"I think I’ll be alright by myself," I replied, and I rose to my feet. "Just give me a second, okay...?”
I headed to the bathroom, and splashed a little water on my face as I looked at myself in the mirror, willing myself not to get drawn in to just how sweet and charming Felix seemed. Because it was easy for him to seem sweet and charming when we had only been out to one dinner together, while he was on vacation, far removed from his real life.
And just as I was about to head back to the table, I heard a voice hissing my name. Looking around, I saw Mia standing behind the counter, waving me over, looking towards the table as though making sure that he could not see us. Frowning, I went over to join her, wondering what all this was about. Mia and I had gone to high school together and we knew each other well enough, but she rarely went out of her way to chat with me like this, especially not in the middle of a busy service evening.
"Hey, what’s up...?"
"That guy you’re on a date with-"
"It’s not a date," I corrected her swiftly, and she waved a hand, brushing that aside as though it hardly mattered.
"That guy," she replied. "You know who he is, right?"
A shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t like the sound of that.
"Uh, yeah, that’s Felix," I replied casually.
"Yeah, I saw his name when he paid the bill. Felix Kingston," she filled in for me. I stood there for a moment, not sure what to make of it. That name rang a bell somewhere at the back of mymind, but I wasn’t sure where I had heard it before or if it even meant anything to me.
"As in, Kingston Real Estate?” she prompted me. "Thom worked with them when he was buying up some property a few months ago, they’re pretty much the biggest business in the state when it comes to real estate. Hell, one of the biggest names in the country. He’s the son of the guy who owns the place..."
She continued to fill me in on the details, but I was already looking back over towards the table I had shared with him all evening, my stomach beginning to sink. Because the way she said it, this guy didn’t sound like he was exactly a good fit for my life. Even what he had told me himself, about his travels all over the world, should have filled me in on that. If his family had the kind of name you could quote with no context, then I found it hard to believe that he would actually be able to maintain his interest in me, beyond just the curiosity of slumming it briefly with someone who didn’t have half of what he did...
"Uh, thanks for letting me know, Mia," I told her. "You know, could I get some of those cannolis to go? My mom would kill me if I came back from dinner here without them."
"Sure, sure," she replied, and she went about boxing up a few for me. And I leaned back against the counter briefly, mind reeling from the information she’d just hit me with. This guy, as sweet as he had seemed, as enthusiastic and charming and interested in me, he had bigger and better things to do than hang around Whisper Falls with someone like me.
It was like I could finally see it clearly now. It would all turn out like it had the last couple of times I had allowed myself to get drawn in to the attentions of these men. And they would seem so perfect in the moment, and then they would wander back off to their real lives and leave me behind, nothing more than a memory. And I had sworn to myself that I wasn’t going to inflict that on myself again. No matter how nice Felix might haveseemed, no matter how fun tonight had been, he had a whole family name to carry on that probably wouldn’t be best served sticking around in Whisper Falls.
One night, one free dinner, that was one thing. But now? Now, I needed to remember the promise I had made to myself.
And protect my heart from the hurt that had already ruined the last two summers combined.
Chapter 3
Felix
Ipaused as I stood there in front of the diner, wondering if this was really a good idea.
After all, it had been three days since I had seen her last; three days since she had replied to one of my texts, three days since I had offered to walk her home after dinner and she had declined and taken off as though her butt was on fire. And three days that I had been turning it over in my head, trying to work out what I had done to spook her off, when it felt like the night had been going so well until then.
Something had shifted when she had gone to the bathroom, when I had paid the bill, but I wasn’t entirely sure what. We had been talking travel and food and dream destinations all night long, and the conversation had flowed with ease, or at least, that’s what I’d thought. Only for, all of a sudden, her to tell me that she needed to get home for an early night, thank me for dinner, and rush away into the dark, quiet streets of WhisperFalls, leaving me with nothing but the remains of my cannoli for company.
I had tried texting her a couple of times, but she hadn’t gotten back to me. Might have been the wrong number, I reasoned, though I doubted she would have intentionally blown me off like that. Half of me knew that I should have been giving her the space she needed, but another part of me wouldn’t be able to rest until I could figure out what had really gone on here. I just wanted to see her again, to make sure that she had truly decided she wanted nothing to do with me.
Which was how I had found myself standing outside the diner, staring up at the building in front of me and wondering whether she would thank me for trying to see her again. Screw it, I had already come this far, might as well see it through.
I spotted her behind the counter before I had so much as pushed open the door, and I couldn’t help but feel a grin turn up the corners of my lips at the sight of her. God, she was cute. Same kind of cute she had been when she was telling me about her dreams to go to London, the shows she’d watched as a kid that had made her fall in love with the place, how she had spent her whole life in Whisper Falls but had dreamt of travelling before. Her eyes lit up when she talked about the places she wanted to go, and I would have done anything to see that expression on her face again.
And, when she saw me approaching the counter, I clocked a very different look in her eyes. Surprise. She was taken aback at the sight of me, and her head jerked back into her neck as though she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
"Oh," she blurted out. "Felix, I-"
"Could I get a coffee?”
No way was I going to take up a seat in here without paying my dues. She stared back at me for a moment, as though not entirely sure how to respond to my sudden presence here, butthen reached for the coffee pot and poured me a cup before she pushed it across the counter towards me.
"Milk and sugar are over there," she said, pointing to the far end of the counter. I wrapped my hand around the cup and looked at her for a long moment, searching her gaze for something more going on under the surface. I just wanted to understand what was going on inside her head right now.
