I want You Deeper

At first, Jeremy thought something was wrong. As he turned the corner in his SUV and saw a crowd of people in front of

Technologia Cafe was the explanation that immediately came to mind. Someone had gotten hurt on the sidewalk or, worse, choked on some coffee or a muffin inside the shop. He didn’t see an ambulance, though. Maybe he should call for one.

But as he passed the door, he caught a quick glimpse and saw it was being held open. That wasn’t a crowd-it was a line.

They were lined up outside the door.

He turned to face the front just in time to see traffic at a stop in front of him. He braked quickly, inches away from the back bumper of a sports car. When finally the cars started moving again, he nabbed a parking space. It was a bit of a hike to the cafe, but he knew how lucky he was this time of day. No way would there be an open guest space in his sister’s garage.

Eyes on the coffee shop, he rushed toward the store, glancing down at his phone. No messages from his sister. Why would people be lining up? All he could think was maybe the latte art posts Alyssa had made that morning had been a huge hit. It seemed like a stretch-only three posts? But if enough people had shared pictures of their cups of coffee, that could generate some interest.

“Hey! There’s a line,” some guy shouted just as Jeremy was preparing to squeeze through.

He looked at the person closest to him. “This is my sister’s shop. What’s going on here?”

“We’re here for the contest.”

Wow. Who would have thought?

“How did you find out about it?”

Another woman was all too willing to tell him. “TravTech posted a challenge. Their team shared their pictures and dared any other company to enter, too. My boss sent me over here.”

Competitive tech people. No surprise. That was one thing he hadn’t missed about living in Silicon Valley. It seemed everyone was always vying to have the most expensive car, the biggest home, the most impressive valuation…Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

And now the best pictures of some latte art contest?

“Excuse me.” Jeremy stepped forward and the crowd parted to let him through. There were some grunts and groans, but he ignored them, speeding toward the counter where Alyssa and Emily were calmly handling the workload.

“Need some help?”

His question caused both their heads to turn in his direction. He didn’t wait for an answer, simply speeding behind the counter and checking to see where he could pitch in.

“I don’t know where all this is coming from,” Emily said as he grabbed the next cup on the counter, which Emily had marked with the customer’s order.

“I do.” Jeremy headed straight over to the equipment, sliding in next to

Alyssa. “TravTech challenged everyone.”

Alyssa’s head snapped around. “TravTech? Where did you hear that?”

He gestured toward the line with the hand holding the cup. “Someone in line. Her boss sent her.”

“Wow.” Alyssa over-enunciated the word as she finished filling the cup.

“I can’t believe he did that.”

“Who?” But they didn’t have time to discuss this right now. “I have an idea. You do the art and I’ll make the coffee.”

“It just takes a second to make the art. We’ll work together.”

And that was exactly what they did. He needed to get back to his job, but he kept reasoning to himself that the line would clear out any minute. They just had to pound through the people who were already here, and Emily and Alyssa could handle the remaining trickle of people. Only, the crowd didn’t let up. Not even as the lunch hour came and went. A little after one-thirty, he finally looked up to see just a few people left in line.

That was when he realized how much he’d enjoyed working alongside Alyssa.

They’d been a team, the two of them, moving orders along and even having a couple of laughs along the way. Despite the hard work, both Emily and Alyssa stayed in good spirits, and it was contagious, especially to the customers. He couldn’t help but think the good publicity would pay off, mostly because so many people had walked away smiling.

When the cafe was finally empty, Emily took a deep breath and turned to face them. “That was…”

“Amazing!” Alyssa finished for her.

“Okay, so what’s the deal?” Jeremy felt like he’d missed something.

Emily spoke first. “Alyssa’s former boss-”

“He wasn’t my boss. He fired me.”

Now Jeremy was really confused. “Someone who wasn’t your boss fired you? Like he just showed up and told you that you no longer had a job?”

“TravTech was my former employer.”

He decided to take a stab at piecing this together. “So the person who fired you at TravTech is responsible for this crowd?”

“So, according to the person you spoke to in line.” Alyssa stepped up to stand next to him and he felt that now-familiar zing of electricity that seemed to happen now when she was close to him. “Justin Travers came in and bought eight cups of coffee. I wasn’t sure what he planned to do with them.”

“Justin Travers? Head of TravTech?”

