“He’s got game for being young and he was in to you. Girlfriend. Like, I felt second-hand vibes just from being near you. He’s cute. Way to go.” She hit her hip against mine and changed her look to a more serious one. “I am sorry I interrupted like that. It was a dick move.”
“Don’t worry, it’s probably best. I don’t think I can balance working on all this and dating right now. So it would be easier to tell him that over text than in person.”
“You arenotsaying no to that cutie. Amber. Live a little, girl.” Her phone went off and she cursed. “I gotta go. Goddamn group projects can kiss my ass.”
She left just as loudly as she’d entered and I used the couple of minutes before my next class to gather my thoughts. Too much was going on in my head between Jeff, my uncle, thearticlesI was supposed to be writing and the real senior project I needed to start working on if I wanted to graduate on time. Coffee.
That was what I needed. Coffee.
My Thursday afternoon class didn’t take attendance and if I was little late, it wouldn’t make a difference so I chose a swanky coffee shop located right off the main strip. They had the best drip coffee and just the thought of it made me warmer. I adjusted my scarf to cover my face and made the trek there in ten minutes. There were only a couple of people ahead of me in line and I made a plan of how to start balancing my spiraling semester. Priorities, sorted by high and low needs, and dividing my time based on the need. If that meant less time with Jeff, then so be it.
Even if the thought of not seeing him didn’t please me.
“Next!” the barista yelled, and I placed my order and moved to the counter. It was ready within two minutes and I brought the cup to my lips with a heavy sigh. It tasted like caramel heaven with the added creamer and my mom’s nagging voice about unnecessary sugar didn’t even cross my mind.Progress.Even if it was as minor as enjoying a sugary drink, I didn’t feel bad about it and that notion had me smiling.
But the joy didn’t last long. It was during the second sip that two things happened.
The first—Jeff walked into the coffee shop, looking way too handsome for his own good. Like, the jawline alone wasdistracting enough let alone pairing it with his long eyelashes and gray eyes.
The second—Max stood in the same line and stared at me with a confused look on his face…like he was trying to remember where he knew me from. His mouth formed anohshape, as if he was going to say Olivia…the name I’d told him.
Everything would be blown. The story, my cover, all of it, if he recognized me That was the entire point of dressing up—to be just another girl flirting in a bar.
Shit.
How do I escape this? Should I run out? Pretend I don’t see him? Throw my coffee in his face? A ploy…something to throw him off my scent. That’s it.
Without thinking a second longer, I marched past Max and up to Jeff. “Hey, baby. I missed you.”
He didn’t have time to react before I threw my free arm around his neck and dragged his face down to mine. His lips were cold and hard, not unlike his reluctance to trust me. In all the ways I’d secretly fantasized about kissing Jeff, none of them were like this, stiff and awkward in a coffee shop. It was three seconds of agonizing embarrassment before something shifted. Awareness fluttered in my lower abdomen when he placed his hands on my hips, drawing me closer to him. His lips weren’t hard anymore. His entire body softened against me and hekissedme.
Like, a holy-shit,-my-crush-likes-me type of kiss. He opened his mouth slightly and teased mine with his tongue, sending a bolt of attraction through me that had my thoughts getting fuzzy. He tasted like mint and smelled like fresh air—a combination lethal enough to make me forget why we were kissing.
But it didn’t matter in those seconds where our mouths were connected and his hands were on me. I felt that kiss all the way down to my cold toes and I curled them in my boots when heslid his tongue deeper into my mouth. It wasn’t until I groaned that he stopped. When he broke our connection, it was a rush of overwhelming realization that we were in public and the kiss wasn’t real.
He stared down at me with his gray eyes swirling with just as many confusing emotions as I had. “Wh…hey?”
My throat was clogged with words I wanted to say, but the force of that kiss made me speechless. Instead, I grabbed his gloved hand and dragged him out of the coffee shop and onto the sidewalk. “Max was in there and he recognized me from Tuesday. I panicked.”
“Your plan was to kiss the hell out of me instead?” he asked, an amused grin forming on his face. His lips were a little red and it brought me an insane amount of pride to know I was the reason why. “Tell me howthatplan helped.”
“To throw him off. If I was involved with someone, then I wouldn’t have been all over him.”
Jeff made a face like he didn’t believe me and the weight of what we just did hit me. “People don’t like watching couples kissing and I figured if I did that, he would be less suspicious than if I ran out of there when he said my name.”
“He knew who you were?” Concern laced his voice and the goofy smile he wore disappeared. “I don’t like that.”
“He knew my fake name.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Olivia.”
He tilted his head to the side and smirked. “You could pull off being an Olivia.”
“Thanks, but that’s beside the point.” I felt flustered. Like my coat was too tight and my hair was in my face even though it was pulled back into a high ponytail. “It was an undercover kiss. I don’t regret it because?—”
Max walked out of the doors. My heart rate spiked and I didn’t think. Yanking Jeff’s collar, I connected our mouths for the second time and he didn’t need to warm up. He circled his arms around me and overwhelmed me with all of him. His cologne, his mixture of hard muscles and soft lips and how, despite his size, I felt safe.
