At Last [Lip Gallagher]

Chapter 16:

I looked over my shoulder to see Lip walk up. He stopped at the coffee pot and I turned to watch him. After pouring coffee, he grabbed a bottle from under the counter and poured some of it into the coffee. Sierra walked in and walked past him.

"Hey." He said.

She stopped to clock in. 

"Hey, how's Lucas?" Lip asked.

She ignored him and continued into the back.

"I'm sorry." He called after her.

He turned and his eyes landed on me. I turned as he walked over to me.

"You're mad at me too?" He asked.

I kept my eyes on the counter.

"Elena. Please." He begged.

"Don't, Lip." I said.

He sighed and walked out. Once Sierra came out she looked at me.

"Want to help me carry some stuff over to Fiona?" She asked.

I nodded and she handed me the pie. We walked across the street and into the laundromat to see Fiona writing on a chalkboard.

"Here's your fair-trade coffee." Sierra said. 

We set the stuff down.

"Great. Thank you." Fiona said.

Sierra laughed. 

"Hey, you want to write me a good Yelp review?" Fiona asked.

"Hell yeah." Sierra said, pulling out her phone.

Fiona put down the chalk and walked out in front of people.

"Hi, everybody. I'm Fiona. I'm the owner at Wendell's and I just wanted to let you know that today, when you buy a cup of our organic roast, you're gonna get a free piece of homemade pie. So tell your friends. Enjoy." Fiona said.

"I'll mention the pie in my review." Sierra said.

"Perfect." Fiona said.

Frank walked up to Etta. "Hello, love. I brought lunch. Uh, vegetarian chili, Spanish sardines, and... the hell? Pickled baloney?" 

"I'm not eating that shit. Why don't we ever go out anymore?" Etta asked.

"You're right. We don't. Let's go scare us up a real meal." Frank said.

"Whoopee!" Etta exclaimed.

"You got any cash?" Frank asked.

"Well, I took out some walking around money from the bank yesterday. Let me just put on my face." Etta said.

"Okay." Frank said as the two of them started walking away.

"Whoa. Holy moly." Sierra said.

I turned to see her looking at her phone.

"What?" Fiona asked walking over.

"If someone gave this place a bad review, would you want to know about it?" Sierra asked.

"We've been open, like, four hours. How bad?" Fiona asked.

"Bad." Sierra said.

Fiona stopped. "Yeah. Read it to me, quietly."

"I was unfortunate enough to attend the soft open of my local laundromat early this morning. Used to be a cool, shabby joint run by a mean old cat lady, but the current owner is apparently some clueless Southside chick. If I could give this place negative stars, I would." Sierra read. "And then in all caps: "Do not spend money here" four exclamation points."