“Better?” she asks.
Lydia touches the muffin with her fingertip. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
Lydia shrugs. “That’s why you’re the one wearing the apron, isn’t it?”
The girl’s mouth drops open. At first, Cassie is certain she’s just going to take it, but it seems like the girl’s had a rough morning with one too many picky customers, because she pulls the muffin off the counter, throws it on the floor, and says to Lydia, “Get out.”
Lydia stares at her. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve been nothing but rude since you walked in here and we don’t want your business,” the girl says. She opens up a cash register and hands over a few dollars. “Here’s a refund on your muffin.”
Lydia’s pale eyelashes flutter. “I’d like to speak with the manager.”
“I’m the manager,” the girl says. “And I want you out.”
“Fine,” Lydia hisses. “The owner will hear about this. Believe me.”
She yanks her cappuccino off the counter and walks out so abruptly that she knocks down a chair with her giant purse. Cassie watches her go, unable to believe her eyes. Surely that’s not the worst thing a customer has ever done at Starbucks. There’s just something about Lydia that rubs people the wrong way.
She sure rubs me the wrong way.
Cassie retrieves her own latte from the counter, and then leaves to head back to the bookstore. Too late, she wonders if she should have offered to get Zoe a drink too. Oh well.
She’s barely rounded the corner when she nearly collides with a woman absorbed by her phone. Once again, Cassie lifts her eyes to discover the woman is Lydia. This time Lydia notices Cassie though. She has no choice.
“Oh,” she finally mutters. “It’s you. Hello, Cathy.”
Cathy. Lydia has shared meals with Cassie, she’s humiliated her at a Halloween party, and she’s fought with her husband in front of her. Yet Lydia still hasn’t bothered to remember her name.
“Cassie,” Cassie says, although she’s not sure why she cares. Cathy is close enough.
“Right.” Lydia lowers her eyes and that’s when Cassie notices her eyes are rimmed with red. Like she’s been crying. “How are you?”
Cassie feels some of her irritation with Lydia fade away. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay,” Lydia snips at her.
“They’re very high strung at that Starbucks,” Cassie says in her most gentle voice.
Lydia rolls her eyes. “You think I’m upset about that?”
“Well, I would be. In the same situation, I mean.”
Not that Cassie would ever be in a situation where she belittled the Starbucks barista until she got kicked out. But still.
“I couldn’t care less about that.” Lydia swipes at her eyes briefly. “Trust me.”
“Oh.” Cassie chews on her lip. “Well, in that case… is there anything… I mean, do you want to talk?”
Please say no. Please say no.
Lydia stares at her for a moment, as if considering her offer. She hesitates, her eyes growing sadder by the second. “No,” she finally says. “But… thank you.”
“Any time,” Cassie says.
Cassie hurries back to the store, but she’s still thinking about Lydia. The woman always seems so together, but in that moment, she seemed like she was falling apart. Then again, Lydia doesn’t need Cassie’s help. She’s got plenty of her own friends—namely, Francesca. And Anna, of course. But in that moment, Cassie would have thought Lydia didn’t have a friend in the world.