“Hey, Barnaby,” Michelle said to him as he walked towards the collection area of the counter. “Why the long face?”

  He raised his head quickly, as if startled at hearing his name being called. “Oh, Michelle? Right, you work here. Hi.”

  The usual rge smile he gave to everyone he greeted or acknowledged was missing. Instead, he stayed gloomy-looking.

  “You okay? That’s a lot of cheesecake you ordered at one go.”

  “Sure,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “I just feel like eating a lot, you know?”

  Michelle nodded. It was clear he wasn’t in the mood to share what he was feeling.

  “Well, I hope you like it. The cheesecake is really good.”

  Shortly after, Nick served him his five slices of cheesecake, and Barnaby walked off to one of their unoccupied tables with his tray of food.

  “So what was up with him?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” Michelle cocked her head to the side and considered Barnaby’s slouched shoulders. “He didn’t want to say.”

  At his table, Barnaby picked out a chunk of cheesecake with his fork and put it in his mouth. His expression remained unchanged. The food didn’t seem to be cheering him up.

  “Hmm.”

  Nick got distracted by a new customer waiting for him to take his order at the cash register. As they got busy with a new wave of customers wanting takeout coffee and food, thoughts of Barnaby’s unusual behavior slipped from Michelle’s mind.

  The time for her meal break approached as she worked. Business had slowed to the pace of a snail’s glide at this point. Michelle cleaned the blenders and sink, thinking about the turkey sandwich waiting for her in her bag.

  Upon sensing Nick approaching her, she lifted her head curiously.

  “Look at him,” he whispered, nodding in the direction of Barnaby’s table. “He looks crushed. Maybe he got turned down by a girl.”

  Michelle snorted. “I hate to break it to you, but not everything is about dating.”

  Like Barnaby was now, Nick had seemed to be in constant search of a girlfriend. Unlike Barnaby, he hadn’t just sat around waiting for a girlfriend to fall into his p from the sky—he’d flirted with girls all the time and frequently gone out on dates. He’d managed to nd a girlfriend—it was their mutual part-time coworker Alicia, actually—a few months ago, so it’d obviously worked for him.

  If Barnaby wanted a girlfriend that much, Michelle was of the opinion that he should start asking girls out instead of only talking about how much he wanted to be in a retionship.

  He scoffed back at her. “According to you, nothing is about dating. I’m just being concerned for your friend.”

  "You're concerned for your boredom," she corrected. “That’s why you stick your nose in everyone's lives while you're at work."

  It was true. Thanks to him, she learnt all kinds of interesting but often useless fun facts like the names of Mrs. Wiggins’ grandchildren, the drama at the nail salon in the next town over a dy named Mirabelle was involved in, and how massively ctose-intolerant old Mr. Bailey was.

  “Come on, just brewing coffee gets boring,” he said. “Why do you think your friend’s so sad?”

  “Probably because there’s a nosy café employee specuting about his life.” She set the cloth she was wringing aside. “I’m taking my break.”

  “Boring.”

  He followed her to the back, where she took her apron off and grabbed her backpack from the staff cabinet.

  “Why don’t you go sit with him for your break? Find out what’s wrong with him.”

  She had just been about to sit at the small table in the employee backroom for lunch, but Michelle paused. It wasn’t a bad idea. Jennifer, their employer and the owner of the Ray and Parker, set up the little table in the back for them to have their meals there away from the customers if they wanted, but they were also free to sit at one of the regur café tables for their meals if there was space.

  “You know what? I will.” She was also curious about Barnaby’s abnormal mood. “I’ll give him my drink today and make him something.”

  They had a free beverage for every shift they worked as part-time staff, but Michelle sometimes gave hers away to a friend if they visited her at work. Barnaby hadn’t ordered a drink earlier. Maybe he would appreciate a free frappe to wash his food down.

  Nick looked pleased. “Even better. I bet he’d be willing to tell you what’s up if you did. I’ll make the drink for you. Just come collect it once I’m done.”

  Both exasperated and amused by his nosiness whenever he got bored at work, Michelle thanked him and told him to make a simple vanil frappe. After getting her turkey sandwich out, she stuffed her bag back into the cabinet.

  “Tell me if there’s something interesting,” he reminded her.

  She turned to stick her tongue out at him before opening the door into the main café area.

  “Who says I’m telling you anything?”

  She ignored whatever Nichos was saying in response, shutting the door behind her.

  Barnaby was slumped over at his table, staring miserably at the two cheesecake slices that were still standing. He tilted his head up just enough to make eye contact with Michelle when she got nearer.

  “Hey,” Michelle said, sitting down on the chair opposite him. “Doesn’t seem like you’re fine. Is Landon okay?”

  He seemed shocked for a moment, shaking his head rapidly. “No, no, Landon’s fine. This doesn’t have anything to do with him. I just … ” He sighed, pulling himself upright in his seat. “I got rejected.”

  Not expecting Nichos’ specution to be so accurate, Michelle nearly fell out of her seat.

