Ketchum, ID

ch 10 - jo

 After having a near meltdown in the car, the last thing I wanted to do was go into my ex-girlfriend's place of work. But after we broke apart from our parking lot group hug, Julien grabbed my hand and ran her thumb across my knuckles which made me feel like I could take on the world. I looked over to her and she gave me the cutest smile as we walked through the open doors of Java on 4th.

"Welcome back ladies!" Skye said from behind the counter. "Oh my god! Jo! Alex! I've missed you so much!" the purple haired girl exclaimed while running around the counter to give us each a bone crushing hug. "She's in the back, so don't worry about her," Skye whispered to me. "She's taking inventory so we should have at least a few more minutes."

"Thank you," I said as I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Wait! You guys know each other?" Skye asked in confusion.

"YOU guys know each other?" Alex asked with just as much confusion in their voice.

"Skye's made our drinks for us like every time we've come in here," Lucy said, clearing the confusion in the room.

"What a small world!" Skye exclaimed.

"How are we supposed to tell her we met yesterday if we want to sell the us holding hands thing we've got going on?" Julien leaned up to whisper in my ear.

"It really is a small world!" I mimicked Skye, slightly moving my free hand in hopes of drawing her eyes down to Julien and I's intertwined fingers. I watched as her eyes traveled down my arm and slightly widened as they made contact with our hands.

"Shut uo. Shutupshutupshutup!" Skye whisper-screamed. "This is so cute! You guys are perfect for each other!" This comment caused both Julien and I to blush, but we couldn't seem like it was an act.

"Fate is a crazy thing," Julien joined in on the conversation, winking at me.

"I'm obsessed. And you guys are my easiest order of the day because I know all 5 of your orders, and drinks are on the house for giving me the pleasure of not only seeing this in action," she said while motioning to our hands. "But also allowing me the pleasure of seeing your beautiful face again. I was worried I'd never see you again after the espresso machine debacle," she admitted with a laugh.

"Believe me, Alex has tried to come back," I said.

"I really have. She better hope she stays in the back or we'll have the espresso machines to worry about," Alex threatened.

"I'll get right on those drinks. Feel free to take a seat and they'll be out in a few minutes," she said with a warm smile.

"Let's go sit down at this table over here," Phoebe said. "There's only 4 chairs, so Jo, you'll sit on JB's knee so that if this elusive Jess character decides to show her face, she'll turn right back around and hide in the kitchen."

"I mean, if that's okay with you," Julien said, as she looked at me cautiously.

"Let's go. I'm done worrying about how what I do makes her feel. If she doesn't worry about how her actions affect me, why should I put in the effort to spare her feelings?" I asked to no one in particular other than myself.

"That's my girl!" Alex said, putting their hand in the air for a high five, which I reluctantly returned.

We sat down and started talking about what today was going to look like in the studio, what songs they wanted to try to finalize today, and how they needed to start brainstorming album titles. They also needed to decide how many songs they wanted to include on this album, seeing as they only had 3 they knew they wanted on the album for sure.

"Iced lavender oat milk latte for Lucy?" an all too familiar voice called out from behind the bar.

"Oh my god," I heard the words leave my body before I could process them as I felt my face turning ghostly pale.

"Hey, it's okay," Julien reassured me as she rubbed circles on my back. I leaned more into her as Lucy went up to grab her drink.

"Hey, the rest of the drinks are ready too," Lucy called out.

When Phoebe stood up to go help her grab the drinks, Alex started to stand up as well.

"No," I said to them. "I need to do this."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Julien whispered to me.

"I think I can handle it. She had to have seen me sitting over here, my tattoos do make me pretty recognizable," I said with a humorless laugh. "I'll just grab our drinks and we'll get on our way. Painless and easy."

"Gotta rip the bandaid off at some point. You got this baby," Alex said, offering me as much confidence as they could give me.

I stood up from my seat on Julien's lap and turned around to head up to the counter. As I was making my way over to grab my drink, I made eye contact with Skye from the opposite end of the counter. She gave me a look as if to say she was sorry, and I just smiled and shook my head at her so she would know it wasn't a big deal. Then, with as much confidence as I could muster, I followed in Lucy and Phoebe's footsteps and approached the counter.

"Hey, long time no see," Jess said with a small smile.

"Yeah, that was on purpose," I said, attitude clear in my voice.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she said as she grabbed her own arm awkwardly and looked at the floor, suddenly making me feel powerful.

"Yeah, can I just go ahead and grab our drinks so we can get out of your hair?"

"Our? This girl already grabbed Alex's drink, thank you for keeping them over there by the way," she said with confusion she tried to cover with a joke.

"Yeah that wasn't for you. I don't feel like causing a scene today. I'd like to grab my girlfriend and I's drinks please, if you'd excuse me," I said without realizing what I was even saying.

"Oh. Your girlfriend, right," she replied, pain evident in her voice.

"Thanks, I'll see you around," I said.

"Not if I can help it!" Alex shouted from across the room, causing=g Phoebe and Lucy to chuckle next to me.

"Let's go, Jo," Lucy said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.

The second I got back over to Julien, I handed her her coffee and she leaned up to whisper in my ear again.

"You did so good baby, let's get out of here."