He may have been away a while, but it was impossible not to know Justin Travers’ name with the way it had been all over tech news sites lately. He’d never met Justin, but they did share some mutual friends.

“He did a whole thing.” Emily came around and held up her phone.

Sure enough, Justin Travers, whose photo had been all over the news lately, had posted one of those photo collages of himself and his team smiling at the camera while seated around the conference table.

“I used to sit at that table,” Alyssa said, staring at the screen. “That’s the table where Justin Travers fired me. He was polite and regretful, but that made it no less painful.”

Jeremy took a closer look at the screen. The two other pictures in the montage were of coffee-one of all eight cups and one close-up of her WiFi creation.

“Wait, I just realized-that’s the guy who had his app stolen.” Emily turned her phone around to look at the images.

“Accidentally,” Alyssa said. “The guys at Tutor2Tutor outsourced some work to an overseas company that was stealing code. They did it to a bunch of companies-Justin figured it out.” “And blew the lid off the whole thing,” Jeremy added. “I read about it. In Business News Today.”

“Wait…” Emily’s eyes widened. “The guy who’s doing the profile on my cafe was from Business News Today.”

“Yep,” Jeremy said. “Top business reporter in Silicon Valley.”

“Pretty much the country,” Alyssa corrected. “At least when it comes to business technology.”

“Wow. I had no idea.”

“Alyssa’s taking good care of you.” Jeremy smiled at Alyssa, then turned. “I need to get back to work. I’m sure you two don’t need me to close up.”

“You’re coming back for dinner, right?”

That question, shockingly, came from Alyssa, who was looking at him expectantly. She wanted him to come back? He felt something stir inside him. Something he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before.

It went beyond attraction. It was much more than that.

“Of course,” he said.

“Actually…”

They both turned to look at Emily, who had a sheepish look on her face. He had a feeling about that look. He knew his sister well enough to recognize when she was up to something. She was playing matchmaker.

And he couldn’t say he minded.

“I have plans.”

Wait. Maybe he’d misinterpreted his sister’s behavior. Did she legit have plans? Was there something she wasn’t telling him?

“Do you have a date?” Alyssa asked, echoing Jeremy’s thoughts.

“No. A date?” Emily laughed as if that were preposterous. “It’s my book club.”

“You’re in a book club.” Jeremy didn’t mean for that to come out the way it did. It sounded like he was implying his sister was the last person he’d expect to be in a book club. That wasn’t the case at all. His sister had always loved to curl up with a good book. He was just surprised she had time to read.

“Why is that so surprising?” Emily asked.

“Yeah.” That came from Alyssa.

They were both staring at him now, challenging him to say more. How did he dig himself out of this one?

“No, it’s just… I’m surprised you have time. This cafe has to keep you busy.”

“She reads every night before bed,” Alyssa said.

“It puts me to sleep.” Emily smiled. “And being in book club gives me a deadline. Every month, I have to finish the book before the meeting.”

Alyssa walked around the counter, grabbing a rag along the way to begin wiping off tables. “Maybe I should join, too. Let me in on next month’s book and I’ll read with you.”

Jeremy looked at his sister, who flashed a knowing smile. The smile felt as if she was saying she had his back. After thinking about it, he figured she normally would invite Alyssa to join her for that night’s meeting. But not tonight. Tonight was for him.

“So, you two are on your own for dinner tonight.” Emily gave him a wink, then turned to Alyssa, who had her back to them while she worked. “Take my brother to that place we tried a few weeks ago. They could use the business.”

“Always supporting other business owners.” Jeremy shook his head. “That’s my sister.”

Alyssa straightened and turned to face them. “You don’t have to entertain me. I really could use the rest.”

“You’re not getting out of this that easily,” Jeremy said with a smile. “My treat. You deserve a night out with all the work you’ve been doing. Plus, maybe this new restaurant owner could use a little marketing.”

Now he had Alyssa’s attention. Her eyes widened, and then she looked off to the side thoughtfully. It immediately got the wheels in his head turning. What other local businesses could she sign to her client roster? He could personally escort her to each of them.

And spend more time with her along the way.

Jeremy grabbed the to-go cup of coffee he’d been nursing and headed around the counter toward the door. “Six o’clock. I’ll pick you up out front.

Don’t be late.”