Charlie Foxtrot (Book 2 of Love is War Series)

Chapter 11

"Coffee is great, but also a diuretic. Water is from the earth."

"So is coffee," he retorted.

"Water is unsullied!"

"Jesus what are you two babbling about in here?"

Auden's head whipped over to the sound of Jim's voice, and her heart stuttered in her chest. Since her date with him, they'd flirted mostly through email, because they still hadn't let anyone know they'd kissed or hung around outside of work. It was almost unspoken between the two of them, because Auden was no idiot. She knew her Aunt Mary would flip if she knew she was dating a coworker, much less one with a very questionable reputation. She didn't care. Jim didn't seem all that bad, and he had admitted to her over the course of the last five days that he was told to stay away. Why didn't he, she had asked. His words verbatim were, I tried. I tried and I couldn't. I can't explain it any other better than that.

Taking a deep breath, she forced a genial smile on her face, one she hoped didn't look suspicious. Too brittle and it would look like they were at odds with each other. Too bright, and it gave the opposite affect and people would hazard a guess that something more was going on between the two of them. She really needed to have a chat with him if that continued. He'd already asked her out again, and they had a tentative date for the weekend. He said he was thinking up something, but that he would call her on Friday night after they'd gone home from work and wound down for the week. He'd been stressed but thankful that Clay had finally gotten back and was at the helm once again. He could never do what his friend did, he said. Not in a million years.

"We were just talking about which is the superior drink, water or coffee."

"Hmmm," Jim hummed. "That's a difficult choice, but I can see the merit in both. Water is the building block of life. Without water there would be no Earth and no life, but coffee is what keeps us going."

"So coffee is superior. Without coffee, we would all move like slugs and get very little done."

It was a silly conversation, but Jim took it as if it was completely normal and treated it very seriously. "Yes, but without water, there would be no coffee. The beans have very little moisture and little nutritional value. Coffee might be what makes America go round, but water makes the world go round. You don't see people complaining about lack of coffee now, do you? But there are famines and droughts, and those seem to be much more serious."

They went round and round until the end of their break, and broke apart when they had to get back to work. They both didn't relish the idea of that, but it had to be done, and Auden, for once, would prefer getting it over with and starting a fresh week the following Monday.

"What's your plans this weekend? Visiting your aunt again?"

Auden looked over, surprised, before realizing she'd mentioned to him weeks ago that she often did that these days. She had hung out with Aunt Mary on Sunday last week, but they'd gone out for coffee—Auden's treat—instead of hanging around Clay's place. It felt weird because Jim was there, though he was moving into the house on the grounds very soon. He'd ordered some living room furniture and was only waiting for its delivery, which was all he needed for now until he was able to peruse more stuff for the dining room and kitchen. If Auden had to guess, she'd say that he was looking forward to it.

"Probably, yeah. I might have a few other things I have to do. Nothing special, really." She didn't want to mention any date, because then people asked questions, and she wasn't exactly at liberty to say.

"Oh? Anything fun?"

"Hmm, not sure actually. We'll see how it goes, I guess. Didn't cement anything down yet. I still have to ask Mary what she wants to do. You? Anything to look forward to over the weekend?"