I want You Deeper

EPILOGUE

“Everyone, I want you to meet someone!”

The noise level in the cafe gradually dropped as everyone turned to look at Emily. She was looking toward the door, where Jeremy stood. He’d just entered.

Emily smiled at him before continuing. “This is my brother, Jeremy Owens. He’s part owner of this coffee shop. The new sign is all him. And his girlfriend came up with the latte art you see.”

Alyssa, who had just slid through the door behind him, came up to stand next to him. Not surprisingly, she blushed and averted her gaze toward the floor as everyone turned to look at them.

“Thanks!” Jeremy called out to everyone.

Thankfully, they all seemed to get the message. They turned back around to face the front, letting Jeremy and Alyssa take their places at the end of the line.

Alyssa leaned over to speak where only he could hear. “This is weird.”

“What?” Jeremy looked around, trying to figure out what might be weird about it.

As always, the coffee shop was packed with customers, although it had calmed down a little since the initial rush of interest. But Technologie Cafe was consistently hitting sales figures they could only have dreamed about a few weeks ago, and they were not only getting great reviews, but people were posting extremely positive things about them on social media.

“Seeing someone else doing my old job,” she answered.

He followed her gaze to the two employees working with his sister behind the counter. It was an adjustment, seeing strangers where Alyssa used to stand, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Do you miss it?” Jeremy asked.

Alyssa turned and smiled at him. “How could I? I was the one who opened the cafe today.”

Yes, there was that-something that would change once she moved into her apartment in a couple of weeks. Alyssa had signed a lease for a new apartment with the oddest person he could think of-Brooke Alexander. The woman who had once been her employee was now her roommate.

After walking out of the office that day, Brooke and Alyssa had begun having lunch together. They’d formed a bond that had superseded anything they’d had before. Part of growing and becoming more assertive, Alyssa told him, was forgiving TravTech and everyone associated with it. She was grateful for them. If Brooke’s boyfriend hadn’t fired her, Alyssa might never have found the courage to start her own company.NôvelDrama.Org: text © owner.

Now that she was moving out, Emily would have to start handling opening procedures herself. No big deal-after all, she’d done that for more than two years before Alyssa started helping out. But Alyssa was spending as much time with Emily as possible before she moved out.

“Even if you wanted to help out back there, you wouldn’t have time,”

Jeremy commented. “That’s a good thing.”

The line moved forward. Jeremy and Alyssa moved with it.

“True. It’s funny. All this time, I’ve been waiting for the day my business would get off the ground, but now that it’s moving forward, I’m feeling nostalgic. For something that hasn’t even ended yet. That’s what’s weird.”

He nodded. He could see that. He certainly had experience with missing the way things had been just days earlier. After his parents’ death, he’d wanted nothing more than to just go back. But what he’d learned since was that things happened. Sometimes they were unexpected, although not always disastrous.

Finally, they arrived at the front of the line, where Emily was all smiles behind her register. “You’re customers now!”

Alyssa looped her arm through Jeremy’s, moving closer to him. “You don’t know how much I want to come around that counter and start working.”

“But she has a very important proposal to prepare,” Jeremy finished for her. “And I have a state of the company teleconference. We both need as much caffeine as you can pack into one cup.”

“Just one extra shot for me.” Alyssa looked over at Jeremy, smiling. “The last thing I need is to be jittery.”

“Gotcha.” Emily grabbed two cups and wrote their orders on the side, then rang up the order. “I’m not going to charge you.”

Jeremy was already reaching for his wallet. “Nope. I’m going to pay. Don’t want to mess up your numbers. Besides, business is good for me, Alyssa landed a big client earlier this week, and this cafe is on fire. It’s pretty exciting to spend my money at my favorite local coffee place.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we get it. You have it all. Do you have to rub it in?”

She was teasing, but he went with it. “You’re right.” He put his arm around Alyssa and pulled her next to him. “I do have it all.”