The Space Between Us Read online

  Vic didn’t protest or try to pretend he didn’t know who I meant. “Why would I ask her out?”

  “Because she’s totally into you and you like her, too.” That was the truth. I never saw Vic laugh so much as when Elaine was sitting in the waiting room at the shop. “She’s pretty, she’s smart, she’s not a psycho.”

  Silence.

  Then, “Fine.”

  “Fine,” I said, as if that was that, even though I thought I was getting the worse end of the deal. Not that Vic had any idea of why or how complicated the situation really was. But I didn’t want him worrying about me anymore, and I didn’t want him sitting around the house night after night doing nothing but watching TV.

  Vic deserved a life, too.

  So I went to the dance with Chance, and I watched his brother make out with Becka on the dance floor, and some part of me died inside because until that moment I hadn’t known or wanted to admit I loved just one of the brothers Murphy, and it wasn’t the one I was there with.

  Chapter 13

  Forget love making the world go round, it’s all about the sugar and the caffeine, baby. We had three different specialty drinks that changed every week, along with the normal coffees, and fresh-baked desserts that had arrived that morning, including rich fudge brownies with inch-thick icing, chocolate muffins, and a truly stellar apple-crumb muffin that liked to call my name.

  And then…there was Meredith.

  I’d been half hoping she wouldn’t come in that day. Worried that she wouldn’t. I shouldn’t have been concerned. She breezed in the way she always did, with a smile for everyone and an extra special one for me.

  “What’s good today? Other than your pretty self?”

  In the past I’d blown off her flirting as fake, given it back to her in a way she couldn’t construe as anything but a joke. Today I didn’t quite have it in me. “We have the peppermint mocha lattes, early this year. Back by popular demand. They’re good.”

  “Sugar-free?”

  “Sure.” I gestured at the menu board, though of course she’d been in dozens of times and probably could’ve recited the items on it as well as I could. “The caramel macchiato’s good, too. But we don’t have that in sugar-free—we ran out of the syrup. Sorry.”

  “I’ll take a peppermint, then.” She leaned over the counter. “And come see me when it’s ready.”

  My boss could be ten kinds of a cranky bitch, but today Joy was in the back placing stock orders, or maybe plotting new ways to make life miserable. I mixed up Meredith’s latte the way she liked it, adding an extra pump of syrup without charging her because I liked to do that for my favorites even when they didn’t know about it.

  She’d taken her usual seat between the front window and the self-serve coffee station, and she was staring out the glass when I put the cup down in front of her. Her smile took a few seconds to follow her eyes. She wrapped her hands around the cup with a sigh. “Mmmm.”

  “Taste it. Make sure it’s okay.”

  “I’m sure it’s great.” She sipped anyway, saying “mmmm” again, this time with a low, breathy sound, almost like a moan.

  I paused in refilling the napkin canister to look at her. The Morningstar Mocha had emptied, though the evening rush meant that would change soon enough. Meredith made eyes at me over the rim of her mug.

  “Sit down with me, Tesla.”

  I gave a quick glance around first. I shrugged and pushed the napkin holder back into place. “I can’t.”

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “I’m listening.” I bent to pull open the cupboard to check for more packets of sweetener. “But I have to work, too.”

  “Have you thought any more about what I asked you?”

  The bell over the front door jangled and Carlos came in, with a nod for me and a wink for Meredith before he slid into his favorite seat. Sometimes watching the customers in here was like overseeing an elaborate ballet—this one liked this seat and was out of it by a certain hour so another could come in. Woe to the person who overstayed his time or messed up the seating chart. Carlos preferred the table closer to the right front window, because it was near an outlet for his computer and also, strangely (so he said) didn’t pick up the internet as well. Less temptation to distract him.

  I, on the other hand, could’ve used a distraction from this conversation. “Carlos, you need anything?”

  “Gonna need a bottomless in a few. But I can grab a mug for myself.”

  Only if Joy wasn’t there to see him. She had some lame rule about customers not helping themselves to mugs, even the regulars and even though, like the seats, they all tended to use their favorites from the purposefully mismatched collection. Some of them even brought in mugs to donate.

  “Carlos, you love the bottomless,” Meredith called over to him, and they both laughed. To me she said, “Sit for just a minute.”

  I shook my head. “I should get behind the counter.”

  “Tesla. We have to talk about this.”

  “Not here,” I told her.

  “Fine.” She sat back in her seat. “But sometime. I’m not going to let this fuck up our friendship.”

  “Like fucking your husband wouldn’t?” I whispered fiercely.

  She didn’t pull away, didn’t scowl, didn’t frown. Her brows didn’t even knit on that perfect forehead. “Not if I asked you to, it wouldn’t.”

  “And you’re asking me to.”

  “I’m inviting you to, yes.” She smiled, one brow lifting just so. “I don’t ask just anyone.”

  Something twisted and jerked in the vicinity of my heart. “You ask a lot of women?”

  Now she appeared concerned, and reached for my hand. I turned my body so that even if Carlos looked up, he wouldn’t necessarily see us holding hands like moony high school sweethearts. I didn’t pull away, though.

  “No. You’re the first.”

  Her gaze flicked behind me. I heard the sound of sneakers squeaking on the tile floor—Joy’s distinctive tread, and then the long-suffering sigh that told me she was gearing up to complain about something. I put away the extra sweetener and napkins so she couldn’t complain about me, and crumpled up the paper wrapping from the containers I’d emptied the supplies from.

  “I’ve thought about it,” I said.

  Meredith smiled and settled back in her seat. “And?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “You could just come and meet him. He’ll like you, Tesla.” She paused. “And I know you’ll like him.”

  I sighed. “He knows about this?”

  “Of course he knows. C’mon. Come out to dinner with us tonight. We’ll talk about it.”

  I didn’t say no.

  Chapter 14

  “You should get yourself one. Then you don’t have to drive Cap’s.” Vic jerked his chin toward the window and the parking lot beyond, where I’d parked the Mustang.

  I shrugged. “Meh. The Contour has to do it for me for a while. Unless you’ll give me a good trade-in....”

  He laughed. Vic had sold me the car originally. “On that piece of—”

  “Uh-huh. See how far friendship gets me? Nowheresville, man.” I shook my head in mock sorrow and tossed him the keys to Cap’s car. “What was wrong with it?”

  Vic shrugged, pocketing them. “Don’t know. Cap tightened some things. Changed your oil and stuff, too. Why do you wait so long for that?”

  I fluttered my eyelashes and put my hands beneath my chin to look winsome. “Cuz I don’t have a big stwong man to do it for me?”

  Vic made a face. “You have your brother. And me. Hey, listen, I have to run some errands. Cap’s coming in, but he’s late. Can you hang until he gets here?”

  I’d done my share of shifts at the garage, but waiting on my brother could take forever. “Actually, I have plans. How late is he?”

  Vic looked at the clock. “Ten minutes. He should be here soon. I think I pulled him away from a project or something.”

  “Tha