“Not sure how we’re going to fix this thing…” Julian mutters. He jabs at the up button on the thermostat with a gloved finger and frowns. “I have absolutely no clue what’s wrong with it.”
“Let me try?” I ask and take his place. He’s raised the thermostat to eighty-two, and I raise it up to ninety before lowering it down to seventy-five. Nothing happens. “We’ll probably have to call someone to come in and have a look at it.”
“We don’t have the budget to replace the heating,” Julian moans. “We’ve barely started to turn a profit. Between the new cafe equipment and paying Onyx to come in after school—”
“Hey…” I place a gloved hand on Julian’s shoulder. “We don’t know if it needs to be replaced. Maybe it’s just a quick fix… like a… um…” I wave my hand vaguely in the air, “…a loose wire?”
“You’re right.” Julian perks up. “We’ll call someone in, maybe even get everything back up and running within the hour.”
“That’s a bit ambitious. I doubt anyone in Silver Springs is open on Mid-Winter’s Day. We could get a human repairman to come in from Scarborough, but…”
“We’d never get this fixed before the party.” Julian groans, burying his face in his hands.
I slump into a chair and pull my hat down over my ears.
It’s freezing in the cafe, and I’m glad I dressed to go outside. I may have bunny shifter blood, but even I’m uncomfortable in this cold. Which means that the moment our customers walk in, they’ll turn around and walk right back out.
“Poor Bean. She was really looking forward to today.”
At Julian’s words, my heart sinks. “We were all looking forward to it.” But especially Amber. She invited a bunch of friends, not to mention all of our customers. “And it was going to be such good publicity for the cafe, too.”
“And we pre-paid for the band.” Julian shakes his head. “I knew we shouldn’t have booked Not a Vampire, but Bean’s absolutely obsessed with them.”
“Maybe we can get them to play up at the apartment?” I suggest.
“Maybe…” Julian sounds skeptical, and I don’t blame him.
Not a Vampire is the hottest up and coming band in the supe community. We just got lucky that the drummer is from Silver Springs, and they were passing through town. Otherwise, we never would have been able to book them. Playing in our living room would be an insult.
I sigh. “We could just try to figure out how to fix the thermostat on our own?”
“Us?” Julian stares at me in disbelief.
I nod. “You know what we have?”
“Delusions of grandeur?” Julian rolls his eyes.
“Har har. Guess again.”
“Fine, what?” Julian looks at me hopefully. “Wait… don’t tell me you want me to use magic! You know that’s not a good idea. Remember the time—”
“No magic. Definitely no magic.”
“What, then?”
I hold up my phone. “The Internet.”
“The Internet?” Julian stares at me like I’ve gone insane. “Even if we could find the instruction manual or whatever, we don’t even know what’s wrong with this thing.”
“But we can figure it out.” I lean forward in my chair. “Back home, if I didn’t know how to do something, I had to ask someone to teach me. And half the time, the answer was no.”
“That sucks, man. But unless one of the things they did teach you was how to fix a thermostat—”
“You know we didn’t have thermostats, or central heating. That’s not the point.” I shake my head. “I started sneaking off to the town library when I was eight. Found out how to do things no one wanted me to know about. Things that were a lot harder than fixing a thermostat.”
“Like what?” Julian asks curiously.
“I learned how to use a computer in the first place.” I raise an eyebrow. “Wasn’t easy. Studied science and history… anything they didn’t teach in our community. Got my GED. Applied to college. Rented an apartment. I didn’t know how to do any of that, Juli, and I had no one to ask. Not even the librarian, in case my parents somehow found out. I had to learn everything on my own using the Internet. It’s how I survived. And it’s how we’re going to fix this thermostat.”
“You really think so?” Julian asks hopefully, and I grin.
“I know so. And we’ll have it up and running before the party.”
I unlock my phone and start to search. Julian does the same, but after a few minutes of muttering about how cold it is, he gets to his feet.
“I’ll go make some Cozy Cocoas, keep us warm,” he says proudly. It took him months to perfect that recipe—and the spell that goes along with it. He had to practice outside, too, in case anything blew up… but he did it! Made sure each drink came with a custom foam drawing of a cozy scene that warmed the drinker up from inside. Not just any random scene, either, but a custom one summoned right out of the drinker’s mind.
I focus on my research, opening tab after tab and making notes until Julian returns with to-go cups.
“Did you find anything?” he asks, handing me my drink.
I take off the lid, take a sip, and a scene unfolds in the foam. Me and Amber are curled up on the couch, watching a movie on my laptop. We’re sharing a blanket, I’ve got an arm around her, the scene so perfect that it warms my heart as much as the cocoa warms my body.
“I made a list,” I tell Julian as he takes a sip of his own drink.
“Where do we start?” he asks, watching his foam take shape. Then, his eyes widen and he replaces the lid so quickly some of the dark brown liquid spills over the side. His cheeks take on a bright red hue, and I realize his cozy scene must be of the naked variety.
“Hey Julian…” I say, planning on teasing him, then change my mind. We don’t have time to sneak upstairs and join Amber in the shower. Not when she’s depending on us to fix the heating, shovel the street in front of the cafe, and decorate before the party starts.
Even thinking about joining my mate for some naked fun makes me warm, and I feel myself starting to sweat. Julian tugs on his scarf, and I realize it must be having the same effect on him.
“Let’s start outside.” I set down my cocoa, and we grab two shovels from the storage closet. Then the two of us rush out the front door, because it’s either that or a cold shower… which, with Amber still upstairs, is definitely not an option.
“Did you fix the heating?” Wes looks up from the stretch of street he’s shoveling as we step outside. He’s actually made a semi-decent dent in it, clearing about a quarter of the sidewalk, but new snow keeps falling, and there’s still a lot of work left to do. Work that will take a lot longer without our help.
“Sorry, man, but not yet. We’re going to start by checking the exhaust vents…” I hold out my phone and show Julian and Wes some photos. “Says here most houses have built-in safety mechanisms that will shut off the heating if the vents get blocked.”
We all turn to look at the side of the cafe which is covered by a waist-deep wall of snow that’s growing higher by the minute.