapter 31

(Still in the past... but I'm not gonna italics anymore)

Espresso's Pov:

It was now nightfall and some lights in houses were beginning to get turned off. 

How sad, Espresso thought as he bought two litres of hot water from a cookie, I would never sleep this early.

"U-uhm, do you want to come sleep in my house for the night?" A female cookie asked, pacing quickly to catch up to me from behind. 

"Thank you for your offer, but I must decline," I said, continuing to walk, "I don't want to cause you too much trouble."

"Where will you sleep then?" She pestered, not taking the hit that I would like to be left alone. "Our town doesn't have any hotels or inns."

I sighed and turned to her, "I wish to enjoy the fresh scent of grass while gazing at the sparkling stars twinkling in the night sky, m'lady. If I'm honest, their prettiness reminds me of you." - I lied - "I have a tent set up on the outskirts of this town where I shall be staying temporarily. Your company will be enjoyed tomorrow once I feel awake and able to give you my full attention."

"Ah- O-okay! Then, could we meet at the town library?" She asked, a red blush spreading across her cheeks, "My research is there."

"Research?" I echoed, interested.

"Yes, I've been researching on how sleep affects someone's mental stability and how even with little hours of sleep someone can still act awake," The cookie replied and my interest was lost and replaced.

"Coffee," I said. 

"Huh?"

"Just drink more caffeine," I said, placing my two bottles of hot water onto the grass, now that I arrived at my small navy green tent, "Especially coffee. It's delicious and effective."

"Hm, but that is a temporary solution that won't work for everyone. Plus, side effects include shaking, anxiety, and the body system crashing," She agreed.

"Well, I suppose for the majority of cookies the effects you listed occur," I said, irritated. The majority are worthless, incompetent cookies. "We're outside of town. This was a nice chat, but I believe you should go back home."

"Oh! Uhm, alright! Bye," The cookie stuttered, grinning for no reason, "Oh, by the way, my name is Fondue Cookie, it was nice to meet you Espresso!"

I sighed and poured myself a cup of coffee. I couldn't search the town until all the cookies had gone to sleep. How annoying.

Thankfully, a town like this was smaller than a city or a kingdom so the process was faster. Still, I'll need to check every nook and cranny which will take more than a night to do. 

It'd be much more efficient to take the ruler of the town hostage and threaten the answer out of him. Unfortunately, a part of me still wants to keep this town alive because half the percentage of the population was coffee cookies.  

Fondue may know something about the shard too, so I'll ask her about it tomorrow. She is probably one of the researchers in this town and must have other knowledge either than that gibberish theory of hers. 

A few other ideas and thoughts played in the back of my mind as I finished my cup of coffee and washed my mug with some hot water. Half the cookies should be asleep by now, a quarter should be falling asleep, and the other quarter should be awake, unfortunately.