Chapter 2

Aspen

Six Weeks Earlier…

I wake to hear Adeline,my roommate, best friend, and the closest thing I’ll ever have to a sister or family, moving around in our cramped kitchen. I’ve known Adeline since we were kids and she was placed in the same foster home as me. I had been in the home since birth when my parents gave me up, but Adeline only came to the group home after her parents were killed in a home robbery when she was seven. She had been spending the night at a friend’s house when they were killed. The police had found her there the next morning and told her what happened. They asked if she had any other family but she didn’t know of anyone. Child Protective Services couldn’t find any other family either and so she was placed in the system.

I still remember when they brought her to the foster home. She was holding this pink backpack and staring at her feet. We had gotten other kids at the home who had lost their parents and it was easy to recognize her as one of those kids. They always had this look in their eyes, unimaginable grief or some deep sadness, that the kids who had been in the system since birth never had. The kids who were born into the foster system never had a family and so they never knew what they were missing.

We shared a room at the home and we were inseparable from the start, even though we couldn’t be more different. Adeline is all sweetness and rainbows. The ever-optimistic dreamer. She spends her life trying to see the best in everyone and nothing can ever get her down. She’s got a soft heart. She works at the local animal shelter and is always trying to bring strays home.

Me? I’m more the cautious realist of the two of us. I spend my nights cleaning offices and my mornings working at the corner coffee shop. Afternoons are spent running Adeline to her doctor appointments.

I’ve never had the same sunny outlook that Addy does. I know how terrible people can be and I spend most of my time trying to avoid everyone. Well, everyone except Adeline. I try to spend as much time as I can with her.

See, Adeline? She’s sick. Like really sick. She has a tumor in her brain and needs a craniotomy. Unfortunately, our insurance sucks and between her measly salary from the animal shelter and both of mine, we could never afford to pay for it out of pocket.

We’ve known her diagnosis for almost a year now and most days we just pretend that she’s not sick, but lately, that’s been getting harder and harder to do. Her headaches have been getting worse and she’s fainted twice now in the last six weeks. I know it’s scary to think about her dying because if she dies, I’ll be all alone. Even though I hate to admit it, I’m terrified of being alone, so we really need to come up with some kind of plan.

I hate that this is happening to her and that there’s nothing I can do to help her. She’s had too much pain in her life already and it’s not fair that this is happening to her too.

I reach over and grab my phone off the ground next to the mattress that we share. I only have five minutes before my alarm will go off and I’ll have to get up and go to my shift at the coffee shop.

I push myself up and off the old mattress and stretch as I pad over to the kitchen. Our apartment is just one big room with the living room doubling as our bedroom. Our bedroom/living room runs right into the tiny kitchenette and the only room with a door is the bathroom. Everything is so tight in the space that the two of us can barely stand in the same section at once but it’s been our home for the last four years and I’d rather live in this cramped room with Adeline, than a slightly bigger apartment with four more roommates.

“Morning.” I say with my gravelly morning voice as I make my way over to the coffee pot.

“Morning.” Adeline says as she offers me a cup of coffee.

She smiles at me over the rim of her cup as I thank her and take a sip. I watch her over my own rim and I don’t miss the wince or the flash of pain that shows in her eyes before she tries to hide it. I need to figure out a way for her to get that surgery, I think for the millionth time in the last year.

I watch as she moves around the room, opening our frayed curtains to let some light in and turning on the junky television that we pulled from the trash. She adjusts the rabbit ear antenna until the cartoon channel comes on.

“Did you take your medicine already?” I ask as I make my way over to her pillbox.

When she doesn’t answer, I turn and look at her over my shoulder. She’s staring at the ground and my stomach sinks as I turn back to the pillbox, opening the lid for today. It’s empty and I try the rest of the week to see that they’re all empty too.

“Addy, where are your pills?” I ask as I turn around to face her.

“We wouldn’t have enough for rent if I got them this week. I was going to wait until I got paid on Friday and then go get them.” She says quietly.

I blink, trying to clear the tears from my eyes.

“You need your medicine, Addy.”

“I know, but it’s just a couple of days. I’ll be fine.” She says as she puts her cup in the sink and goes to get dressed.

I want to argue with her but she interrupts me before I can.

“You need to get in the shower or you’ll be late!” She calls from over her shoulder.

