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I stepped up to the counter. A girl stepped out from a door in the back and approached, smiling such a sweet smile I had to do a doubletake. I was fairly certain I had never seen someone so pretty in my whole life. She was a slim little thing with straight, caramel-brown hair and wide brown eyes. She wasn’t wearing a speck of makeup and didn’t need to.
The girl looked up at me, making friendly eye contact, seeming not to notice the effect she’d had upon me. “Hi,” she said, in a sweet little voice. “It’s a nice afternoon, isn’t it? What can I get you, sir?”
I gazed at her, enchanted by her, unable to look away and scan the menu. I wanted to keep her talking, keep her attention upon me. “What’s with the name of this place?”
She laughed and leaned her elbows on the counter. I found myself leaning in, too. “The owner used to sell coffee sodas at fairs, from a cart. They were so popular she was able to open up this shop. The name, Effervesce, means little bubbles, like a fizz or soda carbonation.”
“Did you say coffee soda?”
“Yep.”
“What in the world is a coffee soda?”
I half-expected the girl to get bored of my questions, but she showed no sign of it. “It’s exactly what it sounds like, coffee, but carbonated. Any coffee you want can be made into a coffee soda. Mocha, espresso, latte… We can customize it any way you want, and if you’re looking to turn your coffee break into dessert time, we can add a scoop of ice cream.”
I smiled at her. She sounded so enthusiastic about something that shehadto say. I could almost have believed that this was all her idea, except she didn’t look old enough to own… anything, really. “Well, I feel like this is a phenomenon I can’t miss. I’ll have two coffee sodas. Make one a mocha and—”
From nowhere, another girl appeared, wearing an apron with a pattern of foaming bubbles on it. She was also pretty, though in a more conventional way, with plenty of makeup used to carve her features into society’s beauty standard. “A mocha,” she gushed, “and what else?”
Ah, dammit.
The cute girl clearly had no idea who I was, but this second one did. It was a shame, since I had been enjoying being an ordinary guy.
I looked back at the cute girl. “For the second one, I trust you to make me something astounding.”
She blushed, a cute flush of pink coloring her cheeks and the tops of her ears. “Are you sure you don’t want to pick something yourself?”
“I trust you,” I said.
She nodded and rang me up. I paid with a handful of bills and got change back just as Brian returned from the bathroom.
“What’s your name, so I can call you when these are ready?”
Brian answered for me. “Brian.”
The girl flicked him an interesting look, and that amused me. She didn’t know who I was, but the name Brian seemed to ring a bell for her. Maybe she wanted to be a lawyer or something and therefore knew of him that way.
After a moment, she just nodded. “Okay, I’ll have those ready for you real quickly.”
“Don’t rush on our account,” Brian said, chuckling a little. He elbowed me. “You’ll spoil him more than he already is.”
The girl laughed and turned away.
The other girl grabbed her shoulder and spoke in a low voice, clearly trying not to be overheard as Brian and I moved off to a table. “Let me make his drink.”
Brian nudged me and tilted his head toward the girls, asking if I had heard. I nodded a bit and kept listening, intrigued by what seemed to be unfolding drama.
The first girl nibbled on her lip. “He asked me to do it, Suzie.”
“You don’t even know who he is!” Suzie blurted out, her voice a bit too loud to have a hope of being secretive. “Or do you and you’re just trying to play coy with him?”
The girl blinked. I wished I knew her name, but she had no name tag and it would have been too intrusive and sudden to ask. “Play coy? What? Who is he?”
“You’re kidding!” Suzie tugged the cute girl in even closer and spoke in her ear. I strained to hear more. “That’s Carter Bryant, the billionaire! Wow, holy shit, I can’t believe you had no idea who he is. Are you seriously that sheltered?”
The cute girl flushed, color rising to her cheeks. She moved away from Suzie and moved over to the counter. I silently rooted her on, sensing that she’d had enough and was reaching the point where she lost patience. “Well, no matter who he is, he’s a customer. And he asked me to make his drink, so I’m going to.”
Brian gave me a little wink and leaned in. He murmured, just a breath of air, “It looks like you’ve got yourself a fan.”