Seasons in the Sun (2 page)

Chapter Three

Five AM. It wasn’t anything new for me or Keisha, that’s when we always started our shifts. Was there a time of day that people needed coffee more? I knew the answer to that question was a resounding yes looking at Tristan and Taryn reporting for their first day of work at The Magnolia. Zombie like in their uniform tie dye shirts, they couldn’t have looked more out of place, if they were actual zombies.

Taryn was assigned to Keisha for waitress training, and I was to show Tristan the mysteries of the barista station. The whole thing made me nervous. I’d never trained anyone before. I still found Tristan a bit intimidating, especially for my first trainee. He was absentmindedly playing with the equipment behind the counter and making jokes with the other staff about being there. Obviously, he had no plans of taking me or the job seriously.

This restaurant was my family’s livelihood, and I took pride in my work even if no one else was going to this morning. I straightened my back and took a deep breath before I began my training.

“So what’s your favorite drink?” I figured I’d start off teaching him how to make his favorite coffee drink.

“Rum.” He challenged me with a lopsided smile. He caught me totally off guard, by his answer and by the way I could see his eyes twinkling through the shaggy dark hair hanging in front of them.

“Come on. Be serious.”

“All right,” he said, still smiling, eyes still twinkling. I braced myself for whatever was coming. “A double mocha frappe latte with whipped cream. And rum.”

“Ok then, so this is how you make a latte.” I began, ignoring his teasing the best I could. I hoped he didn’t notice that my hands were shaking. It probably wasn’t the best scenario to be handling hot liquid under. “So this is the espresso machine. The beans are loaded up top, and it will come out in a shot. If they want a flavor shot, you add it in first. After the flavor and the coffee, you add the steamed milk —” I checked the thermometer. “You don’t want scorch the milk, so don’t let this get above 170 degrees. Are you following me?”

“Of course.”

He was still smirking at me, arms crossed low across his stomach, leaning against the back counter. My heart was thundering in my chest. He didn’t have to say a word and I knew he was making fun of me. I’d never been so mad at work in my life. I never wanted to be anyone’s boss if this is what it was like.

“All right, well, we sell a lot of lattes, so the next one that’s ordered, it’s all you.”

“You’re a hard ass, Callie. I didn’t see that coming from you.”

“Sorry if I think this is important. You wouldn’t screw up one of your dad’s movies, would you?”

A toothy grin spread over his face that said nothing short of mischief. “I could tell you some stories.”

“Well don’t mess this up, okay? Do it for me.” I didn’t know if that carried any weight, but it was all I had. I knew with certainty Tristan couldn’t care less about my mother or The Magnolia Café.

“I will make the hell out of these lattes, Callie. I promise you.”

That didn’t exactly inspire confidence in me. Honestly, I didn’t really care if Tristan had a future as a barista. I knew he was doing this because his aunt was making him. I was much more concerned with my future as a barista. This was the first time I’d been given any real responsibility at the restaurant. I wonder if my mother knew she was handing me a lost cause.

The doors opened and customers streamed in. I didn’t have time to worry about it anymore. I just had to trust that Tristan was going to do his job. I kept one eye on my work, and one eye on what he was doing. To my surprise, he was a quick learner. He seemed to pick up the groove of what I was doing, and once it got busy, he didn’t hesitate to ask questions. He dropped the sarcasm and got the job done. Much to my surprise, he was a pleasure to work with.

After about an hour, I could finally exhale. And I never scalded myself with hot water or steamed milk.

Many of our female customers had taken notice of our new barista and wasted no time introducing themselves. I’d been working in the restaurant in some capacity for years and didn’t even know some of these ladies names, but Tristan knew them all on his first shift. Even more impressive was the way he used everyone’s names, smiled, and shook hands. It was like he was campaigning for office.

Somehow, I had become his assistant instead of him being my trainee. How did that happen?

The restaurant stayed busy right through the lunch rush, and then it was time to clean up and close. We made it through the entire day with no disasters. My mother seemed pleased with the twins, who both turned out to be hard workers. I had to hand it to Taryn, waitressing wasn’t easy, but she seemed to do it with the same charisma as her brother. The customers of the Magnolia Café weren’t going to know what hit them.

It was my favorite time of the day: Divvying up the tips.

I grabbed the decoupage coffee can we kept on the counter and started counting the money. Usual practice was for the baristas to split the take down the middle, and then tip out the cashier. I began explaining the system to Tristan.

“Just keep it.” He said quietly.

I looked at him like he had three heads. Who said no to money? “What are you talking about? You earned this. And it’s way more than usual. The customers really liked you.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Tristan, that’s insane. Take the money.”

