The Belle of Linley Cottage

Waking up back in his childhood bedroom felt like being stuck in a bad dream.

In a good dream, he’d be in New York, woken up by an upstairs neighbor’s footsteps or honking horns. Today, he was woken up by somebody jumping on his bed. After dinner, he’d spent most of the night scrolling through old job posts on the town website. He was beyond tired and had hoped he could sleep in, but moving back in with a six-year-old meant that that probably was not going to happen for a while.

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” Corey’s little voice screamed next to his head.

While it wasn’t a nightmare to wake up like this, it wasn’t pleasant either. Zach and Amaya had never been morning kids, very much night owls, but Corey was the complete opposite.

Zach groaned as he dug himself deeper into the bed. “No, thank you.”

“You have to get up. We need to eat breakfast,” Corey said as he tried to pull Zach’s quilt off his head.

“Well, why don’t you go wake up Maya then, bud? You’re the ones who have to go to school today,” he mumbled as he kept his hold on the blanket.

“Maya’s mean in the morning.”

While Zach was tempted to be the same way to Corey, he was more interested in being mean to Amaya. “Well, let’s wake her up anyway,” he said as he scooped Corey up in his arms, walked around the bins from his apartment that he had yet to unpack, and walked over to Amaya’s room, lightly lit by her LED lights, computer, and bits of sunshine coming from behind her blackout curtains.

“Delivery,” he announced before dropping Corey on top of Amaya’s sleeping form.

Corey laughed as he crawled over Amaya and started bouncing on her bed. She just groaned loudly. “Are you serious?” she said under her covers.

“Hey, you guys have school, not me, and you have to go earlier than him, so get up,” Zach smirked. “See you later.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too,” he teased as he strolled out of her room, smiling when he heard Corey laughing and asking Amaya to stop tickling him. He looked at the analog clock above his desk when he got back into his room.

6:46 A.M.

It was far too early for anyone in Lillet to be up who didn’t deal with school or going to work, but there would be one place in town open that Zach wouldn’t mind staying in for a couple of hours. After shoving on some clothes, he rushed down the stairs with his messenger bag in hand, ready to run out the door when he heard, “Where do you think you’re going?” 

Zach turned around slowly to see his father looking at him from where he was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. “Out.”

“You don’t need to be going out anywhere, probably spending money you don’t have.”

Maybe I just want to get out of this damn house, ever think of that? Zach reminded himself not to say that out loud and was about to give an excuse but he stopped and noticed the look on his father’s face. It was amazing how one look could make you feel like a no-nothing teenager again. He put his bag down next to the door and sat down at the counter after grabbing an orange from the fridge.

Jedidiah went back to scrambling eggs on the stovetop. “So, how have you been?”

“Fine,” Zach shrugged as he started to peel the fruit in his hand.

“Fine, that’s it?”

“Not much has changed since you saw me ten hours ago.” When Zach looked up from his peeling, the look on his dad’s face said he was toeing a thin line. He changed course. “I’ve just been eating, sleeping, and filling out job applications.”

“Well, I hope you keep sending them in even when you start at the store,” he said as he scooped the cooked eggs onto a plate on top of the white counter. “You have a degree now, you should be shooting for jobs higher than that.”

Zach bit his lip as he tossed the full peel in the trash. He had managed to avoid the subject last night, as Corey had done most of the talking throughout dinner, but he had just been delaying the inevitable. “Actually, I’m only going to be working at the bookstore part-time. On the weekends.”

“Really? I thought we talked about you working on the weekends. That’s family time.”

“I know, but like you said, I need the money.” Especially to move out of this house. The joy of rent-free living and no grocery shopping would only last so long. “And if I get back to it, maybe I can get the full-time position back.”

Jed’s eyebrow raised. “The position that you had when you were seventeen? Zach, be serious.”

Zach looked down at the orange and started playing with the white bits of rind wrapped around it. He knew his father probably meant well. Growing up, his father always said that he hoped that his children would do better than him career and education-wise. So, yes, he should be aiming higher than the position he got in high school, but there were worse places to work. Besides, at least Des got back to him with an answer within a couple of seconds. Companies that he sent applications to months ago still hadn’t even replied to say that they hired someone else.

“Good morning,” Mimi greeted as she came into the kitchen, looking like a marshmallow in her thick robe.

“Morning Mimi,” Zach mumbled before stuffing a piece of orange in his mouth.

“What are you still doing here, baby? You should be getting out of the house and getting familiar with the town,” she said as she grabbed a mug out of the cabinet for her morning tea.

