I planned on putting up a new poster every week, something funny or inspiring, something that would put a smile on the staff’s face when they saw it so that they’d be in a good mood when they made the coffee. Call me superstitious, but I firmly believed that coffee tasted better when someone made it when they were happy.
“Sorry. I must have the wrong room. Could you tell me where the restroom is?” came a voice from the doorway.
“It’s just behind you to the left.” I turned to point out the door to the woman asking directions but she’d already found it. I heard the click of the lock as I finished tidying up the noticeboard. Glancing over it one last time to make sure that it looked exactly how I wanted, I headed out to the front of the coffee shop to help out with the early morning rush.
The morning passed in a blur of orders, as customers came in droves for their regular latte or cappuccino. Kate, Sam, Ella, and I were like a well-oiled machine, each of us making sure that people got their orders as quickly as possible. One thing you learned pretty quickly was that it was never a good idea to keep someone waiting for their much-needed caffeine fix!
“There you go, Jess.” I smiled as I handed over a caramel latte and a mocha Frappuccino to the woman who worked in Tulips Are Better Than One, the florists a few doors down from Perk. “Can I tempt you into trying some of our carrot cake this morning? I made it myself.”
“Go on, then. I’ll take two pieces,” Jess nodded, as I picked up the tongs to put a couple of slices in a bag for her. As she paid, I heard the sound of raised voices at the end of the counter.
“I said, I want to speak to the manager, not some wannabe actor,” sneered a woman. I winced inwardly, knowing exactly how Kate was likely to react to someone treating her like that, and hurried over to interject before she could let the customer have it with both barrels.
“I’m the manager,” I told her, plastering on the brightest smile I could muster. “What seems to be the problem?”
“It’s this garbage you have the nerve to call coffee,” the woman raged. “It tastes like yesterday’s dishwater.”
“And you’d know just how that tastes, wouldn’t you?” I heard Kate mutter under her breath.
Fighting back the urge to giggle, I took the mug the customer had slammed on the table and turned to pour it down the drain, taking a surreptitious sip before I did.
Picking up an empty mug the next size up, I said to the woman, “I’m terribly sorry that your coffee wasn’t up to our usual high standards. I’d like to offer you a replacement as well as a complimentary slice of cake with our apologies. What would you like?”
“Are you kidding me?” the woman snorted. “I don’t want anything from you but my money back. There’s no way I’m eating anything you’ve made. I don’t want to get food poisoning.”
I gritted my teeth, but refused to rise to the bait. “Of course, ma’am. Whatever you like. Kate, please refund the lady her money.”
Kate threw some bills down onto the counter and the woman scooped them up to storm out. As she reached the door, she turned and yelled so that everyone could hear. “Your customer service sucks as badly as your coffee!”
I put a hand on Kate’s arm to hold her back from leaping over the counter and chasing her down. I knew just how much she’d want to put the woman physically in her place, but much as I sympathized, it wasn’t going to happen.
Kate took a few deep breaths to calm herself. “I’m sorry, Steph,” she finally said. “I know I could have handled that better, but there was something about that woman that really got to me. Do you want me to go and check the machine to see if there’s any residue that might be contaminating the coffee? If there’s some soap in there, it’s going to make all the coffee taste bad.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I tasted the coffee. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I guess some people just don’t have enough drama in their lives, so they have to figure out a way of creating it.”
“That’s the funny thing,” Kate said. “That was a refill. She’d been here most of the morning, sitting at that table over there, nursing her first drink for as long as she could get away with. If it really was that bad, why did she come back for more?”
“There’s your answer then,” I told her. “She obviously wanted to get her coffee for free.”
“She didn’t look like the kind of person who needed to scam for a free coffee, though. She was dressed head to toe in designer labels. I’d recognise a pair of Jimmy Choos anywhere.” Kate shrugged. “Oh well. I guess you just never know what’s going on in someone’s mind.”
“Well if she comes in again, you can have the honor of telling her that she’s banned,” I told Kate. “I don’t care how much money she may or may not have. I’m not having anyone upsetting my staff just to get a free coffee. Why don’t you go and take your break now, calm down a bit? You can have that slice of cake I offered her.”
“Thanks, Steph,” Kate beamed. “Your chocolate cake is to die for!”
The rest of the day went past without any more drama, but although Kate bounced back to her usual self after her break, I found it hard to shrug off a sense of foreboding. It was so unusual for anyone to have a problem with our food and drink and on the rare occasion someone wasn’t happy, it was easily sorted without anyone having to shout.
I hoped that that customer wasn’t a bad omen now that I was officially the manager.
At last, the final coffee of the day was served and Kate started sweeping the floors while Sam wiped the tables. Opening up the till, I took the tray out to add up the day’s takings.
“I’m going to do this back in the office,” I told them. “If you guys want to head off, I don’t mind finishing up out here. Just put the latch on as you go.”
“Sure thing, boss,” nodded Sam, as Kate made a final few sweeps with the broom.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t mind helping with the cleaning.”
“I’m sure,” I replied. “There’s not much else needs doing now and you guys have worked hard all day. Go home and put your feet up.”
