When Thomas met James

 A glimpse into the day Thomas met James for the first time. This is only the very beginning of their story, but I hope you enjoy it!

It had been one of those days. The hours at the bank were increasingly more erratic as his boss wanted to make sure to land a deal with one of the most influential financial powers in Aleiant. To have Raffe come over to handle all his dealings would be a significant gain for the bank.

It just meant more work, more stress, and longer hours to Thomas. His staff was incompetent, in his opinion. Nothing was ever done the way he wanted it to be, and it was his call godsdamnit. He was in charge, and they needed to get in line. He had to yell at two of them before lunch. The fact that one of them cried just showed how weak they were.

“Coffee. Black,” he said to the pretty blonde girl behind the counter when it was his turn.

“Sure thing, sugar!” she replied brightly.

He scowled.

“Do not call me that,” he said sharply.

He didn’t like this place. The owner, Kylie, Cara, something like that, was just too happy. She owned a coffee joint; what did she have to be so happy about anyway? The fact she couldn’t tell he was important and busy and didn’t have time to be bothered by the likes of her was just another strike against her.

“Your coffee, your excellence,” she said with a toothy grin as she set the coffee in front of him with such force it sloshed onto his sleeve.

“Godsdamnit!” he yelled. “Your only job in life is to serve coffee, and you can’t even manage that properly!”

“My apologies, good sir,” she replied silkily. “My apparent lowborn background didn’t prepare me for things such as grace or poise, but I see you were never taught manners or decency. So, I think we can call it even.”

She leveled her gaze at him and didn’t flinch as he returned her stare. Several tables around them had gotten quiet. He was fuming such a person would speak to him in that manner.

“Do you know who I am?” he snarled.

“No, but I suppose you’re going to tell me.”

“I am a top-level manager of Casey’s Vault and Trust,” he said, straitening his spine. “I could have any number of people come into this hellhole and shut you down permanently. Mind your tone.”

“Ah, very impressive indeed,” she said, tipping her head to one side. “I’ll just have to give Daddy a call to help me out. I’ll make sure to give him your name. He and Ralph Casey take the horses on a run together every Saturday night.”

“You know Mr. Casey?” he asked incredulously, taking a step back.

“Ralph is my godfather. I grew up playing in his gardens with his daughter, Amy. It would be in your best interest to remember kindness in all aspects of your life, sir.” She leaned across the counter and spoke in a low whisper. “I have enough gold sitting in a vault at Casey’s Vault and Trust to hire a staff to attend my every need for the rest of my life. I like this coffee shop and what it means to the people that come in here, and I like getting to know everyone from every path in life.” She leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. Thomas was stunned into silence. “Working for a living, no matter the position, is a noble endeavor, and it would serve you well to remember that.”

Thomas grabbed his coffee and turned to stalk out of the place. He wanted to yell. To scream. To knock someone over. He did not like being spoken to like that. He couldn’t say anything else to that wretched woman, though. If she talked to Mr. Casey she could cause real and lasting trouble for him.

He was halfway to the door when a woman started to stand. He was waking too quickly to stop and collided with her. His coffee splashed all over his shirt and over the woman’s shoulder, running down to her skirt.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” the woman snarled as she whipped around. “This was new!”

“You need to watch where you’re going,” he yelled back. “Because of you, more than half of my coffee has been thrown around in here! You will go get me another one!”

“You here that, James?” she said with a laugh, turning to her companion.

“Be nice, V,” he said, leaning back and putting his elbow up on the back of his chair. “You heard Carly. Kindness is a virtue.”

The insufferable woman in front of him snorted and stalked around Thomas toward the bathroom. He looked over at James. A small smile played at his lips as he shook his head. Thomas watched his lips a moment longer.

“It’s apparent you aren’t having a very good day,” James said. Thomas couldn’t tell whether or not he was being mocked, but before he could answer, James continued. “Let me see if I can help any.”

He leaned to the side a little and stuck his hand out. To his surprise, the woman behind the counter, Carly, according to James, came right over and hugged him.

“James! I didn’t see you come in! Did I get your coffee right? I don’t like guessing when I can’t see you!”

“It’s perfect as always, Carly,” he said with the most dazzling grin. “I was wondering if you could do me a personal favor?”

“All you have to do is ask,” she said, still pointedly ignoring Thomas’s presence.

“This man here…” James paused.

“Thomas.”

“Right, Thomas here is having one hell of a day. Would you be willing to brew him up a couple of your best brews and toss in some muffins on me? He’s going to sit down with me and wait.”

Carley gave Thomas a sideways glance but nodded at James.

“You, James, are just too nice for your own good.”

“Vanessa reminds me of that every day,” he said with another dazzling smile.

Carley made her way back to the counter as James gestured to Vanessa’s vacated chair. He reluctantly sat down. More out of curiosity than anything else.

“Why would you do that?” Thomas asked with narrowed eyes.

“Why shouldn’t I?”

Thomas didn’t know how to answer that under his calm but scrutinizing stare. They sat in silence for a few minutes, a few minutes that seemed like hours to Thomas.

“While I agree with everything the women have said to you, I have a slightly different view on things. Yelling at you won’t help you. Showing you kindness while you obviously need it might. If I’m wrong…” he shrugged. “It didn’t hurt me at all to be kind anyway.”

Thomas stared at him a moment longer before Carly walked back over and set the coffee and muffins down in front of him. She looked him over once and walked back to the counter without a word. He could tell there was more she wanted to say but had decided against it for whatever reason.

“James! You have got to be kidding me!” James just grinned over Thomas’s shoulder. “Why in the world would you even consider helping this pompous asshole?”

Vanessa stalked up to the table and stood there with her hands on her hips, glaring at Thomas.

“Why shouldn’t I help him?” James said with a grin.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because he was rude to Carly, spilled his coffee all over me, and then he demanded I pay for him to get a new one?”

“We all have bad days, V.”

Vanessa snorted and rolled her eyes.

“You owe me a new skirt.”

“Fat chance of that happening,” Thomas said, returning her glare. “If you had been paying attention, none of this would have happened!”

“If I had been paying attention? If I had been paying attention. Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”

James put both his hands out. Vanessa stopped in her tracks and shot him a dirty look that didn’t seem to phase him.

“Thomas is sorry for spilling his coffee on you. Vanessa is sorry she yelled at you,” James said, looking at them both in turn. Before he could be interrupted, he continued, “and now we will go our separate ways and continue with the rest of our day.”

James stood up and held his elbow out to Vanessa. She grudgingly took it, and they started to walk away as Vanessa mumbled under her breath. James paused a second and looked over his shoulder at Thomas.

“I hope you have a better day,” he said, giving Thomas a wink.