Jed looked up from where he was cutting up fruit. “Mom, he doesn’t need to—”

“Nonsense! He needs to go out and be around people, especially after being cooped up in his apartment for those finals.” She turned to Zach. “Go on now,” she said, giving him a private wink that made him smile. Even though he wasn’t a people person, he was not going to waste the out Mimi just gave him.

“Yes, ma’am.” 

With a kiss placed on Mimi’s cheek, he ran out the door, got into the car, and headed towards Main Street.

Zach arrived at the strip a while later but skipped The Book Haven in favor of one of the other spots in town where he spent most of his time: Toe Beans.

While the name wasn’t the most intriguing to the everyman, those who took a moment to think about it would realize that they were being invited into a cat-themed coffee shop. Black outlines of cartoon cats doing various activities, like climbing trees or lying in the sun lined the light blue walls as patrons came in. Along the tiled floors, little paw prints leading to the counter not too far away from the door where a plethora of feline-themed treats sat behind the plexiglass: cookies frosted to look like cats sitting and stretching; little round cakes that had kawaii cat faces on them; plain cookies made of multiple colored doughs to look like calico cats; even sandwiches made with cat-shaped bread. There were also a bunch of plain-looking treats as well, but those were usually left at the end of the day while the cat-themed ones were always sold out.

Most people came for the cats, but many stayed for the owners, the Park family. Sora Park, the matriarch of the family, known affectionately as Oma, moved to Maryland from South Korea long before Zach was even a concept, and she always made sure that customers felt welcome in her store. That trait had been passed down to most of her children and grandchildren who worked in the cafe with her, along with their signature raven black hair and walnut brown eyes. The middle child of her oldest son’s clan, Sunny, was currently at the counter checking out a customer. He caught a glimpse of her older sister, Umi, as she came out from the back with a tray of sandwiches, flour staining her usual black ensemble, before going through the swinging door back into the kitchen. Zach had briefly contemplated asking the Parks if they needed help for the summer last night, but he wasn’t the best when it came to baking.

When Sunny was finished with the other customer, she hadn’t looked up yet as Zach approached the counter. “Welcome to Toe Beans, how can I…” Her eyes widened once she saw him. “Zach?”

“Hey, Sunny.”

“Oh my God, Zach! How are you?” she asked with her usual cheery smile. “Joon said that you were headed to New York. I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.”

“Didn’t expect to be back so soon,” he said with a shrug as he tightened his grip on his messenger bag strap. “Just hanging out in town for the moment.”

Sunny smiled wider as she tapped the register screen in front of her. “Well, let me welcome you back with a proper cup of coffee. Whatcha want?”

“Um, one black coffee with two sugars.”

Sunny nodded as she typed it in. “You got it. Anything else?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Zach said as he dug his wallet out to pay.

“You know Oma doesn’t make family pay.”

Zach bit his lip before taking out his card and tapping the reader anyway. “It’s fine.”

Sunny frowned but shrugged as she pulled out his receipt. “For here or to go?”

“Here,” he said as he took it and put it in the designated paper pocket of his bag.

Sunny nodded and told him to find a seat as she made his order. The cafe wasn’t nearly that busy yet. Only two other people were in the cafe, both standing up and primed to leave after they got their orders. Zach migrated to the back of the shop next to the kitchen door and set his bag down on the seat when the door opened again.

“All I’m saying is that you should have told me that you weren’t seeing Yousef anymore,” someone said as they walked in, someone Zach definitely knew the voice of.

“It’s not a big deal,” someone with a deeper voice said, another one that Zach was deeply familiar with.

“Um, it is a big deal because I’m not going to be hanging out with your ex.”

“Don’t you still talk to Avery?”

“Yeah, but Avery has the best recommendations for places to go, though. I wouldn’t have found half of my favorite places without her, and besides, you’re friends with her new boyfriend, anyway.”

“True but…”

Zach tuned out the rest of their conversation as he turned around. He felt like he was watching the exchange through a window as he took a good look at the two of them.

Kit Akiyama and Joon Park.

The last time he had seen them was last summer and he hadn’t messaged them much since then unless they initiated it.

He could try to blame it on finals, or his job hunt, but the truth was that he wasn’t the best at keeping in touch with the two of them. He always felt like he was annoying them if he reached out for no reason, and when he had a reason, he felt like he should wait to make sure that he wasn’t interrupting their daily lives, and then he ended up not messaging them at all. It was hard for him to know if they actually wanted him around sometimes.

Kit and Joon always had some sort of weird telepathy thing going on where they could always tell what the other was thinking, like twins separated at birth. When Joon told Zach that he had wanted to add blue streaks to his black hair when they started high school, Kit came over with a box of hair dye an hour later. Neither boy had sent her a text. When Kit told Zach that she wanted to try and make a fusion dish to celebrate her Norwegian and Japanese heritage, Joon called to ask her if she wanted something since he was already at the grocery store. In both cases, Zach had helped them clean up the messes—neither had turned out the way they planned—but it felt like he was only there in case something went wrong.

