Chapter 4: Andi
The first thing Andi did when they started rolling was text Nat. She knew that Nat and Tim were probably still arguing, and she didn’t want Nat wandering around looking for her.
Going to clear my head, she texted. Don’t want to see him.
It took less than a second for Nat’s response to come through.
Where are you? She asked. Where are you going?
Andi told her where she was headed and that she would be home later.
I’ll come to get you, Nat texted. Don’t pay for a ride home. I’ll come!
After lots of back and forth, Andi agreed to let Nat come pick her up in two hours. She also agreed to share her GPS location with Nat, just to be on the safe side.
Andi had no idea what she was going to do when Nat came to pick her up. There was no way she could go back to their apartment.
Boris Karloff began singing You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch from her phone’s speaker, interrupting Andi’s thoughts.
Just what she needed. A call from her mother. She sent the call to voicemail but knew she was just delaying the inevitable. Her mother would keep calling back until Andi answered. She couldn’t answer until she knew what she was going to tell her mother about Tim.
Her parents were supposed to fly in the following week just to meet him. Seeing her might have been a small part, but in all the years since she’d left home, this was the first trip they’d ever made to visit—so it seemed safe to assume that Tim was more of a motivating factor than she was.
The trip was also when she expected to get her inheritance check. The small inheritance her grandmother left her was the foundation on which her bakery dreams were built. And without a fiancé, it wasn’t happening. If she was being honest with herself, that part hurt far more than seeing Tim kiss another woman.
Her Grandma Lylah intended the money to be a leg up whenever she chose to get married and start a family. But Andi’s intention was always to use it to open a bakery. Or at least to get started. It wasn’t a huge trust fund by any stretch, but it would be enough to help her get things off the ground. She needed it. And without a wedding, there was no way her mother, and the executor of her grandma’s will, was ever going to hand over the money.
What could she do? How could she fix this? The thought of losing the bakery was almost harder to fathom than Tim cheating. Until she could think of a way to fix at least that part of this whole mess, there was no way she could return her mother’s call. But time was not on her side. She looked down at her phone to see Tim’s name and face flashing across the screen. Neither Tim nor Andi’s mother was going to let up. She just needed some peace and quiet. Some time to think. She swiped across the screen to reject his call. He immediately sent a text that she didn’t bother to open. It was going to be a long night.
***
With very little traffic headed into Wyoming on a Friday night, it took no time for the driver to arrive at the small sign welcoming visitors to Cherry Creek. Despite everything, Andi couldn’t help smiling at how the little sign was wrapped in white twinkle lights with a large and festively decorated tree standing next to it. She wondered how she hadn’t noticed that when Nat was driving them there earlier.
“Here we are,” the woman said. “Where exactly would you like to go?”
“Just anywhere downtown,” Andi told her. She wasn’t sure what, if anything, would still be open at 9 PM in a tiny little town, but she figured she could always call Nat if need be.
The driver dropped Andi in the middle of downtown—which was still warmly illuminated by a variety of colorful lights and Christmas baubles. Most of the shop windows were dark, but there was a warm glow coming from one or two of the businesses. She walked slowly toward a familiar sight: The Cozy Cup. The sign on the door said they closed at 11:00. She breathed a small sigh of relief as she gripped the ornate door handle and pulled the large wooden door open.
The sound of people chattering and cups clinking hit her ears the instant the door was open. She scanned the room, looking for the best seat. There were a few groups of people spread throughout the place, but there were still plenty of seats to choose from. She took a seat at a small wooden stool at a bar that divided the shop. In the back, a young girl with heaps of blonde curls was sitting on a stage with her guitar, singing a beautiful and surprisingly soulful version of Some Day at Christmas. And in the front, a few clusters of coffee drinkers gathered around The Cozy Cup’s eclectic variety of tables and chairs.
Andi was in the middle, taking it all in when a voice beside her asked, “Back for another Cocoa Candy Cane Latte?”
She jumped a little and turned to find the tall, dark-haired guy from earlier staring down at her. Shoot. She’d assumed he would be gone by now. This embarrassing situation was still better than the one she’d fled, but to be honest, she preferred the night to be void of any more embarrassing situations, and kind of wanted this guy to go away before she could say something stupid.
“Sorry,” he said before she could respond. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Oh, no. I’m fine,” she told him. She let out a sigh. “I was just zoned out, I guess. Yeah, another of those would be great.”
He gave her a warm smile and headed back behind the counter.
Andi made a mental note to look at his nametag the next time he came near. But, when he returned a few minutes later with her drink, she was in the middle of rejecting yet another call from Tim.
The more he called, the stronger the urge to cry became. She turned the do not disturb feature on and placed her phone face-down on the counter in front of her. Instead of searching for his nametag, she avoided eye contact—afraid the dam would break, and she’d start crying in a coffee shop full of people she didn’t know.
The guy said something Andi didn’t quite catch.
“Huh?” She asked. She tried to wipe at her eyes in a way that wasn’t so obvious. She had no idea if it worked.
“Where’s your shopping buddy?”
“Oh.” She gave her head a slight shake, then tucked a stray braid back over her shoulder.
“She’s uhh...she’s coming to get me later,” Andi said. This guy seemed nice enough, but she thought it better to have total strangers be well aware that she wasn’t on her own.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking... but are you okay?” he asked, bending sideways to meet Andi’s gaze.
Not sure she could trust her voice; she just nodded at him and willed her lip to stop quivering.
He didn’t look convinced, but he did leave her to her misery after telling her that the coffee was on the house.
Andi tried to argue, but he insisted—offering her a warm, wide smile before he went to check on other customers.
“Just consider it an early Christmas gift,” he said as he walked away.
And with that simple act of kindness, Andi could hold back the tears no more. She sat on the barstool and cried quietly into her cup.