Page 20 of Reckless (Adventures in Love 3)
“Yeah, cool.” I fall back on my bottom as he pushes up off the couch.
“You got my number if you need anything.”
“I do,” I agree with a nod, watching him walk to the door and open it before turning to look at me once more.
“See you around.”
“Yep.” I watch him leave, then drop my face into my hands. I don’t know what the heck that was, but I do know that he felt it too. I’m also pretty sure that if his phone hadn’t rung, we would be making out right this minute.
Chapter 7
JADE
All my life I’ve considered myself to be someone who fits in pretty easily, but as I stand behind the counter of the Bear, the coffee shop I applied to right next door to what I hope will one day be my bookstore, I couldn’t feel more out of place if I tried. At first I thought that Liam, the owner, who is old enough to be my grandfather, was taking pity on me by hiring me for this job. Now I think he just hired me to babysit his great-grandkids, Tony and Katie, who work here after school each day.
“What do you think about this?” Tony asks, shoving his cell phone in front of my face, and I watch a video of him doing some strange dance while he makes a cup of coffee. “Isn’t it dope?”
“Totally dope.”
“We should do one together. You have that whole hot-older-lady thing going on.” He goes back to looking at his phone, missing the scowl I’m shooting his way. “I’m sure you and I could get a few thousand likes.” He looks up at me. “Can you dance?”
“No.” I go to where the broom is and grab it so that I can sweep up some of the coffee grounds and beans that have fallen onto the floor over the last couple of hours.
“Tony can totally teach you,” Katie says from where she’s sitting on the counter with her legs swinging. “He’s really a good dancer.” I’m sure she thinks that; then again, I’ve gotten the impression over the last few hours that Katie is Tony’s biggest fan and vice versa.
“You know, as much as I love that idea, I don’t think that’s a part of my life plan at the moment.”
“Please tell me that you’re not one of those old people who thinks social media is stupid.” Katie hops down when the bell for the door dings. “You can make, like, millions of dollars a year if people like your content.”
“First of all, I’m not old, and second, is that really true?”
“Uh, yeah,” Tony tells me as Katie starts to take the order from the couple who just walked in. “Our cousin Micky makes bank every month doing nothing but making videos of himself playing video games. And we have another friend who just posts pictures of herself holding products, and she is raking in the dough.”
“I obviously chose the wrong line of work,” I mumble under my breath as I grab the dustpan and Tony starts up the espresso maker. Once I’m done dumping the contents of the pan into the trash and washing my hands, I go to stand next to Tony and listen carefully as he walks me through the steps for the drink he’s making.
In two days I will be on my own from early afternoon until Tony and Katie get out of school, so I need to learn how to run the espresso machine, and unlike the register, it’s not something I’ve done before. After watching him make two somewhat complicated drinks, I take them over to Katie, and she hands them to the man and woman, then waves them off as they leave the store. One thing can be said about both kids: they do know what they are doing and are pretty professional.
“So if you don’t dance, what can you do?” Katie asks me, taking the tip money out of the jar so that she can count it out.
“What can I do?”
“Yeah, like, what are you good at, what are you into? Can you sing?”
“No.”
“Tell jokes?”
“No.”
“Transform yourself into a goddess with makeup?” She rolls her head around on her shoulders while planting her hands on her hips like she’s annoyed with me.
“Again, no. I like to read.” I shrug.
“You could review books,” she suggests.
“What?”
“You know, if you wanted to make a social media account, you could do one where you review books.”
“No one wants to watch that.” I shake my head.
“Apparently they do,” Tony says, handing me his phone. “Just tap the screen to press play.” I do, and a pretty blonde appears, holding a familiar-looking book; then for about a minute she raves about it, talks about her favorite scene, and gushes over the author. “That video got over a million views. She is for sure making money off of it.”
