Ride the Sunset

Morning Maddness

Jacob

“What?!” Corey screeched, and I flinched as I looked around the canteen. It was still early, but some members of Billora had stopped by for coffee and muffins. Just like Corey and I had.

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed as I glared at the muffin and cupcake choices.

“I told you to go straight home, J,” he whispered fiercely as he grabbed a pumpkin-spiced muffin as well as a double chocolate muffin. I avoided both since I knew they were both quite powerful in flavor. My headache and parched throat needed something smoother. I opted for a lemon poppy seed muffin and a butter bran muffin.

“I had every intention of going straight home,” I argued. Corey shot me a look as we headed over to the coffee machines. I let Corey go first, since he would always take something fancy. I watched as he fiddled with the coffee machine. “Luckily, I realized I wasn’t dreaming and headed home instead of further embarrassing myself,” I said.

“The damage is done, J,” he pointed out, and I knew he wasn’t wrong. “He is probably going to ask you why you stopped by…and why you were so drunk,”

“No, he won’t,” I shook my head as I tore a piece off from my butter bran muffin.

“This is Alastair we are talking about…so, yes, he will. Plus, the two of you are friends now, so he will, because it’s his right as your friend,” Corey politely pointed out. I rolled my eyes as I stepped up to the machine. Corey started adding all kinds of stuff to his coffee, so I turned my attention to the machine.

“It doesn’t matter…anyway,”

“Of course, it matters. Why did you go there, J?” he questioned, and I could hear the worry in his tone of voice. I avoided looking at him as I sighed softly.

“I don’t know…I just wanted to see him,”

“You can’t keep doing this, Jacob,” Corey stated firmly. “You put him firmly in the friend zone. Any chance of a romance flew right out the door when you did that,”

“Is that why you put Jack and Hank in the friend zone?” I asked as casually as I could muster as I sneaked a peek at my best friend. Corey’s entire face went red, and before I could say or do anything else, he grabbed his coffee and hurried off. I sighed loudly as I finished my coffee and followed him. “Sorry,”

“No, don’t,” Corey said as he sat down at his desk. “The difference between you and me is that I told both Jack and Hank why I am not ready to date. I need to figure out who I am without Daniel,”

“I know, I’m sorry,” I apologized again as I sat down at my desk. I tore off another piece of muffin and popped it into my mouth. “I should probably mention that I may have downloaded Love Connection,” I whispered. Corey dropped his muffin on his desk as he looked over at me. The absolute horror on his face said it all.

“You didn’t,”

“I did,” I said as I took out my phone and opened the app. “Not only did I download it, I completed all the steps and am now officially stalking Alastair,”

“There are some things your boss should never hear,” Erik said as he stopped in front of my desk. I dropped my phone as I stared up at my boss. He was smiling, and the amusement was clear in his eyes. “Just so you know, he phoned Naomi this morning to discuss a date…with Mia,”

“f**k,” I muttered as I grabbed my phone. The app was pretty private, but there was the option to be a bit more open. Alastair had opted to be open, which meant I could see his friend list. Or interest list. Whatever. I scrolled through the small list of five people – I was relieved to see that Sandy was not on his list – and found Mia. I quickly entered her profile and sighed. Again, you could be completely private and use whatever picture you wanted. Both Alastair and Mia had used their faces for their profile. Mia was absolutely stunning. Dark hair, dark eyes, caramel skin that looked so smooth it made me jealous.

“And my work here is done,” Erik said, effectively snapping me out of it. “Back to work,” he added before he walked into his office.

“Dude, another date?” Corey whispered, but I shook my head. I had barely managed to get rid of Sandy. How was I supposed to get rid of Mia? “You. Me. Lunch,” he said, and I nodded. I set my phone aside and took a sip of coffee before I got up.

“What would you like?” I asked Erik as I popped into his office.

“Large, strong, sweet coffee,” he said, and I smiled. The man looked dead on his feet. “The twins kept us up for half the night…and Naomi kept dozing off, so I didn’t get a lot of sleep,”

“You could have stayed home,” I pointed out, but Erik shook his head as he sat up a little bit straighter.

“I would, but I have that meeting with Eugene,” he said. I nodded in understanding. Erik couldn’t have any meetings at home since the twins were too distracting.

“Ok, anything else?”

“Anything else?” he looked over at me and frowned.

“Just a coffee? Or maybe something to eat?” I asked.

“If they have any of those breakfast things, I’ll have that…or those banana things,” he said, and I nodded as I left his office. I made my way back to the canteen and started on his coffee. While that was going on, I grabbed a plate and breathed out in relief when I spotted two breakfast muffins sitting lonely on a serving tray. I placed them on the plate and added one banana with caramel muffin. As soon as the coffee was done, I headed back. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about Mia and her date with Alastair.