A few moments later, a coffee cup slid onto the table near my elbow and a few packets of creamer were plopped down next to it. I was still deciding between the pancakes or the cheeseburger and I didn’t bother to look up.
“Need a minute?” the waitress asked.
I glanced up to wave her away, but my gaze held when I saw who it was.
The girl.
The Target.
She must’ve come from the back. I certainly knew her when I saw her, but this was more than recognition. Every memory from the last few seconds of my life came flooding back to me.
The way the cold ground pressed into me. The way my body felt shattered and broken. The way it hurt to breathe, and then I just didn’t. The way my eyes clung to the last sight I thought I would ever see…
Her face.
Her beautiful face.
Her hair was long and wavy—dark like coffee, but with lighter strands mixed in that reminded me of the swirling coffee cream I recently discovered. Her dark, catlike eyes were featured on her pale, oval-shaped face, and her slightly rounded cheeks blushed a pretty pink.
She shifted on her feet and tapped her pen on the pad of paper in her hand, and I realized I’d been silent too long.
“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat and looking down at the menu I didn’t really see. “I’ll have the BLT.”
“You want fries?”
I nodded and she made a mark on her pad, turned, and walked away.
I picked up the coffee and took a sip. The bitter liquid burned my tongue, but it brought me out of the memories and lent some heat to my cold body. I watched out of the corner of my eye as she worked refilling coffee, wiping down tables, and delivering food. She smiled at most everyone, but it never reached her eyes. To me, that meant she was more guarded than most people realized. Odd, I didn’t get that impression the night I robbed her.
I don’t know how much time passed before she appeared with a plate of food and sat it down in front of me. I did a double take at the BLT… I thought I ordered a cheeseburger.
“Do you need anything else?”
“Coffee?” I asked as she looked right at me. I waited for some recognition in her eyes but none came.
She came back to the table with a pot of coffee and filled my cup to the rim, then walked away silently, filling other cups as she went. I pulled out my phone and pretended to be involved with it as I ate the food one handed. Really, I was trying to hear everything she said to get some glimpse into her life.
Turns out my guess she was more guarded than she let on was right. She kept things light and friendly, but professional, so I was only able to get a few small details about her. Like the fact she was allergic to peanuts. I’d hoped for more knowledge so it was entirely frustrating. How was a guy supposed to do recon with an uncooperative Target?
Long after my food was eaten along with two pieces of pie and a third cup of coffee, I was the last guy left in the diner and she was finishing up her shift. The tab was already paid and I pretended to nurse my coffee when really it had gone cold long ago.
She came toward my table with a rag in her hand and wiped down the tables beside me. I got up from my seat, figuring this was the worst night of recon ever. I drank bad coffee, ate a sandwich I didn’t understand (salad and bacon on bread… really?) and learned exactly nothing.
I headed for the door when she stepped in front of me and slipped on some water that had spilled on the floor. I caught her around the waist as she fell.
We both seemed to pause in the moment, standing in the center of the empty room, looking like we’d been dancing and I dipped her.
“We keep meeting like this,” I murmured, thinking of the night she slipped on ice and I caught her. Only this time I wasn’t trying to steal her money.
Her eyes widened and her voice was breathless. “Do I know you?”
We both straightened and I stepped back. “Of course not. I… You just remind me of someone.” I adjusted the glasses on my nose.
She stared at me like she was actually just seeing me for the first time all night. Then she seemed to shake herself and smile. “Thanks.”
I nodded and went past her to push out the door into the freezing night. Outside on the sidewalk, I paused to catch my breath. What was I thinking? I couldn’t say things like that. She’d think I was a freak and stay as far away as possible. That would make it hard to kill her. Unless I did the killing from afar.
Yeah, maybe that would be better than this recon stuff.
