Anywhere But Here (15 page)

“No,” I cut in. “In case you both forgot, I live in New York, and despite what you think,” I was looking at Cici, “It’s not as simple as me just packing up and moving back here.”

“Oh,” Trin didn’t cover her disappointment well.

Cici just clucked at me like I was the one being unreasonable. “Fine then, if you insist on passing up this opportunity, I guess I can help you box this stuff up. I didn’t have plans today anyway.”

“Uh, okay.”

“Yeah, I can help too. Looks like you’ll need more paper and boxes. I know where to get some. I’ll be right back.” I watched Trin run across the street to her brother’s shop.

When she returned, she had two more large empty boxes and a stack of newspaper, which was good, because with Cici’s help, most of the dolphins were wrapped and boxed and our stack was low. Trin dropped the supplies and then sat down beside the two of us and joined in the monotonous work. We went from shelf to shelf, and while we worked, Cici and Trin kept up the idle chat, but I was still thinking about Cici’s ludicrous idea. Only the more I thought about it, the less ludicrous it sounded.

“So, Cici, you really know all about accounting and running a business?” I tried to ask casually.

She stopped wrapping the seashell picture frame in her hand and turned her head to look at me quizzically.

“Uh, huh.”

“Like what licenses you need and taxes and all that?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm,” I said almost to myself. Owning a bookstore was something of a fantasy of mine I guess you might say, one I’d never actually considered, but this was the perfect opportunity. Could I really just leave New York though? What did I have tying me there? Our apartment wasn’t that great, and Lizzie could find another roommate if she needed to. I could work from anywhere. Really all that left was Lizzie. I didn’t want to leave her behind, but she’d been saying for a while now that she was tired of the city. Tired of her job. Maybe . . . no, it really was crazy.

It took a lot of money to get a business going. I’d be looking at espresso equipment and probably some serious renovations to even have it up to code. And to join it with a bookstore, even a small one, that was probably thousands of dollars in inventory I had to come up with. I had a decent savings, and Didi left a small chunk, but this seemed a big risk, especially if Cici turned out to be full of shit. Not to mention the time that would have to go into this. When would I have that kind of time? After my release, whenever that was? By then, they’d be on me for the next one.

No. I’d keep the house. I liked the idea of having a little escape, but I needed to sell this place. Living back here would be hard enough with the risk of bumping into Cammie, my mother and Kellen all the time. Kellen. Geez, I can’t believe I actually even considered Cici’s plan for a minute. Working across the street from him day in and out . . . I know I said I was going to try and move on, but . . . just no. That wouldn’t work.

Didi would have been tickled though, knowing I was taking over her place, making it into something special of my own. Yeah, she would have really loved to see that. She’d just hate if it got turned into another Starbucks, or some insurance office.

Maybe I could just hang onto the building and lease it. Then I could decide who set up shop in here.

Yeah. That might be alright.

We made it through several more shelves, clearing out the knick knacks until we ran out of boxes again.

“How about if I run out and pick up more boxes, and grab lunch for us while I’m out, unless you two need to get going.”

“Like I said, I don’t have any plans. You should get pizza from Cesario’s,” Cici suggested.

“Yeah, pizza sounds good,” Trinity agreed.

“Okay, you two call in the order so it’ll be ready. I’ll be back. Try not to break anything or burn the place down while I’m gone.”

They both looked up at me innocently. It didn’t fool me.

Cici liked to shake things up, but she was growing on me, kind of like Justin Bieber’s comeback. Not so bad once you actually gave it a chance. I could only imagine what some of her ideas might be for the coffee shop.

Shae

May 1

Present . . .

I thought more about how I would turn the place into a cute sit down shop on the short drive to the office supply store. My favorite coffee stop in New York was this quirky little place in Soho with mismatched tables and chairs and artwork all over the place. It would be fun to bring something like that to Conway, maybe find a way to blend it with the beach vibe theme.

And really, Didi’s was such a perfect location. The coffee craze had definitely hit the city, but as I drove through the streets scoping it out, I only spotted one coffee place in the downtown area and a bakery that served coffee. They were both several blocks from Fourth, and if I brought something unique, more than just another Starbucks wannabe, it could really be a hit. A quick check on Google confirmed that Coffee Hut was the only espresso shop within a mile, and it happened to be located across the street from Cesario’s.

After picking up boxes, I estimated that I still had a few minutes before our pizza order would be ready. I decided to do a little investigating. From the outside, Coffee Hut reminded me a lot of a Starbucks. Stepping inside, I definitely got the trendy, modern feel. Everything was real sleek. High back stools at little tables, a few leather booths, top forty playing in the background, quiet conversations happening between the few people that weren’t plugged in and glued to their screens. I walked up to the counter and ordered a simple tea and took the opportunity to ask the baristas behind the counter what kind of coffee they used.

