Coffee and Cafés - Book Two of the Café Latte Trilogy

Birthday Coffee

Birthday Coffee

I groaned, stumbling out of bed. God I was in pain. What had I done to deserve this much pain? My hamstring was killing me. I didn't want to sound dramatic, but I was fairly sure I was going to die. Beside me, Angelo stirred. "Mm?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Shh, go back to sleep," I whispered. "I'm just going for a glass of water. I'll be back soon."

"You're limping," he noted, opening one eye sleepily. "What's wrong with you?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Do I really need to remind you?"

I watched a grin spread across his face. "Oh right, yeah. I remember. Go get your water, I want to see how you limp out of the room."

I swore at him and then proceeded to walk out of the room. After a particularly jam-packed day of activities that Jenny and Lucie had set up, including an aquarium visit which was pretty awesome, Angelo and I had returned home a little early and fucked hard enough that I'd managed to somehow pull my hamstring. It hurt like a motherfucker.

Forgetting that I was in my mothers' house, I tripped over the carpet at the top of the stairs and stumbled down a few steps, whimpering in pain as I landed awkwardly on my ankle. Jenny really needed to fix that. I'd have done it, but I didn't trust myself with glue, let alone a staple gun.

Jenny eyed me as I hobbled in. "What happened to you?"

"Clearly they got a bit too enthusiastic and in Tom's old age, he pulled a muscle," Ross observed, sipping coffee.

I glared at him. "How did you know?"

"Didn't until just now," he grinned back at me. "Go get a heat pack, they solve everything."

Jenny gestured to the bathroom. "They're in the 'fuck I hate having a uterus' drawer."

"I'll get one in a bit," I sighed, and sat down. "Okay, before Angelo wakes up properly and comes downstairs, you may all get out the traditional level of birthday enthusiasm."

They stayed quiet, which meant they were all absolutely waiting for Angelo to come downstairs. I pulled a face. The only thing worse than being serenaded with 'happy birthday' was being serenaded by people who could not sing to save their lives, bar Edward.

"You all suck," I told them, just as my other mother walked in. She caught my eye and there was a brief moment of awkwardness, which was very uncommon with Lucie. I could instantly tell she was nervous around me, after Jenny had given me the letter. So I beamed at her as normal and said, "Except you, because I know for a fact you have baked me a cake."

The awkwardness left her face, and she relaxed into a smile. "I went a little different this year and did tiramisu. It's so boozy it could stun a horse."

"Nice," I grinned. "I love the coffee theme going right into the birthday. You're the best, mum."

I heard some footsteps, and Angelo walked into the room, fully dressed and wide awake. I don't know how he did it, but the moment Angelo got out of bed he already looked like he hadn't been sleeping. I liked it, in a strange way, because that meant no one else got to see him when he was all sleepy and heavy-lidded and cuddly. It was adorable.

"Good morning," he greeted everyone, and then leaned in to kiss me softly. "Happy birthday, tesoro."

"Thank you," I smiled, and then I heard one discordant note in the air. "Oh, god."

A smug-sounding Jasper called from the living room, "Remember last year when I said I was going to learn the accordion so I could play happy birthday for you on your twenty-fifth?"