#the lacs

“Oh my god, hey, if you marry Julie, you could be, like, my brother-in-law,” Reggie says. “How cool would that be?”

Luke huffs and puffs and goes back to the table in the corner and puts his headphones back on. He has a music event to plan. 

--

Which, Luke realises, is a perfect excuse to get close to father Molina. If Reggie’s relationship with Ray is anything to go by, he seems to be the way into Julie’s life outside of the shop. 

“Hey, Ray,” Luke greets him one day, as Ray comes in for his afternoon coffee. Ray simply cocks an eyebrow at his audacity and Luke stutters. His friends snicker behind Ray’s shoulder.

“Uh, Mr Molina, sir I mean.”

Ray wears a smile again. “Hey, Luke. How’re you doing? Anything exciting coming up?”

Luke brings his hands together. “Yeah, actually. There’s this new band I found just outside of Hollywood that I want to bring in next week. They’ve got this incredible lead vocalist, too. They’re called Idina and The Elephant. Kind of a jazz sound. Really cool stuff.”

Ray nods along and smiles as Reggie makes his coffee: oat milk flat white no sugars. “That sounds great. Should be a good night.”

Luke decides this is his chance. “Actually, Mr Molina, I was wondering if I could ask you for a favour. I was planning to get some good photos for the instagram - I wanna make sure people know about us, right? - but the photographer I booked for the show cancelled last minute–”

Both Alex and Reggie are watching him curiously. Reggie looks at Alex in askance and Alex shakes his head. No, there was no photographer.

“– we don’t have a huge budget, but if you were free and able to help, we’d pay you what we can.”

Ray gives the question some consideration, all the while Alex is making faces at Luke from over the top of the coffee machine. Luke is trying his hardest not to respond. 

“What night did you say it was?”

“Thursday, sir.”

“Alright. Well, let me check with some of the guys. I have a feeling I’ve got something going on Thursday evening but I double check and get back to you. How does that sound?”

Luke puts on his parent pleasing smile. “That sounds killer, Mr Molina.”

Ray takes his coffee. He thanks the boys for their service on the way out. To Reggie he says, “Oh, and Carlos wants to know if you can bring your Atari tonight? He’s been watching all kinds of videos about it on YouTube and he won’t stop asking.”

“Sure thing, Ray,” Reggie says, giving him a salute as he heads out, lifting a hand above his head as he goes. 

Alex looks to Luke. “Since when did you have a professional photographer lined up?”

But Luke just gives them a smug smile and a double-shot of finger guns, before he spins and clicks his heels, on his way back to his table. 

Time to book a band.

--

TBC.

--

(I have nothing coffee related to say here because I am actually in bed as I write this and not at the shop. That being said, I do need to go to sleep because I’m back at in the shop at 8am), 

(Also I told Riddhi my new self-imposed bedtime was 10pm and it’s now 10:30pm and I’m literally going to forward this to her and out myself rn, so pray for me, friends.)

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