They were buying wholesale from a roasting company out of state. Nothing wrong with that, and it was even a coffee company I’d heard of. They had good brew, but in this day and age, “local” was all the rage. My search showed that there was a roaster in Myrtle Beach, and they had a high rating.

Someone who offered locally roasted, and provided something different than every hip, cookie cutter coffee house out there could really take off in an area like this. We had the small town feel, but Conway and the Myrtle Beach Metropolitan area was actually pretty big, and downtown Conway, the historic rivertown, drew plenty of locals and tourists.

Thinking about the town and this opportunity that was in front of me reminded me of all the things I didn’t hate about this place. If I just forgot about all the bad memories that made me want to leave, I’d actually always loved it here.

Well damn, what was life if you didn’t do something absolutely, bat shit crazy every once in a while?

I picked up our pizza and drove back to Didi’s, my mind racing with ideas, formulating plans and going over logistics. There was still one big hang up for me.

I pulled my car in front of Didi’s, grabbing the pizza boxe, which Trin and Cici were only all too happy to relieve me of when I walked in the door. I stopped short when I realized they’d been joined by another familiar face.

“Lizzie! What are you doing here?” She was wearing a big ol’
surprise
grin. “Wait, you can tell me in a minute. I need to go take care of something.” I left the three of them standing there and marched back outside and across the street before I lost my nerve. I shoved open the door to Bulletproof Ink. Laurel with her bright blue hair looked up from behind the counter. I bypassed her, going straight for the back of the shop.

“Oh, shit,” Laurel whispered. “This is going to be good.”

“Hey you.” I stood all purposeful like with my hands on my hips.

He was working on a client, all three artists were in fact, but all three heads snapped up and even their human canvases tried to shift to get a look at me once the needles were lifted and the buzzing stopped. What mattered was that I had his full attention.

“I’m staying, which means you and me gotta figure how to co-exist without wanting to strangle each other every time we have a run in. This town is plenty big enough for the two of us. You stay on your side of the street, I’ll stay on mine and we won’t have any problems. Got it? Good.” With that said, I spun around and exited the same way I came in, crossing the street that would divide us like the North and South.

I shoved open the door to Didi’s with determination and let out a deep breath. I was doing this.

Now to deal with Lizzie’s surprise arrival.

She and the other two were standing around, pizza untouched, eying me with blatant curiosity and more than a bit of confusion.

“What was all that about?” Trinity spoke up first.

“I’ll tell you all in a minute, but first, Lizzie, what the heck are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you.”

“I got your obviously drunk text last night. Most of it was unintelligible,” I vaguely remembered texting her at some point, “but what I could decipher made it clear you needed me, so I hopped in the car and here I am. It looks like just in time for you to catch me up on what I’ve been missing.”

I opened my mouth to find somewhere to start, but then snapped it closed when all three pairs of eyes fixed on something behind me, and then the door chimed. I’ll give you two guesses who it was.

“Hey, you.”

I spun around and he was glaring at me.

“You want to tell me what the hell that was all about, you barging into my shop spouting shit about staying and us not killing each other and both of us staying on our sides of the street?”

I straightened my shoulders and jutted my chin out defiantly. “It was exactly what I said. I’m not going back to New York.” There were a couple excited squeals behind me. “I’m opening up shop right here. Cici’s going to help me turn this place into a kick ass coffee shop and book store, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, and I’m prepared to deal with that if you are. The past can stay in the past. You can do you and I’ll do me and there’s no reason anyone has to be uncivil.”

He snorted a laugh. “Right, because I’m the one who’s been uncivil.” Then he shifted and took a step forward. Some of my boldness started to melt away. “First of all sweetheart, a lot of that still doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. Who the hell is Cici?”

“That’s me.” She stepped forward cheerfully.

“That’s right. This is Cici. She’s my new friend. We met last night.”

“I’m a stripper. Shae here, saved my life last night, so now we’re going into business together,” she said matter-of-factly.

Kellen’s eyebrows couldn’t have shot any higher. “Wait, what? You’re going into business with a stripper you just met last night? No offense,” he glanced at her briefly. She just shrugged it off.

“She’s a classy stripper,” I defended.

“I’m classy as fuck,” she agreed.

“And smart too,” I added, because that was also important.

He shook his head like he didn’t know what to make of any of this and muttered under his breath, “Fucking hell,” and then I think there was something about me losing my damn mind, but I couldn’t make that out as well.

“Fine,” he sighed. “You want to open up a titty coffee shop, go for it. I’m not stopping you, but let’s get a couple things straight. I’ll walk on any damn side of the street I please, and as far as I’m concerned, if you want to act like there’s nothing between us, that’s fine by me too. You’re the one I don’t think can do it.”

“I’m just as capable as you,” I said tightly. “And there
is
nothing between us. Already you’re the one having trouble keeping it in the past.”

