Drake
“!”
My name on his lips – how could I not turn around and stop, and wait for him to catch up with me?
Rafael was panting from a sprint across the parking lot; it was the fastest I’d ever seen him move, and that was saying something given how hectic it had gotten during that last part of service. He came to a stop in front of me, his breath misting in the air in front of him and mingling with mine.
“Yeah?” I asked, waiting. He’d called my name, but now he seemed to be at a loss for what to say.
“You quit,” he said.
“I know,” I replied. The corner of my mouth twitched up in a smile. We’d both been there. Did he think this was news to me?
“I mean, you really did it,” Rafael said. “You – he offered you the job, and you quit.”
“I told you, Raf,” I said. “I was only there to help you get through the evening. I was always planning to quit, no matter what.”
“Yeah, but you…” Rafael didn’t seem to be getting past this point. He didn’t even correct me for using his nickname. “You actually did it!”
“And did you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had no idea what had happened after I left or why it took him so long to follow. For all I knew, he was happy because he was finally getting the job he’d thought he deserved all along.
“Yes,” Rafael said, an offended look on his face. “I told him where to shove it.” A consternated frown passed over his eyes, darkening them as he turned to look over his shoulder.
“What? Regretting it?”
“I should have told him to fuck off,” Rafael said mournfully. “That was probably my only opportunity.”
Hearing him – straight-laced, precise Rafael Esparza – actually curse was so much of a shock I almost gasped. I found myself chuckling. “Holy shit, Raf. I guess when you mean it, you mean it.”
He looked back at me and shook his head in wonder. “You actually quit .”
Alright, now it was starting to wear a little thin. “Did you really think I was that bad of a person that I wouldn’t stand up for Beau?”
“You didn’t stand up for Luca,” Rafael pointed out.
“I didn’t know if Luca was in the wrong,” I countered. “Not until you found the evidence. And when you did, I no longer needed to stand up for him.”
“I thought you just didn’t want to risk your job,” Rafael said.
I sighed and put my helmet onto the seat of my bike, letting it stand so I didn’t need to keep holding it. It was heavy, after all, and we’d been on our feet all evening. “If you stop thinking of me as this big bad rival who came in to steal your job from under your nose, do you really still think I’m a bad guy?” I asked.
Rafael’s mouth worked for a moment, opening and closing, but no sound came out. His eyes dropped to my mouth as mine did the same to his, and for a long second, I thought he wasn’t going to say anything at all.
“No,” he said, at last. He met my eyes again and, this time, there was something new within the depths of his brown irises. “I don’t think you’re a bad person.”
“Good.” I paused and gave him a rueful smile. “Is ‘not bad’ the best I’m going to get?”
Rafael chuckled. “Well, you do keep getting my name wrong.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “I know perfectly well what your name is, Raf,” I said. “I just think my version suits you better.”
He tilted his head. “Why?” There was something breathless about his voice after I’d said his nickname. It was only one word, so I couldn’t be sure, but I thought maybe he was coming around to me using it, after all.
“Because it’s cute,” I said with a cheesy grin. Then I ducked my head and scratched the back of my neck. “And because it’s short and quick, and I know how much you love efficiency.”
He laughed, such an unexpected sound. It was light and free and utterly intoxicating. He glanced around the empty, dark parking lot, and back over his shoulder to the restaurant. Just once.
“Any regrets?” I couldn’t help but ask. He’d just walked away from a job I knew he cared a lot about, after all.
“Sure,” Rafael shrugged. “I regret that Grey is such an asshole. And I also regret not standing up for everyone in that kitchen and making a statement sooner. Then, maybe Beau might not have gotten hurt.”
I shook my head. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“Believe me,” Rafael said with a wry smile. “I am perfectly capable.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“What are you going to do now?” I asked.
I meant it like, what are you going to do about your job? I expected him to tell me he was going to apply to local restaurants in the morning, or that he already had a hookup with a friend of a friend of a cousin who owned a place in the next city over, or that he was throwing it all in to go back to school.
I wasn’t expecting the gleam that came over his eyes at the words, or how his tongue flicked over his lower lip, drawing my gaze down that way.
“What are you going to do now?” he asked. The way he said it, the lust in his eyes, and that tongue on his lip all made the intentions of his question clear.
I felt like my brain was short-circuiting.
Rafael was flirting with me.
No – not just flirting. He was… he was actually coming on to me, wasn’t he?
I looked him over and met his eyes. The question had changed. Not what are you going to do with your life? , but what are you doing tonight? .
“Well,” I said. “I figure I could see how the night goes.”
Rafael took a step closer to me. I hadn’t really noticed it before – despite all the time we’d spent in the kitchen, we’d only been inches away from each other that one time face-to-face in the walk-in, and I had been leaning over him, hunching my shoulders and bringing us to the same height. But he was a little shorter than me. Short enough that he had to tilt his head back just the tiniest amount to look me in the eye from this close.
“Are you gonna do that alone?” he asked. His voice was low and husky now.
I gulped.
“Nope,” I said.
And before I could blink, his arms were around my neck, his lips pressed against mine, the heat of his body warding the chill of the night away.
I relaxed into his touch and parted my lips, leaving the way clear for his tongue to sweep into my mouth. Along with it, Rafael swept away everything I had assumed about him – that I would need to take the lead, that I would set the pace, that it would be me pressing him up against a wall. Instead, he backed me up until I was leaning against my bike, his tongue vying with mine so hungrily that he was like a man who hadn’t eaten for a hundred years.
His hands dropped to my hips and gripped me tightly.
Maybe a thousand years.
My head swam under his touch. Everything around us faded away, swallowed by the blackness of the night despite the streetlights and the vibrant nightlife scene just feet away. Kissing him felt like the most urgent thing in the world. Like there was never going to be an opportunity after today. Like tomorrow wouldn’t exist.
A sudden fear gripped me that this was it; that his intention was to fuck once and then never see me again.
“Hey,” I started, breaking away for a moment, but Rafael shook his head and interrupted me.
“Just kiss me,” he ordered, and I found myself powerless to resist.