I went out back, hearing the sound of the door shutting not long after. Counting up the day’s takings, I was happy with how the day had gone. We hadn’t quite hit my target, but we weren’t far off it and there was still the rest of the week to make up the difference. One random mad woman aside, it hadn’t been a bad day at all.
Going out to grab my jacket from the staffroom, I spotted the suggestion box sitting on the side. An impulse made me pick it up and shake it, and as I did, I heard the sound of something rattling around inside, so I flipped it over and opened up the flap underneath.
There was a piece of folded paper inside the box and I pulled it out, smiling to myself as I did. I bet that Kate had put a good luck message in there, just to cheer me up after what had happened earlier.
However, when I opened it up to read what was written, my blood ran cold.
“Dom is not who you think he is.”
Chapter Three
All the way home, I debated with myself what to do about the note. On the one hand, the simplest thing would be to talk to Dom about it. But on the other, what would be the point? The note had barely any detail, so it was unlikely that Dom would be able to tell me what the anonymous author was talking about, but the fact that I hadn’t trusted him enough to ignore the note might cause an argument and I had a feeling that that would be giving the writer exactly what they wanted. No one would leave a note like that if they weren’t looking to create trouble.
Maybe they were trying to tell me that Dom was a shifter, in which case they were wasting their time. Dom had told me about his bear on our very first date, when he revealed that he’d had a dream about me, a dream that echoed one I’d had about him. Apparently, in shifter lore, this was a sign that we were fated to be together. While I wasn’t so sure that I believed in the power of dreams to predict love, there was no doubt that Dom and I were good together, that there was something special
about our relationship.
I decided that I wasn’t going to let any cowardly letter writer cause any friction between Dom and me. There was no need to talk to Dom about it. If whatever it was that they were writing about really was so important that they had to tell me, then they’d have gone into more detail or, even better, tell me to my face.
I didn’t know who was responsible for the note and I didn’t care. The only reason they would have written it was because they were jealous of what Dom and I had and I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing that they could get between us. The only place that note belonged was in the garbage.
As I pulled into the parking lot by my apartment, I saw Dom’s car already there. As I got out of my vehicle, he came out to meet me, a large bouquet in his hands.
“These are for you,” he smiled, handing them to me before pulling me to him to kiss me. I yelped, having to quickly move the flowers out of the way so they wouldn’t get squashed as he wrapped his arms around me, my body melting into his as I enjoyed the feel of his lips against mine.
“What are you doing here?” I asked when we finally broke apart. “I thought you had to work late today, that there was some big meeting going on?”
“I got out of it,” Dom shrugged. “I figured that my girlfriend’s first day as manager was more important than going over some spreadsheets with my boss for the umpteenth time. I thought we could spend the evening together. I bought a couple of DVDs and I thought we could order in takeout from that Thai place that’s just opened up. Unless you wanted to go out to dinner, in which case I know a great little vegetarian restaurant we haven’t been to yet.”
“Takeout and a movie sounds perfect,” I beamed. Just being around Dom made me happy without him having to make a big fuss. He earned way more than I did, but instead of trying to impress me with his money, Dom always took the time to do things that would make me happy. It was just like him to know that after a long day at work I’d prefer curling up on the couch with a movie to going out to eat, even if the restaurant was amazing.
“So tell me all about your day,” said Dom, taking my hand as we walked to my apartment door. “I know you’ve been managing Perk for a while, but it must be different now that you’re the manager for real. Was it weird knowing that Joe isn’t going to come back?”
“A little,” I confessed, taking out the key to my apartment as we reached the door. “I mean, I know it shouldn’t make that much difference when I’ve already been managing the place for a few weeks, but somehow everything did seem, I don’t know, fresh? New? Strange? Like I had to keep pinching myself to prove that it wasn’t just a dream.”
“Ah, but you and I both know that dreams can come true,” grinned Dom, as I pushed the door open and led the way inside.
“You are right,” I conceded, going into the kitchen to put the flowers in some water. “Although there was one annoying customer today, so it wasn’t as though it was all sunshine and rainbows from start to finish.”
“What happened?”
“It was all a bit bizarre to be honest.” I told him what happened with the woman who’d complained. “None of it made any sense, really. According to Kate, she’d sat in Perk all morning, so she couldn’t have been that unhappy with the service and she didn’t look as though she needed to save money on coffee.”
“I guess some people just thrive on creating drama,” suggested Dom.
“That’s what I said,” I agreed. “Still, she was just one woman. We had plenty of other satisfied customers, so I’m not going to lose any sleep over her. Not when I’ve got much more fun things to think about, like what movies we’re going to watch.”
“I wasn’t sure what kind of day you’d had, so I picked up a couple of comedies,” Dom told me. “I thought that if you’d had a bad day, you might want cheering up and if you’d had a good day, then ending it with a fun movie would be perfect.”
“I like the way you think. Which comedies have you got?”
“Chips or Baywatch.” Dom held up the boxes for me to pick from. “I know that they’re both based on cheesy old series, but I’ve heard that they’re actually really funny, so I thought it was worth trying and if they’re that bad, we can always create our own entertainment.”
I laughed as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at me.
