Brew Books

Chapter 12

My alarm wakes me up before the sun has risen. Within half an hour I'm downstairs, but I haven't beaten Ed, who is already setting up the coffee machine. Will emerges from the back with an armful of books.

'Morning Jane,' Will says brightly. Ed ignores me.

'How'd you sleep?' Will asks.

Terribly, but I don't say this. 'I slept fine,' I say. 'The bed's pretty comfy! I'm surprised Matt was willing to leave it.'

A clatter startles me, and I spin around to see Ed sweeping up a broken cup.

'I'll clean that up, Ed, if you make me a coffee,' Will says cheekily, as he pulls out the dustpan.

Ed grumbles, but leaves the broken china and turns to the coffee machine. He grinds beans and puts them through the espresso machine. Then he pulls out his phone and times the drip. It's not to his satisfaction, so he makes an adjustment and starts again. Three tries later, he's happy with the drip.

'How do you take your coffee, Jane?' Ed asks me.

'Can you add some of the vanilla syrup, please?' I ask him.

Ed seems amused by this. He reaches up to a shelf and takes down the distilled bottle of vanilla. He adds a shot into my coffee.

'Okay, Jane, follow me,' Will says. 'We're going to go through some of the shelves before it gets busy and we need to get behind the counter.'

Will takes me through the bookshelves, tells me how they're sorted and how I can find what customers are looking for. Then he takes me behind the coffee counter and shows me how to put book payments through the till. While he's talking, I sip at my vanilla latte. It's delicious. So much smoother than the coffee I'm used to from Costa or Starbucks.

'Next step, coffee,' Will says, right as the bell rings above the front door and our first customer walks in.

It's still dark outside, but the high street is already busy with people on their way to work. The first man orders a coffee and two croissants. I toast and bag his croissants for him, and Will shows me how to put his order through the till as Ed makes the coffee.

More people start arriving, and soon we're run off our feet, but I get the hang of it easily and it's rewarding work handing people their pastries and breakfast.

A couple sits down at one of the sofas so I take their coffee and croissants over to them, and when I return Ed says, 'do you know how to make espresso?'

'Harper said he'll teach her,' Will says. 'He's working tomorrow.'

Ed shakes his head. 'I'm not having another girl trained by Harper making my coffees.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I ask.

'Harper trained Charlotte and she's hopeless,' Ed says. 'They just flirted the whole time and she didn't learn anything.'

I feel a stab of jealousy, imagining Harper teaching Charlotte how to make coffee.

Will snorts. 'Charlotte pretends to suck at coffee so that you don't give her early morning shifts.'

Ed raises one eyebrow at Will, huffs, then says, 'Jane, I'm training you.'

'You said Harper and Charlotte weren't a thing,' I hiss at Will.

'They aren't,' Will hisses back.

Will disappears into the back room to pull out stock, so I join Ed beside the coffee machine.

'Kitty says you've worked as a waitress,' Ed says.

'My dad owns a seafood restaurant in Brighton and I worked in the summer holidays,' I say.

'Ever make a coffee?'

'We had one of those machines with all the options and you just push a button and it comes out with powdered milk.'

Ed looks revolted, and I smile at his expression.

'Right,' Ed says, wiping a hand through his red hair. 'Let's start with the milk. I think I've got a cheat sheet here somewhere.'

He digs in a drawer and pulls out a laminated piece of paper covered in cocoa powder. When he wipes the cocoa powder away, I see illustrations of types of coffee, with descriptions of how each is poured.

He takes the silver milk jug, fills it halfway with whole milk, and puts it under a nozzle extending from the coffee machine. He demonstrates how to froth milk, and then tells me to try.

I practice while Ed serves customers, and after an hour he's happy with how I'm frothing the milk. Well, I say happy, but I'm not sure I can tell with Ed.

'Okay, so first I'll get you to do a cappuccino,' Ed says. He hands me a cup with an espresso shot in it and shows me just how to pour the milk so that it's frothy and light.

'Nice,' Ed says.

After examining the seventh cappuccino I've made that day, Ed tells me, 'yeah, alright.'

When I spill soy milk over the bench he laughs and throws a cloth at me. I catch it and throw it back at him. He tosses it at me again with a sly grin, and I clean up the spill.

Finally, at about 3pm, Ed says, 'well done today, Jane.'

Will, who is mopping the floors, raises his eyebrows at me.

Ed and I store the remaining cakes and pastries, clean the coffee machine and stack the dishwasher. As we're cleaning up, I ask Ed, 'So, did you take Matt's stuff to him at his new flat?'

Ed looks up at me, his expression sour. 'I took it to my parents' house. I couldn't take it to Matt.'

'Oh, where's that?' I ask.

'Wilmslow,' he mutters, looking back down at the counter that he's wiping down.

'That's near Manchester, isn't it?' I say. 'Wow, that's a fair drive. You did that on Friday night?'

'It was fine,' Ed says bluntly.

'I'm from Brighton,' I say. 'So it's not far at all. What do your parents do?'

'This and that,' Ed states.

'You don't like talking about your family, do you?' I say, softer this time. I'm about to tell him that I don't like talking about my parents either, but Ed interrupts me.

'You're right, funnily enough,' he says, throwing the cloth into the sink. 'I'm going upstairs.'

I watch him go, disappointed. I thought I was doing so well with Ed, but this conversation seems to have turned it around.

With my shift over, so I follow Ed upstairs. I change into my running gear straight away.

The sun is setting when I get out onto the street. I follow yesterday's route and explore more. This time, I'm thinking about Ed instead of Harper. Something has happened to this group, something to do with Matt, and for some reason no one wants to tell me. Not even Kitty. But I can't live and work with these people if they keep secrets from me. I have to find out somehow.

• Author's Note •

Is Ed just too grumpy for his own good? Ya he definitely is.

Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you're really enjoying this book. Don't forget to vote to show your support!

My question for the chapter...

What colour are your eyes? And do you like your eye colour? What's your favourite eye colour?

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I guess that's it. So, onto the next chapter!

elle xx