Page 3 of These Endless Nights

With that temporarily dealt with, I went back to work, brushing out Mr. King's shepherd mix. Mr. King was the only person in town who avoided other people even more than me, but his dog was the sweetest, most people-oriented dog I'd ever met.

"Good girl, Nyx," I murmured, stroking her soft head with one hand while brushing out a patch of fluff with the other. She sighed contentedly and laid her head on my shoulder, perfectly content to let me brush her all day if it meant she got hugs out of it.

Last night's lack of sleep was catching up to me, and my eyes were getting heavier as I fell into the rhythmic routine of brushing.

"Uh, boss? You okay?"

Lain's voice shook me out of my daze and I blinked, trying to clear the grit from my eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine." A lie, just like every time I said it, but neither of us questioned it anymore. "I'm going to make a coffee run. Do you want anything?" I lowered my grooming table and let Nyx hop down. She immediately went to the big bed in the corner and plopped down next to Romulus, who greeted her with a happy thump of his tail.

A gate separated the grooming area from the lobby of the salon, so well-behaved dogs could hang out together while they waited to be picked up. Mr. King brought Nyx on a strict monthly schedule, and she and Rom, who came to work every day with me, had quickly become besties. I shot off a text to Mr. King to let him know she was done while Lain wrote down his order.

"If they're still testing out lunch stuff, I'll take whatever they're offering," he added as he handed me a slip of paper. He had one of the most complicated coffee orders I'd ever seen, and I could never remember it.

"You got it. He'll be here for Nyx in fifteen, but hopefully I'll be back before then." I'd do my best for both their sakes. Lain's incessant positivity clashed with Mr. King's persistent pessimism, usually leaving the older man grumbling and growling if they interacted for too long. Lain seemed to delight in it, though, which was all the more incentive for me to hurry. Thankfully, the coffee shop was a short walk down the street from Groomer Has It and it looked like I'd missed the lunch rush. I breathed a sigh of relief. After the long night I'd had, the last thing I wanted was to talk to people. Or deal with people in general.

Buns 'n' Roses was a staple of Lowery's Crossing, sitting in a corner building right on Broad Street, the main road through town. Tall glass windows spanned the entire front, with a long wooden bar running the length, where customers could sit on the metal stools and watch the town while they drank their coffee. The exposed brick walls held wooden shelves similar to the bar, most of them covered with plants of every variety, but the wall behind the counter held a massive chalkboard with the menu on it, which changed daily depending on what the owners made. A sleek bakery case took up a portion of the front, usually packed with baked goods and pastries, but right now it looked a bit decimated from the lunch crowd.

I did a quick scan of the dining area as I walked in, a habit I couldn't quit no matter how long it'd been. A few faces I recognized, but they were all safe. Some of the tension drained away and I could breathe again.

Only one barista manned the counter today, a woman named Ashley, and her face lit up when I walked up to order.

"Quinn! Good timing. I was planning to call you today! Or text," she added with a little grin. Apparently, word of my loathing of talking on the phone had spread. Most of my customers knew to text me for appointments, though I begrudgingly answered the phone for some of my older clients or the rare new customer.

"Oh? What's up?"

Social interactions. I can handle this. I see the staff of Buns 'n' Roses almost daily. Just take a breath and be normal.

I passed her Lain's order, not even bothering to attempt to decipher it. "Oh, before I forget, Lain wanted to know if Camille was still testing lunch?" Camille co-owned the shop with her girlfriend Raina and handled the food side.

"Yep. Today she did a Mediterranean veggie sandwich with roasted red pepper hummus and feta cheese. One for each of you?"

Not something I'd order for myself if I saw it on a menu, but like a lot of the town, I trusted Camille's judgment and nodded for Ashley to add the sandwiches. "What did you need to call me about?" I asked once she'd rung me up.

"I got a puppy!" Her massive smile left me helpless to do anything but return it.

Okay, good. I can talk about dogs. "Congratulations. What kind?" I glanced back to make sure I wasn't holding up the line, but no one had come in yet. Probably not unusual for a Friday afternoon, an hour before the shop closed at 3:00.

Ashley immediately grabbed her phone and pulled up her pictures, flipping it around to show me an adorable ball of black and white fluff. "She's a Morkie, a Maltese and Yorkie mix, and her name is Maizie. We just got her a few days ago!" She scrolled back, showing me more pictures, and my heart melted.

"She's adorable." Just from the first pictures, I could already tell that this pup was going to live the good life with Ashley and her family.

"The kids already adore her and she's spoiled rotten," she said and showed me one more picture of her two kids sitting on the floor with the puppy, both beaming.

"I'd be happy to fit her in for a haircut any time that works for you. Starting her young is a good idea."

"I thought so. She's my first dog, so I want to make sure I do everything right." Ashley stepped over to the coffee machines and started making my order while she spoke, so I followed, leaning against the counter while she worked. Talking to people tended to go fairly disastrously for me, unless the topic was dogs.

"It sounds like you're on the right track. She's little enough that I can fit her in just about any time. Rom will love her."

"I'll check with my husband and then text you, if that's okay?"

"Sure, sounds good," I nodded. I considered asking her to add an extra shot of espresso to my coffee as I felt exhaustion taking hold, but that required talking, so I just kept quiet while she worked. I could practically feel my already-limited social battery draining rapidly even before the door connecting the front counter to the kitchen swung open and Raina Deveraux stepped out.

"Oh, hi Quinn!" She smiled brightly and I dredged up an answering smile. I liked Raina, of course. That was never in doubt. The owner of Buns 'n' Roses, she was always unfailingly nice to me, and I knew her to be a genuinely good person, but she also loved to chitchat.

"Hi, Raina." If it sounded a little less than enthusiastic, she didn't hold it against me.