Chapter Six
Tuesday
I couldn’t quite place her accent, though my guess was somewhere in Europe. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Get in.” She pointed to the back seat, and the authority in her voice meant it was not up for debate.
The suffocating scent of new leather and old cigar smoke permeated the small space. I settled in with my purse and caught the woman’s eye through the rearview mirror. “Thank you,” I said. “What’s your name?”
The woman glowered through the mirror, though perhaps that was simply how her face was. “Chiara.”
The car drove so smoothly, I only knew we were moving when the outside shifted through the window. “Are you friends with Alex?”
“We work together.”
Not a woman of many words. She probably had much better things to do than chauffeur some ‘friend’ of her coworker. I settled in for a discomforting car ride, the engine so quiet I had to focus to hear it even in the quiet morning.
But Tortalgan Coffee Co did eventually appear. “Thanks again,” I said, vacating the moment the car was in park. The best thanks I could give was to leave quickly.
The tinkling bell greeted me, along with a bombardment of words from Liam. “Terra!” He jumped over the counter, inspecting me like some ghost. “Do you not have your phone?”
I glanced at the device, realizing I had seven unread messages and even more missed calls. “Sorry, just had a tense car ride. Why are you so worked up?”
“Your bike was here. You’re okay?”
Relief struck hard enough to leave me lightheaded. “Oh! Yes, I’m fine. I got a ride home last night because of the storm.”
The feeling seemed mutual, given Liam’s relaxing posture. “From your mom?”
“No, from—” Dammit. Once again, I’d lost the chance to lie, and the longer the suspicious silence went, the more ‘Uber’ sounded like bullshit. I braced myself for the truth. “…from Alex, actually.”
Liam visibly fought whatever stupid grin tried to break through. “Oh, really?”
“She stopped by to drop off her business card and offered me a ride home.”
Liam was rapidly failing his battle against his own ego, his cheeky smile breaking through. “Came by to drop off her phone number, eh?”
“Because of the stalking thing!” I scowled, marching to the back to drop off my things.
Liam followed, of course. “But you accepted the ride?”
“Ten minutes in a car with anyone is better than an hour in the rain.”
“I’m sure you hated every second of it.”
I glowered. “It wasn’t unpleasant. I—” I wasn’t about to admit we’d made out, but Liam was gonna know something was up. “I don’t know what to call this, so interrogating me isn’t going to help.”
“Hey, if nothing else, she’s rich. Have some fun. Maybe you’ll find you actually like having standards in your dating life.”
He could be such a bastard. But he left before I could come up with a spicy enough retort.
Soon enough, I was clocked in and apron’d up. The clock ticked slower and slower, the already sparse energy of 6 AM leaving me drained as I scrubbed the very-clean counter to give my hands something to do.
Liam interrupted my anxious actions. “So, the car that dropped you off—”
“Was not Alex,” I finished, lest his clever mind wander too close to the truth. “She just arranged for the ride.”
“Such a gentlewoman.”
He handed me the order of plain espresso, and I resisted tossing it on his apron.
By 8, I was positively restless, even as a line actually formed. But finally—finally—Alex walked in with her usual swagger and stupid slutty gym gear.
Be normal, be normal, be normal—
“Welcome to Tortalgan Coffee Co,” Liam said, stealing my line. “Triple shot black coffee?” Before I could get a word in, he added, “Terra, you should take your break after this order.”
“Why would—”
He coughed, which was when I realized I was an idiot.
Alex leaned coolly against the counter, her smirk indicating that she also knew I was an idiot. “So, he knows.”
“He knows you drove me home last night.” I took her card, quickly swiping her total for the abomination drink.
“Which indicates there might be more for me to know,” Liam said in his stupid sing-song-failed-Broadway-wannabe voice, “but you enjoy your break, okay?”
It was rather kind of him, given there was a line behind Alex. “As you can see, he’s thrilled,” I said, offering back the card. “I’ll be right back.”
All Barbs asked was that we take our aprons off if we stepped outside the breakroom when not on the clock, so I quickly emerged in just my button-down and slacks and joined Alex at a table in the corner. “Hi.”
