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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


7

 

“What are you doing here?”

While Taylor hadn’t expected an effusive welcome when she’d walked into the cafe that morning, she hadn’t expected this ... this non-reaction either.

Christian stood before her in the middle of the entryway, arms folded in front of him, expression blank, as if he was waiting to see what she would do before he expelled any kind of emotion.

“Can you let me in ... It’s freezing out here?” she asked.

He stepped back and allowed her to enter the cafe. Upbeat jazz music was playing in the background as Harry, Carson, and Isabel bustled busily around the restaurant. She couldn’t help but smile as she watched them work.

In the short time they’d known each other, she’d become just that little bit attached to the group and to the cafe. They’d worked alongside each other to make this place the beautiful coffee house it was and a little part of it, as crazy as it was, felt like hers.

George came down the stairs from the second floor and noticed her before the others did. “Taylor, you’re just in time. You can grab a uniform upstairs if you want to get ready for the grand opening,” he said grinning broadly.

Christian unfolded his arms and shook his head. “Taylor doesn’t wor—,”

“I’ll get dressed in a second!” Taylor cut Christian off before he managed to get his sentence out and he raised a brow at the interjection.

“Can we talk?” she asked quietly as she shuffled over to a corner window near the back of the room.

He followed her over. “What’s this about Taylor? I told you the contract’s off.”

“I know what you said.” She untied her wool scarf from around her neck and stuffed what she could of it in her coat pocket. “But after what you did for me the other day, I owe you. Until I can get the full amount to you, I’ll continue to go along with the contract we established earlier. And I’ll start helping out at the café officially as well. A few days a week, I’ll come and work here.”

Christian looked surprised. “Why? Why would you want to do that?”

“I don’t like owing people and I’ll feel uncomfortable knowing that you’re waiting around for the money. I want to do this.”

Christian sat on the bench by the window and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not waiting around for anything. You don’t have to—”

“I do,” she said cutting him off again. “I do have to do this.” It was the very least she could do after the incident two nights ago.

She’d been shocked when he’d come to her rescue in front of her house that night. She’d thought he was long gone when he’d showed up throwing his weight and money around and she’d been pretty annoyed about it at first. Minutes after telling her that they’d never see each other again, he had the gall to shove himself into her life and impose another debt onto her.

Her embarrassment at the whole situation had fuelled the anger a bit as well.  Why was it that in most situations she found herself in with him, her pride took the biggest beating?

When the anger had dissipated, however, and she’d realized that he was sincere, gratefulness had flooded her and for one moment of insanity all she wanted to do was rest her head on his shoulder and thank him for his help. She couldn’t do the former so she’d thanked him and promised to pay him in full when she could.

It wasn’t enough though. He’d given her landlord three months worth of rent and it would take her at least that long to come up with the money. Her mother was too unreliable to leave the matter in her hands so she’d have to find a way to get the money to him herself. In the meantime, continuing with the contract seemed the best way to show her sincerity and gratefulness for what he’d done for her and her family.

“I owe you. Let me do this until I can pay you back in full,” she said.

Christian saw the obstinate tilt of Taylor’s chin and lifted his hands in surrender. “If that’s what you want, I’m not going to argue against it.” He stood up and a small smile came over his face. “Besides, my grandmother taught me never to look a gift horse in the mouth. Go ask George for a uniform.”

Christian’s eyes followed Taylor as he headed over to George. This was a strange turn of events. He’d given Taylor a free pass and yet here the kid was ready to work for Christian again just because he didn’t want to be in his debt. If Christian hadn’t realized that he’d been wrong about him before, he was sure now. Taylor was as trustworthy as they came.

He leaned against the wall and for a while, watched his staff work around the room until Taylor came back downstairs dressed in the baristas’ black and white uniform and suddenly a fresh wave of confidence hit him.

The Brew House was going to be a success. He would make sure of it.

...

