I want You Deeper

“Okay. We have a problem.”

“O Alyssa had spent the entire morning trying not to think

about Jeremy Owens…and failing miserably. They’d ended dinner with a game of Uno-a family favorite at the Owens house growing up-before Jeremy had finally left, citing the early bedtime the roomies needed if they were going to get up to open the store early.

The odd thing was, she’d slept straight through to her alarm. That hadn’t happened going as far back as she could remember. Maybe since college. She’d drifted off to sleep remembering the way she’d seen Jeremy looking at her while they were playing cards. And she’d woken up to the image of his face. It was an image she couldn’t seem to shake.

And now, here he was, zooming through the door just after the lunch crowd had dissipated. He was carrying his phone, holding it out in front of him like he was ready to display the screen to an audience.

“Problem?” Alyssa reached for her chai tea and braced herself for his approach. He didn’t stop on the other side of the counter, though. He came around and sidled up next to her. Close to her, so she could see the screen.

“The numbers. You guys didn’t tell me the numbers were so bad.”

Alyssa had a feeling she knew exactly what this was about. It was the reason she was helping his sister in the first place. Although Alyssa hadn’t seen the numbers herself, Emily had confided in her that the cafe was in big trouble.

And it was up to Alyssa and her marketing experience to bail them out. “Those numbers don’t reflect the increase in traffic we’ve seen recently.

This morning, we sold out of muffins-”

“Look at this.”

He leaned closer, pretty much guaranteeing she wouldn’t be able to focus on anything he had on the screen he was holding in front of her. And that was saying quite a bit, considering she loved spreadsheets and pie charts, which were exactly what he was showing her. It was some sort of dashboard filled with data on how Technologia Cafe was performing.

“We’re behind on the lease. Three months behind. She should be getting notices by now.”

“But-” Alyssa looked up at him, hoping for some sort of reassurance that it would all be okay. She didn’t find it in his expression. “What are we going to do?”

Jeremy took a deep breath and pocketed his phone. “We’re going to come up with a plan to save this place.”

That was exactly what Alyssa had been doing, but now wasn’t the time to bring that up. Whatever she did now would be worthless if they showed up for work tomorrow to find the doors dead-bolted and a notice that the property had been seized. At least, she thought that was what happened when a business didn’t pay its lease. She’d only seen that happen as a customer, so she had no idea how it worked from a business owner’s side of things.

“I’m going to have a talk with the property management of the building and see what we need to do to get back on track.” Jeremy spun around and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Or, at the very least, avoid eviction. Then we’re going to come up with a plan to pull this place out of the red.”

Alyssa felt a little sick at this point. After the morning rush, Emily had left to go to the bank. She wondered now if that trip had something to do with her dire financial situation. Maybe she was seeing if she could get a loan to avoid going under.

“It’s my fault.” Jeremy came to stand next to Alyssa again, leaning against the counter, his back toward the door. “I should have been keeping an eye on this place while I was overseas. I was so caught up in my own stuff, I forgot to check in on the businesses I had a stake in back home.”

“Businesses?”

“I’m an investor in a couple of other ventures.” He took a sip of his coffee, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. “Nothing like this. A couple of tech startups that are doing really well. This is my only…”

“Failure?”

He looked over at her. “Absolutely not. There’s no such thing as a failure.”

There was no doubt he fully believed that. “Failure” wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. That would be true if it were one of his other investments, certainly, but this was about far more than the money he’d put into this place. This was about taking care of his little sister.

Alyssa took a deep breath and started wiping the counter. It helped her feel more in control. “So what do we do?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him watching her vigorously wipe. He seemed slightly amused by the sight. Just his other little sister, being cute again. Alyssa resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the thought.

“We work together to save this place.”

Alyssa stopped wiping and looked at him. Work together? She didn’t want to like the sound of that, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

“We should talk to Emily.”

“No!”

His voice was a little loud. The two women seated near the window, talking while occasionally sipping their lattes, turned to look at them. Jeremy nodded at them before turning back to Alyssa, his voice lowered.

“We should keep her out of the loop for now. She’d be devastated if she knew I knew. She’ll start seeing business pick up and assume it’s all thanks to you.”

“So let me do my job.”

Alyssa was proud of herself for forcing those words out. Despite her body betraying her, her mind knew all too well that working with Jeremy on anything was a bad idea. She’d get her hopes up, just as she had on prom night so long ago, and in the end, she’d be left sitting alone and heartbroken, wondering how she’d been so foolish. Twice.

“I have every intention of doing that.” He pushed away from the counter and withdrew his phone from his pocket. “But I may have called in a favor

-”

The door to the cafe opened and a guy walked in. He looked around as if fascinated by the mural Emily’s artist friend had painted. It spanned all four walls of the main area of the cafe, depicting a technology timeline that started with adding machines and ended with 3-D printers.

“Ben!” Jeremy walked around the counter and approached the guy, sharing one of those man hugs that was somehow both an awkward embrace and a slap on the back at the same time.

“Jer! It’s been, what, four years?”

“Something like that. How the heck have you been? Let me introduce you to Alyssa. She’s handling all the marketing for this place.”

“Alyssa Kennedy, yes, I know. I’ve been working with your friends at TravTech.”

Alyssa just stared at the tall, thin man as he approached. He wore a faded blazer and T-shirt, along with a pair of jeans. She had no idea what was going on here, but it felt a little creepy, realizing this stranger knew who she was.

Jeremy rushed in to explain. “This is Ben Eisenberg. He’s the senior columnist for Business News Today. He’s here to write a profile on Emily.”

“I love cafes, but in this town, I don’t get to cover them very often. This is perfect for my tech column.”

Ben looked around again, his gaze landing on the mural. He stepped back and pulled out his phone, snapping some pictures. When he was finished, he slipped the phone back into the pocket of his laptop bag and looked at Alyssa.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to have our photographer come down and shoot that mural. I don’t know how he’ll capture the whole thing in a picture, but maybe he can grab enough of it to get people to come in and see it for themselves.”

“I can give you the name of the artist,” Alyssa offered.

She was trying to catch up with what was going on here, but she was still a little lost. This guy was doing a profile on Emily…or the cafe itself? Maybe a combination of both?

Jeremy stepped up to stand in front of Ben, probably trying to find a way to pull his attention from the mural. “Emily will be back any minute. Meanwhile, why don’t you and Alyssa have a chat? I’ll watch the counter.”

Flashing a skeptical look at Jeremy, Alyssa said, “Are you sure? Do you know how to work the equipment? The tablet?”

Jeremy looked over at the tablet they used to process payments. “Of course. If I need help, you’ll be right there.”

She followed the direction of his pointing finger and realized he expected them to “chat” over at one of the tables in the corner. Right in front of him. Granted, the corner was far enough away that he probably couldn’t overhear every single word, especially if customers started coming in, but she’d feel self-conscious, nonetheless.

“Sounds like a plan. Follow me.”

With those words, Ben started toward the table, leaving Alyssa standing there, looking confused. She really had no choice at this point. She had to follow.

Suddenly, Alyssa realized how ungrateful she was being. Jeremy had teed up this meeting. All she had to do was take over and work her magic. More than that, it was the second meeting he’d set up for her. Did this mean she had to forgive him for standing her up on prom night?

By the time she was seated across from Ben, she’d decided no, it didn’t mean that. Because it was one thing for him to help her as his little sister’s best friend. It was quite another for him to have broken her heart with no regard for her feelings whatsoever.