“Glad to see you’re just as stubborn as ever.”

I started to argue, but that would only have proved his point.

He smirked, probably knowing exactly how much of a struggle it was for me to hold my tongue. “You know, you might actually be on to something. Strippers and coffee. Genius. Wish you the best of luck, darling.” He strutted arrogantly out the door.

“Jackass,” I mumbled, and then the girls were on top of me, all talking over each other.

“Holy shit, was that him?” That was Lizzie.

“You’re really staying?” Trin.

“Damn, I thought the two of you were going to strip down and go at it on the floor.” Obviously Cici.

“And what do you mean, you’re not coming back to New York?” Lizzie.

“This is going to be fun!” Cici again.

I turned to her. “If, and I do mean if, we do this, you’re sure you can help me handle all the paperwork and forms and stuff I don’t know anything about.”

She nodded confidently. “Hell yes. I’ll call Luke right now and tell him I’m quitting.” She was already pulling out her phone.

“Wait, wait. Why are you quitting?”

“Well it wouldn’t look good if a prominent business woman in this community was moonlighting as a stripper. Besides, we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to be ready to open in under four weeks.”

“Why four weeks?” That seemed soon. Too soon.

“Well, I was thinking. Next weekend is the downtown music and beer fest. These streets will be crawling with people. It’s the perfect time to have a sale. Open up the doors and sell off all this stuff at a crazy discount, and then whatever’s left we can donate. We can also use it to advertise our new place, and the grand opening at the end of the month, during Summerfest. It’s perfect. Tomorrow morning I’ll go and get our business license and get the ball rolling.”

“
Our
business license?”

“Well, yeah. We are going to be partners.”

“Partners? I just thought you were going to be my accountant or something.”

“Nope. Partners will be way more fun, and besides, I figure since I’m going to loan us twenty grand in start-up, I should get to be a partner.”

My jaw fell. “You have twenty grand to give?”

“I told you I made good money.

“Okay then, partners it is.” I played it over in my mind and it didn’t sound too bad. Of course she could still turn out to be a whack job who didn’t have a clue, but I figured if she was willing to risk twenty thousand dollars, she must have some idea what she was doing.

“Hold up just a minute,” Lizzie interrupted our deal making. She and Trin had just been watching our back and forth. “Me and this lady here need to have a little pow-wow.” She grabbed me by my arm and dragged me to the back, just out of hearing range. “You want to tell me how this happened? Last night I get a text about screwing the devil, stripper fights and sexy bartenders, so I show up here and all the sudden you’re moving back to town and opening up shop with one of the fighting strippers. What the hell is going on? I’d ask if you’re on drugs but I know better.”

“It wasn’t strippers fighting. It was just one stripper and we had to fight these creeps who were harassing her. Anyway, it’s a long story that started with Kellen screwing the devil and ended with me almost screwing the sexy bartender.”

“And later I’m going to make you tell me every single detail, especially about the sexy bartender, but right now I just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. You really ready to move back here? A week ago this place was hell and you planned to get in and out as quickly as possible.”

“I know,” I sighed, “but it’s not like I have some epic life in New York to get back to, and maybe I was being overdramatic when I said this place was hell. I actually used to love living here, and I think I can again. Even if it is inhabited by the devil. I know what I’m doing, and I want to do this.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “Then I’m in.”

“What do you mean, you’re in?”

“Come on, you know I’ve been wanting to get out of the city for months now. What better place for me to find a fresh start than by the ocean. And you’re going to need help, especially if your new stripper friend turns out to be nutso.”

I started to protest, to tell her to think this through before she just up and changed her life, but she held up a hand to stop me. “I know what I’m doing too, so now I only have two things I need to say. You’re welcome bitch, and do you have a room in your grandma’s house I can rent?”

I shook my head and then threw my arms around her neck. “Obviously you’re moving in with me, but you’re crazy.”

“No more than you are.”

We rejoined the other two, who were finally digging into the pizza. Over food, we talked and brainstormed and all four of us were committed to this project and excited about our ideas. Trin had school all week, but promised she would help out in the evenings and on weekends. She also agreed to work up some poster and flier designs and have them printed to hang up around town. Liz planned to head back to the city in the morning and settle our apartment and her job there so she could get back here before the weekend. Cici and I were in for a few long days of cleaning, planning and paperwork, but we were going to make this happen.

This was the most excited I’d felt about anything in a while.

By dinner time, we’d unpacked most of earlier’s hard work, started printing up signs for the displays, marking everything at ridiculously low prices, and ordered takeout from the Thai place down the street. Cici picked it up and brought back a couple bottles of wine, and by a couple, I meant four. We uncorked all four with dinner, and passed them around until we’d tried every kind in the novelty beach themed wine glasses we found on the shelf. Okay we might have tried them all twice, but they were small glasses, I swear.