  “Like, from an audition?” she asked, trying not to make assumptions.

  Not everything was about dating.

  “By a girl.”

  Okay, except that this case in particur was about dating. She already regretted sitting here with him. Why was everything about dating? She was sure there would be plenty of other people who would be happy to comfort him.

  She spotted Nick waving at her with his arm raised high for attention. He pointed to the vanil frappe he had pced on the countertop.

  “Be right back.”

  Michelle collected the drink and returned, pcing it on the table beside the ptes of cheesecake slices.

  At Barnaby’s obvious surprise, she said, “For you. It’s on me.”

  “Really? Thanks.”

  He took a long sip from it. There was finally a tiny smile on his face.

  “You’re welcome.” She got her sandwich out of the Tupperware and took a big bite. “You look really sad, though. And you still haven’t finished your cheesecake. Is it that bad?”

  “The truth is, there’s this girl I really like,” he said. “I’ve liked her for a long time, but I never had the courage to tell her because I was scared she’d turn me down. But you inspired me the other day.”

  “Me?” Michelle nearly choked on her mouthful of bread and turkey.

  “You’ve been wanting a boyfriend for a long time, right?”

  “No, I was just annoyed my friends kept getting boyfriends.”

  He waved her statement away. “Same thing.”

  It certainly wasn’t, but Michelle wasn’t about to argue with a guy who looked like he was about to fall to the ground and burst into tears and then pass out from the dehydration. Now that she had a better view of his face, those were some incredibly puffy eyes.

  “I thought that if Michelle could get a boyfriend, I could at least ask the girl I liked out.”

  It felt like somewhere in that statement was an insult that she should be offended at, but Michelle was too busy trying to follow his logic to have the capacity to get upset.

  “Who is it?”

  He slumped in his chair again. “It doesn’t matter anymore. She said she could never like me like that. I feel like I’m dying inside. All my organs are dying a slow, painful death.”

  Michelle was horrified at his description. She’d seen Hailey cry over a guy before she and Carter were ever a thing, but even those crying fits were quelled by enough pints of chocote chip cookie dough ice-cream.

  Intrigued, she ate more of her sandwich. “Is it really that bad?”

  He lifted his head with a frown. “What do you mean? I’m sure you understand. You’re dating someone, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Sure, but I don’t think I’d die if Caledon said he didn’t like me.”

  He squinted at her. “Why not?”

  “Why should I?”

  “Is it because you’re just dating him for convenience like the others are saying? I wanted to believe you because you said it was a totally legit retionship, but I’m starting to think they might be right.”

  It was her turn to frown. “What do you mean? Just because it’s convenient doesn’t mean it isn’t legit.”

  He stared at her for a second before nodding. “You know what, you’re right. Good for you.”

  She’d just won the argument, but somehow it felt like she’d lost. Michelle frowned as she ate her dinner. Not wanting to pick a fight with this heartbroken guy, she changed the subject.

  “Aren’t you going to eat dinner? Or is this supposed to be your dinner?”

  “I was going to eat my depression away,” he said, taking another bite of his cheesecake. “But I guess I just couldn’t.”

  “I’ve never seen you look this down.” She could never have imagined Barnaby had this side to him. “Do you need to talk? I can listen.”

  “Really? I thought you were tired of your friends talking about their retionships to you.”

  “I’m tired of them talking about how cute they are when they show me how cute they are every single day,” she corrected. “But I always listen when they need to vent. But fair warning—I can’t give retionship advice.”

  He chuckled. “It’s alright. I know.”

  She bristled. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice here. Do you want my listening ear or not?”

  “Yeah, please listen to me.” Suddenly, Barnaby seemed to transform into his usual self, pleading shamelessly for attention whenever he wanted to share a story, as he began narrating his tale of woes. “We were in the fourth grade when we met …”

  Michelle’s eyes gzed over upon hearing him provide the backstory of how he and this mystery girl became friends, and how he started liking her after she offered him a piece of candy, and then how he hid his feelings for years because she had a crush on this other guy who wouldn’t give her the time of the day, and how pretty she was no matter what she wore … this was almost as boring as listening to Hailey talk about how sweet it was that Carter had hand made her a card for their first monthsary for the fifth time. The only thing that made this less boring was that she was hearing it for the first time.

  She sat through the whole thing while eating her sandwich. At the end of it, Barnaby had perked up significantly and finished all his cheesecake.

  “Thanks for listening, Michelle,” he said, pushing his chair back and standing up. “I feel a lot better now. You’re such a good listener. See you in school tomorrow!”

  “Sure, no problem. See you.”

  She lifted a hand to wave at him, but he probably never saw it because he rushed off like a whirlwind, ciming that Landon was waiting for him at home. He nearly bumped into a customer who was walking into the café at the same time as his exit, and he apologized profusely before dashing off. That guy really needed to stop running everywhere.

  At least he’d cheered up a little.

  She could never imagine being in so much pain because some guy didn’t like her.

  LotteStarburst