I drove over to Hot Coffee after school. I’d texted Alexis earlier in the day to see if she was going to be on shift tonight.

Unfortunately, when I arrived, I was greeted by a less-than-cordial Candace, which in essence was… well, just Candace’s usual self.

“Fiona doesn’t work here anymore,” she said.

“I know,” I said. “I’m here to see Alexis. She said she was working tonight. Though you may be interested in what I have to say as well.”

“I find that hard to believe, but go on.” She propped herself against the register, crossing her arms. “This should be good.”

“I think I should wait for Alexis. She on break?”

“Making a delivery. She should be back any minute—well, speak of the devil.”

I turned on my barstool and smiled as Alexis made her way around to the employee side of the floor with a holder of three smoothies. “Hey, Sean. Here’s your smoothie, m’dear,” she said, placing the holder on the counter and handing one to Candace.

“Eli! Your smoothie!” Candace yelled.

“Bring it back here; I’m on the phone,” he called from the office.

“I’m not paid to be your personal servant!”

“Please!”

Candace gave an exasperated sigh, snatched the remaining smoothie, and stormed into the back room.

“How’s it going?’ Alexis said once we were alone, then took a sip from the oversized straw. “I would have gotten you one if I knew you were coming now.”

“That’s fine; I’m good. Actually, I—I’ve been better,” I said. “Have you heard about Fiona?”

“No; just that she’s been MIA the past few days,” she said. “I was thinking of driving over there on my lunch. Why? Has she spoken to you?”

“You said this would be good,” Candace said, walking back to the bar. “So out with it, Porter.”

Now Alexis looked concerned, and with what I was about to tell them, she should be.

“I stopped by Fiona’s last night and talked to her mother. Fiona’s gone. She left to find her father,” I said.

“What? Where?” Candace asked.

Alexis looked dumbfounded, unsure how to respond.

“I don’t know,” I said. “She didn’t go into detail in her letter—just that she had a lead she felt confident in exploring—”

“Wait; there was a letter?” Candace looked angry now.

“Yeah; her mother showed it to me.”

“So why won’t she answer her phone?” Alexis finally found her voice and asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t she say anything?”

“Probably because we would have told her it was a stupid idea,” Candace said.

“I knew you were working with her a little, searching for her father,” Alexis said. “But this… I didn’t know she was so serious.”

“I didn’t know she’d do this,” I said. “I was hoping you knew something about it, that I was just out of the loop now we’ve broken up.”

“Which still isn’t winning you any points,” Candace said.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help,” I snapped back.

“I don’t even feel like I know her anymore,” Alexis said. “Do you think she went alone? Or does she have like this new secret group of friends we don’t know about?”

“She probably went with that Matthew guy,” Candace said.

“I can totally see that,” Alexis said.

“Who’s Matthew?” I asked.

Before answering, Alexis walked over to the register to help a customer who was browsing the pastry case. “What looks most delicious?” she asked, cheerfully.

“Who’s Matthew?” I repeated to Candace.

She dug her phone out of her back pocket. “I snapped a pic when she wasn’t looking,” she said, passing me the phone.

In the picture, the guy was sitting where I was now, leaning forward on the bar with a coffee before him. He looked like a varsity football player or something, well-built and intimidating. Fiona sat on the opposite side, on the prep station counter, something I usually saw Candace doing. Her hand was on his left forearm, covering part of a tattoo I couldn’t quite make out.

I scrolled to the next picture to see if there was more of this guy, but the next few were selfies of Candace. Seeing me checking out more of her pictures, she snatched the phone away.

“I just got the one,” she said, slipping the phone back into her pocket.

“So, who is this guy?” I asked.

“You sound jealous,” she smirked.

“I’m curious, that’s all. We went out for over a year and have been friends for way longer. We only just broke up. I’ve never seen this guy before.”

“I only just saw him recently,” Candace said. “He’s come in a few times since you two broke up. I never saw or heard about him before then. He said he was some old family friend somehow—their moms were friends or something. I don’t know. Seemed fishy to me.”

“He just recently starts coming around and then she suddenly takes off?” I shook my head. “Something’s not right.”

“Maybe he’s kidnapped her.”

“I’m being serious,” I said.

“So am I. There are crazy people in this world.” She picked up a smoothie from the counter and took a sip. “Damnit. Sorry, Alexis. I drank out of yours.”

“Language,” Eli said, strolling onto the floor, fixing his apron.

“How do you do that?” Candace huffed. “It’s like a freakin’ superpower.”

“Not a very good one,” he said, checking the coffee timers.

“Did you ever get a last name for this Matthew guy?” I asked.

“Nope; just Matthew. Are you gonna go all P.I. and try to track him down? You could whip out your fancy cameras.” Candace’s smirk was back; she always enjoyed giving me a hard time. I knew she didn’t think I was good enough for her friends, but her on-and-off boyfriend was no prize, so I didn’t let her criticisms get to me.

“Maybe he knows something,” I said. “That is, if he didn’t leave with her.”

“Maybe her leaving for her father’s just a cover story. Maybe they ran off and eloped.”

I cringed at that mental picture and hopped down from the barstool. “I’m gonna go now. This has been fun, as always.”