“Were you looking for me?” He turned on his heel, and I joined him, keeping his pace.
“No.” Well, not really.
“Pity.”
“Why?”
“You look like you’re ready to have fun tonight.”
That rush of excitement I had been expecting at the club flooded me now. “And is that what you want?”
“Maybe.” He sing-songed. “Where are you staying?”
“The Griffin Hotel around the corner.”
“Is it nice?”
My heartbeat quickened.Think of something clever, Rowan!“I think you’d like it.” My voice came out low.
I was a serious man of twenty-nine ripe years, but Milo had apparently unearthed teenage crush capabilities in me. Quite disconcerting.
“Show me.” Milo stumbled on the sidewalk, but righted himself and walked in the direction of my hotel.
An urge to toss him over my shoulder and run to my room was one I had to fight with every step we took.
“So what brings you to Wendigo Falls?” Milo asked.
“Work. Temporarily.”
Milo nodded. “When are you leaving?”
“By the end of the summer, probably. I don’t know the exact date yet. Why? Do you want to get rid of me?”
“Nah. You buy my coffee in the mornings, so you’re on the good list.” He put his hands in the pockets of his loose jeans.
“Is there a bad one?” I mirrored his pose, if only to curb the temptation to reach out for his hand.
“Oh yeah. A shit list. My ex is at the very top.”
“What did he do?” Blood boiled within me. If he’d harmed a hair on Milo’s head, I was ready to track him down right now.
“Cheated.”
Okay, that was wrong, but maybe I wouldn’t have to break his legs. Where were those thoughts coming from? I was not a violent person. I shook my head. “That sucks.”
“Ah well, I found out he was living with a guy named Ray for the entire year we were together. I sent him a fruit basket and a scrapbook with pictures of Andrew and me. In the note, I invited him to lunch and apologized. We both dumped him and started talking. It turned out we had a lot in common. Andrew kept pestering us for weeks after that, but eventually he fucked off.”
I chuckled. “Sounds like you’re way better at making friends than enemies.”
“I refuse to waste my time on people that don’t bring me joy, but also I refuse to ruin someone’s day only because my life is not perfect.” Milo shrugged and blew a stray hair off his forehead.
“You have the ideal job in customer service then.”
Milo leveled a mild glare at me. “Laugh all you want, but I love working at the cafe.”
I prided myself on my achievements, and my family had always been goal-driven, but I was in awe of Milo, who had clearly found joy in a simple job. His life was probably not very stressful. I was kind of jealous.
“It’s a nice place and you’re very good at what you do.”