My phone alarm goes off as soon as she says that and she laughs as I chug the rest of my coffee and head for the bathroom. I have to step in and turn around in order to close the door and I grumble as I bang my elbow off the wall, trying to get my shirt off. I hear Adeline laugh as I curse and wiggle, finally freeing myself from the shirt and sleep shorts. We do this every morning and once I get into the shower, I reach over and open the door so that Adeline can get in to brush her teeth and do her makeup.

I shower quickly and wrap a towel around my body and another around my hair before squeezing past Adeline and over to the little dresser in the corner of the room. Like everything else in this apartment, we found this dresser and pulled it off of the curb and hauled it home. One of the drawers is broken but even with that, it’s still probably the nicest thing we own.

Our income means that we never quite get enough to eat and with Adeline’s illness, we both have pretty slim frames. Adeline and I are both small, with her standing at only 5’2” and me at 5’4”. Our similar size has one good outcome though and that’s that we can wear the same clothes. Our limited income thanks us for that and it comes in handy when I don’t have time to do laundry one week.

I tug on a pair of her black skinny jeans, black t-shirt with the coffee shop logo, and my black Chuck Taylor’s before I head back to the kitchen. I put two slices of bread into the toaster and pour myself another cup of coffee as I wait for it to pop.

Adeline comes out of the bathroom, smoothing out her brown hair. She smiles up at me with her pretty purple eyes as she sits down on the mattress to tug her shoes on. Other than our similar size, Addy and I both look a little alike too. We both have brown hair and round faces with high cheekbones, but where she has the most amazing purple eyes, I have the palest blue.

I smile back at her as I butter the toast and add some sugar and cinnamon to them, taking a big bite of mine before I hand her hers. She takes it and my coffee cup, finishing the last of it before grinning at me. I just laugh as I head to the bathroom to tie my hair up and brush my teeth.

We meet at the front door and I wait as Adeline checks her purse to make sure she has everything she needs. I shove my phone into my back pocket and grab my keys as we walk out into the hallway. I turn and lock the door before we walk down the four flights of stairs and out onto the sidewalk.

“I wonder if Bella had her babies yet.” Adeline says we walk towards the animal shelter.

Luckily, the shelter is only two blocks from our apartment and the coffee shop is only a block and a half past that. Adeline has the morning shift at the shelter and is in charge of cleaning out all of the cages so she goes in early like me. I get to walk Adeline to work every morning and I get done before her every day so I head home to make a late lunch for us. We eat and hang out for an hour or so before we either go to doctor appointments or run errands. Sometimes we just hang out in the apartment all day or go for a walk before I have to head into the Upper East Side to clean office buildings.

“Send me a picture if she did.” I say as we get to the shelter door.

“Will do!” She chirps. “Have a good day, dear.” She says cheekily as she disappears inside.

I chuckle as I continue on to work. I open the coffee shop every day and I unlock the front doors before turning on all of the lights and taking the chairs off the tables. I make sure the fridge has been stocked and then pull out all of the pastries and put them in the display case on the counter. I’m just finishing turning on all of the coffee machines when my coworker comes in.

“Hey, Bianca.” I call as she sleepily makes her way behind the counter and grabs her apron off the hook.

She mumbles her response and I smile at her as I hand her a caramel latte. My smile grows as I watch her eyes perk up at the sight of the whipped cream swirled on top.

“Have I told you how much I love you recently?” She asks as she takes the cup from me and downs half of it.

“Not today.” I tease back.

I turn the open sign on and we lean back against the counter, enjoying these minutes of calm before customers start pouring in demanding their caffeine fix.

“How’s Adeline?” Bianca asks carefully.

She’s the only other person who knows about how sick Adeline is. She gives me her extra shifts sometimes when we need the money and I’m pretty sure she’s given me more tips on a couple of occasions, even though we’re supposed to split them evenly.

“About the same.” I say, grateful when the first customer walks in.

We stay busy after that, with a steady stream of people coming and going. At ten o’clock there’s a bit of a lull and I let Bianca take her break first. I watch as she heads out the back door as I wipe down the counter. I hear someone come up to the counter and I turn around to see two guys standing there. One is staring up at the menu while the other looks over the pastry display.

I take the moment to study them a little closer. They’re both tall but the one staring up at the coffee menu is thick with jet black hair and caramel eyes framed by long sooty lashes. The guy drooling over the pastries has dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes with a leaner build. I realize I’ve been staring at them for a solid minute and I jerk myself out of my trance. I’ve never had this sort of reaction to one man, let alone two.

“Can I get you anything?”

Both men turn and look at me and I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. I look between them when neither of them answers me. They’re both just staring at me with this weird kind of intensity. It’s almost too much. No one has ever looked at me like that. Like they would like to order me and not the coffee. I clear my throat and try again.

