Page 16 of Apparently, I’m Torture

I burst out laughing as the song changed and Mario’s ‘Stuttering’ came on, then snapped my neck to get a look at Lilly as she jerked her body with the beat. She sang, her voice husky and sweet, and I noticed a couple of our customers, including the twenty-year-old, busting moves at their tables.

“Yeah, you got it, Lil,” I called, and she met my gaze for the briefest of moments. My face warmed, and I had to look away.

She was so fucking sexy. And now my body was hard as steel. What was I supposed to do with this in the middle of the day?

She danced her way back to the counter after one of our customers asked her to twerk, which was just too good, considering it came from Extra-Foam-Guy.

I could barely hold back my laughter as she put down the tray of dirty dishes and cups.

“I think he might really want to foam you up after all.”

“Well, he’ll have to get through my harem of boyfriends first,” she joked and straightened. “Thanks. I needed that.”

I had a hand on the coffee machine and was studying it like it held the secret of perfect, fluffy, gluten-free bread. “Yeah, I could tell. You know… I’m here if you want to tell me what’s bothering you.”

She softened, daring to put a hand on my arm. Her touch was shocking. Like heat seeping into a block of ice.

“Will you tell me what’s bothering you? I know something’s off here, Shawn, and I don’t think it’s about Stacey anymore.” She lowered her voice and inched closer. “Did you get a letter too?”

My jaw tightened as my chest sank, but she kept her eyes trained on me, willing me to look at her.

“A letter? You mean the one from South Bronx?”

From the corner of my eye, I felt her nod. “Yep, that one.” Excitement crept into her voice. “You, me and Mia, working together at my mom’s school? How incredible would that be?”

I busied myself with emptying the cups from Lilly’s tray. “Yeah. What’re the odds we’d get picked to teach at the same place?” In the same faculty. I’d never get away from her if I took that job.

Her voice was dangerously high as she squeaked, “I know, right? We’ll never have to stop working together.”

I nodded, still grappling with what to say.

Tristan was rubbing his face when he came out of the backroom, and I snuck by him so I could get some space of my own.

This wasn’t shaping up to be an easy afternoon. Between Lilly’s chronic anxiety condition, her people pleasing, this gripping need to touch her, and the offer to work at South, I didn’t know which way to move.

I peered out of the doorframe, watching her. Tristan took another order as Lilly went back to clearing tables. But her playlist was still on, and it switched to another song she loved. Her eyes were closed, focused on the music, hips swaying.

I drank in the sight of her, picturing her eyes closed just like that, head thrown back, body moving on top of mine as she took all of my length inside her. My cock was already rasping against my jeans, desperate to get out, and I groaned, throbbing with the pain of it.

I needed some relief; it was getting more difficult by the day to ignore how badly I wanted her.

But if Lilly was still trying to set me up with girls like Stacey, it was pretty clear. She didn’t want me the way I wanted her. I was just her friend. I had to accept that. Once graduation came and went, distance and time would erase whatever this was.

I’d take a different offer at another school.

I’d find a way to get over her.

Chapter 6

Shawn

Monday Morning

Tristy’s coffee shop

The weekend sped by in a blur, a mix of the usual routine minus the draining study schedule that used to take up my time. I was back at Tristan’s coffee shop, a black apron tied at my waist, and checking for Lilly every time there was movement outside our glass-paned wall.

I got another letter from Pace. An offer from Classical’s sister school in Brooklyn came through, and this weekend, I reread the damn thing over and over like it was my lifeline.