Chapter 28

ChapterTwenty-Eight

Sometimes life punched you in the face and then kicked you while you were down.

That’s how Jeanie felt when she caught Norman tampering with the thermostat in the break room the day after Logan left her apartment; the day after he’d suggested she shouldn’t be here at all. It was like life was beating the crap out of her just for funsies.

‘Norman, what are you doing?’ she asked, even as the sinking feeling in her gut told her she already knew. She probably should have figured this whole mystery out much sooner, but maybe she’d been afraid of confronting her aunt’s most loyal employee. Not to mention the disapproving look Norman gave her when he turned around, which was enough to make her feel like she was the one in trouble. Maybe she was misreading the situation.

‘It’s freezing in here. The customers have started to complain,’ she went on as though she needed to explain why he shouldn’t be messing with the thermostat after she had set it for the day.

Norman met her eye, and a flash of regret crossed his face, but he quickly covered it with his usual scowl. He tilted his chin up and squared his shoulders. ‘I quit.’

The words were so unexpected, Jeanie couldn’t process them. Her short-circuiting brain refused to comprehend them.

‘What do you mean, you quit?’ she asked, her voice going all high-pitched and panicked. ‘I need your help.’ Whatever Norman had been doing with the thermostat or anything else in this café – Jeanie refused to think about his long list of possible crimes – she couldn’t run this café without him. He was the one who knew how to do everything!

Norman shook his head. ‘You really don’t.’ He turned away from her and opened his employee locker.

‘I really do.’ She put a hand on his arm to stop him from clearing out his things. Surely, they could work this out. It was obviously one big, giant misunderstanding.

The midday rush had already started, and she’d left Crystal completely alone at the register. She needed to get back out there, but she also needed her most experienced employee not to quit on the day after she’d been dumped.

Dumped? Can you be dumped by someone you hadn’t really been dating?

She wasn’t sure, but she sure as hell felt dumped. And she’d had absolutely no time to process that before Norman dropped this bomb in her lap.

‘I do need you, Norman. You know how everything works around here. You’re Aunt Dot’s most valuable employee.’

Norman scoffed, shrugging out of her grasp. He pulled a cardigan, several paperbacks, and a Tupperware box filled with homemade granola bars from his locker. ‘Apparently, I’m not.’

‘Have I not been treating you well? I’m sorry, Norman. I really am. This is my first time being in charge and I’m doing my best. What can I do? How can I fix it?’ She was bordering on hysterical now, but the lunch rush was getting louder, and she could hear Crystal’s flustered voice over the din of the crowd. They normally had three people working this time of day.

Norman blew out a long-suffering sigh. ‘It’s not you. Not really.’ He pushed the glasses up on his nose and faced her for the first time in this conversation. ‘It’s me. I’ve been tampering with the business.’

Of course he had. She’d known it as soon as she saw him turning the thermostat down after she’d already adjusted it three times this morning, but what she didn’t understand was why her aunt’s long-time manager had been screwing with her. What the actual hell was going on?

‘Why? Why would you do that?’

‘I’m not proud of myself. And I understand if you want to press charges.’ He folded his hands primly in front of him, and the idea of Norman in his argyle sweater vest and tortoiseshell glasses in a police mug shot was enough to almost make Jeanie laugh. Or cry. Or both.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a stress headache coming on. ‘I’m not going to press charges. But why on earth would you do it? I thought you loved the café?’

‘I do.’ He winced. ‘I do love it and I wanted to buy it, but your aunt wouldn’t sell it to me.’

Wait, what? Norman wanted to buy the café. ‘Really?’

‘Yes. She said you needed it more.’

‘Oh.’

‘And I thought if I could make it a bit too difficult for you, you wouldn’t want it. Maybe you would sell it to me.’

Jeanie sunk down onto the bench beside the lockers. ‘Oh.’

Norman ran a hand down his sweater vest, straightening himself out. ‘The whole thing was beneath me and I apologize. It got quite out of hand. I never intended for windows to get broken. Or to scare you in the middle of the night.’ He winced. ‘Jim went too far with that. Obviously, I will pay for any damage done. And I quit.’

‘You don’t have to quit,’ Jeanie said weakly. Everything Norman had just told her swirled ominously in her head. She might throw up. ‘Wait, who’s Jim?’

Norman cleared his throat. ‘My ... uh ... associate.’

Jeanie’s eyes widened. ‘You hired someone to break my window?’

‘Not specifically. I just thought he could make things a little ... untidy around here.’

‘Oh.’ The syllable was quiet, defeated.

‘Again, I apologize.’ And with that, he picked up his home-made snacks and other belongings and left Jeanie sitting with her head in her hands.

The way she saw it, she had two choices. One, she could curl up in a ball on the perpetually sticky floor of the break room and stay there for the rest of forever. Or, two, she could get up and go to work in her café.

She groaned into her hands. Choice one was tempting. Rolling up in a ball sure seemed like the right call. A ball was cozy, protective. She could live happily on the floor, scrounging for crumbs, never facing another adult responsibility – or sexy farmer who turned out to be a complete jerk – ever again. Tempting, indeed. However, there were downsides. The main one being the sticky floor. No matter how many times she mopped back here the floor remained sticky and she didn’t know why. It was not knowing the source of the stickiness that really grossed her out. She didn’t want to be sticky. Also, she would be quitting on Crystal and Aunt Dot, and herself. Which she didn’t particularly want to do.

Despite what Logan said. The big dummy.

So that left her with one option. She tied on her apron and got her butt in gear.

‘Hey Crystal, sorry about that.’

Crystal glanced over her shoulder as Jeanie emerged from the back room. She blew out a sigh of relief. ‘Oh, thank God,’ she said with a flustered smile. ‘You’re here.’

Yes, she was here, damn it. This was her damn café. And despite Norman’s efforts and Logan’s fears, she wasn’t going anywhere.

She stepped up to the counter. ‘Hey, Marco. The usual?’

The man gave her a friendly smile. ‘Hey, Jeanie. That would be perfect.’

Jeanie nodded and got to work.