“Did you guys need another minute?”

This seems to get through to them and the blonde smiles at me as he leans on the counter. I watch as his eyes flick down my body before coming back to my name tag before his eyes meet mine once again.

“What would you recommend, Aspen?” He asks as he continues to grin at me.

“To eat?” I ask huskily.

I watch as his pupils dilate and I have to pull my eyes away from him and over to his friend. I can’t believe I just said that. And what is wrong with my voice?

“Yeah. To eat.” The blonde one says.

I know he’s not really talking about the pastries anymore. I might be a 22-year-old virgin but I’m not that na?ve.

“I like the cheese danishes. The coffee cake is really good too.” I say as I point them out in the case.

“Ok, give me two of each of those and I’ll take a large coffee, one cream, one sugar, please.”

I can feel their eyes on me as I type his order into the computer before I look back up to ask if his friend wants anything. When I look up it looks like they’re having an intense conversation with each other. The blonde one gives him a meaningful look before they both look back at me. I take this time to study them some more. I don’t know what it is about them but it’s like a current is running between the three of us. I want them, I realize in shock. I’ve never wanted anyone. Blondie catches me watching them and smiles at me. I glare back at him but it only makes his smile widen.

I look past him at the line that is starting to form behind them.

“Will that be all?” I ask, pointedly looking at Blondie’s friend.

He gives me a slow smile. “I’ll take a large coffee, black.” He says.

I quickly add that to the order before reading them their total. As the muscular one swipes his card, I pull the pastries out of the case and bag them up. I hand them the receipt and the bag before turning and pouring their coffees into to-go cups. Normally we’re supposed to ask if they want it for here or to go but for some reason, these guys make me antsy. Like I have too much energy running through me when I look at them.

“Here you go.” I say as I place the cups in front of them. They reach out at the same time and I gasp as their fingers wrap around mine on the cups. I jerk away, luckily not spilling any coffee all over the place and look up at them.

“Have a good day.” I mumble as I try to dismiss them for the next customer.

“I’m Flynn James and this is Roman Stone.” Blondie says as he points to himself and then his friend.

“Great. Well, have a good one.” I try again to dismiss them.

“Do you work here every morning?” Blondie-er, Flynn, asks.

“Yup.” I say, popping the P. “Now if you don’t mind, I should get back to work.”

“Why don’t you meet us tonight? Working all day must be stressful and I’m sure we could help you relax.”

“We?” I ask. Shouldn’t just one of them be hitting on me? Although I’m not sure which one I would prefer at this point. I don’t want to choose between them. I want them both.

Almost like he can hear my thoughts, Flynn says, “Yeah. We. We like to share.”

My cheeks heat as I think about being sandwiched between the two of them, their hands trailing up and down my body.

“No.” I say.

“Cage Nightclub. 9 PM. Ask for us and they’ll show you to our table.” Flynn says as he picks up his coffee and the paper bag of pastries.

“See you tonight.” He says as they turn and leave.

Bianca chooses that moment to come back and I help her with the line as I think about their offer. I’ll never be able to take them up on it. Not that I want to, of course. Once the line is down, I take my apron off and tell Bianca I’m taking my break. I head out the back door and lean against the side of the building as I try to figure out what it was about those two guys that drew me to them.

Normally, I’m able to tune out most people. I don’t care what people think about me and I’m too busy to even think about dating or anything. I’ve even been hit on at work before and I was able to put it out of my mind almost immediately but for some reason, those two are stuck in my head. I spend the remainder of my break trying to think about anything else but their faces keep popping up in my head. Maybe I could call in sick to the cleaning company and go to that club tonight. Finally, have some fun and act my age.

My phone dings and I glance down at it to see a message from Adeline. I open it and see that Bella had her puppies and the first picture is of them curled up with their mom. The second is of Adeline cradling one in her arms with the biggest smile on her face.

Addy: 8 healthy pups!

Aspen: AWWW. How cute!

Addy: I know!! We should adopt them all ??

Aspen: And keep them where?

Addy: We’d find the space

I smiledown at my phone and know she’s right. If Adeline brought home 20 dogs, we would find the room. I would do anything for that girl and I smile as I tuck my phone into my back pocket and head back inside.

Thinking about Adeline finally pushed Flynn and Roman from my thoughts and I shake my head as I think about how selfish it was to consider going to that nightclub. We need the money to pay for Adeline’s medicine. I put my apron back on as I turn back to the counter and get back to work.