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“I’m sure they do,” Megan said, “which means I’m free to come in here anytime with my pro-T1 mindset.”

Vanessa laughed. Meanwhile, another thought was racing through her mind.

She’s still holding my hand…

“So, what do you do for a living?” Vanessa asked her.

“Oh my God, my job is too boring to talk about!” Megan replied. “But since you asked, I work for BeachSoft. I’m their director of mobile app development.”

“Sounds impressive, especially since you’re, like, really young.”

“I’m twenty-six and, yeah, I’m the youngest executive in the company but I think that’s because my boss also knows that the original Terminator is vastly superior to the second Terminator.”

“Whatever!” Vanessa said, breaking into another fit of laughter. She thought it was ridiculous how much she was enjoying this. Considering all the problems she was facing with keeping La Vida Mocha open, coupled with the frustrations of dealing with the federal government in the hopes of securing some kind of financial assistance, Vanessa hadn’t been much for socializing or making small talk lately.

Christ, am I this lonely?

But loneliness wasn’t the issue here, Vanessa knew. This was something else. Something hardly worth thinking about because she had no time for such things, despite what her heart was saying.

“Anyway, are you from here?”

Megan shook her head.

“La Jolla, originally. Then I went to New York for college. I probably would have stayed there after graduating but then BeachSoft recruited me and so I returned. They’re in Vista and since I’ve always loved Carlsbad, I decided to buy a place here. You?”

“L.A.,” Vanessa told her. “Then Oceanside after college. Did the corporate thing for a while with a side gig as a personal trainer. I also did some extra moonlighting as a barista just so I could learn the business. Then I settled here in Carlsbad and eventually decided I wanted to open this place, which I did in January.”

Megan smiled. “This is awesome! We’ve only known each other for ten minutes and yet we’ve already caught up on each other’s lives.”

She looked like she was about to add more when her cellphone chirped. She held up a finger, instructing Vanessa to wait, and looked at the display. Vanessa saw a frown form on her face as Megan read what was obviously a text message.

“Everything okay?” Vanessa ventured.

“My ex,” Megan answered. “For some reason, she apparently just has to see me now.” She typed out a reply which almost instantly garnered a reply back. Then Megan’s eyes got hard. She looked up from her phone and seemed to come to a decision. She released Vanessa’s hand. Vanessa missed it instantly.

“Figures she’d ruin a perfectly good time I was having,” Megan joked, standing and picking up her leather messenger bag.

“I just hope everything is okay,” Vanessa said. She stood also. It was crazy how disappointed she felt. And maybe a little jealous.

I just met her.

But the instant the connection between their hands had been broken her spirit dropped a few notches.

“I’m sure it is,” Megan said. “In fact, I’m sure it’s something stupid like, ‘Oh, I think I left my favorite bra under the bed.’”

The two women headed toward the door. Once there, Megan turned to face Vanessa and Vanessa was delighted to see an authentic smile on Megan’s face.

“Are you opening tomorrow?” Megan asked.

“Of course. At eight.”

“Cool. I am making it my mission to support a certain local business one Americano at a time.”

Vanessa smiled. Megan was definitely flirting.

“And a certain local business would certainly appreciate it. Of course, if La Vida Mocha has to survive on one Americano at a time, I may have to start charging pandemic prices. I’m thinking five-thousand bucks for a small, maybe twelve-thousand for a large.”

Megan narrowed her eyes. “Damn! I gotta remortgage my condo just for coffee now?”