The way he says it makes me think maybe it’s some kind of code, but what he could be saying between the lines is lost on me.

“What did you do if you didn’t know how to add up items?” I ask.

“I just did each one as a separate transaction,” Bodie says, moving his coffee stirrer to the other side of his mouth. He scoops espresso into the little metal basket, tamps it down slowly, carefully, like it’s the only thing he has to do all morning.

It drives me crazy. “I got this.” I grab the tamper out of his hand. “You take orders and I’ll get them done,” I say, even though I still have to look at the board to see what goes in which drink. I throw my weight into tamping the coffee and screw the basket into the machine, but by the time I finish the drink, Bodie is too busy chatting up some cute hippie girl in a chunky sweater to have an order for me. “Next up?” I ask.

The girl smiles. “Oh, I don’t know what I want yet.” She steps back like she’s just now going to look at the board and think about her order.

“I’ll come back to you,” I say, pointing to the person behind her, who looks relieved. Hippie girl and Bodie move to the side, continuing with whatever the hell they’re talking about, and I go into full gear.

Carly comes in a few minutes later with a sack of coffee slung over her shoulder, walking bowlegged because it’s so heavy. Bodie doesn’t even look up or offer to help. I’ve got the line down to three people now, if you don’t count the hippie girl, and I don’t. The last person in line is Adam. He smiles at me whenever we make eye contact.

Carly dumps the sack on the counter with a loud thump. “You are a saint,” she says, hugging me dramatically when she gets to my side of the counter. It makes me blush like when Margo hugs me. “I was dreading what I’d walk into, leaving Bodie in charge. He’s lucky he’s cute, huh?” She rolls her eyes. “Bodie! Kitchen!”

Bodie pats the hand of the hippie girl, takes the pencil from behind his ear, and writes something on a napkin that he hands to her. And as ridiculous as Bodie is and as much as it’s nice to have Adam smiling at me while he waits for his coffee, I still wish just a little bit that whatever Bodie was writing he was writing for me.

“Alright, alright,” Bodie says, walking past us.

Carly takes one of the dish towels and snaps it at his ass. “Could you be any more blond?” she says as he walks through the door to the kitchen.