The door closes behind him, leaving the rest of us in silence. I get the feeling both Benji and Skye are vying for the other to leave.
He goes to speak, then stops, a pinch in his brow. “Still no incense?”
Oh, right. It’s been so long that I forgot.
“I, uh …”
Skye saves me. “Oh, yeah, we stopped with all that. Turns out, it was giving me headaches.”
Benji looks at me for a long second and then cuts his gaze over to Skye. “Now you know how the rest of us feel around you,” he teases.
“And I imagine so do all the women who had the unfortunate pleasure of your company last night,” she sneers. The sharp arch of her brow makes it known how little she likes him.
“The arm looks good. That a new tattoo?” he asks, nodding at her half sleeve that, of course, he’s never seen before because she started it after he left.
“Nah, it’s a birthmark,” she says, deadpan.
“Okay,” I cut in because they’ll be at this all day otherwise. “There are about thirty charcoal coconut candles that aren’t going to make themselves today, so … Skye?”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya.” She walks backward out of the room, staring Benji down as she goes.
It’s quiet. I’m caught between wanting a customer to break it up and not wanting anyone to interrupt us.
He’s watching me. I didn’t know the sound of Benjibreathing was something I’d been missing until this moment.
“I see the pothole hasn’t been fixed yet. Did you ever hear back from the council?”
I nod. “They keep saying they’re going to schedule a community review.”
“What’s to review? It’s impossible to miss.”
It’s worse on his side of the street. Every time it rains, cars spray water up onto his shop windows and across the sidewalk. It’s a pain in the ass to clean.
“It wouldn’t be so bad if people didn’t speed through here, trying to cut past the lights.”
“It wouldn’t be an issue at all if they’d fixed it a year ago, like you’d asked.”
That’s true. “I wanted a lot of things last year that didn’t work out.”
That shuts him up.
In case you’re thinking,Why didn’t you fight harder for him?What was I meant to say?No?Stay, and we’ll both be miserable, knowing you want to be with someone else? He made his choice. Just because it’d felt like magic to me doesn’t mean he felt the same way.
So, I cried and kept going and tried to put him out of my mind.
A year later, I’m still trying.
I expect him to leave. It’s what he does.
Instead, he rounds the counter until he has me caged against it. “I hope you aren’t thinking of backing out of this bet.”
The butterflies rise up, their wings playing my ribs like a xylophone, lighting up every nerve.
My voice cracks as I speak. “Why would I? I won.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to our date.”
His eyes drop to my lips, and a hundred memories tear through me.
