In fact, I lamented every year when she took them off the bakery’s menu after Thanksgiving. Although, since she replaced them for Christmas with red velvet cupcakes, also one of my favorites since they too featured mounds of sweet fluffy cream cheese frosting on top, I managed to survive until pumpkin spice’s return the next autumn.

“Mmm. Thank you.” I reached for the plate as Red cleared her throat.

Glancing up, I noticed she hadn’t touched her cupcake, or her coffee for that matter. For a coffee addict with a sweet tooth, that seemed odd.

“So we have something to tell you,” Red began.

Bethany, still hovering near the table, pulled out a chair and sat. I glanced between them and noticed their matching expressions. They appeared serious. I daresay concerned. Wary, even.

Frowning, I asked, “What’s going on?”

Bethany drew in a breath, stretching the Honey Buns—We’ll leave you sticky T-shirt she wore as her chest expanded. “You’re not going to like it.”

Red’s compressed lips as she watched my reaction told me she agreed with Bethany’s assessment.

I didn’t know what they had to tell me, but I did know their beating around the bush and making me feel like I was the subject of some kind of strange coffee shop intervention was annoying as hell.

They were my closest friends, so it was with love that I threatened, “Either you two tell me right this minute or else—”

“Bethany heard the old biddies talking about you,” Red spewed out on a single breath.

With that sentence as the prelude, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything that came out of my friends’ mouths next. But chances were good whatever they said was going to piss me off.

The old biddies talked about everyone in Mudville. They acted as if it was their job.

They performed the task with a single-minded dedication that would be admirable, if it wasn’t gossip they were so keenly focused on.

I rolled my eyes at how nothing had changed. “And? What else is new?”

Bethany looked pained as she said, “They have a nickname for you.”

A nickname. For little old me? Well, that was new. “What is it?”

The two exchanged glances before Red finally said, “Ms. Naughty.”