It's Not About You by Olivia Reid

you two," I said quietly.  
    When the two men faced one another, it was all raised eyebrows and posturing. Men. All testosterone and no common sense. I figured I should introduce them. "Detective Kevin Taylor, meet Michael Oliver. Michael, this is Kevin."  
    Michael was the first one to offer his hand. "Always happy to meet those who serve in law enforcement."  
    Kevin returned the handshake but looked skeptical. "You a regular around here?"
    "When I can be. I bought a French Press earlier and I suck at making coffee with it. Came by to get a lesson."  
    I pulled a brownie out and set it on a plate. "I told him earlier that I don't know how to use them—"  
    "Which is why I'm going to teach him," Mary said a perky voice.  
    "Oh?" I looked from Mary to Michael as the little barista slipped between the two men and looked up at Michael with adoration. "Well, then that's a good choice. Mary's good with a French Press." Wow that was hard to say and mean it.  
    My eyes locked with Michael's. He smiled at me. "I'm hoping she can make an expert out of me." He placed an arm around Mary and nodded to us. "Nice to meet you Detective Taylor. Good to see you, Grace."  
    I watched as the two left the shop then moved back around the counter to serve mister fussy customer his free brownie with a smile.  
    "You okay?" Kevin stepped close as a group of women came through the front door. "You look mad and sad at the same time."  
    Had to cover that up quick. "Just a long day. The stuff with Sam and not getting my day off, then this guy," I said as I nodded to the now brownie happy guy. "Tired. But thank you for bringing the paperwork and filing for me."  
    He squeezed my shoulder affectionately. "You call me if he shows up, okay?"  
    I agreed and Kevin left as I welcomed the customers at the register. I couldn't remember what they ordered or what buttons I pushed to ring them up. For all I knew they ordered larges and got charged for smalls.  
    No…my mind was still processing Mary with Michael's arm on her shoulder. It was a good fit. They looked good together, and though Mary had a bad tendency to say what was on her mind at the wrong time, she was a good worker.  
    I just didn't like the way it made me feel…like the older fat kid on the playground after the bully turned my new best friend against me.  

The smells when I got home—nirvana. I straight arrowed it to the kitchen to find Kyle there cooking up a feast. Potatoes boiling, a pan of butter and herbs over a flame and four lobster tails ready for a nice bath. He had pork chops ready, all glazed and herb encrusted. A pot of steaming green beans and in the oven—angel food cake!  
    "What's the occasion?" I asked as I stepped behind him to grab a Sierra Mist from the fridge. I spotted a new cheesecake there as well.  
    "Two things. One, I've been thinking about that last lesson we had."  
    "The surf 'n turf?"  
    "Yeah." He pointed at the plate of prepared chops so I handed them to him.  
    The pan was nice and hot so when he slid two in, the sizzle and inevitable aroma nearly made me cream my jeans. Damn…food was one hell of an aphrodisiac. "You're gonna make a straight woman come, babe."  
    "Always my intention. But back to your question…I decided to do it with pork. Cause I was wanting chops. The other thing is we've got company for about two hours."  
    I made a noise. I did not want company.  
    "Now it's not me. We hired in a new tech today. Guy's got a great resume. He was working over at Hyperion in Alpharetta, we hired him at Daedalus a week or so ago."  
    "I take it Hyperion is another IT company? Or what ever it is you do?"  
    "Yeah but he's not working in my department directly. He's more into the mechanical side of things. If we have a hardware issue, he's the one that fixes it, or his team. And because we're going to be working together," Kyle said as he made a face. "My boss invited the two of them over here."  
    "Your boss has a crush on