Time slowed, and hot coffee went all over meagain.
“Oh myGod,” Kelsey said. “Piper, are you okay? Let me get some napkins.”
The woman looked over, her focus finally broken.
I didn’t want to hate her. Women were allowed to flirt. They were allowed to be confident and go after what they wanted.
Just not withTheo.
The man on my mind appeared by my side, his eyes wide. His hands almost landed on my shoulders, but he stopped himself at the last second.
I wanted him to keep going. I wanted to beg him to touch me and no one else. “Lo—Piper. What happened? Did someone touch you?”
His voice pulled me out of my anger and clarity hit me.
“N-no.” I shook my head. “I’mfine.”
His eyes trailed over me. “You’re not. You just don’t feel it yet.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I’ll always worry about you,” he said, and it felt like the floor fell out from under me. “We have burn cream in the back. Come on.”
I shouldn’t have taken in Theo’s attention like this, but I soaked it up like a sponge. He was by my side, and that’s what felt right.
My mind fully cleared, and that’s when I realized what I’d done. I crushed a coffee cup out of jealousy over a man who didn’t evendate.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“And there it is,” Theo said softly. “Who brushed up against you? Did Kerry sneak in?”
“I—no. No one touched me.”
“It’s just you and me. You don’t have to lie.”
“I’m not. Something else happened.”
I couldn’t meet his gaze. I felt like a complete idiot, and my skin burned too. All I could do was look at the tiles on the floor and hope the ground would swallow me up.
“Piper.” Theo’s voice was soft and I swore I could feel it on my skin. “Look at me.”
“No.”
“Piper. I’m not gonna let this go. Something happened and I need to make sure you’re okay.”
Need.
God, I liked it when he used that word.
I dragged my gaze up to his.
“Thank you,” he said. “Now what happened?”
“It was an accident.”
“No good sentence starts with that.”
“I crushed the coffee cup inmy hand.”
