I want You Deeper

That came from Emily, who was blasting through the back door, tying her apron in the back as she walked. That was when Alyssa realized she hadn’t floated any of this past her best friend last night. What if she was furious that Alyssa and Jeremy had concocted this whole marketing scheme- including buying stencils and posting pictures of the art-without even mentioning it to her?

And that brought Alyssa to her biggest fear-that Emily would think something was going on between her best friend and brother and be hurt. Or angry. Or a mixture of both. At the very least, she might feel left out. They needed to try to include her in everything moving forward.

Emily paused just as she got to the counter. She looked from Jeremy to Alyssa, a half-smile on her face. “What’s going on with you two? You look like you’re up to something.”

Alyssa rushed to squash that assumption immediately. “No. Just-we were trying out these new stencils Jeremy bought. Come look.”

Maybe by minimizing the role she played in the whole thing, it would seem less like something Emily had been squeezed out of and more like an idea-in-progress. Emily stepped over, smile still on her face, and looked down at what remained of Alyssa’s creations. The two Alyssa had taken a sip of now looked more like abstract art, but the others were still holding up impressively well. She’d been worried the artwork would start to degrade after a few seconds if nobody took a sip.

“How did you do that?” Emily immediately looked at Alyssa. She knew who had done the artwork. Alyssa had always been into arts and crafts. It was how she’d expressed herself creatively when she was younger.

“Stencils.” Alyssa grabbed the two pieces of plastic she’d used to show Emily. They were now stained with cinnamon and nutmeg, so Emily headed off to clean them.

“I have to be getting to work.”

Ignoring Jeremy’s proclamation, Alyssa turned to the sink. She was a little relieved he’d be out of the way, mostly because she needed to be able to concentrate to make this happen. If people started showing up in bigger-than-usual numbers, having his watchful eye on her would only slow her down and lead to mistakes.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t something she had to worry about. Customers trickled in, as always, although she did manage to impress some of them with her art. She told each one about the social media-sharing contest, and Emily jumped in to encourage them, even sharing a couple of Alyssa’s prettiest creations on her feed.

Around lunchtime, Alyssa held up her phone to show Emily. “We got three tags. So, pretty productive. I didn’t expect instant results.”

But there was no denying the concern in Emily’s eyes. It had been there for a while, Alyssa suddenly realized. She’d just thought maybe it was worry for Alyssa having lost her job. Now that she knew the cafe was in trouble, it all made sense.

“We’re going to figure this out,” Alyssa promised. “I have some emails out to some old colleagues of mine. One works at the local TV station-”

Alyssa was interrupted by the front door of the cafe opening. In walked a man Alyssa recognized all too well. Just a few weeks earlier, she’d sat across the table from him in her company’s conference room while he fired her.

“Justin Travers?”

The question came out of Alyssa, but it was more to herself than anyone else. She couldn’t think of anyone she’d be more surprised to see walking through those doors.

Maybe he was here to offer her the chance to come back. Things had picked up for TravTech since she’d left, or so she’d heard, although they’d handed marketing over to the most junior person on her marketing team and, of course, the lowest paid. It had made financial sense, but as TravTech gained momentum again, he’d need someone who knew what she was doing to run marketing for him.

As he approached the counter, her mind was racing. She imagined showing up for work at that office every day, leaving her dreams of running a marketing firm behind. Sure, she’d have a guaranteed paycheck, but as much as she told herself she’d build her business on the side so she could someday quit, she knew, deep down, she’d never do that. She’d find herself a few years down the road, still in the same job, stuck, watching the years pass by with no hope of ever doing what she wanted to do.

“I can’t come back!” Alyssa blurted the words out before she could stop herself. If she headed this thing off at the pass, he couldn’t make the offer, which meant she couldn’t accept it. It was the best thing to do because no way could she trust herself not to give in right now, not when she longed to go back to having her place. Or, at the very least, her bedroom.

As soon as she saw Justin’s reaction, though, Alyssa knew he wasn’t here to ask her to come back to work for TravTech. His smile changed to an expression of confusion. He looked at Emily, as though she’d know what this was all about.

“I’m sorry?” Emily’s apology came out like a question as she tried to work out what was going on here. She looked over at Alyssa, who was too busy trying to figure out a way out of this to come up with anything intelligible to say.

Justin cleared his throat. “I’m here about your latte art. I hear you’re having a share contest. Is it for to-go orders, too?”

It was like a punch in the gut. He didn’t want her back. That much was clear. All of a sudden, her pride came back in full force, just as it had done that day in the conference room when he’d given her a bunch of compliments before telling her they were letting her go.

“Then I’ll take eight,” Justin, oblivious to what was rolling through Alyssa’s mind, was saying.

“Eight lattes?” Emily asked.

“I’d grab more, but that’s all I can squeeze into two of those carriers.

You do have the carriers?”

“Of course.”

Emily busied herself gathering two carriers from beneath the counter while Alyssa made the lattes. She hadn’t worked directly for Justin since marketing was under the sales and marketing department, and she’d only been in a couple of meetings with him before he’d fired her, but she felt the need to impress him. As though her abilities with latte art would somehow make him realize that laying her off had been a mistake.

“Don’t put the lid on yet. Need to snap a photo. Very impressive.”

“Thank you.”

Another oddity. Nobody at TravTech had ever complimented her work -or acknowledged it at all-at least not until the day he’d fired her. But that had been required. Build her up before letting her down and all. This felt like a genuine compliment.

As she was putting the lids on a few minutes later, Justin pocketed his phone and leaned forward. “Look, my offer when we last met holds. If you want a referral, I have plenty of buddies around here. We’re keeping TravTech small for now, but I can help you land a position-”

“I’m starting my marketing firm.” Alyssa smiled at him as Emily slid the cups into the two carrying trays. “Technologia Cafe is my

first client, but I’m always looking for more.”

“Now that, I can help with. I’ll be in touch.”

He gave her a big smile, then nodded at Emily before picking up his two drink trays, propping them perfectly on both hands and heading toward the door. Just as Alyssa was thinking about rushing around to open it for him, another customer came along to do that.

“What a hottie,” Emily whispered. “He was your boss?”

“He was the one who fired me.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“You don’t look too mad about that.”

Alyssa frowned. Suddenly, she realized she’d never really processed losing her job. She’d just plowed forward. What had she held in? And was it keeping her from moving forward?