The Jump

5 Settling In

When Raif got to his Cafe, he saw the very man he needed to talk to waiting by the door. Hector was in his fifties and a retired firefighter, so physically he was still in good shape, but he liked to refer to himself as an old man even though his wrinkles were barely visible. He was the only man in town who wore cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, yet he wasn't a farmer or a cowboy for that matter. He just really liked Clint Eastwood.

"This better be good," he said in a light Spanish accent while cupping his hands to his mouth and blowing warm breath into them. "Eight is too early for me to be awake. I haven't even had my eggs and chorizo yet."

"Retirement treating you good, I take it?" Raif asked as he unlocked the cafe door and motioned for Hector to go ahead of him.

"I guess you can say that," he said as the heels of his boots clicked against the hardwood floor as he walked inside. "It would be better if my duplex wasn't vacant."

"Well," Raif began to say as he proceeded to turn on the lights. "I showed someone the place this morning. They want to move in as soon as possible."

"What do you mean, you showed someone this morning? No one's contacted me about the ad on Craigslist in weeks."

"That's cause she's new in town and looking to set down roots. The duplex would be great for her since she's single, so it's not too small, yet not too big to clean and she can still have visitors spend the night."

Hector narrowed his eyes at Raif. "What kind of visitors would be spending the night?"

"Will you get your mind out of the gutter?" Raif laughed as he walked behind the deli counter. "I was talking about friends visiting her!"

"Well, you never know. It's not that long ago that we had trouble with those hookers coming into town looking for clientele. Remember how hard of a time Charlie had trying to ban them from using his hotel?" Hector tisked. "Our town isn't big enough for that kind of riff raff."

Raif shook his head. "Lucinda isn't a hooker, trust me. She's actually really sweet, maybe even a little shy." He smiled.

"Uh oh..." Hector raised a brow as he studied the change in expression on Raif's face. He folded his arms with a huge grin. "You like her, don't you?"

Raif gave a little shrug. "She's nice..."

"Ohhhh no." Hector shook his finger at him. "Don't you give me that, 'too busy for women', garbage."

"But I didn't."

"Oh please, you didn't have to. You said it all with your vanilla reply of, 'she's nice'." Hector smirked. "You keep telling everyone how you don't have time for a girlfriend, but I call B.S! And now you're just downplaying cause this one isn't a tourist, she's here to stay, which means you my friend are going to fall hard."

"Oh come on... I hardly know her. I just met her last night!" Raif protested as he moved on to clean the espresso machine. Hector gasped.

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait!" He held up his hands. "Last night, last night? As in the very pretty blonde who walked in here around nine and sat at this very counter?"

"That's the one..." Raif nodded.

Hector stepped back and bit his knuckles, stifling a laugh. "Ohhhh boy! You're in trouble."