Sequins and Shots - Book Three of the Café Latte Trilogy

Part One: Chapter 9

This is the last chapter of Part One! Part Two will begin next week - oooooooo! We've also officially made it past where I got to with both prior attempts at the final part of this trilogy, and I'm very pleased.

Love, Cam

<3

Chapter Nine

Edward

Harper was hiding something, and it wasn't even subtle.

He was cagey, and snappy, and we were arguing often. It was about the most ridiculous things; groceries, and whether or not to take a driving test, and Tom's very obvious coffee addiction. We'd be talking completely normally and the next thing I knew, we were arguing, and I didn't even really know how on earth we'd gotten from Point A to Point B.

When we weren't arguing, it was good. We laughed. We talked. We enjoyed our time together. We fucked. It was good, and yet there was this underlying problem that I knew he was hiding something from me, and I knew I was being annoying about it.

Harper had told me he was busy, and hadn't said with what, and I knew I'd spend the entire evening trying to guess what it was he was doing. Instead, I decided to spend some time with Mark, because I had been slightly neglecting my friendship with him due to my relationship, and that wasn't fair.

"Hey!" Mark greeted me with a massive smile that made me feel warmed from my heart. "I got you the gayest possible drink on the menu."

It was beautifully camp, neon pink with candyfloss on top of it and a big sparkly umbrella sticking out of it. "That is wonderful," I told him sincerely. "You are a good friend."

We clinked glasses, Mark having also ordered one of the cocktail abominations, and sipped what felt like pure sugar. "Jesus Christ," I stuck out my tongue. "That might actually be too gay for me."

"Will wonders never cease," he grinned, and then his grin faded a bit. "Ed, are you okay? You seem a bit off."

"No, I'm fine, just tired from work," I waved my hand. "God, speaking of - so Taz was serving this guy, right, and she's got this weird look on her face. So after he goes, I'm like 'what's up?' and she says 'I swear I know that guy but I honestly can't figure out where I know him from'. So for the next half hour we're basically serving drinks while our eyes are glued to this dude, trying to go through Taz's life to figure out how she knows him."

"I'm sure everyone who got their completely incorrect drinks thanked you," Mark teased.

"Half of the people in Reboot at two in the morning don't even know what they just ordered," I snickered. "At about half two, the guy comes back for another drink, and at this point Taz is so irritated by not knowing that she just asks him. Well, types on her phone to ask him, you know, it's way too loud in there for conversations."

Mark nodded.

I grinned, thinking of the experience. "And he takes her phone and types out something very carefully, as he's pretty hammered by then, and then hands the phone back. Taz goes bright red and immediately starts pouring drinks as though she never got involved in the conversation in the first place, and the guy goes away."

"What did he type?" Mark asked, intrigued.

My smile widened. "He had typed, with remarkable fluency for someone so drunk, 'Taz, we banged a year ago, I used to have red hair'."

Mark laughed uproariously. "Incredible. Poor Taz."

"She was so embarrassed," I cackled. "So now we're calling her Red Hair Taz and she hates it."