Cafe Latte

Chapter Two

"Hey, Danny?"

Meara and Danny were both in back again. Meara was finishing up the frosting on the last of the cupcakes while Danny continued to crunch numbers. Maybe if they closed an hour earlier on weekdays? They got negligible business, then. Probably not even worth the electric bill.

"Yeah?" Danny asked without looking up. Distracted. Maybe that would make this conversation easier.

"You're good with relationships. How long does it take to develop a crush?"

Danny blinked owlishly at his laptop, then finally broke his gaze away from the screen to look at his friend. Meara had buttercream on his face again, just a tiny smear.

"What do you mean, exactly?"

"You know, a crush," Meara said. "How long does it take?"

"Well, you can get a crush on someone without ever even talking to them, just because you think they're cute. Like, with me and Akasha, it was --" He snapped his fingers. "Boom! Instant chemistry. Sometimes it happens like that. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's slower."

Meara kept his gaze carefully on the cupcakes.

Danny paused. "Have you been seeing someone you haven't told me about?"

Meara shook his head and finished off the swirl on the last cupcake. "No," he said. "Just curious."

Danny eyed his friend suspiciously, about to call bullshit, when the doorbell chimed again. He looked up at the monitor.

"Max and Roxie are here," he said. He put down his phone, which doubled as a calculator, and said, "I'll be right back. Just going to get them settled."

While Danny tended to his twelve-year old twins, Meara put the cupcakes away and washed out the piping bag and tip. He grabbed one of the long, white plates they used for the bake case, stuck a date sticker on the bottom, and lined up two rows of chocolate cupcakes with double fudge buttercream.

Max was spinning on the barstool when Meara brought the cupcakes out, Roxie quietly working on her homework. Danny was chattering away to his son about their school day while he made them each a smoothie, an off-menu kids' concoction of milk, caramel, and vanilla. Meara smiled to himself as he put the cupcakes away.

"Are those chocolate cupcakes?" Max asked, brown eyes wide and excited.

"Yes, and you can't have one," Danny said. Max wilted and Danny laughed. "Your mom will kill me if I let you eat sweets before dinner."

"She doesn't have to know!"

"You and I both know she does."

Danny ruffled Max's bright red hair and Max's pale face flushed behind his smattering of freckles. He pushed Danny's hand away.

"Dad!" he whined. "What if someone sees?"

"Nobody's here to see," Danny said, sliding one smoothie across to Roxie and planting the other in front of Max. Max stuck the yellow straw in his mouth and went quiet. He was starting to look more and more like his mom every day, Meara thought, and Roxie more and more like her dad. Roxie had his curly, coily hair, even though she didn't straighten it like he did, his tawny brown skin, his dark, long lashes. A white parent and a brown parent and a white twin and a brown twin. The doctor said the odds were one in thousands.

"I'll be right back," Danny said, and before Max could protest, he was through the door and back again with his laptop and phone, setting up on the opposite end of the bar. Normally he'd never allow it, but if there were no customers to see, it didn't really matter.