Take Three (The Jilted Bride #2)(14)

“Um…”

“It’s okay if you don’t know anything!” she smiled. “As your manager, I am here to help you grow from a helpless sack of grounds into a knowledgeable cup of well-brewed coffee!”

Oh my god…

She stood up and pressed play on a DVD player. “I’ve created my own video about the importance of knowing coffee. It’s really great! After you watch this, I’m going to give you a thorough tour of your new home away from home and get you trained on some of the basics! Okay?”

She didn’t wait for my response. She slipped out of the room and left me to watch her video—a collection of short scenes that featured her playing with brown paper bag puppets named Mr. and Mrs. Coffee Bean.

As soon as the tape ended, she opened the door and told me to follow her around the store.

“This is our kitchen, where all the magic happens!” her eyes seemed to sparkle. “If you ever notice something in disarray, please put it back in its place okay? We all have to work together to keep our space neat! This is the brew zone…This is our café area…This is—”

This is not happening. No way can I do this for six weeks…I need to figure out a way to get out of this…Are there any jellyfish lakes in Arkansas? Are there any—

“Ethan!” Lola snapped me out of my thoughts. “Are you ready to learn how to make your first cup of awesome Autumn Wonder coffee?”

I looked at my watch and groaned. I’d only been off work two hours and I had a date in forty five minutes.

I’d met an attractive woman while I was on my lunch break, and instead of sizing her up against my check list, I took Barry’s advice and simply asked her out.

I rushed to Penguin Ed’s, a BBQ place she’d suggested, and spotted her sitting in a booth near the back. She was cute like I remembered—short red hair, dark brown eyes, and small pink lips.

“Good evening Lisa,” I slid into the booth.

“Good evening Ethan,” she blushed. “How are you?”

“I’m okay. I’m a little tired after working all day. How about you?”

“I’m alright,” she said, and for the first time I noticed her syrupy Southern drawl. “I went ahead and ordered for you since you said you’ve never been here before.”

Ordering for me on the first date without knowing if I have any allergies? That’s a definite negative—Wait, stop it!

“Thank you. What’d you order me?”

“A pulled pork sandwich with corn on the cob. You’ll love it!” she smiled. “So, where are you from?”

“I’m from,” I tried to remember what my fake ID said, “New Hampshire. You?”

“I’m from right here in Fayetteville, the best city in the whole wide world! I don’t think I’ll ever leave!”

So she doesn’t want to travel…

“What do you like to do for fun?” I asked.

The waitress set our plates down extremely slow and winked at me before walking away. I looked down at my napkin and saw that she’d scrawled her name and number on top of it.

“What do I like to do for fun?” Lisa sat back. “Well, I like to go biking. I love gardening, and I do a lot of reading.”

“I love reading. What’s the last good book you read?”

“Fifty Shades of Grey. Have you read it?”

“No, but I’ve heard from all my women friends that it’s really good,” I suddenly remembered my secretary sliding that book inside her drawer for weeks—as if she were hiding it; she did that every time I walked by her desk for some reason. “I guess I need to—”

“It is awesome!” her eyes lit up. “It will turn your sex life upside down! If we go out a few more times, maybe I can show you some things I learned! I ran out and bought some cable ties, a couple whips, and a blindfold right after reading it! I can’t wait to find a billionaire to dominate me! Or maybe I can dominate him! There’s this thing I want to try where I get tied to a—”

Did she just say “whips”? “Cable ties”?

“And there are these silver balls that I’ve been dying to test out!” she reached over the table and grabbed my hand. “I bought them last week! They’re supposed to be amazing—like, orgasmic amazing! After I wet them with my mouth, the guy is supposed to place them in my—”

What!

After dinner, I drove through the town, checking out the different coffee shops. There was a Starbucks of course, a Krispy Kreme, and a place Lisa mentioned over dinner: Sweet Seasons.

I parked in front of Sweet Seasons and looked through the windows. The interior didn’t look all that spectacular—less than modern furniture, a standard bakery case for pastries, and light wooden floors.

Lisa said they served “the best coffee and pie in all of Arkansas,” but I didn’t see any mention of them in my expansion files.

I was going to take Lisa’s word with a hefty grain of salt, but the couple behind us overheard her mention Sweet Seasons and it turned into a fifteen minute conversation about their favorite coffee blends and pastries.

I was sure Sweet Seasons didn’t stand a chance against Autumn Wonder—we’d already crushed the other two family-owned bakeries, but I decided I would pay the place a visit on my off day.