Games of Love: Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

“That makes sense. It seems like a good thing you’ve got going here with your family. What about your brother’s coffee shop, then? Is that where you've been working while you go to school?” I asked and then took another huge bite of my amazing burger.

“Yeah, I—” Sadie paused for a moment, putting down her milkshake from where she had been sipping front the long, spiral straw. “Your dad tried to buy it. I think he’s trying to buy it actually—to take it. He said it would be the perfect place for another office. Can you believe that?”

Well, that explained her disdain for my father pretty well. Most people felt the same way about him, so I couldn’t really blame her. Over the years, he had shut down several quaint little businesses in the name of progress. He wasn’t a sentimental man and he saw family-owned businesses as an easy way to turn a profit. It wasn’t a great way to make friends and more than likely created more enemies for him than anything else.

“He’s not doing it to be cruel to anyone,” I shrugged, drinking some of my milkshake. The taste was sweet on my tongue, milky and smooth. “It’s just business, or at least that’s how he thinks of it. I’m sure he would pay your brother well enough for the building. It’s not like your brother wouldn’t be able to get some other place for his shop.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say at that moment because the soft, ambient atmosphere of the diner was interrupted by Sadie’s fork falling from her hand and loudly clattering onto her plate. She sat as still as stone, staring out of the window at the foggy glass and the blurry yellow of the headlights that sped by. Her eyes narrowed and a flush of crimson spread across the apples of her cheeks.

“I know things like this are meaningless to people like you and your father, but he shouldn’t have to find another place. That’s Oliver’s shop.” Sadie fumed quietly in her seat, blinking quickly as she stared out of the murky window as if she didn’t want to look at me at that moment. She turned to me then, and her hazel eyes blazed bright green in the light. “It’s not just business, it’s Oliver’s entire life, his hopes and dreams bottled up and stored in that coffee shop. It’s his, Connor, and I’ll be damned if Elias Lennox is going to take it from him. I won’t let it happen.”

I sat still in my side of the booth, slack-jawed and holding my fork in my hand with limp fingers. I had never really thought of it that way. My father had always taught me that business was just that and after a transaction, things would just go back to normal. It should never interfere in personal matters and should always be taken care of quickly and to the point. In my mind, I thought what he told me made sense. Sadie stood abruptly from her seat and grabbed my hand across the table, pulling me up from the booth.

“Wait—what?” I started, confused and looking down at my half-finished food sitting morosely on my plate.

“C’mon Connor Lennox, I want to show you something important,” Sadie told me quietly. She turned to the kitchen in the back and yelled over the clink of dishes and silverware. “Maureen, can we get two to-go plates, please?”

Maureen bustled over and brought the plates and the bags of coffee she mentioned earlier, and after paying, Sadie gave her a hug and a smile, promising to come back soon. Maureen wished us both well and we were gone in a flash. Sadie wrapped her fingers tightly around my wrist and dragged me out into the cold, and I let her. Whatever she had to say, she was entirely serious about it and I was entirely interested. Sadie pulled me over to the car and she gave Nora an address that was unfamiliar to me. Nora looked a little confused, but she nodded, pulling away from the curb.

We drove through the city for what seemed like only a moment in the warmth of the leather interior and stopped in front of a small brick building in upper Manhattan. The swinging sign outside read Harlow’s Coffee and the wood was twisted with still-lit Christmas lights, glowing warmly in the cold night air. Sadie pulled me across the street quickly to stand in front of the polished wooden door where a bright green wreath hung neatly, strung with glimmering lights of red and green. The building looked cozy, small, and tucked away in the heart of Upper Manhattan.

“There,” she said softly as we stood in front of the large front window, releasing my arm from her firm grip. The rest of the windows were made of glossy stained glass in vibrant colors, and I looked over the impressive little building in awe as she continued. “Does that look like just business to you?”