Page 27 of Problematic | AllFreeNovel

My body nearly wept.

I untied my apron, grabbed my hoodie, and slipped out through the back before Mandi found a new way to connect me to organized supernatural violence.

The alley behind the shop smelled like rain, trash, and roasted beans. Light bled across the damp pavement from the sign out front.

“Liv?”

I turned.

Kalon stood in the back doorway with one shoulder propped against the frame, apron still tied around his waist, blond hair pulled back from his face in a loose knot that was already losing the fight. He was tall enough to make the doorway look too small and broad enough that new customers sometimes got quiet when he came out from the kitchen carrying syrup boxes two at a time.

He looked intimidating until he opened his mouth.

That was the problem with Kalon. At first glance, he had all the pieces of someone dangerous. Height. Muscle. A jaw that belonged on old clan statues. Pale eyes that caught light strangely when he forgot to keep them dull. But on the inside? Golden retriever.

We’d worked together for two years. Two years of opening shifts, closing shifts, broken espresso machines, customers who thought “extra hot” meant “served from the center of the sun,” and Mandi threatening to quit every other Tuesday.

“You leaving?” he asked.

“That was the plan.”

His eyes moved over my face, slower than usual. Not in the customer way. Not in the gross way. Kalon never looked at me like he wanted to take something. He looked like he wanted to ask a question and already knew I’d dodge it.

“You okay?” he asked.

I made a face. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Because you put salt in a matcha latte this morning.”

“I’m fine,” I said.

He pushed off the doorway, and the movement made him seem even bigger, all height and shoulders and quiet worry. “You found something this morning.”

I paused. “Mandi has a big mouth.”

“Mandi has no mouth control at all.” He glanced toward the front. “A ward?”

“On my doorframe.”