“Why don’t you stick on Baywatch and I’ll phone through for some food. Anything you particularly want?” I left Dom to switch on the DVD player while I called the Thai place.
“Thrill me,” Dom called over his shoulder, as I went to grab the menu I had pinned to the board in the kitchen.
Picking out a selection of our favorite dishes, I went to join Dom on the couch as he pressed the button on the remote to start the film. It wasn’t long before beautiful people were running across the screen in slow motion, Dom and I laughing as Dwayne Johnson exchanged quips with Zac Efron.
Soon, the buzzer to my apartment went, announcing the arrival of our food. Dom paused the movie, as I went to grab my purse.
“Put that away,” he ordered. “This is my treat. I surprised you, remember?”
“Yes, but I probably would have had Thai tonight anyway,” I told him. “And you bought the movies.”
“You can get it next time,” Dom countered. “Tonight is my treat.”
“All right. If you insist.” I went out to the kitchen to get some chopsticks, while Dom brought the food back to the living room. Opening up the containers, I picked up some chicken fried noodles and started eating. However, before Dom could take a bite, his cell rang.
“Call them back after you’ve eaten,” I said.
“I can’t.” He shook his head. “That’s the ring tone for the Love clan. I have to take this. Sorry.”
He swiped his phone to take the call and headed out to the kitchen to see what they needed. I tried to respect his privacy, but I couldn’t help hearing the odd word filtering back, despite Dom lowering his voice to a whisper.
“Why now? … Are you sure? … Seriously?”
At last, he ended the call and came back to join me.
“Anything wrong?” I tried to keep my tone casual, pretending that I wasn’t desperate to know what was going on.
“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to love you and leave you,” Dom told me, dropping a light kiss on the top of my head as he picked up his jacket. “Something’s come up and I’m going to have to deal with it.”
“Clan business?”
Dom nodded.
“Can’t it wait? I thought we were celebrating my first day as manager?” I hated being the kind of girlfriend who was all clingy and needy, but it had been so nice to see Dom waiting for me when I got home. We weren’t at the stage of our relationship yet where we were talking about moving in together, so I cherished every moment we had. I missed him when he wasn’t there. “I can’t eat all this food by myself.”
“I know, and I’ll make it up to you, I promise. But the clan comes first. It’s a condition of me being allowed to stay in Love territory. They don’t normally make me attend meetings at such short notice, so this has got to be something important.”
I got up and followed him over to the door. “All right,” I sighed. “I can’t pretend I’m happy about you having to leave like this, but I understand. You’ve always been honest about needing to jump when the Loves snap their fingers, so I’m not grumpy with you. I’m grumpy with them. Just come back as soon as you can, ‘kay?”
“I promise. If I can come back tonight, I will.” Dom pulled me to him for one long, final kiss and then he was gone.
As I headed back to the couch to finish watching the movie alone, I saw the corner of the note peeking out from my purse. Pulling it out, I ripped it into tiny pieces and threw them into the garbage. Dom had always been honest with me. I knew exactly what kind of man he was. He was the perfect man for me.
If whoever had written that note thought that they were going to be able to split us up, they were going to have to wor
k a heck of a lot harder than that to do it.
Chapter Four
“What time is it?” I murmured sleepily, as I felt Dom creeping into bed next to me.
“Time you should be asleep,” came the reply, as he curled up behind me, spooning. It was soon obvious that sleep was the last thing on his mind, however, as his hands started lightly caressing my breasts.
“You have a perfect body,” he whispered, as he kissed that sensitive spot beneath my ear, gently squeezing my right breast and running his thumb over the nipple in the way he had that always made them hard. “Your curves are such a turn on.”
Still not fully awake, my body reacted instinctively as his hand moved down, rolling on to my back so that my legs flopped open. Dom kept kissing my neck, nibbling on my ear, running his tongue across my skin, making me gasp as he skillfully started rubbing my clit.
“You’re soaking,” he marvelled, as he ran his hand down between my legs and up again to focus back on my clitoris.
“That’s the effect you have on me,” I told him and it was true. Just seeing him was enough to make me moist in anticipation, so once he started working on my body, I was lost to him.
I reached down with my right hand to grab his cock, which was fully erect. The size of it never failed to amaze me. The thought that I could take in something so large was incredible, yet we fit together perfectly.
Dom moaned as I started working my hand up and down the shaft. “That feels so good,” he told me, as he found that perfect sweet spot, the rhythm that he knew would get me off. Much as I wanted to keep touching him, all I could do was focus on how he was making me feel, as my back arched, my toes curled and I exploded into bliss.
“You can go back to sleep now,” Dom told me, brushing my hair away from my face so that he could look me in the eye.
“Are you kidding? I’m wide awake now and I’ve only just gotten started. Get up here…”
Dom grinned as he moved to kneel so that his cock was in my face. Grabbing his shaft, I ran my hand up and down a few times, before leaning forward to take him in my mouth. I could taste a tiny bit of pre-cum, the sweet liquid giving me a smug sense of satisfaction that I was just as capable of turning him on as he was me.
Caring Bear: A Paranormal BBW Shifter Pregnancy Romance (Love Laid Bear Book 5) Page 2