Sequins and Shots - Book Three of the Café Latte Trilogy

Part Three: Chapter 2

My update on a specific day thing is devolving into 'update whenever you remember because work is intense rn'

ENJOY

Love, Cam

<3

Part Three

Chapter Two

I didn't notice something had changed until it was too late. I'd been thinking more and more about work, and whether or not I was going to stay there. Lately, my body had been getting tired faster. My doctor said it was probably chronic fatigue syndrome, and that there wasn't much I could do about it but accept it and rest.

"Oi," Ross' voice interrupted my thoughts, and I felt a napkin hit my face.

"What?" I asked irritably, putting the napkin on the table.

Ross was eyeing me from under a furrowed brow, and he scoffed. "Honestly, the pair of you, it's like you're half a world away."

I looked to Edward, who was sat next to me, rolling his eyes as he scrolled through his phone. "Yeah, yeah, whiny arse."

"What's up?" I asked, trying to distract Ross before he retorted and they started a bickering match in the middle of the café. If there was two people in the entire world that could start a bickering match over a third person being distracted, it was Ross and Edward.

"Fruits, party tonight," he said, and I resisted the urge to follow suit and roll my eyes. "Should I pick you up at ten?"

I snorted. "Dude, you couldn't pay me to go out tonight. I'm tired."

"You're always tired," Ross muttered irritably, and I felt a stab of anger in my chest. It wasn't his fault. I hadn't brought up my doctor's visit. Or talked about it. With anyone, really. But I still felt angry, because he knew I was touchy over being anything less than in peak physical condition. "Ed?" he asked.

Edward, once again engrossed in his phone, looked up and said, "Hm?"

"Fruits tonight, Harper's bailing on me," he said. "You're coming, right?"

"How can I have bailed when we didn't have any plans?" I asked in annoyance, folding my arms across my chest.

Edward laughed at my expression. "Ross, stop being a tit to everyone just cause you had a stressful day and want to blow off steam. I can't go tonight, I've got a date."

Ross huffed a sigh. "So? Reschedule. It's just a date, you can find someone to bang at Fruits."

"No, it's a proper date," Edward replied, flicking through his phone screen. "I'm taking someone out for dinner."

Ross and I exchanged a glance, our mini-argument forgotten. "No offence, Ed," Ross said, with a tone of voice that indicated he was about to be rather offensive. "But I have literally never known you take someone out to dinner. Even with Harper you basically just jumped each other in a bedroom."

"We were nineteen!" Edward protested, and then acknowledged. "Okay, and we were twenty-four, whatever."

"Plus, let's be real," I added. "Neither of us needed to get to know each other by that point."

"Who's the dude?" Ross asked, and then looked up in horror. "Oh, GOD. This isn't another Adrian, is it? Is that why you're going to dinner? To be sophisticated?"

Edward eyed him with exasperation. "Says the man who imports his coffee beans from a tiny place in Columbia so his office coffee tastes good."

"That's not sophisticated, that's wanky," I interjected, sipping my iced tea.