Secondhand Bride (The Almost Wives Club Book 2) by Warren Nancy

Author:Warren, Nancy [Warren, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Ambleside Publishing
Published: 2015-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

LA SCALA WAS , AS SHE’D WARNED HIM, a lot fancier in name than in reality. He liked that. She walked in ahead of him and he followed more slowly. She raised a hand in greeting to the three baristas currently behind the counter and then disappeared through a side door.

He glanced around the coffee shop. It was like a million other coffee shops and yet had its own personality. There were posters on the wall for various Italian operas, and some decorator had drawn fake pillars and opera scenes on the walls, but other than that, the tables and chairs were pretty standard coffee-shop fare. There were half a dozen faux-leather club chairs, all of them filled. The tables were sparsely populated with people reading newspapers, doing God knows what on iPads , studying, chitchatting, or, like him, working alone on laptops.

He chose the closest empty table he could find which put him basically dead center in the middle of the coffee shop. It would be the least quiet spot in the place, but then, if he’d wanted quiet, he could have stayed in the pool house.

Having chosen his table, he unpacked his bag, set his notebook and one of his favorite pens out, and then set up his laptop. He removed his jacket and hung it over the chair back and then approached the counter. By this time, Ashley was out front, a dark green apron with the words La Scala written in script across the chest. “What can I get you?” she asked.

“I will have a Grande café latte, please.”

She flashed him a quick smile. “I love it when my first customer of the day has an easy order.” She grabbed a big white pottery mug and began doing whatever it was that baristas did. He moved to the other side of the machine, watching her swift efficiency with a machine so complicated it looked as though it could launch a space mission. When she handed him his drink he noticed the latte art in the foam. “Is that a lightning bolt?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Huh, I usually get a heart.”

She rolled her gaze, “so obvious.”

When he tried to pay, she waved him away. “One of my only perks is that I can give out free coffees to my friends.”

“Thanks,” he said. When she turned to serve the next customer he discreetly stuffed a ten-dollar bill into the tip jar.

He took his lightning bolt coffee back to his table and settled down. He opened his computer and pulled up the file for his current script. He sipped his coffee while he went over the last scene. It didn’t spring to life. The problem was the woman. “It’s always a woman,” he muttered to himself, not even realizing he’d spoken aloud until an old man at the table beside him glanced up from his crossword. “You said it.”

While he pretended to work, he sipped his coffee and glanced around, even though he’d promised not to stare at Ashley while she was working.

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