“Hi,” she replied, sipping at the god-awful sludge.
“Glad I didn’t scare you off,” I said, uncertain of my own shyness.
Alex shook her head. “You couldn’t. Though I worried getting my usual would scare you off.”
I made a show of rolling my eyes, punctuating it with a tsk tsk. “My chicory latte didn’t sway you toward the light?”
“I need an abomination drink to survive my days.”
It sparked a question I’d never quite had the courage to ask. “And by ‘your days’, you mean the gym.”
“Correct.”
“So that’s why you dress”—oh shit, how did I even finish this sentence—“like that every day.”
Amusement narrowed Alex’s gaze. “Like that?”
I lowered my voice, lest the nice family in the back hear. “Like a slutty gym bro.”
She laughed. “I knew the mesh would help me out somehow.”
Alex was, in fact, wearing a mesh shirt. “It does suit you infuriatingly well,” I admitted.
“You should swing by the gym. Sometimes I even take off my shirt.” She winked, but I feigned a scowl.
“You’re allowed to, but not me?”
I forced myself to giggle and lighten the mood, even as Alex winced. “Look, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay. I get it.” I did not get it in the slightest, but this morning I’d awoken with an odd sense of relief. “You want to do things ‘right’.”
Whatever that meant.
Her expression softened, but I continued with a tsk tsk. “But what you’re actually saying is I wasn’t hot enough to break your two-year celibacy streak.”
She scowled, her offense only somewhat mocking. “Hey now.”
“No, I get it. I’ll just wear nothing under my shirt next time.”
My struggle to suppress my smile was at least as much of a battle as Alex trying to hide her own. “You can wear whatever you want.”
I nodded, forcing myself to remain nonchalant. “In that case, I won’t wear panties either.”
She leaned back in her chair, heaving a pained breath. “You make this hard.”
“Make what hard?” I paused, though even I felt my tease fall flat. “Respecting me?”
“No.” She leaned forward, voice lowering. “You make it hard not to drag you into the bathroom and fuck you against the door.”
My mind fizzled out like a sparkler. After what was hopefully only a few seconds of rebooting, I made a show of glancing at the clock. “We have, like, two minutes.”
“You are on the clock.”
“Not for two more minutes.”
Alex shook her head, her grin returning. “Maybe next time, Princess.”
Despite my pout, this was the second time she’d said no in the last twelve hours. It was…kinda hot.
“So about last night,” Alex continued, actually looking a bit shy as she brought her drink closer to her chest.
She hesitated just long enough for my stomach to drop. I said nothing, just kept my forced smile.
“I really enjoyed talking with you,” she finally said. “I don’t even remember the last time I got to just unwind and laugh with someone. I’d like to do it again.”
“Is that not what we’re doing now?”
“I want to take you on a date.”
Try as I might, I failed to be cool, landing in the realm of ‘pathetic’ instead. “Really?”
“I told you I like you. I’m not fully convinced you like me though.” Despite her wink, I felt the blow to her ego. “I’ll leave you alone if you turn me down. We’ll go back to bantering only. But if you want to give this a try, I promise to treat you right.”
“I do like you,” I whispered, the statement as frightening as it was freeing. “We can go out if you want.”
“We can go out if you want.”
Dammit, I was starting to feel cornered. Not by her. She wasn’t a predator. But by a darker sensation I had yet to name. “I do want to.”
Alex’s smile was kind enough to leave me stunned. “It’s getting busy in here. I’ll text you details, okay?”
She was right, unfortunately, the noise of the shop increasingly difficult to ignore. “Okay.” I stood as she did, but pressure built in my chest. I had to say something. “Hey, Alex?”
She stilled. “Terra?”
‘Goodbye’ would’ve been nice and normal. ‘Nice ass’ would have been accurate. Instead, I choked as a pitiful, “Thanks,” tumbled out from my lips.
Her brow furrowed. “For what?”
For turning me down, but that was far too vulnerable. “Nothing. Just…thanks.”
Alex paused, her stare akin to looking at a shattered porcelain mug. “Do you need a hug?”
I shook my head. “I’ll cry if you hug me. But I look forward to your texts.”
Alex’s smile came sweetly.