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She blinked at the slight, Latino man who came in. Not Phantom, she breathed out the disappointment she felt.
“Hi, what can I get you?” she said, trying not to sound flat, putting on her cheery smile. She felt tired, she’d been about to start clearing down the worktops, winding down, getting ready to head home for the evening. Tired from hoping it was him. Exhausted from wanting him, yearning for him.
This Latino man surveyed her for a second longer than was appropriate. Longer than she was comfortable with. He was calculating something in his mind with his hard eyes. “I’ll take an ice cream please, vanilla, in a cone,” he said simply.
She busied herself getting that ready.
“You been open long?” he asked.
“Nope,” she replied, not wanting to disclose too much to him, not trusting him.
“You run this?”
“Yep.”
“With your... husband or boyfriend?”
“Nope, just me.”
“Ambitious young lady, opening a shop on your own.”
Her skin crawled. She did what Phantom did and gave a noncommittal grunt. “Mmm.”
“I guess your... family helped you out?”
“Hmm.”
“And the bank loaned you some money, hey? It’s not easy getting a bank loan for your first venture into hospitality these days.”
“Well, I had a good deposit, my cousin loaned me some money.” She looked up at the stranger who was eyeing up the shop. The coffee machine, the till. He was eyeing her up. She swallowed and her hand shook a little. She wanted him out as soon as possible.
“A big loan, from a cousin?” The stranger pressed. She still had the bag her cousin had given her loan in, so yes, a huge cash loan. She’d never seen so much cash in her life. It had even been a lovely bag containing the cash. A fancy, designer thing. She was going to use it as a weekend bag, she’d joked about returning the bag but he’d laughed it off and told her to keep it.
She had a bad feeling about this stranger. “Are you new in town yourself?” she asked.
He smiled coldly. “Just passing through.”
She handed him his ice cream, vanilla in a cone.
“Is that all?” she asked, hoping he’d say yes and just go.
He took the ice cream, swiping his card against the pay pad. “For now, yes, thank you.”
She smiled forcedly and waved him out of the shop, shivering slightly.
But the shiver didn’t stop. Something about him made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. She went to the front door, to flip the sign to ‘closed’ and lock up. Her eyes caught on something in the street, right in front of the shop.
An ice cream.
Upturned, spattered on the floor. His ice cream. Vanilla in a cone.
She took a breath in and frowned.
And that’s when a hand clamped on her mouth from behind her.
Her nose was squeezed shut. She was grabbed, roughly, dragged back into the shop, pulled into the shadows, her back slammed against the wall. Snapped back against a big, hard body.
She tried to struggle, tried to scream. She couldn’t.