“You take it. You taught me everything I know.” He smiled but his eyes didn’t meet mine.

“I’m not going to take your money.” I insisted.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He made a show of holding out his hand to take his half. Without a word, he handed the whole thing to Shannon, the cashier. He took his apron off, hung it on its hook, went into the dining room to meet up with Taryn, and walked out the door. He waved to us through the front window as he walked down the sidewalk.

Shannon looked back to me, stunned, eyes huge. I shrugged.

I didn’t know what to make of this guy.

Chapter Four

A day to myself. I wasn’t scheduled for work, but Keisha was. For the first time in a long time, I was alone in an empty house.

What do I do with myself? Even on days off, we were up early to tend to the animals. We kept chickens and a goat too, for eggs and dairy for The Magnolia. By midmorning, I’d run out of ways to entertain myself. I decided to grab my book and sunbathe in the yard. I would have rathered go to the beach, but it was just too much effort to bring all the usual equipment down there alone.

“Hey,” The unexpected interruption sent me inches off of my seat. Tristan had made his way in to our yard without me noticing. He laughed when I jumped. I settled myself, heart pounding, as usual, and looked up at him without saying a word to see what the reason was for his visit.

“What are you doing?” He continued.

I looked down at the book which was now laying open on my stomach and back at him. “Reading.” I said slowly, since it was totally obvious what I was doing before he scared the crap out of me.

“Day off?”

Was he going to ask me any questions that he didn’t already know the answers to? “I hope so, or else I’m in big trouble. You?”

“Yup.” He pulled up a chair beside my lounge chair, flipped it backwards, and straddled it. No invitation needed. “Aren’t you bored?”

“No, not really.” Truth be told, I was dying of boredom. I wasn’t used to being by myself. I hated it. So why didn’t I admit it? Just for once, I wanted to have the upper hand with him.

“I think we should get out of here.”

“And go where?

“It’s my turn to teach you something.” He grinned. My heart clunked in my chest.

“What?” I tried to keep my composure.

“Surfing. You can’t be a real island girl unless you know how to surf.”

“Okay.” It did sound fun, I admit it. Actually surfing sounded pretty bad ass and I was excited to try it. But a part of me was disappointed that he just meant surfing.

I kept my voice steady. “What do I need to bring?”

“Just you … and a towel, I guess. Unless you have a board, which I doubt.”

“Nope. Do you have an extra?”

“No. We can share.”

How was that going to work? I folded my towel and shoved it into my bag. I went back in the house for my sandals and keys. After I got into Tristan’s jeep, I realized I probably should have left a note saying where I was going. Chances of anyone getting home before me were pretty slim. I almost went back, but I didn’t want him to think I was more of a little kid than he already thought.

“So you’re really going to try this?” Tristan asked as he pulled on to the main road, his GPS leading the way.

“Why would I be going if I wasn’t going to try it?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t know if you’d wuss out.”

“How hard can it be?”

He laughed. “I like you. You march to the beat of your own drummer.”

“Are you calling me a freak?” I tried to laugh it off, but I was really a little worried.

“No, Callie. It was a compliment. You’re not afraid to do your own thing.” He paused while he waited for traffic to clear for a left turn. “Why, do people say you’re a freak?”

I swallowed, feeling a bit self conscious, and twisted my fingers in my lap. “Well, kind of — I mean, I’m home schooled, and my mom hates anything normal.”

“Taryn and I are homeschooled, sort of. We have tutors on set. Normal is over rated.”

I relaxed when he said that. “What’s that like, being on a movie set?”

“Honestly, it’s kind of boring. You wind up spending most of your day in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Then if you go to set, they do the same thing over and over again. You have to be quiet and still. It goes on forever.”

“Oh. I thought it would be so exciting.”

“It’s cool to go to some of the locations. If my dad has a day off, he’ll take us around so we can check things out, but other than that, it’s pretty dull.”

We pulled up to the parking attendant and Tristan paid for parking. I felt a little guilty that I didn’t bring any money to chip in, but then I thought back to the other day when he wouldn’t take his tips.

Once we got out of the car, Tristan pulled his surfboard from the back of the jeep. It seemed more formidable than I expected. It was longer than I was tall and it had some weight to it. I started to doubt how well I was going to do at this, but after being challenged not to be a wuss, I couldn’t possibly back out.

The beach was surprisingly quiet for such a beautiful afternoon. Visitors dotted the sand only in the distance. Thankfully, my inevitable eating of ocean water wouldn’t be witnessed by a crowd.