That’s what he brought to the group. He was the rational mind that could always tell how something could go wrong and came up with the plan to try and make sure that it didn’t. Kit was the energetic fireball who drove them to actually do things, and Joon was the calm one who usually kept it together when something went awry. That’s how they had worked for so many years, and Zach didn’t know if their dynamic would stay the same.

“Zach?”

Zach looked up sharply to see Kit and Joon staring at him with huge smiles on their faces. He awkwardly waved at them. “Um, hey?”

Kit squealed before she ran over and practically tackled him in a hug, her chocolate brown hair brushing against his neck as she did, “OMG, you’re back!” 

Zach grimaced as he returned the gesture. She was deceptively strong for her size, but at least there was no question that she missed him.

She pulled back, keeping her hands on his arms as she looked up at him, “How are you? What have you been up to? Did you get that care package that I sent to you?” Kit turned to Sunny and waved. “Hey! Surprise me.” Kit sat down at his table. “Why didn’t you tell us you were back in town? We could’ve had a little welcome-back party, like at that new ice cream parlor before the turn because it looks so cute, and it’s the perfect season for it. Did I tell you about the ice cream that I had in Japan because it was—”

“Kit,” Zach interrupted, smiling down at her.

“What?”

“Hi.”

“Hi,” she said leaning onto the table with her head in her hands.

Zach snorted and shook his head. Kit was just as energetic as the last time he saw her. Growing up, she was always running around and finding new things for the three of them to do. Whether it was helping her turn her backyard into a faux drive-in movie theater, or making ice cream in a vintage machine she found online, Kit was always down for an adventure. As such, she, her father, and her grandmother had taken a trip to Japan during winter break for a camping expedition, so he’d missed her the last time he was in town, but he was glad to see her now.

Zach looked over at Joon, who just stood there, looking at them with a small smile on his face, rocking back and forth on his feet. Zach rolled his eyes and held his arms open. He knew both of his friends were huggers. “Come on and get it over with.”

Joon smiled wider and bolted over to wrap his arms around Zach, though it was mostly around his shoulders. Joon stood out in the shop with his broad shoulders and tall figure. Zach had to look up at him slightly when they talked. “It’s good to see you.”

Zach smiled a bit. “You too.” 

He wasn’t lying. Kit and Joon truly did make living in Lillet bearable for him, not to mention that if there was one thing that Zach missed while living in the dorms, it was Joon’s cooking. Joon was always trying out new recipes, and Zach was always first in line to be a taste tester. As he was such a good cook, Joon had ended up on catering duty for the cafe last winter, so Zach hadn’t been able to see him either.

Joon pulled back. “But seriously, can you get better at texting? I know you’re not great at tech, but a writer like you should not leave someone on read for weeks at a time.”

“I don’t do that…as much anymore.”

Joon and Kit shared a knowing glance at his blatant lie before looking back at Zach. “Sure.”

“Hey,” Sunny said as she walked over to the table with a mug and plate in hand. “Joon, you’re already late and we need you in the back kneading the dough for the bread.”

Joon glared at his sister. “Don’t we have a mixer for that now?”

Sunny stuck her lip out in a pout. “Why use that when you’ve been getting so buff recently? Now scoot.”

Joon rolled his eyes, before patting Zach on the shoulder and heading into the kitchen.

“One coffee and an orange scone for you,” Sunny said as she placed them down on the table.

“I didn’t order—”

“It’s on the house,” Sunny said before scurrying back through the employee door.

Zach sighed. Sunny was prone to giving out freebies to customers, so he shouldn’t have expected anything less. He always felt weird taking them, but the smell of his favorite treat from the store made him a bit more comfortable accepting it. He took his seat before pushing the pastry towards Kit, but not until after he’d pinched off a piece for himself.

Kit just smiled and broke off a piece as well before looking back at him. “So?”

Zach rolled his eyes but smiled and said, “I’m doing okay, been studying like crazy. Now I’m applying for jobs like crazy. I did get the care package; thank you for providing the sweets that got me through finals.”

“You are very welcome,” she smiled before popping the piece of scone in her mouth. “I can’t believe we’re all done with college and officially in the real world.”

“We all still live with our parents,” Zach mumbled as he grabbed another piece of scone and dipped it into his coffee.

“I don’t.”

Zach’s eyes widened. “What? You moved out.”

Kit started to nod but then shrugged. “Kind of. You remember that separate addition that my dad made for Oba?”

