Cafe Latte

Chapter Four

Josselin didn't call. Meara didn't call him either, because Josselin hadn't asked him to.

Three days after Meara's visit, Danny printed out a new sign for their door, displaying their new hours and announcing they'd go into effect starting the following Monday.

"I really don't want to raise our prices," he muttered, just loud enough for Meara to hear over the whirring of the ovens. The timer buzzed and Meara pulled out a tray of cinnamon chip scones.

"We could shrink our menu," Meara suggested. "Go through and see what doesn't sell, see if we can cut off some overhead there."

"Yeah," Danny sighed, leaning against the table. "I know we could always bring things back, too. Maybe make a few things seasonal? Cost is pretty much the same year round, but, like, people usually only buy the cinnamon scones in fall and winter, and the blueberry muffins sell year round. For example."

"Mm-hm," Meara hummed absently as he slid the tray onto a cooling rack and pushed it into a corner. "The coconut syrup doesn't sell much. And it wouldn't hurt us if we took the almond mocha off the menu. I only sell a few of those a month."

"That's what makes us special, though," Danny said. His voice was high with tension. "We have flavors the other shops don't."

"Like you said, it doesn't have to be permanent," Meara said. "We could just slim the menu down temporarily, until the construction stops."

"How much longer is it supposed to be?"

"About a month and a half. Can we make it?"

Danny hummed in thought and ran some calculations on his phone. "We should," he said. "I hope. But it'll be tight." He punched in a few more numbers. "Maybe if we close one day of the week. We haven't earned enough to cover next month's expenses yet."

"I vote Monday," Meara said. "We only get a handful of business then."

"Yeah." Danny worried his lower lip between his teeth. He didn't look up when the doorbell rang.

"You keep working on this," Meara said as he swept past behind him. "I'll take care of it."

Meara grinned when he saw the familiar lanky form peering into the bake case. Josselin was back.

"Josselin! How are you?"

"So much better!" Josselin laughed. He pushed his reading glasses up onto his head, clearing his throat a little and flushing in embarrassment when they caught on his hair. He untangled them and settled for slipping them into his shirt collar by the earpiece. A human being had no right to be so cute! That was reserved for things like kittens in bowties and puppies pushing shopping carts.

Josselin smiled.

"Much better now," he repeated. "A bit of a tickle in my throat I have to clear sometimes, but everything else has cleared up."

"Good." Meara's smile was genuine, all the way up into his bright green eyes. "You going with your regular today?"

"I think I'm going to mix it up a bit, actually," Josselin said. "Don't want to bombard myself with too much caffeine when I haven't had any for a week. So just a black-eye with enough vanilla to --"

"To rot your teeth," Meara laughed. "No problem."

"And a blueberry scone."

Blackeyes didn't come with foam, so there was no heart to not draw. Josselin had inadvertently given him an out from the awkward latte art flirting situation they'd found themselves tangled up in. If Meara was lucky, maybe the blackeye would become Josselin's regular.