Tristan stopped where the sand was still powdery. The tide never came up this high. He dropped the board in front of him and looked at me. “You ready?”

“I’m not going to get any more ready.” What had I gotten myself into?

“All right, stand on the board.”

“Here?” I was so confused.

He looked around like he was lost. “This is a beach, right?”

“Yeah, but the water is over there,” I said, pointing at the ocean.

“You’re not ready for water yet. Trust me.”

I rolled my eyes and stood on the board, feeling stupid. It rocked back and forth under my feet and I had to steady myself to keep from falling over. Great. I couldn’t even surf on sand.

“See why I started you here? Not so easy, right? What you want to do is position your feet sideways, use your back foot for balance … okay, use your arms to balance the top of your body …”

I swayed back and forth on the board and Tristan grabbed me by the waist to steady me. “Move your feet like mine are.” He stood with his feet spread apart as he instructed me. I mimicked his stance. It was hard to concentrate on anything but the feel of his hands on my stomach. “Use your arms. Don’t be shy. No one is watching you.”

Determined, I looked up from his feet and steadied myself with my arms. Once Tristan was satisfied I wasn’t going to take a header off the board, he let go of my waist. I was almost tempted to lose my balance again. I could still feel the heat from his hands on my skin.

“So that’s your main stance. Let’s go to the water.”

“That’s it? You expect me to be able to surf now?”

“For that. Follow me.”

He picked up the board and headed to the water. It didn’t make sense for me not to follow. Tristan walked straight in to the surf and stopped when he got hip deep. The water temperature could still be described as shocking, and I did my best not to cry out as I joined him.

“I’m going to hold the board, and I want you to lay on it, on your stomach.” It was a bit of a struggle to get on the board, as the water was much deeper for me. He moved in a few steps to accommodate my shortness. “Now paddle.”

“Like a dog?”

“Like a surfer. Paddling is how you get out to the waves.”

I practiced the motion, with my head up, as he instructed. He was still holding onto the board, in case I got washed out to sea I guess. It felt weird not to go anywhere.

“Okay, now try to stand up.”

“Are you kidding me?” How was I ever going to do that?

“No. You surf standing up.”

I braced myself, thinking of the best and most graceful way to get into a standing position. I placed my hands under my shoulders and my knees under my hips.

If surfing on sand was hard, doing it in actual water was nearly impossible. I toppled off the board in an uncoordinated heap right on top of Tristan. I knocked us both under water. He was laughing as he came up, shaking the water from his hair. He pulled me up above the waves and close to him as I caught my breath.

“You look so exotic,” Tristan still had his hands on his arms, and his face was closer to mine than it had ever been.

I sighed, looking down at the water.

“Look at me, Callie.” He paused until my eyes met his. “I keep trying to pay you a compliment, and you keep taking it the wrong way. Why does it bother you so much to not be like everyone else?? They’re boring. You’re not boring.”

I didn’t have an answer for him. I don’t know how long we stood there, eyes locked, with the waves gently crashing against us.

He continued since I couldn’t. “And you don’t mind getting your hair wet.” He pulled me back down into the surf.

Coming up for air, I pushed my wet hair out of my face. “It’s a lost cause, anyway.”

“There you go again. Stop it. Guys hate that. Or at least I hate it when a girl is constantly down on herself.” Again he was staring at me.

“Your board is floating away.” It was a stupid thing to say at that moment, but I wanted to change the subject away from me, and if he didn’t get the board soon, it would never be seen again.

“Oh.” Tristan dove in the waves and swam after the board. I watched his shoulders, slick and shiny with salt water, work against the tide.

“I think we should head back,” he announced when he returned from the board. I didn’t want to go but I knew he was right.

We didn’t say much as we headed back. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the afternoon. Making a fool out of myself was frustrating. I couldn’t even stand up on the board. Tristan was just maddening. I could never quite get anything right when he was around.

I looked over at him, singing softly along with the radio as he drove. “I had fun,” the words sounded thin cutting through the awkward silence. We were almost home.

“I did, too.” Tristan answered in stride. “We’ll have to do another lesson soon.”

“I’m not a lost cause when it comes to surfing?” I asked and he glared at me. “Sorry.”

“It’s not easy. It takes a couple of times to get the hang of it.”

“Good. I don’t want to feel like a —” He gave me that look again as he pulled into his aunt’s driveway. “Never mind.”

“Never mind is right.” He winked at me. “See you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early.”

Again we looked at each other for too long, doing nothing. Without saying anything else, I opened the door and got out. I looked back as I reached the path that lead me home. Tristan was sitting in the driver’s seat, watching me go.