“Yeah. You moved in there? Where’s Oba?”

“Living with Oma.”

Zach felt the scone piece dissolve in his fingers and into the coffee. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, apparently she wanted to spend more time with her friends than her family, so I got her space. I’ll show you around sometime. I have a hotplate, microwave, and rice cooker in the little kitchenette, so I’m living the dream. Which reminds me, you should join us for movie nights now that you’re back in town.”

For a second, Zach thought about declining, but he knew that wasn’t a request. It was a directive. The one time that Zach and Joon had tried to skip without a good excuse, she’d had them watch Howl’s Moving Castle for the first time the next time they came over, but it was the Japanese version without subtitles. She sat there happy while the boys had to get by with context clues.

“Can one of us pick the movie this time?” Joon asked as he walked over to the table, depositing a take-out cup and a white gabled take-out box in front of Kit.

“As long as it isn’t depressing this time.”

“Hey, Never Let Me Go is a great movie.”

“It’s sad as fuck. Never again.”

Joon rolled his eyes before walking back to the kitchen, just as the front door of the cafe opened.

Zach glanced and did a double-take.

It was the woman who’d tackled him with her dog yesterday.

She had the biggest smile on her face when she noticed Sunny behind the counter, and Sunny reciprocated it.

“Hey, can I get—” 

“One frozen vanilla latte with toffee and a croissant,” Sunny said while putting a take-out cup and bagged treat on the counter.

The woman giggled. “Am I getting that predictable now?”

“I’d say consistent.”

“Thanks, Sunny.” She tried to pull out money to pay, but Sunny insisted it was on the house like she did for all her favorite customers, and she went on her merry way out the door. Zach found himself staring after her as the rising sun shined against her hair as she walked by the front window until Kit snapped her fingers in his face.

“What?” He turned back to her and immediately frowned at the smirk on her face.

“See something you like?”

Zach really hoped his brown skin hid the heat rushing up his face. He picked up his cup and swirled it around. “Who was that?”

“That’s Belle. She’s new in town.”

“I gathered that,” Zach said with narrowed eyes. The last person around their age Zach remembered moving to Lillet was their classmate, Gem, back in middle school. Parents with little kids moved to Lillet. Older people who were ready to retire moved to Lillet. Not a single twenty-something-year-old. If she was single, but that didn’t matter to Zach.

“She’s renting Linley Cottage. She’s really sweet, and she has the cutest dog.”

“A behemoth you mean?” Zach said as he lifted the mug and took a sip of coffee. He kept himself from moaning with pleasure as the coffee immediately warmed his body. After drinking commercial coffee on campus for months, drinking the Park Family blend felt like sipping pure gold.

Kit sat back in her seat with a raised brow. “You’ve met?”

“Her ‘dog’ ran me over yesterday.”

Zach did not like the wide grin growing on her face as she leaned forward. “Oh my God, you had a meet-cute.”

“A meet-cu…” Suddenly years of all the terms he learned from being forced to sit and rewatch Kit’s favorite rom-com movies for her birthday flooded his brain. “No, no, this is not one of your rom-coms, Katrina.”

“You never know, Zachary. I happen to know that she moved here by herself,” she said with a nonchalant shrug as she took another piece of scone.

“That doesn’t matter,” Zach said, cringing as his voice cracked a bit. He took another sip of his coffee and put down the mug. “I’m only here until I find a full-time gig in New York. I don’t have time to date.” 

That wiped the smile off Kit’s face. “You’re planning on leaving?” 

“If I had a job, I’d already be gone. I mean, who wants to be stuck in Lillet all their life?”

Kit shrugged. “Sure. I guess,” she said as she picked her goodies off the table. “Well, I’m gonna head out. I just got a job at Town Hall.”

“Really?” Zach asked. Kit had done a degree in public relations, but she never said anything about wanting to work at Town Hall. That had been her mother and grandmother’s thing, as town historian and mayor, respectively.

“Yeah, Grandma’s gonna put me to work. See you guys later.” Kit waved at Joon who was coming out the back before pointing at Zach. “Get better at answering your texts.”

As she left, Joon came to stand by him with a floury apron on, and a mug in hand. “So, what are you going to be doing for the rest of the day?” he asked as he took a sip of his drink.

“The same thing that I’ve been doing for the last few weeks,” he said as he pulled out his laptop out of his bag and opened it up. “Looking for a job.”

Joon gave him a coy smile. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” Joon went back to his post as Zach stared back at his screen. “I’m gonna need it.”

Zach Library’s Instagram Story

Thank you all for the congratulatory comments on my last post! Happy to finally have my degree and, if you need the help of somebody with an English degree, I’m your man.