Taylor hadn’t seen a customer for over an hour. It was three days later and while the opening had been a complete success – the place had been packed from open to close – since then, the coffee house hadn’t been as busy as they’d all expected.

Taylor had shown up at the cafe right after putting in a shift at her part-time job, to see the boys: Jeff, George and Carson, seemingly trying to fight complete boredom. Jeff kept wiping the exact same spot on the counter pretending to be busy, Carson wasn’t even bothering to pretend as he flipped through one of the news magazines and leisurely drank a cup of coffee by the windows, and Taylor could swear that George, who was seated at the bar, was fast asleep.

It hadn’t taken her long to get bored as well. After fiddling with the dessert case, shifting plates and jars of scones, muffins and biscotti over and over again, she finally gave up and reached for her textbooks. She wasn’t going to waste very precious time in her day fake working when she could actually get some homework done.

She didn’t plan to take a break; it seemed pointless since she’d practically been on break since she’d arrived but George, who woke up long enough to evaluate the situation, sent her off to “get some air”.

She was halfway across the front garden of the cafe when an arm slipped around her shoulders. She jerked and looked up to see Carson grinning down at her. Then, after feeling another presence beside her, looked to her right and saw Jeff stepping up beside her.

“What are you guys doing?” she asked warily. 

“We’re coming with you,” Carson said mischievously.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m just going to take a walk around the park.”

“Right and we’ll join you,” he said with a nod.

She looked over at Jeff who, not being one of many words, just smiled and shrugged.

She looked back at Carson. “Will George be able to manage by himself?”

Carson snorted. “With all those people? I think so,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Besides, Christian will be starting soon. He can help George if any customers decide to show up. Now shall we go?”

Since Carson, whose arm was still around her, was practically forcing her to walk with him, Taylor couldn’t do anything but go. But, somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that when Christian showed up, he’d be far from pleased.

...

“Where the hell is everyone?” Christian said to the room at large.

A seated George didn’t do so much as lower the paper he was reading. “I’ve been asking myself that same question all day. I think we made four dollars in the last two hours and that was from Carson.”

And instead of figuring out how to drum up some business, here was George taking a leisurely paper break? “You’re a lot of fucking help, George,” Christian muttered to himself.

He walked up behind the counter, checked one of the registers to see how the day was really going, and was annoyed to see that George hadn’t exactly been lying. “What about the people who get paid to be here?” he asked sarcastically.

The paper didn’t even twitch. “At the park, I suppose. I told Taylor to take his break and Carson went scurrying after him, dragging Jeff along with him.”

Christian’s eyes narrowed. Carson. He should have known. He grabbed his coat and marched to the front door.

“Going somewhere?” George called after him in a singsong voice.

He didn’t bother to dignify the question with a response, instead he threw open the front door and went off to find his wandering employees.

...

Half an hour later, Taylor wasn’t sure how she found herself with a slip of plastic beneath her, grinning as she flew down a snowy hill but she wasn’t sorry for it. She hadn’t been this carefree and relaxed in months. There was something about reverting to your eight-year old self that could make all your troubles disappear, even if it was just for a little while.

When they’d arrived at the park, they’d discovered that sleds and toboggans were available to rent.  Carson immediately asked for two and then after shoving one of each to her and Jeff, pushed them towards the hill.

After about a dozen runs it was probably time to head back to work but Carson wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. She looked behind her and noticed that he was coming down the hill fast and with a smile, she turned back and leaned forward to make sure he didn’t beat her down the hill.

She liked him. He was so easy to get along with. Sure he was handsome but he was so unaffected by it, so easy to talk to, that she barely noticed it at all.

Suddenly, as she got to the bottom of the hill, Carson close behind her, Christian appeared and he didn’t look thrilled by the fact that his employees weren’t at work. She slid to a stop and stood up as Christian marched over to her.

“Well, look what I’ve found,” he said sarcastically.

“Uh, Christian...” she said awkwardly, looking around him.

