The Four Sisters

Chapter 13

   Winter was a busy time for the coffee shop as they had a whole new selection of winter and holiday themed drinks. Spencer helped design them, and a new cup with a little drawing of a winter snow scene that Erica drew as she was a talented artist. 

   Spencer would really miss Erica when she went to her new job. Spencer realized as she'd grown rather attached to the hilarious and intelligent Erica, and the bold and stunning Mandy. She felt like a different person when she was with them. She talked more freely, and she liked how much they had in common because they were around the same age and had similar experiences.

  "I promise I'll come and see you all the time!" Erica kept promising as Mandy would tease her about the new job Erica got at a local ad agency, but they were happy for her as it came with health insurance and a much higher salary. She'd impressed her new bosses with her art skills, and the promotions she'd designed at the Java Bean.

  "I'll just really miss this," Spencer said as she and Erica opened up one cold December morning; both of them shivering as they turned on the heat and all the ovens to get started. 

 "I will too," Erica smiled. "Well, I'll miss you, but I won't miss these hours! Four in the morning! Did I see you get out a car by the way? A black one?"

  "Oh, that's Henry's car," Spencer said, and she felt her cheeks warm at the memory. "I was talking to him last night when we were hanging out and pretending to help Victoria put up the tree, but really we were just drinking a lot and goofing around. I told him about my schedule too, and he was horrified that I walk to work that early in the morning by myself. He insisted on giving me a ride."

  "He slept over?" Erica's eyebrows were up.

  "Yes, but on the couch," Spencer said as she got the cranberries out of the freezer.

  Erica rolled her eyes. "Christ, you two just need to get it over with. You've been stringing him along for so long!"

  "I have not!" Spencer objected with a laugh and threw a frozen cranberry at her friend and co-worker. "How dare you! We are friends."

  "Friends who look at each other with disgusting longing all the time," Erica said with a smirk. "He was here yesterday, and he was staring at you while you stared at him. It was so sad. I was about to turn into Mandy and suggest you go into the freezer or something. Remember her story about that guy she banged in there?"

  "She did not do that," Spencer said; ignoring the other part of Erica's accusation. 

  "Probably not," Erica said as she started to grease all the pans. "So you're really not going to go for it? I don't see why not. He doesn't have to be the love of your life to have some fun."

  Spencer still didn't know what she was going to do about Henry. They had been spending a lot of time together since Thanksgiving. He would come into the Java Bean, and he'd sit at the bar and flirt with her. He would come to dinner almost every night at their house. He said it was because his roommates were away skiing, and his house was empty, but Spencer wondered. 

  He would buy them groceries in thanks for the dinners, and he and Spencer ended up making dinner together almost every night of the week that he wasn't working. They would joke around and find new recipes to try. Then they started going to the grocery store together to buy all the ingredients for their new, strange recipes. The always had a lot of fun searching for the obscurest of spices.

  The previous night they made a beautiful home-made pizza. It was just the two of them in the house; talking the entire time about his future plans for his band and his idea that he might get into radio. He told her about his internship at the local radio station, and how he had to balance it with his job at the grocery store. He was hoping the station offered him a full time gig once his internship was over, but he knew jobs in radio were few and far between.