Chapter 24: Problems

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"Cassie?"

I come out of my sleep state and shoot up from my slouched position against the counter, looking up at Aaron. I can't believe I fell asleep.

"Brewer?" I mumble sleepily, reaching up to rub the sleep out of my eyes as I stretch, my back cracking. "What are you doing here?"

It's then that I notice the girl standing beside him, both of her arms wrapped around one of his, and I remember what I saw happen in that alley.

My eyebrows furrow as I look between the both of them, confusion and hurt filtering through my chest.

"Yeah, hi," the blonde says, fake niceness evident all throughout her sentence. "I want a caramel latte, three teaspoons almond milk, two teaspoons of sugar, no whipped cream, thanks."

Wait. I know that tone. And I've seen this girl befre. Fuck, what's her name? Christy? No. Misty? That's not it. Amanda? N––

Fuck no. "Brittany?" I say, eyes wide with shock. This is the girl that threatened me to stay away from Aaron when he's so obviously wrapped up in her to even look at me twice.

Her smile grows, but not in a nice way, in an 'I want to kill you but we're in public' type of way. Really creepy. "It's Tiffany."

Well, shit. "Oh, yeah, that's right." I look between Aaron and Britt––I mean, Tiffany, trying to hide my true emotions. "Are you two, um––"

"Together?" Tiffany cuts me off. "Yep. Me and my honey boo bear are so happy being together, and he decided to take me out on a date."

A date? Wow, didn't think he had it in him.

"Honey boo bear?" I ask him. Aaron avoids my eyes looking very uncomfortable and I fight the urge to leap over the counter and knee him in the balls.

"Cass?" A voice coming from behind me draws my attention, and I turn to see Ricardo walking towards me, his eyes on Tiffany and Aaron.

An idea sparks in my mind, and I, of course, immediately put it into action. "Ricky!" I squeal as he comes to stand next to me, shooting me a weird look. I pout. "I can't believe you left me here all by myself...sweetie poo."

His eyebrows fly into his hairline, and the look he gives me turns even weirder.

I try to convey my desperation through my eyes, pleading with him to go along with it, keeping the smile on my face.

"I'm sorry...babe," he says. I catch his slight flinch and I stifle a laugh. "I just had some work to do." He turns to face Aaron, holding a hand out. "I'm Ricardo." It's obvious Ricky recognizes Aaron from the alley and is smart enough to guess that he's the reason I asked to stay in the coffee shop, because his face is hard and gruff sounding, and he looks like he is completely fine with the idea of committing an act of murder.

"Aaron. This is Tiffany." He motions to Tiffany, who bats her eyelashes at Ricky and holds out a hand.

I roll my eyes. Her––I can't believe I'm saying this––boyfriend is standing right next to her as she openly flirts with another guy.

And Aaron doesn't seem to be bothered by it. If anything, he seems more bothered by the fact that Ricky is my significant other. Which I find to be weird considering, you know, his girlfriend is right next to him.

"Babe," Ricky says, turning to me. "Isn't it about time I got you home?"

I nod. "Thanks, that'd be great."

He smiles at me. "Let me go grab my keys and then we can go."

I nod and he walks off, and Tiffany walks off to find a table, and suddenly it's just me and Aaron, standing on opposite sides of the counter, alone, drowning in the extremely awkward silence.

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