Page 41 of Banter & Blushes #1

TIFFANY

C olt in makeup, acting for a camera. I try not to laugh. That’s even more shocking than seeing him.

I’ve googled him a time or two and heard he was on tour with The Rolling Rocks, but I didn’t know he had his own song released. And I definitely didn’t know he used the stage name Stallion instead of Harrison.

What’s wrong with Colt Harrison? Literally nothing, if you ask me.

“Earth to Tiff!” Genesis waves her hand in my face.

I lean back and huff. Then I continue opening ingredients for taco toppings before they break for dinner and bombard us.

“Hello?”

“What?” I slam the refrigerator door and lean against it. I liked it better when she was whistling or singing and in her own little world.

“Girrrl, don’t bite my head off.”

“I’m sorry.” I sigh. “It’s been an odd day.”

“Not to be nosy, but it’s killing me to know how Colt Stallion is your ex.”

I shake my head and laugh. “Colt Stallion isn’t my ex.”

“Uh, it sounds like it to me.” She grins as she stares out the window opening.

We can barely see some of the filming from here since they’re by the water.

Every now and again, they get shots of Colt walking down the shore and we can see some of it.

Probably a good thing I can’t watch it all and get distracted.

“Colt Harrison is my ex. ”

“Huh?”

I plop down on the stool I use when doing tedious tasks like stirring fudge or balancing our books for the day.

“That’s his real name. We went to high school together.”

“And . . .”

“And what?”

“You’re holding back on me, Tiff.”

Genesis hoists herself onto the counter across from me. I cringe a little, knowing I’ll have to sanitize it before we serve people, but let it go for now. I may as well fill her in on our past or she’ll never let it go.

“Colt and I grew up together and were always friends. Then, during the holidays our senior year, he kissed me as a joke.”

“A joke?”

“Yeah.” I shrug. “One of his close friends was dating my friend and we would all get together over the Christmas break and play games or watch movies. She lived on an apple farm, so her mom decorated with all this greenery, including mistletoe her dad cut from a tree.”

“How very Sweet Magnolias .”

I roll my eyes.

“Sorry, I promise to listen and not comment.” Genesis mimes zipping her lips.

“Anyway, I had ridden with Brooke and her boyfriend after cheer practice, so I didn’t have my car. Colt offered to drive me to it.” I fight a smile at the memory.

A few crew members walk toward us, and I pause the story. Genesis hops down from the counter. I glare at her until she grabs a rag and wipes down where she was sitting.

“What do you need?” I ask with a smile.

They grab a few bags of cookies and ask for some waters. Genesis gets the waters and gives me an apologetic look. She helps me make sure they get all they need and finds a bag for them to carry all the extra waters. I wait until they’re well out of earshot to continue my story.

“Somehow I got a piece of mistletoe hung in my ponytail. He noticed it when I turned on the truck light to find my cheer bag. He told me I had something in my hair and reached to get it out. Then he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.”

No longer able to fight it, I smile at reliving our first kiss.

“He pulled back and apologized, then showed me the mistletoe and said he had to kiss me because of that.” I laugh. “I told him there was no need to be sorry, so he held up the twig and kissed me again.”

“Awwwww.” Genesis claps her hands. “That’s so Hallmarkishly adorable.”

“Stop.” I bury my face in my hands.

She pretends to zip her mouth again and, this time, throws away the imaginary key .

“After that night, we hung out more, and he kissed me again on New Year’s and then asked me on an actual date. We dated the rest of the year and throughout summer, then went our separate ways.”

“That’s it?” Her jaw drops.

“Pretty much. I had a scholarship for the culinary-arts program and to cheer at the JuCo here. He had aspirations of moving to Nashville. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of us to try and hold the other back. It was still new, so we parted as friends.”

“Tiff! You’re killing me.” Genesis twirls the end of her braid between her fingers, then swirls around to face me. “Did you not ever talk after that?”

“We texted occasionally and maybe ran into one another a time or two back home. But years passed. We didn’t cross paths or see one another and lost touch. He isn’t on social media, and I never heard of Colt Stallion until today.”

“Why isn’t a musician on social media? I thought that was marketing 101.”

“Only if you post the correct open hours.”

“Haha.” She rolls her eyes, and I laugh. “But seriously, why not?”

I shrug. “He was hesitant to sing in front of crowds, which makes having his own song all the more shocking.”

“He sounded amazing.”

“I know. You wouldn’t know it from his personality, but he gets nervous on stage.”

“Huh.” Genesis turns and stares out the window.

A few people with walkie-talkies stroll by, and a guy talks on his phone while smoking. Then the makeup woman steps in front of our window to get some chips and queso for her crew.

She smiles at us with a perfectly polished face. I can’t help but wonder what all she did to Colt. Maybe we’ll get to see him when they come eat.

After she’s across the parking lot and out of earshot, Genesis hops back on the counter and turns to me. “So what now?”

“We get to work. Starting with sanitizing the counter you’re sitting on again.” I stand and grab a container of Clorox wipes.

She sighs dramatically. “What about you and Colt?”

“There is no me and Colt. We dated maybe half a year, then moved on to adulthood.”

“Tiff, I’ve known you for years. I’ve seen you go on dates and have a few boyfriends for a bit. You never smiled the way you did when telling me that story.”

“That’s because we were young and it was spontaneous.”

I wipe the counter and wish I could Clorox my brain of the memories from that first kiss and all the ones that followed. The last thing I need is to swoon over a musician right before his big break. That wouldn’t help either of our careers.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you could use a little spontaneity in your life. ”

“That’s precisely why I hired you.”

“No, you hired me because you like me.”

“True.” I narrow my eyes at her. “And because your parents let me park this truck at a lot of prime locations rent-free.”

“Okay, so there’s that.”

“But you are the yin to my yang in business. I don’t have time for any yin-yang in other areas.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” Her tone is mischievous. She points a wet rag at me, slinging suds my way. I wipe my brow with the back of my hand.

“Sorry.” She swipes at my head, making it worse with her wet hands. “When’s the last time you truly let yourself like a guy?”

I cross my arms and scan through my last few dates. They’re further apart than I thought. “Maybe Joel?”

“That was over a year ago, and he stole from our cash register.”

“Well, if I’m honest, it was him.”

Genesis exhales and stares at the ceiling dramatically before finally helping me clean. “You need to have some fun.”

“I do have fun.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Work isn’t fun.”

“It is to me.” I glance around the food truck. “Making new recipes and feeding people and seeing them happy is fun.”

“For them.”

“And me.”

“You need to get back in the dating pool.”

“And you don’t?”

“I date all the time. In fact, I have a date tonight.”

I scrub the counter harder and resist asking any questions. Most women have a type. If Genesis has a type, it’s to date the polar opposite of whomever she dated before. That means she always circles back to the same two types, often the same two guys.

“It’s Jeremy.”

I stop cleaning and give her a look.

“Would it make you feel better if I’d said Roman?”

I shake my head.

“That’s why I don’t talk about my personal life.”

I cackle. She talks about everything and everyone, and everything about everyone, including herself.

Genesis pops my shoulder with the towel.

“Ouch.” I toss the wipe at her.

She grins and opens the freezer.

“No, ma’am.”

She turns around with a Popsicle in her mouth .

“That’s fine.”

She’s been known to start ice fights. I don’t have time to make her mop the floor. We’re on our first professional set and one step closer to promoting my catering.

If only I could control Genesis—and my thoughts about Colt.