I want You Deeper

Alyssa couldn’t stop thinking about her business idea. And she couldn’t wait to tell her best friend about it. But every time she started to mention it, Jeremy somehow managed to steer the

conversation in another direction.

So she’d tell Emily as soon as Jeremy went home. That was the plan anyway. But she hadn’t factored in how tired she was, mostly because she’d missed her afternoon nap. She fell asleep almost as soon as the food containers on the coffee table in front of them were empty and awoke the next morning, fully dressed, under her covers on the sofa. Someone had set her bed up for her, and she just hoped it was Emily. Just knowing Jeremy had been there while she’d been sleeping-possibly snoring or drooling or whatever else she did in her sleep-horrified her.

Fortunately, her insomnia wouldn’t allow her to oversleep, even though she wasn’t one hundred percent sure if her alarm was set. She always set it the night before while plugging it in to charge. It was across the room, plugged into the usual wall socket. She slipped it into her pocket and headed to the coat closet they’d set up as her closet while she was staying here.

After quickly getting dressed and throwing on some makeup, she headed downstairs to the coffee shop, laptop in hand. She was a bit early, but she’d get some coffee going and work on some marketing stuff. Any future business ideas would have to take a backseat to what she’d already promised Emily she’d do. Besides, they still needed to talk about it.

Alyssa had just fired up her laptop and was looking at the cafe’s social media account when she heard a knock. The sound made her jump, but when she looked up at the door, she wasn’t surprised at all to see Jeremy standing there. Who else would be up and standing outside the cafe at the same ridiculously early hour?

As she neared the door, she saw why he was out there. He was holding up the stencils-the package they’d bought before their plant-shopping excursion and curry dinner. Somehow in all the excitement, she’d ended up leaving the stencils in his car. Her excitement over being able to try out fun latte art suddenly returned, replacing all the thoughts she’d had yesterday about a coffee truck.

Going in too many directions at once spelled disaster for any business. She knew that. She’d taken plenty of marketing and business classes in college. Plus, you couldn’t hang around Silicon Valley any time at all without personally seeing at least a few business failures. She needed to keep her focus.

“Thank you,” she said, pulling the door open and welcoming him in.

He didn’t budge. “I just stopped by to drop those off.”

“You have to come in for some coffee. I’ll practice my new project with you. Let me just wash and dry these first.”

“Well, if you twist my arm.” Jeremy stepped into the cafe, locking the door behind him. “You must have been tired last night. We looked over, and you were out.”

“No nap, remember?” Alyssa smiled to let him know it hadn’t bugged her. She’d already stepped behind the counter and was heading straight for the sink. It was almost a comfort to turn her back to him. But knowing he was standing behind her, wearing that dark brown long-sleeved T-shirt that seemed to match his eyes perfectly… He was just too distracting.

“I can’t believe I forgot the stencils,” she said. “I need to snap a picture of one and promote it, maybe get some people to come in to try it.”

“Practice a few first.”

She turned to see him standing on the other side of the counter, leaning against it, propped on his elbows. He was watching her, and the look in his eyes was so intense, it made her breath catch in her throat.

For the past couple of weeks, all she’d done was make coffee, and she wasn’t even new to it. She’d helped Emily many times on weekends and work holidays, just for something fun to do. She’d loved working alongside her best friend, even when the lines were long-back in the days before there had been a coffee shop every six feet in this town. But right now, she couldn’t seem to even muster the basics of how to make a cup of black coffee. He had her brain all muddled.

“I have an even better idea.” She turned and looked at him. “Why don’t you make the lattes and I’ll do the art? I need to wash these stencils anyway. Do you know how to swirl the steamed milk into the cup?”

“Do I know how-? What kind of question is that? I’m part owner of a coffee shop!”

His indignant tone was accompanied by a smile, giving away the fact that he was teasing. He came around the counter and stepped in front of the espresso machine, putting him dangerously close to her. She grabbed the stencils and rushed off to wash them if only to put some space between them so she could regain her composure.

It worked. She was able to calm her shaking hands and step up to the counter, where he’d already set up three lattes for her to practice with. She grabbed the cinnamon and nutmeg shakers and alternated with each, practicing a Wi-Fi signal, laptop, and cellphone tower. By the time she got those three finished, Jeremy had set another three cups down.

“Where’s your phone? I’ll start taking pictures.”

At his offer, Alyssa looked up from her work, then stopped to examine her creations. “Yeah. I don’t think they’re ready to be photographed yet. Do you?”

“What are you talking about? These look great.”

He’d never seen the perfectionist side of her. When she looked at these cups, all she saw was the excess sprinkles on the outer edges of the design, but she could get better at this. She would get better at this.

“Let me try a few more, then we’ll take pictures.”

Her words were lost, though, as Jeremy already had his phone out and was snapping away. “I think you’re doing great. Looks like you’ve been doing this for years. Besides, I don’t think Emily will appreciate us wasting supplies.”

Quickly, she grabbed a cup and took a generous sip, messing up the group photo he was taking. It was delicious, she had to admit. The cinnamon added a little something extra to it. She set that one down and picked up one of the nutmeg-sprinkled mugs and took a sip of that, too.

Nutmeg wasn’t her thing, but she had a feeling for some people, it would be.

He held up his phone. “Too late. I already got the photos. Nice try, though.”

At the sight of the imperfect attempts, Alyssa winced. “Maybe I could clean it up with photo-editing software. Send it to my phone.”

“Only if you go upload it now. No fixing it up. These look great, and we only have fifteen minutes before the store opens. Go.”

He had a point there. She had no choice but to head over to her laptop and share her creations. She picked out the best of the images-the laptop had turned out better than the others, probably because it was the most solid of all the stencils-and shared it to their social media, adding a post that read, Practice makes perfect. Come watch us master latte art this morning! Share photos of your latte to be entered into a drawing to win a gift card.

“Do you think Emily will mind if I give away a gift card?” Alyssa shut her laptop and headed over to the front door to unlock it. “I guess I should have asked first, but I figure it’s better to beg forgiveness-”

“I don’t mind, and I’m part owner. Send her to me if she complains.

What exactly do they have to do to get a gift card?”

“Share a picture.”

“You’ve never given anything away for shares before?”This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

She shook her head. “Not here. It’s something we tried when I was doing my internship. Worked like you wouldn’t believe. But you have to be careful-some platforms won’t let you incentivize sharing.”

“You mean, they won’t let you bribe people to share?”

She immediately felt defensive, even though he still had that teasing look on his face. “It’s not bribery. It’s rewarding participation. Like conferences where they do door prizes and stuff for those who post on social media. It’s all just…marketing.”

“I get it. Just joking. I know you wouldn’t do anything unethical. So, let’s get this party started. Where are the customers?”

“Sorry, I’m late.”