Looking out at the small gathering of people at the door, I smiled.
“Jack must have given them an incentive to come down here,” I laughed. Every one of his employees was lined up and jostling each other to get inside.
“Naiva!” Jack’s assistant, Clark, called out as he pushed his way in first. “Coffee. Stat.”
I laughed and quickly fixed Clark’s latte and snatched him a chocolate croissant. When I handed him the drink and pastry, I also made sure to stuff a menu in his hand as well.
“What are you trying to hand me?” I looked down at the ten-dollar bill Clark was sliding over the counter. “Your money's no good here.”
“Naiva, you won’t be a success if you give all of your friends free drinks,” Clark lectured and left the ten on the counter while he snatched up his coffee and pastry. “I was first, suckers!” he crowed as he walked out the door.
“What was that about?” I mumbled as I turned to find Galvin, one of Jack’s programmers.
“Jack said he’d give the first person to purchase something a day of paid vacation,” Galvin grumbled and looked at the menu. “Can I get a black coffee and a piece of the coffee cake?” he asked.
Of course,” I replied with a smile.
My husband was going to get an earful when I talked to him.
My employees had reported back throughout the day on how busy the first day had been at the cafe. I’d sent Clark down for my order because I didn’t want to crowd my wife. She needed to focus on her new cafe.
It had been hard for her when the sale of the B&B was finalized. When she’d closed the B&B cafe for the last time I could tell how important the cafe part of the business had been to her. So, when Naiva had announced she was pregnant, I’d given her the gift of a paid lease for a shop in the same building as my software company. Might be strange to some, why would I give my pregnant wife a business? Well, because it would make her happy.
My Naiva wasn’t the type to sit and do nothing and once things were running smoothly, she’d be able to take normal days off and spend the time with our son and me. Which is why I’d given everyone in the office a ten-dollar bill and sent them down to the shop that morning. The free day of paid vacation was a huge incentive, too.
I laughed at how Clark had breezed into my office and demanded that I give Manuel the day of PTO. Manuel was the new website designer we’d just brought on board. His wife was due to have their first child and the man didn’t have any accrued time as of yet. Clark wanted the man to be able to take a few days off when the baby arrived.
Clark’s generosity was so touching and I guess I was in a good mood because I gave Manuel a week’s worth of PTO instead of the single day Clark had earned by being Naiva’s first paid customer.
“Alright, little man. Let’s go and see if we can pry mommy away from her new baby.” Noah jabbered at me as I scooped him up into my arms and slipped him into the carrier I’d already put on.
I loved carrying our six-month-old son in the carrier. It put his head directly beneath my nose where I was able to inhale his pure baby scent. Kissing his head, I ran my hand over his head to smooth down the small amount of red hair that covered the top of his head. Noah Harrison Noch had arrived about a year after I married Naiva. I’d thought I couldn’t be happier or more content, and then Naiva had given me Noah. The two of them were everything to me and I would do anything to make them happy.
Grabbing Noah’s bag, I walked out of my office and we headed down to the lobby area of the building. The cafe was located by the front doors and was in a perfect location for all of the morning and lunchtime traffic. It was sure to be a huge success, especially with Naiva running things.
We slipped in quietly and I found a space that allowed me to lean against a wall and watch my wife as she served customers. Naiva was a quiet person by nature but she seemed to open up when she was cooking, baking, and serving people the fruits of her labor. I was always impressed by the difference in her personality when she was behind a counter versus the times she’d had to talk to people otherwise.
Time ticked by as I stood contentedly by the wall while Noah took a nap.
“Hey, Jack,” Lucas inched in beside me on the wall. “Today’s been amazing. I’m sure it will only get better and better as word of mouth spreads.”
“Yeah. Has she been like this all day?” I nodded at Naiva as she balanced a tray of cookies above her head as she maneuvered past Molly. She was laughing with a customer as she slid the tray into the case and proceeded to take several of the cookies off the tray and place them in a box. Naiva was a force of nature – almost as wild and untamed as the shoreline where she’d grown up in her family’s bed and breakfast.
Lucas chuckled and pushed off the wall. “Yeah, it takes everything I got to get her to let me help,” the man replied to my question as he slipped away.
The love I had for my wife had only grown with each passing day as I got to know her and all of her habits, flaws, and quirks. She was extremely independent and a whole hell of a lot stubborn. So, I was pretty sure, Lucas wasn’t exaggerating his difficulty to get Naiva to accept help.
My
