Coffee and Cafés - Book Two of the Café Latte Trilogy

One Final Espresso

Hello my lovely readers!

Well, the second part of the Café Latte trilogy comes to a close with the same epilogue as Fire and Freedom had, but from Tom's perspective. It takes place roughly six months after the last chapter. Don't worry, we'll be covering Jasper and Ross' wedding in the next book ;)

I hope you enjoyed this book. Authors aren't supposed to have favourite characters, it's kind of like having a favourite child. But I do, and it's Tom. Tom has always been my baby, and I love him so very dearly. Re-writing this book gave me a chance to re-visit his wonderful sarcastic self, and I enjoyed it immensely. I hope you did too!

Love, Cam

♡

PS. The shot they do that tastes like a Haribo Tangfastic is real, my brother works at a bar where they somehow made it happen and it is INCREDIBLE (also will get you drunk enough to fall off a bar stool, if you're me, although that may have been due to the Rolo-flavoured tequila).

Epilogue

Six Months Later

"I am so tired," I groaned dramatically, flopping onto my mother's sofa.

Jenny eyed me from her chair, and said, "Who's fault is that?"

"Past Tom," I whimpered. "He's a dickhead. I can't believe he agreed to go on a night out after the week he's had. What a bellend."

"I know, dear," Jenny said absent-mindedly, flicking through a magazine. "How's Angelo faring?"

Angelo, with a great sense of comedic timing, entered the room and eyed me in amusement. "I'm fine," he answered Jenny's question. "Tom clearly is the one approaching his forties, not me."

I groaned in response. We'd had a very busy week at work, plus I was still knackered from our trip to Budapest. Angelo sat beside me, lifting my head briefly so he could get comfy and then putting my head in his lap. My groan turned to a blissful sigh as he started rubbing my forehead to ease the tension.

"You're worse than Bonnie," Jenny said, referencing Jasper's cat.

I stuck my tongue out at her. "When's mum getting home?"

Jenny checked her phone for the time. "An hour. She's already picked out what she's wearing, though, so she won't take too long to get ready." She eyed me and Angelo. "You guys have chosen what you're wearing, right?"

I sighed. "Yes, mother."

Angelo nodded dutifully. "Picked it out yesterday."

"Good, I don't want a repeat of last time," she said solemnly, clearly thinking back to the last time we'd tried to coordinate a night out and wound up with me crying 'I have nothing to wear' while surrounded by about four hundred items of clothing.

"I'm going to take a shower and some paracetamol," I stretched out lazily and tried to get up in one smooth motion.

Angelo kissed my cheek before I got off the sofa. "Have some coffee."

"Have some coffee," I snorted. "As though that hadn't crossed my mind a thousand times."

******

Tonight was the night Jasper had put together for all of us; a night out in our old haunt, Fruits. I hadn't been in a year or so, and it looked exactly the same. Except for our group. My mothers were nearing their fifties now, having declared the year previously that they now considered themselves to be real adults. They had also declared the rest of us old enough that they didn't need to mother hen us anymore, and had then planned to get absolutely wasted at the club.