I grabbed the coffee box off the counter. “Did you drive over?”
Matt nodded as he tried to gently extract the box from my grasp. “Yeah, came straight from work. Give me that.”
I pulled the box away. “No, I have it. I’ll carry it out to the car for you.”
“I think I can handle it, Franny.”
“It’s good customer service! Customer service is what keeps people coming in.”
He looked down at me with one eyebrow raised and held his hand out.
“If I give it to you, I have no reason to walk you out to your car,” I confessed, batting my eyes at him a little bit.
The corner of his lips twitched up. “You being my girlfriend who loves me isn’t enough of a reason?”
I sighed and handed him the box. I never could resist that look.
“Ephy, I’m going to walk Matt out.” I grabbed a bag and reached into the pastry case for a couple of cookies to send with Matt.
“Yeah, I caught that,” she said in a monotone.
As soon as the door swung closed between us, Matt glanced over at me out of the corner of his eye. “Ephy, huh? Interesting name.”
“She’s an interesting girl.”
Matt looked at me like he could tell there was more to the story. We’d seen each other so little lately that I’d only managed to tell him that I’d hired Ephy and nothing at all about how quirky she was.
“I’ll tell you later,” I muttered.
I noticed with dismay that Matt’s car was parked on the street almost right outside the café. Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered, but today it meant that all of the kisses I’d been hoping to steal would be in full view of all my customers. It wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping for when I followed him outside. I told myself I’d just have to wait until I closed up for the night and hope he wasn’t still engrossed in work or so tired he’d already fallen asleep.
Matt popped open the passenger-side door and nestled the box of coffee on the floorboard for the nearly quarter-mile trip from the café to his house. He shut the door again.
“Well, I guess I’d better get back inside,” I said. I leaned in for a quick peck on the lips, but he stopped me.
“Actually, there’s another reason why I stopped by.”
“What’s up?” I tried to sound casual, but something in his expression had me on edge.
He leaned back against the car and sighed. “I feel really bad about this.”
Now I was really worried.
He stared at the ground and ran his fingers through his hair. Finally, he looked up. “I dropped the ball. I totally forgot that your birthday’s coming up. I wanted to do something really special for you, but then this project came up, and I’ve been so busy I haven’t even done laundry in three weeks, let alone planned something for your birthday. I—I can’t even think of anything you’ve said you want. I was thinking a necklace or some earrings or something, but you don’t wear very much jewelry. And then I thought maybe a sweater, but that wouldn’t be a good gift, would it?”
I shook my head. “Not this time of year, no.”
Matt sighed. “I know this is terrible, but could you just tell me something you want and I’ll get it for you? And if I can get it online, that’s even better because I don’t know when I’m going to make it to the store.”
“Aw, Matty!” I leaned in and gave him a hug. “Don’t worry about it. It’s totally not a big deal.” He started to protest, but I stopped him. “All I want is to get to spend some actual time with you. We can go out to dinner somewhere nice, maybe Osteria di Monica, just enjoy each other’s company.”
He relaxed a little, but still looked uneasy. “I want to get you something, though. You deserve to have a present on your birthday—more than one!”
“But I don’t need presents. All I need is you.” I looked up and saw the expression on his face. He wasn’t going to be happy with just taking me out for a nice meal. “But if you really feel that strongly about it, look at the USA Today bestsellers list and get me whatever book looks interesting. I’ll read it and love it and always remember that you got it for me.”
He looked doubtful but nodded slowly. I could tell that he was too exhausted and distracted by work to argue anymore. We exchanged goodbyes, and I herded him into the car to head home. I secretly hoped he would fall asleep on the couch before he even got his laptop open, but I suspected he would actually start chugging the coffee as soon as he walked in the door and be wired well into the night.
I watched him drive away and then went back inside. “I’ll be in the back,” I told Ephy as I passed her. I closed the office door behind me and sat down at the desk with my head in my hands. I was worried about Matt, yes, especially since he skipped out on the office birthday party, but there was something else—something worse.
Matt had been worried that he didn’t have a present yet for my birthday, which would come up in three weeks, but his birthday was even sooner than that, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind until that moment.
Chapter 5
I spent most of that evening curled up on Matt’s couch, trying to think of what to do for him for his birthday while he furiously worked away, barely even acknowledging my presence. Latte, my beloved Berger Picard rescue dog, lay curled up against my leg, nudging my hand insistently whenever I failed to keep with his petting needs. I otherwise amused myself with a marathon of a reality show featuring a gaggle of
