The breakfast cafe was never not that busy. Apart from today, that is.

Apparently, Tasha had gotten into a fallout with an Instagram influencer when I wasn't around and the said influencer gave the cafe a bad review. She even went further to post a picture of the breakfast cafe with a caption of just one element: The poop emoji.

Roy, the manager, of course didn't take it lightly but Tasha was his babygirl. So he was caught between a rock and a hard place at first but then he decided to pick Tasha over the cafe's reputation.

Asides the evident biasness of the entire fiasco, today was a Wednesday and we'd only attended to fifteen customers in the past two hours. In breakfast cafe language, that screamed disaster. But in Kong's language.

"Let's turn this party up!"

Tasha glared at Kong who was standing on on of the tables with one hand pumped up in the air and the other holding a JBL. Normally, she'd drop the bass on him-literally. The last time king brought a JBL to the cafe, she threw it at him, barely missing his head.

But since she was the cause of our current state, she couldn't really do anything.

"Annie, play something," said Kong to the head baker who turned red when Tasha shifted her glare to her.

Kong hopped off the table and went to Annie. "Come on, you're the only one with a great taste in music here. Don't mind Tasha, she's probably on her period."

Annie's face went even more red but she nodded and started tapping on her screen while Kong wore a look of triumph at the downfall of Tasha. She must've really taken this situation of ours to heart. It wasn't like Tasha to just keep quiet and let Kong do stuff.

She huffed and walked out of the cafe, pink hair swaying as she stepped. Once she was gone, heavy metal blasted through Kong's speaker. At the back of my mind, I thanked the heavens that Roy wasn't coming in today. Tasha was silently taking it, but Roy would fire us in one beat.

The shy timid facade Annie was putting on had slipped by now and she was freely nodding her head to the music. Seated at one corner of the room, an apron secured tightly around my waist, I tapped my fingers on the wooden table to the beat. Kong, by now, was strumming an invisible electric guitar. Annie was singing an invisible microphone from side to side, belting out the lyrics of some song. Heavy metal really wasn't my genre and I didn't know the name, but the song was catchy, I had to admit.

Kong and Annie had their backs to each other, belting out the song together and I had just started learning the chorus enough to hum to it when James walked into the cafe, Tasha hot.on his heels looking very frazzled.

Her eyes were wide when she came to a halt behind his shocked figure.

Annie and Kong abruptly stopped singing, Annie hitting the pause button with a nervous smile before disappearing behind the counter. Under his breath, Kong said "quitter." But it was loud enough for me to hear.

I couldn't take my stare off James, even when he caught me staring and began approaching me. A part of me was panicking, yelling for me to get out of his way. But a different part of me kept reminding my brain that we were cool now. Friends even. Exes could be friends. There didn't have to be any bad blood between us.

We were friends. Cool like ice.

My breath caught in my throat when James came to a halt in front of me, peering down to stare at me. Like I was some kind of prey.

No. Not prey. A friend.

"James." I sounded out of breath. That was a bad thing, but I couldn't decide why. In the background, all the staff were watching the both of us. From what they'd seen in the past, they were problems expecting one of us to yank the other's head off. It was almost funny how far we'd come since then, in just a month.

Exes to friends. A happy ending, I'd say.

"What are you doing here?"

He put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. "I came here to see you."

I felt my heart skip painfully as I just stood there and watched. In that moment, just for that moment, I hated this ending so damn much.

Cathing myself once again, I spoke with a small almost choked laugh. "To see me?"

"Yeah," he replied, breaking into a smile. "Have you had lunch yet?"

My face contorted in confusion. "No..." I drew out. Why was he asking about my lunch? Was he going to ask me out to lunch?

My eyes went wide with a confused mix of dread and anticipation, fingers digging into my palm.

Friends, Avery. Friends!

His smile broadened. "Great then." Great?

Before I could even process what was happening, James took a hold of my hand and was leading me to the counter. I'd always been amazed at the way our hands fit together. His was way bigger than mine so it completely encased it. And my hand fit in his, like a glove. Like it was supposed to be there.

Cracks of electricity buzzed there, rushing up my arm and aiming straight for my already racing heart.

Wait. He wanted us to have lunch together? Here? Right now?

"What's available?" James asked the person at the counter, grip still firm on my hand. My gaze drifted from our hands together to his figure standing beside me, almost brushing against my shoulder. His heat intoxicated me, his presence was driving me nuts. If I wanted him out of my system, if I wanted to maintain this happy ending, I needed to develop some kind of immunity to him.

Brad, the guy at the counter, replied with a scoff. "Everything. It's not like we're almost sold out the way we used to be or anything."

James looked down at me. A nanosecond after our stares locked, I turned away sharply. I couldn't let him know I was still attracted to him. It'd be better for us both if he didn't know.

"We'll take everything then." His gaze was still hot against the side of my face as he spoke. My eyebrows met the roof.

"Are you trying to make an order for the entire country?"

James only chuckled and did the unthinkable. "You're right, Kong's appetite is the size of a whale. We'll take two of everything."

"James!"

His stare snapped back to mine, and I had to recoil at the intensity of his black eyes. I swallowed. "That's a lot."

"Not with what we're going to be doing. You'll need the energy."

He did not just say that.

Brad corked an eyebrow at me and somewhere behind him, people were snickering. Kong stood afar off, his jaw on the floor.

I sputtered, "That's not-we're not." Giving up, I let out a long groan and only when I tried to fling my.arms around did I notice that James was still holding on to me.

It put my heart right back into overdrive.

With a smirk, Brad turned around. "I'll arrange your order and your check."

I wasn't going to argue on who was going to pay and who wasn't. One thing about James, he hated that argument. Never saw the need for anyone to prove anything to him.

"What are you doing?" I hissed under my breath, forcing my hand out of his grip.

He pulled his brows together and his smile fell. "I need your help with an assignment. It's due in two days and I have no fucking clue what to do."

I stepped back and folded my arms across each other, pouting. "You could have just asked. There's no point in all this."

"Consider it a peace offering to Kong since I'll be snatching you from him for a while. Plus, we can't work on an empty stomach."

"How were you so sure I'd say yes?"

His smile was back. "because we're friends now."

Friends. Right.

He turned to Brad when he returned with the check and three plastic bags.

"There are blueberry muffins in there right?" asked James, collecting the bags from him.

Brad nodded and James handed him his card. After paying, James turned to me. "We're leaving right away."

"My shift isn't over."

"I'm sure Tasha won't miss you." He gave Tasha a look and her frown turned to a sickening sweet smile.

"Of course. I guess you earned it. You're our highest customer today," she said.

For the first time ever, I wasn't happy to leave the cafe. Why did Tasha have to give in so easily? So much for being tough.

"I still have some unfinished stuff to do-"

"I'll cover for you," interjected Kong. I have him a look. Since when was he on James side?

My question was answered when he took one of the bags from James with a grin. "You two go have fun."

Of course he'd choose food over me. Just great. I'd have to hold my breath around my ex a little longer. My joy knew no bounds.