Coffee and Cafés - Book Two of the Café Latte Trilogy

Medicinal Cappuccinos

Hi! Thank you for your patience with my slowness this week - I had a fatigue flare-up and was bedbound for a week. Fortunately I have a wonderful partner and two awesome cats that kept me company and looked after me (although more credit goes to Joey than my cats).

I'm on the mend now, a bit drained but ready to get back into it. I hope you enjoy!

Love, Cam

♡

*****

Medicinal Cappuccinos

Bounding into the ridiculous lobby of Jasper's flat holding takeout coffee cups, I spotted Simon and said, "Hi, Simon! Just going to up to Jasper's."

"Of course, sir," he said. He even bowed a bit. I had no idea what the etiquette was, but my brain decided the correct way to respond was to curtsy slightly. He smiled and said, "If I had never met you, I would absolutely guess correctly that you are Jasper's friend."

"God I hope that's not an insult," I laughed, getting into the lift and pressing the button for his floor. Simon didn't respond, probably in order to be respectful to Jasper and how much of a chaotic mess he could be.

Edward had called me to whisper a hasty 'please can you talk to Jasper, it is so uncomfortable here, I'm going to get lunch' before hanging up. I could only hope that Ross would be out when I got there, so I could target him directly. I exited the lift at his floor, knocking on his front door.

"One sec! Rope emergency!"

I stared at the door, wondering what the hell was happening on the other side of the door. Eventually, a flustered and out of breath Jasper answered the door. "Hey!" he said cheerfully. "What are you doing here?"

"Ed said you were home today doing some editing," I glanced over his shoulder. "I bring medicinal cappuccinos. What did you mean by a rope emergency?"

Jasper stepped aside to reveal a catastrophic macramé mess. "Oh dear," I commented. "Do you, uhh, want help? Or should I just burn it?"

Jasper pouted, taking one the cups from me. "I swear, it came like that."

I snorted and turned him around, pushing him into the flat so I could come in and help. We both sat by the mess, and I slapped his hands away from doing any further damage. It was knotted in ways I had never seen, and I looked at him in exasperation. "Did it occur to you to just stop when you started?"

"No," he replied irritably. "I take it Edward begged you to come over and talk to me?"

I sighed. "He's worried about you, dude. You know Ed, he takes on the emotions of everyone around him. He's been so tense for the last two days I thought he was going to drink my coffee machine dry. Why'd you think I had to buy Starbucks?"

"Well, maybe he should mind his own business," Jasper muttered as he watched me start to unknot the threads. 

I hadn't seen Jasper this defensive in a long while, which meant he was really upset about something. I tried to take a gentler approach and said, "We don't have to talk about anything - I just wanted to offer a distraction if you needed one. We can watch a movie or go out to dinner or something."

"I don't need babysitting," Jasper said under his breath.

I snorted, losing my patience immediately. "Jasper, I love you, but can you stop being a dick to me? I'm trying to help you, here. You and Ross are clearly going through something, and it's stressing Ed as a guest. Do you want me to just have him come stay with me and Raven?"