Page 42 of It's a Brewtiful Day
A few years back, I’d tossed my cookies. It had happened only once, but still. I didn’t want to get sick in front of him, or near him.
“Fair enough.”
A flash came from my left and my breath whooshed out of my body.Here we go again.
Elliot, ever the sweetheart he was, tightened his grip around me and pulled me back toward the chair. “This worked well last time.”
He flopped into the wingback, I sat on the armrest, dangling my legs across the other armrest, and placed my head against his shoulder as he covered my exposed ear with his warm, soft hand. As the storm raged on, he never loosened his grip, but thisstorm didn’t seem as intense with ground shaking and bright flashes as the first one had been, and passed by after a few moments, or at least it felt that way.
Although I loved the way he was holding me, my neck was kinking, so I pushed out of his protective embrace. “It’s going away, isn’t it?”
“I would believe so. There’s quite the distance between flash and rumble, but thankfully there haven’t been any crackers.”
“Thank you.” I stared into his charming face, brushing his hair off his face.
“It’s no big deal.”
“It is to me. You’re not making fun of me, and instead, you’re going out of your way to help me deal with it. That’s more than…” Did he need to know my last boyfriend thought I was a baby because of the fear? He had never understood the terror, but in all fairness, I’d never let him in to know why it bothered me.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain. Remember, I was made fun of all through high school. I know what it’s like, and it isn’t fun.”
“It’s not.”
He shifted underneath me.
I tipped my head, hearing gentle, muted beats of music. “Is your phone still on?”
As he twisted off to the side, I hopped off, giving him easier access to his back pocket. Tapping the display, he silenced the Black Eyed Peas.
“You certainly have an eclectic mix of songsin your playlist.”
“I like a good beat when I’m doing cardio.”
“And the slow songs?” Because those had been intermittently spaced throughout his queue.
“Gives me time to catch my breath.”
I tipped my head from side to side to work out the kinks, and feeling a tad chilled, I put my leather jacket back on. “What’s your battery life at?”
A quick tap on the screen. “Twenty-eight percent.”
“No more dance parties, as fun as it was. You’ll want a little battery power when the cell phone towers go back online, or whatever it’s called when they start working again.”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Could easily be a few days from now.”
Days?
“Think the power will come back on first?” I dragged my wingback chair to park beside his and flopped down into the seat.
“I’d almost guarantee it.”
I looked hopefully out the window, waiting for someone—anyone—to walk by so we could alert them. “We’re not getting out of here tonight, are we?”
Elliot had done the same. “I think it’s safe to say we’re definitely stuck here overnight.”
As lovely as the Coffee Loft was, it wasn’t a B&B. And although it had only been a few hours, we needed to plan for the possibility of an overnight at least.
“Not to be weird or anything, but how do we sleep? There’s no hidden cot in the boss’s office we can drag out?” That was wishful thinking. I doubted Nina slept in there.