“So, you guys decided that because there were no customers, you were going to take a snow day?” he demanded, hands on hips.

She shook her head. “It wasn’t my idea. But uh, Christian?” she warned.

“I don’t care who’s id—,” Suddenly a ball of snow hit Christian right at the side of his face and Taylor stifled her laugh when he whipped around to see Carson grinning at him, another snowball in his hand.

She had tried to warn him but he’d been too busy telling her off to realize that Carson was sneaking up on him.

“Oh, so it’s going to be like that?” she heard him say before he picked up his own snowball, ducking when Carson threw the other, and hurled it in Carson’s direction. It got Carson in the shoulder before he picked up his sled and used it as a shield.

Taylor couldn’t help but grin as she watched them launch snow at each other and after one hit Christian right in the middle of his forehead she couldn’t stop a laugh from erupting out of her.

Christian turned at the sound of her voice, his eyes narrowed, and before Taylor could react, snowballs came flying towards her. One missed entirely but the other caught her in the side of the face, getting her ear and her cheek.She clapped her hand over the abused part of her face and rubbed it as Christian chuckled at her discomfort.                                          

Scowling at him, she  tossed down her sled and tackled him, completely surprising him off-balance. He slipped and fell backwards giving Taylor enough space to grab a pile of snow and drop it over his head.

Christian sputtered as the snow hit his face but he reacted faster than she’d expected. Before she could make a run for it, he grabbed her hand, pulled her down and proceeded to face wash her with his snowy glove.

Feeling a mixture of amusement and outrage, she tried to shake him off without much luck. Pulling off one of her gloves, she reached for some snow and tried to hit him with it. It didn’t work. He grabbed her hand, forcing her to drop it and she glared when he grinned down at her. “I don’t think so,” he said, one brow raised archly.

She looked into his eyes and noticed that they were a very clear blue today, a sparkling, bright blue that matched his mood. Her annoyance suddenly disappeared at the sight of his cheerful expression. This was the first time that she’d ever had that expression directed at her.

For some reason they never shared a joke or grinned at each other, they’d never been comfortable enough with each other for that. Yet here he was smiling, sharing this private joke with her and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling back.

There was a moment when their eyes caught, mouths still tilted up in smiles, that she felt all was right with the world and then he shifted, realized that he was still crouching over her, and jumped up from his position on the ground. And as soon as he did, she felt the cold and missed his warmth.

Shaking those thoughts away, she lifted herself up into a sitting position and watched as Carson walked over to them. Carson. For a second, she’d completely forgotten that he was there. Speaking of which...she looked around. “Where’s Jeff?” she asked aloud.

“He told me he was heading back before we went on that last run,” Carson responded.

“Oh,” she said, embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed.

“And we’re headed back too,” Christian said sternly, although there was still laughter in his eyes.

She nodded, grabbing the sled and standing up.

“I’ll bring these back,” Carson said, taking it out of her hand and heading towards the rental house.

She turned to Christian once he walked away. “Hey, about this whole thing—,”

Christian interrupted her. “Don’t worry about it. I know what Carson’s like,” he said an ironic smile on his face. “Look, I wasn’t really mad at you guys… When I saw the coffee house empty...,” he sighed. “I’m just pissed that it’s bombing.”

The look on his face made Taylor want to comfort him. “Right now you’re competing with the giant a block away. Once people hear about the Brew House and see that it’s more than just a place to get coffee, they’ll turn up in droves. You have my personal guarantee ,” she said with a broad grin.

Christian eyed her contemplatively. “Your personal guarantee, huh? I’m doomed,” he said shaking his head. Then, after punching her on the shoulder playfully, he walked away chuckling.

She rolled her eyes at the comment but felt a smile tug at her lips as she watched him go. Something had changed between them. The air was lighter, the smiles came easier. Letting go for those few minutes, playing in the snow, had alleviated all the apprehension that had previously been between them.

And it made her think that maybe it was possible...

Maybe they could be friends after all.












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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.