Chapter 2

Sapphire Watterson

Not bad, but it would be perfect if you removed “the girl” and called her “babe.” I placed my hands over her lips, muttering a light apology to my boss as I pulled her away, giving her a good spanking as she yelled in a muffled voice.

“Ouch! What was that for?!” she cried when I freed her from silence, and I faked a glare at her, hissing. 

“You need to stop flirting with my boss, Lan…”

“Is he engaged?” she asked almost immediately, and I shook my head no.

“Is he already married?”

“Nope.”

“Does he have baby mamas?”

“Oh my goodness, no.” I didn’t know where she was going with all her questions.

“So he’s a single-ass man with no attachments except his job, which makes him look as hot as a freshly baked pizza, and you want me to keep off from the whole goody bag?” she asked, arching her brows at me like I was suddenly responsible for the world crisis.

“I mean, I could lose my job if he decides to take you seriously, and he breaks your heart.”

She pouted, her eyes welling up like she was going to burst into tears. “So you’re looking out for me, Saph.”

“Of course I am. You’re my sis, and Shawn may be hot and sexy as hell, but I’m going to break his bones if he tries to hurt you like anything. I’m trying to avoid doing that.”

“He is not going to do such a thing,” she said with defiant assurance.

“How do you know?”

“I can feel it.” 

I rolled my eyes, getting a headache at the back of my head as I reminded her of the same thing she said about Bowen, Killian, and every other guy who broke her heart.

I picked up my bags to get off work when my boss came around, his hands folded on his chest, exposing his toned muscles through the grey short-sleeved t-shirt he wore. He peered at me through his honey-colored eyes like he was trying to get me to confess a sin I hadn’t yet committed. He had an intense stare when he looked at one, but then it was beautiful, and I couldn’t blame Yolanda.

“I promise this is the last time I’ll waste the house coffee on a weasel,” I made a promise anyway.

“You know it’s not about the coffee,” he said, and I sighed. He was right. I could report the dude to him, and he’d handle it better than the asshat would imagine, except that I hate to be that girl who is the damsel in fucking distress. I opened my mouth to tell him this, to which he gave me some kind of look that suggested it wasn’t enough of an excuse.

“Did you check our last review on the coffee blog page?” he asked, holding out his phone for me. Coffee blog made recommendations for first-timers, visitors to New York City, and everyone else if they wanted to have a delicious cup of coffee. And Coffee House had always ranked number one in all this, unfortunately… Since the past week, we’ve been at number 4 and 5, which I think is unfair. Just because a person was defending herself from a lot of brats didn’t mean we didn’t make nice coffee. Anonymous coffee bloggers could do a far better job.

I looked at the ranking for today; we were at number 10. A fucking 10. The headline said, “To have a delicious cup of tea alongside a bath if you wished the weather was a little too cold.” The ridiculous post had a picture of me smirking while I poured the drink on the bald man. I zoomed in closer, proud of the fact that I didn’t look too terrible.

“This is unfair. We make the best coffee,” I whined, and the boss looked at me with a similar expression.

“It wouldn’t be that unfair if we tried to be decent with our customers,” he said gently so it wouldn’t seem like he was trying to blame me for our business loss. 

Like it or not, this was a loss because there were people who relied on that blog for recommendations. I remember one girl with a pixie haircut and sassy eyebrow makeup telling her friend that our Coffee House was legit before I even began working with her. But right now, I messed it up, and that meant that I needed to fix this. The boss hadn’t given me any strikes yet. Most times, I believe he and Amelia will make a great couple, although I also believe he won’t survive in the world since most people would like to ride on his kindness.

I don’t want to be like most people, so I mustered a good apologetic expression as I said, “I’m sorry, Boss.” He had insisted we call him Boss instead of Sir. Not that he was being proud or anything, but Sir seemed so formal. He didn’t appreciate formalities a lot. 

“I have an idea on how to get us back to our top spot,” I added. I don’t know if I had fucked it all up again because he stared at me like I just said I grew a literal greenhorn. “Just give me one chance, and I swear, I’ll make it up to you,” I begged.

Boss Shawn. Shawn was his name, and most times, we get so used to calling him Boss that we forget his actual name. However, he nodded, opening his mouth to speak. I could smell the questions all over his expression. What are you going to do? How do you plan to do it? Etc., etc.…

The truth is, I didn’t know how I was going to go about this, but I was determined not to let my boss down, and that meant I was going to do the best I could. I flashed him a hopeful, bright smile. “Please trust me this once,” I pleaded again, and he nodded positively.

“Fine. This once. I hope you do what you can do, Sapphire. I trust you,” he said, and I smiled widely again. I thought the elastics in my mouth would lose their hold.

“Thank you so much!” I replied gleefully.

“One more thing, Sapphire,” the boss hardly called us by any short name or pseudonym, and it was perfectly fine, of course, seeing that he wasn’t my friend, although he was friendly with me. There was a difference, by the way, and I wasn’t about to launch into its reason.

“Yes, Boss,” I answered, watching his expression morph into uneasiness.

“Please tell your girl, Yolanda, to quit giving me looks…” he scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, she just winked at me and blew me a kiss.” He looked down, and his cheeks had turned so red that if I hadn’t been busy rolling my eyes at Lan, I probably would have laughed at how cute he was.

“I’m so sorry…oh my God, I had no idea she’s been a sneaky pest.”

He chuckled, still rubbing the nape of his neck. “She isn’t exactly a pest…” he proceeded to say, and I snorted mildly.

“You’re being too nice.” 

He laughed softly, and even though I wanted to spank some sense into Lan’s head, I hated that I also thought I couldn’t blame her for having a crush on this man.