Page 49 of Never Forever
“You act annoyed.”
“I’m merely caffeine deprived.”
He was silent and for a second I thought maybe he would leave. Like any conversation between us wasn’t worth it because it always ended in an argument.
I let my shoulders sag in relief at the thought. It was one thing when I saw him and I was prepared. Being ambushed by him before my super-secret guilty pleasure coffee was not fair.
“There are rumors the movie has run into problems,” he said, and my shoulders stiffened again. Apparently, he wasn’t going to drop it.
“Everything is great.” It wasn’t a lie, but it certainly wasn’t the whole truth.
“Folks are saying it’s behind schedule,” he said.
“Who told you that?”
He shrugged one big shoulder. “People talk.”
“We’re atinybit behind schedule.” I pinched my fingers together to show how small the delay was.
“You were only supposed to be here a few months. Then you had to replace that asshole lead actor and now…it’s been like a lot of months.”
I couldn’t argue. We were filming a Christmas movie in August. It was awful.
“Nice to see you can still count. What’s your problem anyway?”
He sighed. “I just want to know when all this is going to end.”
“Why? Is our little feud getting to you, Matt?”
“Nope.” He frowned. “Doesn’t bother me at all. It’s just that you guys have taken over the whole damn square.”
There was nothing to say about that. The production company had compensated city hall handsomely for theprivilege, but in some ways we were getting in the way of summer tourism.
Ani Wong, who owned the beach shop, glared at us every morning she opened her doors.
“Ani is sure tired of it. Apparently it’s hard to sell sand buckets and water floaties when it’s Christmas outside her shop every day.”
“We will be finished soon,” I said, my jaw clenched.
“Not soon enough,” he muttered.
To my relief, Bruce came to the door and unlocked it. I would have charged him like a security guard at a Black Friday sale, but I managed to control myself.
“Good morning,” Bruce said with a smile. “Uh oh. Should I go back and put on some body armor? Word around town is nothing good happens when you two share the same space.”
“Hearsay,” I muttered.
“Local gossip,” Matt said.
Bruce wore an old Grateful Dead tee shirt and a pair of Birkenstocks with rag wool socks. “Okay, then. Carrie,” he said, and handed me a to-go cup. “Your extra caramel, extra whip macchiato.”
“Is there even coffee in that?” Matt asked me.
“Of course!” I snapped.
At the same time Bruce said, “Not much. Just a lot of sugar and dairy.”
Matt lifted a honey brown eyebrow at me. Why my choice of coffee should give him permission to be smug, I had no idea.